As always, our only option is to understand the possibilities of the technologies available to us. It is our task to develop, with our technology, an architecture as rich, meaningful, and loved as was the architecture of stone. Unfortunately, without a direct connection to the underlying technology, all these efforts remain fruitless, Pelli believes. Form-giving needs to continuously test itself against the possibilities of construction or it degenerates. And the forms given, to have life, need to reflect an underlying physical reality.
Architecture can grow only if it is rooted in a living tradition of building construction.
Cesar Pelli's Herring Hall at Rice University in Houston, Texas is a steel-framed building enclosed with a taut skin of brick and glass. The envelope expresses texture and depth not through carving, but through two-dimensional patterns on the skin. Paul Hester Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.