Letter from the Editor

Abstract

Mario Salvadori in many ways embodied architecture and mathematics, and certainly embodied the particular mental aperture necessary for interdisciplinarianism. I first met Mario in 1991, not long after I had moved to Tuscany. Like all architects in my generation, I had studied structural mechanics from his textbooks at university. When I moved to the province of Florence, I discovered that Salvadori was a rather common name; I wondered if it might be the same family. Once when I returned to New York I called him, though of course he didn’t know who I was, and explained where I was from. He invited me to come to his office that very day and have a sandwich in his office. That was how our friendship began, and it is characteristic of the kind of spontaneity, warmth and interest that Mario always exuded. Already in his 80s when we met, he was still as bright as a dollar, continuing his writing and teaching at the Salvadori Center. He encouraged me every step of the way as I organized the first Nexus conference for architecture and mathematics in 1996. He came, with his wife Carol, to that conference, in Fucecchio, not far from Legnaia where he was born, and gave the keynote address, entitled “Are There Any Relationships Between Architecture and Mathematics”. The next year he passed away. I have wished many times he could have seen how the Nexus conferences grew, and how the Nexus Network Journal was founded and prospered.