Constructing the Simples

Abstract

On April 4th, 2013, we heard Juhani Pallasmaa’s Pallasmaa, Juhanipresentation, “The complexity of simplicity,” about phenomenology and art. I’m sure others agree with me that it was a highlight of the symposium. Earlier I had spoken about mathematics, mostly about Bolzano, Bolzano, BernardGauss, and Gauss, Carl FriedrichHilbert. Hilbert, DavidAs chance would have it, I used the same title. I have chosen a different title for this redaction, but I want to motivate the remarks ahead by recalling how architectural theory and the history of mathematics were discussed in many of the same terms, and under the same banner, that morning.