The Materials of Architecture II

In passing in another work, Linguistics and Philosophy, Gilson gives another way of saying that the materials of architecture are design solutions:

Everything is mechanical in a house except the idea of building it and the plan of construction. A house is an infinity of hypothetical necessities caused by the freedom of the architect who imposes on them his idea of the house as their common final cause.

Etienne Gilson, Linguistics and Philsoophy. James Lyon, tr. University of Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, Ind.: 1988) p. 51.