It is rare to find in recent structures architectural allusions that remind us of valued human experiences and teach us to prize what we may have taken for granted. Symmetry and mechanical efficiency we may find, and surface application of set architectural styles, but these make no fundamental appeal to most of us. Our more deeply rooted responses to such architectural elements as texture, contour, and scale should, Herb Greene writes in this book, be more carefully studied by architects.

Greene has long been recognized as a designer of houses that excite the imagination. Now he presents a beautifully illustrated commentary on his principles and methods. Ranging from discussions of the lingering influences of Cartesian mechanism to explanations for the uninhabitability of large public housing projects, this commentary approaches the topic of organic architecture from a point of view that is philosophic as well as practical, artistic as well as historical.

To explain the mysterious power of certain architectural images, Greene offers a matrix theory, relying on the teachings of Whitehead and Merleau-Ponty about the nature of perception. He shows how he applies his theory in fascinating accounts of the design process followed in an assortment of his one-of-a-kind houses built for specific clients.

The mass market also wins attention in this book. Greene presents fresh approaches to functional and aesthetic problems in subdivision housing, high-rise development, and the highway commercial strip. In the housing models the tenant is offered active encouragement to make his home uniquely expressive of his own interests and taste. All the developments offer suggestions for a positive relation to region and place.

Plans and photographs of many of Greene's buildings are included, and details from several of his collage paintings are reproduced. In addition a varied selection of illustrations including examples of advertising art, Frank Lloyd Wright house plns, and pre-Columbian Indian sculpture accompanies his explanation of the perceptual process and its effect on our response to images.