As for the elite: what might be accomplished with their abundant intelligence and creativity if architects really studied the process and history of vernacular designs and applied that lore in innovative work? We might get buildings that could be as original as needed, but still would feel profoundly familiar and right, and would invite change. It would be a relief after all those smugly decorous buildings that “refer to” stylistic details of one vernacular tradition or another and miss the integrated lore. Of all buildings they are the most maddeningly perverse. They look like they should
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