Lake Superior Magazine reviews The Invisible Element of Place

Review of THE INVISIBLE ELEMENT OF PLACE: THE ARCHITECTURE OF DAVID SALMELA by Thomas Fisher.

Fisher_invisible coverBooks about architects are not abundant nor are they on most reading lists. This is a big oversight. Where you live, shop and work are products of architectural skills. Cities get a visual personality from their combination of architectural design. Few architects, however, are recognized for their creations; it is rare to be a visible superstar in this field.

Minnesota has an architect whose style stands out: Duluth’s David Salmela. This book attempts to give the reader a sense of the design and the designer, looking at trailers, cabins and homes done by David, whose Finnish heritage strongly influences his art. David specializes in using simple, clear lines – transforming the basic box to meet the needs of a building’s owner and landscape.

Author Thomas Fisher, the dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Design, writes that for David, “design involves simplifying, reducing and distilling things down. … He believes the simplicity of the box is a sustainability strategy, as well as a cost-saving one.”        – Mike Link

Published in: Lake Superior Magazine
By: Mike Link


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