By the PID Jean Oustrin
The theme “Living better together”, a story of geometry!
“A cube and a sphere, two volumes that everything separates, very different from each other and that mathematicians themselves only know how to link by a number that they describe as irrational. And yet, talented architects and designers know how to combine them in their works. The first stable, the second mobile; the first placed on one of its faces is perfectly stable, the second, as long as the surface is not perfectly horizontal, has a tendency to move, to go away…We can lean on the first, sit down on it itself; it’s more risky with the second… unless we place the sphere against the cube.
In our human societies it is the same, we are very different. Everyone has their own faults and their own qualities.
The cube is stable, the sphere is mobile, the cube is at first a little rough: aggressive angles, sharp edges; the sphere is initially pleasant without roughness, equal to itself wherever it is approached. So let’s ask our cubic friends to round the corners a little, ask our spherical friends to stay a little more stable. And let’s place the sphere against the cube…
We will thus benefit from an association of different talents who, together, will be capable of great things. But above all, let’s not let the faults hide the talents, let’s accept the first to discover the second because a hidden talent is of no use; a sundial placed in the shade is of no use. That’s the idea, using the qualities of each person in association with the other; this is the secret to making two very different elements coexist in a structure, whether material or human; this is the secret of an effective ensemble, of a club where it is good to live together.”
