Ralph Erskine, Architect, Sweden
“Here houses and towns should open up like flowers to the sun of spring and summer, but also, like flowers, turn their backs on the shadows and the cold northern winds, offering sun-warmth and wind protection to their terraces, gardens and streets. They should be most unlike the arcaded towns and matt-shadowed streets of the south Europeans and Arabs, but most similar in the basic function…helping people to maintain their skin at a comfortable 35 degrees C.
When studying the beautiful towns of the south, whether old or new, it is not the forms themselves which should interest us, but the inventiveness and artistry with which people solved their needs which were peculiar to their situation and time, the comfort and beauty which they created. Only by such methods can arise a personal and indigenous Alaskan, Canadian, Scandinavian or North Russian tradition.”
