I Almost Forgot: Unpublished Colin Rowe

Unpublished writings of Colin Roweletters, essays, lectures, and a postcardclarify his thinking on key concepts while revealing his wit and erudition.

Colin Rowe (19201999) was one of the great architectural theorists of the twentieth century, publishing the influential works The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays (1976) and Collage City (1978). While his written work was rigorous and authoritative, his lectures and letters were more casual, carefully careless, both witty and erudite. I Almost Forgot gathers twenty-four such writingsletters, essays, lectures, a postcard, and a eulogy. Both edifying and entertaining, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, occasionally scathing, they fill in personal details and clarify key concepts in Rowes work.
 
In these writings, Rowe tells of the Corbu superstructure upon a beaux-arts base that refugee Polish architects and their students introduced to his alma mater, the University of Liverpool, in the early 1940s. He characterizes his controversial essay The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa as a pretty clever but, otherwise, perfectly innocent little article, and reports that Le Corbusiers Villa Schwob played an entirely disproportionate role in my mental life. Rowes voice and opinions are strong in his discussions of architecture, current events, and his own life and work. Each piece begins with a brief introduction by the volume editor. The writings are illustrated by images of Rowes drawings, letters, and postcards; photographs and drawings of Rowes only built work; and illustrations chosen by Rowe for lectures.