I remember sitting around one day in Europe speaking to one of my favorite professors. As the conversation wandered he asked me a question: ‘How do round and square columns differ?’ He had a lot of these questions: deceptively simple, engaging, and thought provoking. Over the next few days I ruminated on this as I went through loggia, churches, and walked around town. We came back together and talked mostly about light. The square column has four faces and as the sun hits them through the day they are either in light or shadow. They have a hard edge. The round column allows the sun to wrap around it during the day as it moves around the curve. They have a soft edge. One column is not ‘better’ than another, but they are very different and sitting in a reformation church in Switzerland is a wonderful place to learn a little something about columns.
- Brian