For all my fear and dark curiosity of asphalt, in equal measure I feel at calm home on concrete. No less heterogeneous, but finer, and as consequence harder, stronger, concrete is a protector as asphalt is a revealer.
Our sidewalks we perceive as safe-havens: as if that three-inch disparity between the river of rubber and our stream of leather represents a real barrier, some actual thing! It's an invented jurisprudence, but no less calming for the invention.
The Architect as Totalitarian—an Ethic, not an Aesthetic—in short, béton brut: a solid in liquid measure, pure structural clarity. Forms and surfaces, unrelieved, cast in concrete, massive and monolithic.
© 2000—2012 thirtyfour.org • check