Form, Purpose and Tita

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Last Night, I returned home to over hear a discussion between Bernardo, my roommate and his girlfriend Kate that involved the mention of "...Thai food at home." I couldn't help but wonder where home was. Then after some commotion--the closing and opening of doors, some discussion about a cab...they chased down the cat (Tita), wrapped her in a towel and left. This cat gathering part happened while I was sitting at the kitchen table eating quiche. I haven't seen them (or the cat) since.

30 Books in 30 Days Part 2: Form and Purpose by Moshe Safdie and John Kettle (1980) Nimrod Press

Moshe Safdie is the Architect of Habitat '67, the innovative, terraced housing development build by the Canadian government for Expo '67 (Man and His World). I love the more-we-get-together, human optimism of Safdie and this book created for International Design Education Foundation, Aspen CO.

The book has six chapters (Design in Nature; The Indigenous Builders; The Sophisticated Builders; Art, Fashion and Style; City Fabric; and Contemporary Diagnosis) chalk full of B&W photographs illustrating design in nature and art. (A tree in summer and in winter; the bone structure of the wing of a vulture; cross section showing the internal spiral of a nautilus shell and revealing it regular growth; veins of a mulberry leaf; yeast bubbles in a loaf of bread; honeycomb; the iris of a human eye; a computer chip from a telephone; hillside dwellings in a village; public housing; Iranian domes, houses and pigeon towers; mosques; a man laying out the plan of his house on the ground;

There is a letter in the beginning written by Safdie to Phillip (Glass House/MoMA) Johnson expressing dismay with his AT&T building and the general direction of his work, as well as Johnson's reply. This effectively conveys the understanding of aesthetic difference between the two architects. I also found it interesting, if not suprising that Safdie references Christopher Alexander's The Oregon Experiment (1975), A Pattern Language (1977), A Timeless Way of Building (1979), and Community and Privacy (1963); as the ideas, aesthetics and concerns of Form and Purpose are not dis-similiar to those expressed in A Pattern Language. He also credits Francis Yates's The Art of Memory and Tom Wolfe's The Painted Word in the bibliography.