>-I believe that today we build, in Ruskin's words, "for present delight
>alone." So taking that thought to its final conclusion, what will our
>grandchildren think of today's buildings and material culture?

A familiar observation is that personal traits tend to skip a generation.
Children are often more like their grandparents than their parents.   So,
one is not likely to feel a problem understanding one's grandchildren.   It
is the next immediate generation which offers either the solution or the
problem, depending on how at home you are with "today's" trend.   Which
trend ?  What a delightful choice we have today, from joining a real Budhist
Monastery in the mountains near Princeton, B.C. to living on the 40th floor
in downtown latte Vancouver, or in a post-architectural Swatch Watch suburb
with arches and faux leaded windows, or in a finely tuned restored heritage
home a few blocks away.   Out here in the West, they all live side by side
in neighbourhoods of a few blocks each, each neighbourhood with unique
character and each a stone's throw from the others.  They all have
grandchildren.

 Futurist Eric Fromm asked if we and our children will be able to deal with
diversity and choice as the real challenge.   I don't recall him speaking
about our grandchildren's era and offering suggestions as to whether choice
was to be still in the cards then.

An historian of architectural style said that one couldn't hope to
understand the architecture of an age if one didn't understand the clothing
of the period.    A clothing historian said that one couldn't hope to
understand the clothing style of an era if one did not understand the
architecture of the time.   Sooooo, what will our grandchildren be wearing?
Where will their mental hemlines be?   Mini or maxi?   Now that we seem to
have a lot of choices, it is hard to imagine a more unified style-time
developing.

CP