Perspecta: Architects, Process and Inspiration - A Collection of Essays No. 28

"Architects, Process and Inspiration: A Collection of Essays" Founded in the early
1950s, Perspecta is the oldest and most distinguished of the student-edited architectural journals
that have flourished in this country for decades. The focus of Perspecta 28 is the architect's
persona. The essays concentrate on the role that personal vision plays in the process of perceiving,
transforming, and building a world outside of oneself. The idea is that design process is a personal
activity that grows out of an individuals education and experiences."Can you recognize the personal
in a mans work?" asks Louis Kahn in the previously unpublished lecture that opens the issue. The
following essays, in which contributors search for clues to Kahns "personal", take the form of
discrete installations. The final form of each piece grew from its particular written and visual
message, revealing the "personal" in the authors work. Jean Nouvel's nihilistic lecture, Aldo
Rossi's anachronistic cartoons, W. G. Clarke's quiet travelogue through the South's backwoods: each
installation is an evocative interweaving of message and medium. The essays share a belief in the
power of personal vision and human energy, which cannot be found by analytic means
alone.Contributors include Gunter Behnisch, Deborah Berke, Denise Scott Brown, Thomas Burton, W. G.
Clark, Margaret Helfand, Louis Kahn, John Keenen, Thomas Leeser, Jean Nouvel, John Patkau, Patricia
Patkau, Terence Riley, Aldo Rossi, Adele Santos, and Robert Venturi.