Gropius Lectures Begin

A celebrated Swiss architect took two and a half hours Saturday night to compare irrational symbolism in pre-historic art to that of "Finnegan's Wake," and then to call on his profession "to throw out the straight-line logic of playboy architecture" in favor of a revived symbolism which would satisfy man's psychic needs.

In the First Gropius Lecture; "Constancy, Time, and Architecture," Siegfriend Gledion, visiting lecturer on Architecture, demanded that the lectures "be set in a wider context" than architecture in order to conform to "the deeply humanistic outlook" of Walter Gropius, professor of Architecture, Emeritus. He proceeded to demonstrate the inadequacies of a contemporary architecture of "coziness" in view of the eternal non-rational in human nature.

"Architecture provides the corporal and psychic shelter of the man of today," Giedion declared. But the straight-line styles of Bay-Ridge and split-level architecture are inadequate expressions of "the many-sided nature of man's inner life." These styles, he continued, represent a tendency to escape doubt and uncertainty by attaching oneself to superficialities without solving basic problems.

"But we are no longer satisfied with mere facts" and the right angles of modern architecture. Throughout history man has resorted to the symbols of art and religion to satisfy his "innate passion to express the inexpressible." Architecture must recognize this "longing for unity" and find in symbolism the expression of it.

"We are standing on the threshold of a new tradition, of a new age of symbolism," he concluded. "No one will doubt the laws of logic, but we will recognize that the logic of cause and effect does not have universal application in describing reality." Architecture especially must come to this realization and the symbolism of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusler must supplant functionalism and superficial facades, Giedlon declared.