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The most important precedents deal with the whole idea of symbolic programming - the notion of setting up symbolic expressions that can represent anything one wants, and then having functions that operate on both their structure and content.

The fact that the same symbolic programming primitives work for those as work for math kinds of things, I think, really validates the idea of symbolic programming being something pretty general.

Architecture is involved with the world, but at the same time it has a certain autonomy. This autonomy cannot be explained in terms of traditional logic because the most interesting parts of the work are non-verbal. They operate within the terms of the work, like any art.

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

I'm really interested in the nondefinitive element of abstraction.

Architecture has its place in the concrete world. This is where it exists. This is where it makes its statement.

The idea is that the object has a language unto itself.

There is a powerful need for symbolism, and that means the architecture must have something that appeals to the human heart. There is a powerful need for symbolism, and that means the architecture must have something that appeals to the human heart.

Metaphor is embodied in language.

The details are the very source of expression in architecture. But we are caught in a vice between art and the bottom line.