title: The Storm and the Fall
author:  Lebbeus Woods 
description: Lebbeus Woods is widely regarded as the most exciting and original architectural visionary today. His body of theoretical work and extraordinary drawings have served as inspiration for architects, artists, and legions of students.
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00078.jpeg)
  
  > _To my parents, Mick and Marion Miller, who gave me my love of reading_
  
  ![](Images/image00077.jpeg)
  
  ![](Images/image00085.jpeg) ****
  
  Prologue
  
  Suddenly there it was. A fresh mound of earth, the size of a molehill, right
  in the middle of the common.
  
  Only it wasn’t a molehill.
  
  Not that anyone saw it form. It was the dead of night and a storm was raging,
  so the villagers were all safely tucked up in their beds, with their curtains
  shut and their electric blankets on.
  
  But as they slept, the little mound of earth started to grow. And as the wind
  howled, and the rain lashed, it grew larger and larger. Higher and higher it
  rose, until it was the size of a haystack.
  
  Lightning crackled in the sky, and thunder rolled out across the valley. The
  mound of earth began to shake and its peak trembled and quivered, until
  suddenly a gleaming white enamel flagpole popped out of the top!
  
  Up and up climbed the flagpole, rising out of the ground like a beanstalk in a
  f