them. Being moved, we are able to get beyond the cruder sensations; certain relationships are thus born which work upon our perceptions and put us into a state of satisfaction (in consonance with the laws of the universe which govern us and to which all our acts are subjected), in which man can employ fully his gifts of memory, of analysis, of reasoning and of creation.
Architecture to-day is no longer conscious of its own beginnings.
Architects work in "styles" or discuss questions of structure in and out of season; their clients, the public, still think in terms of conventional appearance, and reason on the foundations of an insufficient education. Our external world has been enormously transformed in its outward appearance and in the use made of it, by reason of the machine. We have gained a new perspective and a new social life, but we have not yet adapted the house thereto.
The time has therefore come to put forward the problem of the house, of the street and of the town, and to deal with both the architect and the engineer.
For the architect we have written our "three reminders."
Mass which is the element by which our senses perceive and measure and are most fully affected.
Surface which is the envelope of the mass and which can diminish or enlarge the sensation the latter gives us.
Plan which is the generator both of mass and surface and is that by which the whole is irrevocably fixed.
