From David Brown
I was interested to read in William Mitchell’s review that architects are
experimenting with curved forms
(19 February, p 52).
I am a naval architect, and my profession has been doing this for a thousand
years. The form of a ship is governed by hydrodynamic considerations—the
reduction of resistance though the water and of unwanted motions. The vessel is
supported in most unsteady fashion by the sea, and its partitions or “bulkheads”
are fixed in number and position by the need to limit flooding and fire, not the
convenience of the inhabitants.
Bath
