Date: March 22, 1985
The architecture studio buzzed like a hive. Models, sketches, clay dust everywhere. The shortlist committee sat around a long table, renderings pinned to walls.
Julian leaned back, listening as professors argued: too modern, too derivative, too traditional.
Then Mira Desai's design appeared: a modular lattice façade, terracotta treated for durability, echoing the ancient jali screens of India.
Julian's Mind Internet opened at once.
---
🔹 Frozen Section Query
query: modular architecture + cultural resonance + scalability
Hits:
"Case Study: Habitat 67, Montreal — modular but not scalable (confidence 77%)"
"Jali latticework, traditional cooling architecture (confidence 91%)"
"Post-modern façades adopted due to modular prefabrication (confidence 89%)."
---
🔹 Current Section Query
query: design journals 1985 + modular façades
Hits:
"Emerging trend: modular design linked to cost-efficiency."
"Terracotta revival in sustainable architecture debates."
---
Julian spoke decisively. "Mira Desai's design. It's modular, scalable, rooted in tradition without kitsch. It speaks three languages at once."
The board murmured. One professor frowned but conceded. Mira was shortlisted.
Afterward, Julian approached her. "Your design isn't just beautiful. It's reproducible. That matters."
Mira blinked at him, surprised. "You think reproducibility is beauty?"
"I think reproducibility is power," Julian said.
---
That night, Marcus dropped a file on his desk. A yellowed newspaper clipping.
1970s. Corporate takeover. Vanderford name in lawsuits.
Marcus frowned. "They're digging."
Julian's search flared.
query: hostile takeover Vanderford + lawsuits
Hits:
Partial overlap with his family's name. Confidence: 62%.
Not him — but close enough to create suspicion.
Julian closed the file. "Then we get ahead of it. Transparency. Audited KPIs. If they want scandal, we give them boredom."
And in Cambridge, Anna Chen read a stipend notice mentioning terracotta substrate tests in Pune. Curious, she began drafting her proposal.