09. R.E. Somol's "12 Reasons to Get Back into Shape"

In this piece, R. E. Somol argues for a philosophy of "shape" in architecture. Shape is a term that is related to "form" and "mass", but distinct from them in critically important ways. Through twelve key words, a philosophy of shape is crudely constructed from the ways it differs from existing and traditional architectural philosophy. Broadly speaking, it embraces a sort of contemporary cynicism towards the obscure logics and meanings that have long been the rigor of architectural composition. An ambivalence towards forces and materiality gives way to a "cooled down" architecture; unburdened and able to freely generate itself through the 'painterly touch'. Somol's use of the word "cool" seems like it could support Sylvia Lavin's theory of coolness, in that coolness in architecture has something to do with a lack of need for justification; "shape requires no special pleadings, it simply exists."