The Flat Roof of Modernism

There's almost been a taboo in architecture about the most visceral and interesting aspect of what architects are up to. I think that people like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe found many of the works of technology, 19th and 20th century technology, very beautiful. But it didn't fit their agenda to suggest that that was why. And so they appealed to science as the most prestigious force in society. If you had an intemperate client and you wanted to persuade them that the roof should be one shape rather than another, rather than saying, oh, well, I'd like this shape because it's beautiful. That's much more convincing.