N
O romance of the Oriental poets, no tale of the ancient
genii (who by their wizardry constructed, between dusk and daylight, a city of palaces and mosques, guarded by crenelated battlements), is more thrilling than the evolution of the World of Architecture.
This World, unfolding between the dawn and noonday of human history, found Man living in apertures of the rocks, sharing his bedroom with the reptiles and the moles. Today (thanks to Architecture) he can live in a palace of exquisite workmanship, of beautiful design within and without, fitting itself to his every wish and convenience, his floors, ceilings and walls jointed and cemented with such skill that vermin of the earth, moisture of the clouds and draft of the elements cannot possibly enter.
The genii of Electricity and Steam are his servitors, close at hand, to light his house with artificial sunlight and warm it with artificial sunheat, to fan him through the long hours of the stifling summer night, to carry him in their arms up and down to the many levels of his home or work place.
Since Architecture first took up its tools, it has bridged the river with log and boulder and beam of steel. It has dug deep down in the living rock, and laid its everlasting foundations; it has climbed far toward the sky, until the clouds have slid along its topmost cornices.
It has taught Man the beauty of symmetry, and filled his life
with untold comfort.