Focusing on the influential 18th century text by Marc-Antoine Laugier -"Essay on Architecture" - what I trace in this essay is a certain affinity betweenornamentation and theoretical writing on architecture. What I point out is that not onlydoes theory play the same supplemental role with respect to its subject as ornamentation is said to play with respect to the aesthetic object, but also, the same paradoxes andinconsistencies that permeate the historic marginalization of ornamentation in architecture, permeate the self-marginalization of theoretical writing on architecture.
www.colorado.edu/envd/courses/envd4114-001/Portfolio/Publications/Article%20PDF/Exorcise%20of%20Theory.pdf