When I was a young lad (long story), my high school sculpture class included a unit on architecture. While my memory of the whole thing is hazy, I do remember learning about Frank Lloyd Wright's basic principles of architecture and being told to come up with something in clay that followed those principles. The idea was to pick a style of contemporary architecture, roll out slabs of clay, cut them out nice and neat and put our designs together.

I chose the Santa Fe model of housing, where a house is slung wide and low to give the inhabitants relief from the heat. I also included a circular car port extending out of one corner of the house, for some reason pertaining to summer heat that I do not recall. Or perhaps I could not fit anything so gauche as a garage into my design.

After the first firing, I held the model in my hands and discovered that I had given the house the basic shape of a sandwich. So I painted it with brown sides and a tan roof, and I have called it the Sandwich House ever since.

Now I come across this article online about how modern creative architecture has idealized form over function, deliberately making itself difficult for the inhabitants and dismissing all concerns about aesthetics and livability for the sake of not being influenced by the masses. There is a saying that "it's not creative architecture if the roof doesn't leak."

And when I think about my Sandwich House, I am a little worried about the fact that I was able to design a prettier and more functional house in High School than these rock-star architects can design with years of formal schooling.