Nerve Endings Firing Away

I was browsing through the Wired Rave Awards when I paused for a moment whilst reading the section on Burt Rutan (Rave Award for Industrial Design). In architecture colleges, we are often imbibed (sadly, with little or no effect) with Louis Henri Sullivan’s classic and now-cliched adage – Form follows function. That philosophy often permeates every design field. Read the following; you will know what I mean.

Though Rutan’s aircraft always look stunning, he says he never considers aesthetics beyond the paint job. “Any airplane designer shapes the wing for performance, the tail for stability, and the fuselage to hold the payload and the propulsion. Then he blends the shape for low drag. Once that’s done he might step back and say, ‘What a beautiful airplane.’”