"The flexibility of light structure, akin to the flexing of a grid shell thatched with renewable materials, combines so many weak systems to produce a resilient structure that it bends with perils rather than standing up and shaking a fist at them, as does reinforced concrete and steel girders. So there is bravado in all this: the bravado of technology, inert and massive materials, weight and resistance, versus a certain humility that can, with props and straps, reassemble thin whippy structures when they are blown apart — a different kind of bravado." lovely writing (with another kind of bravado)
am intriguing perspective on disaster aid and the model of most charities
"The flexibility of light structure, akin to the flexing of a grid shell thatched with renewable materials, combines so many weak systems to produce a resilient structure that it bends with perils rather than standing up and shaking a fist at them, as does reinforced concrete and steel girders. So there is bravado in all this: the bravado of technology, inert and massive materials, weight and resistance, versus a certain humility that can, with props and straps, reassemble thin whippy structures when they are blown apart — a different kind of bravado." lovely writing (with another kind of bravado)