To the Editor:

Re: “A Gag Order on Race in Architecture: Talking about culture instead of experience,” Arts, April 21.

In response to this article, I would like to defend my project from the oversimplifications that have been used to describe it as an example of racist architecture. First, the project very seriously attempts to address what I feel is an unfortunate occurrence in the deserts of the southern United States: Each year more than 500 people — yes, some of them Mexican — die and are left to the mercy of the elements. Believing that the human body is sacred and worthy of respect, I proposed to construct a crematorium that gives these bodies proper burial. Some find that premise gruesome and uncomfortable, but I cannot help that. As to the vocabulary used to render the crematorium, it is true that it recalls the formalism of Meier’s work, but to venture calling that kind of formalism racist is strange to me. Pure shapes and forms are of great interest to a variety of cultures, not just old white Western men. It is no accident that my professor can find examples of it in Mexico. I agree with the author that race is one lens through which to view architecture, but to become zealous about it — to the point of being uncomfortable when, say, a Mexican happens to be laid to rest in a building built by a white man because we insert histories and associations that are too peripheral to matter — is ridiculous.

Mason Scisco ’11