-Colin Rowe, "The Architecture of Utopia"
The purpose of this is primarily, but not entirely, a place for the pursuit of ideas on the very specific life of Colin Rowe. Architect, urbanist, critic, teacher, traveller, student, and soldier, Rowe was much more than just a personage behind "Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal," "Mathematics of the Ideal Villa," and Collage City. And although these texts are fundamental primers to any fledgling architect's education, perhaps through rereading these works within the context of Rowe's life can reveal any biographical subtexts.
During his life, Rowe steeped himself in the English tradition of belles lettres. Often, the intellectual and literary perch that he occupied makes it daunting to mount a project that attempts to describe him accurately. Perhaps as an author Rowe avoided interpretation by any other pen but his own, and, in this sense, he almost perfectly insulated himself from humanity by the craft of his own words. Though he has been peacefully deceased for already a decade, this articles that will appear on this page will part of a larger effort to break into Rowe's austere tomb and disturb the body of his work, all in order to assemble a justifiable portrait of the man as he may have been.
Nicholas Poussin, Les Bergers d'Arcadie (1637-8)
Musee du Louvre. 185 cm x 121 cm (72.8 in x 47.6 in)
