ABSTRACT
Gray and Badovc are keen at the outset to establsh that the house they have desgned s less about appearance and more about makng a place to lve (to ‘dwell’, whch mples a more embedded, engaged, profound form of lvng than mere exstence) and to enjoy (there s an aesthetc as well as a pragmatc aspect to ther atttude. They have obvously read and been nspred by Le Corbuser’s recently publshed Vers Une Architecture (publshed n French n 1923 and translated nto Englsh n 1927) but queston and refine ts polemc. Ther remark about the ‘play of masses brought together n daylght’ refers to Le Corbuser’s asserton that ‘archtecture s the masterly, correct and magnficent play of masses brought together n lght’ (Le Corbuser (1923), 1927, p. 29). They make the pont that archtecture s more than that; t s about ‘respondng to human needs’, physcal and emotonal (aesthetc), n makng habtable spaces. Le Corbuser would probably not have dsagreed, but Gray and Badovc queston hs nsstent theorsng. Suspcous of abstract theory, whch seems sometmes to be promulgated for ts own sake, they prefer to desgn and to buld. They also rebuke those (presumably ncludng Le Corbuser) who strve for celebrty – ‘the need to dstngush oneself, to be orgnal at all costs’.
