I

THE NEED OF A NEW FORM LANGUAGE

We are without a form language suitable to the needs of today. Architecture and ornament constitute such a language. Structural necessity may be depended upon to evolve fit and expressive architectural forms, but the same thing is not true of ornament. This necessary element might be supplied by an individual genius, it might be derived from the conventionalization of natural forms, or lastly it might be developed from geometry. The geometric source is richest in promise.

ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT

In contemplating the surviving relics of any period in which the soul of a people achieved aesthetic utterance through the arts of space, it is clear that in their architecture and in their ornament they had a form language as distinctive and adequate as any spoken language. Today we have no such language. This is equivalent to saying that we have not attained to aesthetic utterance through the arts of space. That we shall attain to it, that we shall develop a new form language, it is impossible to doubt; but not until after we realize our need, and set about supplying it.