Weathering does not construct, it destroys?

'The fact of weathering as deterioration has often been associated with modern architecture. The house as a machine for living, Le Corbusiers emblem of a new spirit of equality between the classes, was to be achieved through mass production, and because of this was to be 'healthy' (and morally so too) and beautiful in the same way that instruments that accompany our existence are beautiful.'

Villa Savoye(1928-31) before restoration  Poissy-sur-seine, France

 'Architecture made up of a 'kit of parts' changed the relationship between a building and its potential site, allowing assembly and construction to take place on any site, to a great degree independent of its local and climatic conditions-which paradoxically makes it siteless.'

 

 

 

Villa Savoye after restoration 2011

 'In the mathematics of the environment, weathering is a power of subtraction, a minus, under the sign of which newly finished corners, surfaces and colours are 'taken away' by rain, wind and sun. But is weathering only subtraction, can it not also add and enhance? '

All quotes from On Weathering: The Life of Buildings and Time, Mohsen Mostafavi and David Leatherbarrow (MIT 1993)