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Direction for Design
 (Continued from Page 29)
sponse to conditions of site, or in
technological expression or in dis-
tinguishable cultural patterns or
forms. I believe the embassies done
by American architects abroad are a
clear statement of genuineness as
they capture the spirit of the cultures
in which they are built. Why is this
so difficult at home? Are we in
America so heterogenious as to show
no character? I am not willing to
think so.
 Thereare notable examples out of
the past, nearby examples on the
Mississippi Gulf Coast where one of
America's distinctive regional styles
existed. So responsive 'was it to cli-
mate, site, and manner of living that
its constituent elements are still valid
today, air conditioning not-with-
standing. Serious designers have long
protested facadism. The advent of
modular wall panels and masonry
and metal screens of intricate rich-
ness still does not grant us license to
ignore what goes on behind those
scenes. Texture is only one element
of design, even in the hands of
master ED STONE, and no matter
how rich to the outside observer, it
should remember inner space and
purpose.
 4. The no-face of conformity -
Powerful forces in our culture move
us relentlessly in the direction of
conformity. For brilliant commentary
upon them, I refer you to Huxley's
"Brave New World Revisited" and
Galbraith's "Affluent Society".
Strongly independent work is rare at
best. And certainly difference for its
own sake is of no merit. However,
the creative spirit withers and dies
unless it can be operative within
broad limits of acceptance and unless
criticism, research and experimenta-
tion are a natural part of the process
of expression. Let us search out the
valid causes for diversity and nurture
personal expression. The changing
nature of the client, from.individual
to corporate or governmental, and
the structure of office organization
and group performance. All of these
things promote the primacy of the
average except as personal responsi-
bility and personal brilliance is pro-
tected within the group.
 Let us come finally to the' theme
of this convention. Design is many


things to many people; and I think
we might assume that in its compre-
hensive sense it is the heart of archi-
tecture for most of us. I want to
speak of it here in triadic terms,
terms which I think state the prob-
lem, the triad of Disorder, Discipline
and Dogma.
 We operate within a precarious
equilibrium between disorder on the
one hand and the super-order of
dogma on the other. Maintaining
our equilibrium and under-girding
design in all its applications is that
body of sensitivities and disciplines
of thought and action which distin-
guish creative effort. I am speaking
of discipline in the sense of control,
self-determined control, gained by
obedience to purpose, to principles
and to order; discipline which serves
to free the mind by ordering its pro-
cesses and to accommodate intuition
by channeling it into useful pursuits.
I am not speaking of blind discipline
or frozen discipline which becomes
dogma. Nor am I speaking of disci-
pline as a branch of knowledge or
academic research.
 To be sure the line between disci-
pline and dogma is a narrow one and
is drawn most often by each man for
his own purpose. Without personal
discipline the designer's field is a
jungle of combat, where ideas devour
each other as whimsy, bias, pre-con-
ception and pre-judgment are the
only victors. Just as a free society is
possible only as a responsible society,
so is freedom of design pursuit pos-
sible only with a disciplined mind.
I want now to identify some of the
disciplines which seem to shape our
development and over against these
to point to the dogma which obstruct
creative processes and distort the re-
sults. This, over simplified, is a kind
of good man-bad man situation
with the good men becoming bad
men as discipline proclaimed for
narrow and partisan purpose, untest-
ed by reality or unwilling to acknowl-
edge change becomes dogma.

 1. The discipline of LEARNING
and the dogma of the LEARNED -
Learning is to the scholar and pro-
fessional as breathing is to the infant
child, a natural life-giving, on-going
essential process. It is impossible not
to learn something in the course of
living, but most difficult to learn
much except as the process is en-
 THE FLORIDA ARCHITECT