On Food and Architecture

"Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as
they need bread or a place to sleep."

Last week's Design Within Reach newsletter put the above Le Corbusier quote front and center, accompanying photos and a discussion of the architect's Curutchet family home in La Plata, Argentina. I like Le Corbusier's brand of architecture, so I loved the pictures. But what really caught me was the bread.

"Bread or a place to sleep" - necessities for survival. But as the master says, to truly thrive, mankind does not just need the mere necessities. In architecture, we need "space and light and order." We create and appreciate these elements in our shelters and, in a way, that elevates us from other animals.

And it's also so with food. But in the case of sustenance, it's about texture and taste in addition to aesthetics. But space and light and order, too, because those elements are really about balance and accessibility and the sort of internal calm and happiness that comes with experiencing something created with care.

Tasting something that has been created with care, with balanced tastes and textures, and with an eye towards accessibility - unfamiliar foods presented in a familiar way, for example - is much like standing in the center of a home built with on Le Corbusier's principles.

Just another connection between food and the arts...