ABSTRACT
Today, more than ever, ground is simply occupied and enve-
lopes have devolved into spatially disengaged thin skins, whether
or not formally elaborated, fashionably styled, patterned, or
technologically enhanced. Three of the interrelated and mutu-
ally reinforcing drivers of this development are: (1) the deeply
entrenched artificial dichotomy that sets the architectural object
against the ground (figure-ground); (2) the indiscriminate replica-
tion of a singular canonic building section (column and slab) and
(3) the disjunction of an increasingly uniform spatial and sectional
organization from ground, envelope and local setting.
