But I don’t understand. Why do you want me to think that this is great architecture? He pointed to the picture of the Parthenon.That, said the Dean, is the Parthenon.- So it is.- I haven’t the time to waste on silly questions.- All right, then. - Roark got up, he took a long ruler from the desk, he walked to the picture. - Shall I tell you what’s rotten about it?- It’s the Parthenon! - said the Dean.- Yes, God damn it, the Parthenon! The ruler struck the glass over the picture.- Look, - said Roark. - The famous flutings on the famous columns — what are they there for? To hide the joints in wood — when columns were made of wood, only these aren’t, they’re marble. The triglyphs, what are they? Wood. Wooden beams, the way they had to be laid when people began to build wooden shacks. Your Greeks took marble and they made copies of their wooden structures out of it, because others had done it that way. Then your masters of the Renaissance came along and made copies in plaster of copies in marble of copies in wood. Now here we are, making copies in steel and concrete of copies in plaster of copies in marble of copies in wood. Why? . Ayn Rand
About This Quote

While we live in a world of many different things, the most beautiful things in life are often the most simple. For example, there is a certain beauty to simplicity and what cannot be done better than it can be done, is often not even attempted at all. Many of us seem to think that great architecture has to be complex and grand and that it is something that we must struggle in order to understand. However, when you look at buildings such as the Parthenon in Athens and the architecture of simple barns and churches, you will see that these buildings can still hold important meaning and beauty.

Source: The Fountainhead

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