IIBIl IIEIE' III SUBtllEl.

IIC1lHlTI

They are alive. like people . They have also their cycles
of vigor, strength, beauty and perfection. They have lJlso

their s'TUF'e with age, with decline. with circulation troubles. with saggirllf muscles, with wrinkles. There is one difference
though: They can be beautiful even in old age, even in ruins. Here is where the eye may f ool us , and let m e say a few words

.aoout our visual perception. The eye is the most comprehensive afour s enses: An image is received with the speed of light, . with absolut e s peed. It is a most influ ential something, the eye.
It may register notions before we can think; of all
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senses,

it is clos est to our consciousn ess . In primitive languages ,

songs, and proverbs . eyes ight is the mos t precious possession

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of man. TIle split se cond of eye reception is, it seems ,

automatically linked with an emotiona l appraisal of the object :

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,M t only whether it is big or s mall, blat;:k or white, curv ed or straight, but whether it is thr eatening or fri endly, pleasanl or nol, beautifu l or not , The eye is a powerful informer; tt fo rms an esthetic judgment 01 a g lance and, while buildings should be

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useful, well constructed and in harmony with our human- social wor ld, tne f irs t impact -s-th e ey e impact--is perhaps a pre conditioning of our sy mpathies . Now, we /mow that, again, our esthetics arc pr econditioned by custom, by precedence, by pr econceived opinion, by var ied , experiences of varying individuals.
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IUCEL lUlU All lSSICUtES, lICilTECn

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In a sense, 1 see the est1}etic quality as a most abstract one, the most inner quality , aUhough it is often adorned with glamor, with drabness, with rules of tradition, with excesses . ofweaUh,' with fas hionable slogans , with morali zing , with pomposity . How ever , esthetics should be too good to be camouflaged. Buildings should be not moody, but refle ct a general, durable quality . Architecture should be anchored in ueefulness ; its attitude should be .more direct, mor e directly responsi ble, more directly socia l, more technic-bound, more independent; symm etrical or non-symmetrical. Th e designer should fee l . f ree to be simi kJ. r; and equally f ree to turn his back
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precedence. He should be f ree to be scientif ic , f ree to be human, free to bBfnon-traditiona l. The rapid esthetic of the eye should

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be in balance with the other aspects of architecture, with its living aspects , whether this balance is 50-50 or 10 to 90. Th er e are buildings of past historic periods. They com municate to us to a greater and greater degree through the eye, les s and les s by rati onal and other qualities . Usefulness, details of long past human demands cann t be reconstructed o and f ade into tile unknown, whereas the eye is still active. Esthetics become independent of everything else. The phaiograph of a mis erable s lum may be so beautiful that, unconscious ly, we forget s lum conditions . The s low-motio n fi lm of an atomi c

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