e of unity in his work by several important design means. A major, all-pervasive design idea invariably permeated the buildings in his schemes. In addition, he usually developed a design system that was the visual language exclusive to each scheme, in which he used as few materials as possible.
Sometimes the main concept or grand idea around which the scheme was designed was a central internal space to which all other spaces related; in other solutions a courtyard, a footpath or throughway was the guiding principle; sometimes a tower or a cluster of interrelated buildings provided the overriding concept. More modest ideas were support players to the main theme. Rudolph was amused when approached by a large corporate client who wanted to create an impressive image for the company and who said his sole requirement was for Rudolph to produce a masterpiece! With such an objective in mind the design response was often to produce a heroic interpretation of modern architecture on a grand scale, of which the Burroughs Wellcome Headquarters, North Carolina, was an impressive example.
It was important that this main concept was lucid and clearly expressed in the architecture of the project. The Guggenheim Museum in New York by Frank Lloyd Wright was cited as a good illustration of this principle, grand but simple in conception with its spiral ramp around the large central space.
The unity of a scheme was also achieved by using a repetitive system designed exclusively for each project. This system consisted of repetitive shapes, constantly using the same structural details or external fenestration and the persistent employment of similar elements throughout the scheme with identical components. These features were then repeated, rather like the similar traits and physical characteristics which are visible in different members of one family and unify that family in the eyes of others. There were subtle variations on these themes, but this visual system was created as the language of the design. It was not, however, a new idea. Le Corbusier in L’Esprit Nouveau said, ‘An aesthetic and a work of art are above all systems. An attitude is not a system. Genius is personal, decided by fate – but it expresses itself by means of system, there is no work of art without system.’ (10)
Rudolph considered it was the visual system, the aesthetic, which unified and expressed a work of architecture and enabled the building to be greater than the sum of its parts. The selection and design of this repetitive system can blend in with the surroundings, if it is also in scale and character with the language of the neighboring buildings.
The unity of a design can be enhanced by working with one basic material. For Rudolph this often meant the use of in-situ concrete with various textured finishes. Elsewhere he used tiles, block or brickwork. He drew the analogy of Henry Moore sculptures being carved from a single stone material and so achieving a unity of design, and he noted that most works of architectural distinction, modern or historic, used a palette of only one material (and glass). He deduced, therefore, that it was important to use as few materials as possible in order to achieve a high- quality design. It seemed that a reasonable rule of aesthetics was that the standard of architecture decreases in direct proportion to the number of materials used.
In developing and refining his design priorities to accommodate his large commissions, Rudolph was not pandering to any new fashionable trend or fickle change in style; he was still convinced by his early convictions, but it was the acceptance of these later adjustments in his design philosophy that classified him as a Late-Modernist.
Nor was he persuaded to adopt any postmodernist theories, which he found superficial. He could not accept the modern-day trend of applying an element here or a column cap there and distorting symbolic forms of Classical architecture. To him those authentic proportions and original construction techniques had been developed in full for another era and were not transferable