“And above all my roofs I felt free to manipulate, to hide or to show, trimmed or overhanging. In the back of my consciousness lay the dicta of Viollet-le-Duc: the function of building is shelter of whatever variety; the primary problem of shelter is the roof. Through Egyptian and Greek and Roman times, and especially among the cathedral builders, the roof was a proud and mettle-proving problem. It could be concealed, of course, rendered as moot as the water-hewn rock vaults of the caves of the Dordogne, but it could also be as energizing as the manmade vaults of the Sainte Chappelle, or the splendid curling overhangs of the Summer Palace at Peking. And as for houses, my missionary grandfather’s life in Japan and the artworks brought from there by my mother combined to intensify my empathy with broadly spreading, sheltering, and connecting roofs."