“How important should artistic authorship be in the world of architecture? For most of the last 500 years, imitation was the sincerest form of architectural flattery. The pattern was established during the Renaissance, whose architects were trying to re-create the buildings of ancient Rome. The fact that most of these buildings lay in ruins meant that designers had to do a lot of creative reconstruction, but that didn’t alter the principle of learning from—and copying—the past. Invention was necessary, but it was not the most important factor.”