Abstract:
Was it scientific biographer Abraham Pais
who wrote, ‘If Einstein had stopped doing
physics in the year 1925 and had gone
fishing, he would be just as beloved, just
as great. It would not have made a damn
bit of difference’? To resort to that source
of current omniscience, Wikipedia, in
searching for the term ‘Child Prodigies’,
one finds listed many mathematicians,
followed by a preponderance of those,
mainly male, in the sciences devoted to
mathematical manipulation. Then there
are the musicians, which leads me to
conclude that music is liquid mathematics
before frozen architecture! Thereafter,
of course, are sports, games and acting, in
all of which women also feature. But only
one psychologist, Jean Piaget, the iconic
educationalist, and no architect! The only
mention of an architect is the contemporary
and acclaimed starchitect, Sheilagh Sri
Prakesh, but that is as a performer of traditional Indian dance. A broader Google
search of the combined term ‘architect
prodigy’ delivers an Australian, one John
James Clark (1838 – 1915), who was in
public service and designing at age fourteen
and had produced something memorable,
aptly named the Old Treasure Building, in
Melbourne, at the age of 19. He went on
to live a long and productive life.
