Page 18 - Between light and shade

between light and shade, TRANSPARENCy and reflection

This is precisely the subject of my work on the
morphology of structures.

As I examined in “La ruine utile et la
construction efficiente”, the sustainability “P”
of a structure is inversely proportional to its
efficiency “E”: the product — “E” × “P” — is a
constant — “C” — at a given place and time.
The drawing of a construction and its compo-
nent parts, to limit waste and unnecessary work
on site, is just as important 8 as the progress of
science and technology is in increasing the value
of “C”: this is “sustainable development” [Fig. 2].

the world of economics
No thoughts on construction seeking to be rele-
vant can be framed without reference to the
economic system that prevails in our democratic
society and whose aim is to establish peace. I am
referring above to the slow speed at which the
construction industry incorporates inventions
and discoveries, but what are we to think of this
system that has taken more than sixty years, since
the work of Jay Wright Forrester 9, to acknowledge

8 Especially since the materials and constructive elements are
industrialised. Although brickwork produces minimum waste,
this is already no longer the case for timber frameworks!
9 Only a few years after inventing magnetic core memory, from

1956 onwards, Jay Wright Forrester developed the theory of
“System Dynamics” and its application in industry (Industrial

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