ABSTRACT
Architecture has historically been a profession derived from two traditions: the master builder and the humanist. The one is about “technique;” the other about being an educated person in society at large. The one is learned from the older, more experienced professionals; the other is more textual and is contemplated, yet also ideally guided by wise teachers. The one is “practiced;” the other is “theorized.” Certainly, today, the technique of the master builder is “fast” – with technologies of construction, representation and material development progressing at such a pace as to be almost ungraspable. In the humanist tradition the pace is “slow” – with thought that is not facile, and with ideas that take time to mature and to work themselves into the soil so to speak. Following Aristotle, the humanist tradition exalted man as an animal that reasons, and most specifi cally an animal that reasons for himself. These two traditions have often been at odds with each other, yet this state of affairs is not a necessity.
