A version of this essay appears in Encyclopedia of Twentieth
Century Architecture, Fitzroy Dearborn (Taylor and Francis)
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selected writings "A common, ordinary brick," says Woody
Harrelson, playing an architect in the movie, Indecent Proposal
(1993), "wants to be something more than it is." Harrelson
proceeds to turn this proposition into a metaphor for the human
condition, something never envisioned by the real architect who
served as an inspiration for the movie monologue. It was Louis
I. Kahn (1903-1974) who first posed a question in the early
1970s that has since attained legend