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In a World Where Buildings are Alive Architects are More Like Gardeners LIVING FUTURE

In A World Where Buildings Are Alive, Architects Are More Like Gardeners

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How does a tomato come to life? You don’t assemble a tomato like a machine. You don’t conceptualize it like a work of abstract art. A successful gardener merely creates the conditions that allow life to unfold. If we seek to create buildings that have more “life”, can the design profession learn from the wisdom of a gardener? Is there a way of thinking about design, and a process, that offers a pathway to more life-filled buildings and spaces? In this presentation, members of TKWA, an architectural and interior design firm with 25 years of Pattern writing experience, demonstrate how to break out of the profession’s familiar, yet limiting, Cartesian design framework. Ariel Steuer and Tom Kubala will articulate and demonstrate how written Patterns, as developed by Christopher Alexander, can support a pathway to beauty, inspiration, and buildings imbued with life.

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Page 1: In A World Where Buildings Are Alive, Architects Are More Like Gardeners

In a World Where Buildings are Alive Architects are More Like Gardeners

LIVINGFUTURE

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ARIEL STEUERTOM KUBALA

THE KUBALA WASHATKO ARCHITECTSC E D A R B U R G , W I S C O N S I N

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1. See how pattern writing can bring a new kind of accuracy to your work.

2. See how the process of Pattern Writing can be Creative in its own right.

3. Consider a New Definition of Beauty and Inspiration.

4. Recognize how Pattern Writing can bring Beauty and Inspiration into a central role in the making of buildings.

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Targets of Understanding1

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Chapter One: On Undividedness and Beauty

Chapter Two: Can a Building be Alive enough to Smile?

Chapter Three: Reduced to Tears

Chapter Four: The Dance that is a Pattern

Chapter Five: The Beauty of Becoming

Chapter Six: Patterns’ Unfolding Potential

Chapter Seven: To Beautify the Gaze

Thoughts & Questions

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1 On Undividedness and Beauty

“It is shown that both in relativity theory and quantum theory, notions implying the undivided wholeness of the universe would provide a much more orderly way of considering the general nature of reality.”

David Joseph Bohm

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We presume that the world is undivided,

whole and meaningful, that a Unity of Creation Exists and it is Beautiful.

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“Wholeness is grounded in that which is fundamentally conducive to life.”

Stuart Cowan

Minnesota Tall Grass Prairie

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“Wholeness is grounded in that which is fundamentally conducive to life.”

Stuart Cowan

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1 Undivided =

Whole =

Healthy =

Beautiful =

Alive

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2 Can a Building be Alive enough to Smile?

“People are not perfect (except when they smile).”

Author Unknown

“All the statistics in the world can’t measure the warmth of a smile.”

Chris Hart

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Can a Building be Alive?

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2 First things first…

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What is it that makes a Building Alive?

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2 If so…

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How can I recognize one?

If a building can be alive…

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2 As architects, it eventually comes to this…

How can I make one?

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What’s stopping me?

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3 Reduced to Tears

“Our times are driven by the inestimable energies of the mechanical mind…”

John O’Donohue

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Reductionism’s Henchmen1

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3The theory that every complex phenomenon, especially in biology or psychology, can be explained by analyzing the simplest, most basic physical mechanisms that are in operation during the phenomenon.

STYLISTIC THINKING MECHANISTIC THINKING“It deals in pure and simple shapes, often at the expense of problem solving.”

Robert A.M. Stern

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Surrounded

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“the first effect of the lines is the only effect they will ever have, no amount of pondering will make them glow”

Robert C. Morgan

Beauty vs. Glamour

April 2014

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“There is an unseemly coarseness to our times which robs the grace from our textures of language, feeling and presence.”

John O’Donohue

Surrounded Professionally

May 2014

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Surrounded by Reductionism1

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What was a fully alive ecosystem becomes… Leveled parcels of zoned uses connected to customers and services by a vehicle conveyance system.

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Stylistic Thinking1

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concepts are usually fashionably avant-garde & architect-centric

A Style driven process star ts with a concept

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Functions are made to fit the concept

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virtually ignoring the complex richness of Culture & Place

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1. forces designers to stop listening.

2. is not easily shared.

3. must over-simplify complexity.

4. is deaf to ecological needs.

5. lacks long term value.

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Stylistic Thinking

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Mechanistic Thinking

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Descartes held that non-human animals could be reductively explained as automata.

De homine, 1662

The digesting Duck of Vaucanson • 1738

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Mechanistically driven process

‘Rooms’ are often considered the real parts of a building

3Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed SpaceProgrammed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Programmed Space

Circulation

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reduced to the measurement of its Energy Utilization Intensity

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“High Performance” buildings are often conceived as energy machines

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1. fragments a larger continuity.

2. discounts Feeling & Emotions.

3. marginalizes Art & Beauty by definition.

4. is often imposed on Nature.

5. artificially separates Form from Function.

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Mechanistic Thinking

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So, what way of thinking has a better chance at producing a building

that is alive?

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The Dance that is a Pattern

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“…when we find ourselves in a place of great beauty, clarity, recognition and excitement awaken in us. ”

John O’Donohue

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Eddy1

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What isn’t a Pattern

A Pattern is a recognizable dance between human activity and the built and/or natural

environment.

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Eddy as PART1

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Thinking about how the world is organized.

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Eddy as a differentiation of the whole

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Slater’s Hammer: a dense nesting of patterns1

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What isn’t a Pattern

A Pattern is whole, in that it excludes nothing and is

connected to everything.

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What isn’t a Pattern

A Pattern can be archetypal, crossing cultures and history.

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What isn’t a Pattern

When a building is alive, Patterns occur at all levels of scale, nested in a continuous,

unbroken field.

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What isn’t a Pattern

Do Patterns represent the Authentic Parts of the

Built and Natural World?

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2 ways of seeing the PARTS of the world

AssemblyDifferentiation

Apply a TheoryBegin with the Whole

Spectator ConsciousnessConscious Participation

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Discovering Patterns

1. Observe everything, without abstraction.

2. Hold what you observe in your mind.

3. Feel where discontinuities and features occur.

4. Name the discontinuities and features.

5. Discover the reasons for their appearance.

6. Propose a solution that resolves these forces.

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Center to Area Connection 1. The Land Ethic 2. Thread to a Pre-Settlement Ecology 3. Portals to the Legacy 4. Home Base 5. Local Materials, Ways and Means 6. Window to the Sun 7. Rain is Treasure 8. Wall of Noise 9. Fresh Air Naturally 10. No Such Thing as Waste

31. Working Home 32. Personal Home-Base 33. The Exec’s Parlor 34. Intern Niches 35. Kitchen in the Middle 36. Copy Cell Construction Process 37. Small Machines 38. Strike While Dormant 39. A Healthy Fear of Landfills 40. Scrap Bank 41. Posting a Scrounge List Details 42. Rough Trim Daily Work 43. Working at Low Power 44. Connected Through Record Keeping 45. From Tree to Stove

Building to Land Connection 11. Park and Hide 12. Electric Roof 13. Positive Outdoor Space 14. Building Cluster 15. Forward Garden 16. Welcome Garden 17. Sheltered Edges

18. Gathering Under a Tree 19. Seed Gathering Hall 20. Dialogue House 21. Inside-Out House 22. Leopold Memorial Trailhead Building Internal 23. Comfort Gradient 24. Acoustic Variation 25. Don’t Turn on that Light! 26. Never too Far from Outdoors 27. Mudroom In-Between 28. Leopold Reading Room 29. Archival Core 30. Deep in Dialogue

Organized by scale, not importance

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Center to Area Connection 1. The Land Ethic 2. Thread to a Pre-Settlement Ecology 3. Portals to the Legacy 4. Home Base 5. Local Materials, Ways and Means 6. Window to the Sun 7. Rain is Treasure 8. Wall of Noise 9. Fresh Air Naturally 10. No Such Thing as Waste

31. Working Home 32. Personal Home-Base 33. The Exec’s Parlor 34. Intern Niches 35. Kitchen in the Middle 36. Copy Cell Construction Process 37. Small Machines 38. Strike While Dormant 39. A Healthy Fear of Landfills 40. Scrap Bank 41. Posting a Scrounge List Details 42. Rough Trim Daily Work 43. Working at Low Power 44. Connected Through Record Keeping 45. From Tree to Stove

Building to Land Connection 11. Park and Hide 12. Electric Roof 13. Positive Outdoor Space 14. Building Cluster 15. Forward Garden 16. Welcome Garden 17. Sheltered Edges

18. Gathering Under a Tree 19. Seed Gathering Hall 20. Dialogue House 21. Inside-Out House 22. Leopold Memorial Trailhead Building Internal 23. Comfort Gradient 24. Acoustic Variation 25. Don’t Turn on that Light! 26. Never too Far from Outdoors 27. Mudroom In-Between 28. Leopold Reading Room 29. Archival Core 30. Deep in Dialogue

Sustainability issues are solved along with all other issues

Aldo Leopold Legacy Center

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16. Gathering Together 17. Staff Hearth 18. Privacy Gradient 19. Education Hall 20. Gradient of Classroom Sizes 21. Musical Suite 22. Coming of Age 23. Information is Like Food 24. Sounds Like a Green Room 25. Kitchen Party 26. Home Away from Homelessness 27. Small Child Care 28. Written Word 29. Archive

1. National Treasure 2. Bike, Bus & Walk 3. Parking Pockets 4. Shuttle System 5. Auto Underground 6. The Dance of Delivery 7. Open Green 8. Building Shape 9. New Front Door 10. Family of Entrances 11. Universal Access 12. Trust in God, but Tie your Camel 13. Conference Capable 14. Family of Venues 15. The Community Crossing

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16. Gathering Together 17. Staff Hearth 18. Privacy Gradient 19. Education Hall 20. Gradient of Classroom Sizes 21. Musical Suite 22. Coming of Age 23. Information is Like Food 24. Sounds Like a Green Room 25. Kitchen Party 26. Home Away from Homelessness 27. Small Child Care 28. Written Word 29. Archive

1. National Treasure 2. Bike, Bus & Walk 3. Parking Pockets 4. Shuttle System 5. Auto Underground 6. The Dance of Delivery 7. Open Green 8. Building Shape

10. Family of Entrances 11. Universal Access 12. Trust in God, but Tie your Camel 13. Conference Capable 14. Family of Venues

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9. New Front Door

15. The Community Crossing

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9New Front Door

The bottleneck at the current front door and lobby cannot be repaired without either reducing the number of people utilizing that entrance, or by greatly increasing the size of the lobby, thereby altering forever its original character and presence.

Problem Statement

Solution Statement Create a new prime door and lobby sized appropriately to handle anticipated population levels. Give the door clear markings as to its function and importance. Locate the new front door within visual proximity of the historic entrance.

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5The Community Crossing

With the contemplated addition of 15-20,000 sf of new facilities, it will be a challenge to insure that the campus feels like a single entity with various parts, not the other way around.

Problem Statement

Solution Statement

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Establish a place where all paths cross. Make this place adjacent to the new front door. Give it a distinctive character, a strong place on everyone’s cognitive map.

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Patterns as Poetry. The Creative Power of

Metaphor.

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The hearer participates! Meaning is not imposed or

predetermined.

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“…a process must occur for the metaphor to work effectively…”

John Hatcher

tenor vehicle

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“Landscape Visits the Writer”

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A pattern title for an in-progress design of a Writers’ Retreat Center in Wisconsin.

Offered by the team’s Landscape Architect: Nancy Aten

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The Beauty of Becoming“Architects are much too concerned with the design of the world, and not yet concerned enough with the generative processes that create the world.”

Christopher Alexander

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Nature models a living process: Morphogenisis

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from the Greek morphê: shape and genesis: creation, literally, beginning of the shape

The process controls the organized spatial distribution of cells during the embryonic development of an organism.

even our understanding of this is evolving

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Gene expression vs. Genetic blueprintintra-genome complexity gene-centric view

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Patterns’ Unfolding Potential“…the beautiful offers us an invitation to order, coherence and unity.”

John O’Donohue

Page 58: In A World Where Buildings Are Alive, Architects Are More Like Gardeners

1. Discover ALL the forces at play.

2. Identify recurring conflicts, diagnosis.

3. Write patterns, gain consensus.

4. Produce pattern resolution map.

5. Obtain feedback.

6. Unfold Permutations.

7. Narrow the Choices.

8. Choose a Direction.

It is roughly similar for every one of our projects

Pattern Writing is a par t of our overall design process 1

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Order is not only helpful, its crucial, promoting smooth unfolding

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1. National Treasure 2. Bike, Bus & Walk 3. Parking Pockets 4. Shuttle System 5. Auto Underground 6. The Dance of Delivery 7. Open Green 8. Building Shape 9. New Front Door 10. Family of Entrances 11. Universal Access 12. Trust in God, but Tie your Camel 13. Conference Capable 14. Family of Venues 15. The Community Crossing

16. Gathering Together 17. Staff Hearth 18. Privacy Gradient 19. Education Hall 20. Gradient of Classroom Sizes 21. Musical Suite 22. Coming of Age 23. Information is Like Food 24. Sounds Like a Green Room 25. Kitchen Party 26. Home Away from Homelessness 27. Small Child Care 28. Written Word 29. Archive

Organized by scale, not importance

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Unfolding… Site Constraints & Conditions

Setbacks

Protected Views

Sacred Ground

Untouchability Gradient

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Unfolding… Probable Locations for the proposed Addition

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Geometry meets Pattern

9. New Front Door

Create a new prime door and lobby sized

appropriately to handle anticipated

population levels. Give the door clear markings as to its

function and importance. Locate the new front door

within visual proximity of the

historic entrance.

Unfolding…

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60˚

New Auditorium

Geometry meets PatternUnfolding…

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HS

SELECT.

dn

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Open Office

B1

Classroom

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Corridor

A16

West Living RoomA17

Loggia

A18

Corridor A7

Conference

B5

Corridor

D35

Coats

D36

Vestibule

Elevator 1ThyssenKruppSeville 35Oildraulic

D33

Upper Crossing South

Stair 1

D31

Link

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Balcony

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dn

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ExistingSkylightExistingSkylight

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D32

Upper CrossingNorth

1’-9”

1’-10”

2’-0”

2’-1”

2’-1”

2’-1”

1’-9”

Upper Level Plan

New Front Door

Historic Entrance

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Geometry meets PatternUnfolding…1

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D15.1

Plenum

D12.1

Storage

D13.1

Storage

D14.1

Storage

B8

Corridor

ST

Cart

File

File

File

Fla

t

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(5) New Adjustable

Shelves For Artifacts

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15

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Archives

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RE Storage

B6.1

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B16.1

RE Storage

B15.1

RE Storage

B19

B Mech.

B6

Classroom

B10

Classroom

B12

MHNS Storage

B15

Classroom B17

Electrical

B16

Classroom

C5

Classroom

C7

Classroom

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Classroom

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Classroom

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West Court Yard

D2

MHNS Storage

East Court Yard

D1

RE Storage

D4

Mech. North

D21

Kitchen

D11

Ramp

D10

Custodial

D26

Table/ChairStorage

D12

Classroom

D13

Classroom

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Classroom

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Mech. South

D17

Women

Stair 1

D25

Cry Room

D27

MusicStorage

D30

Music Rehearsal

D29

Music OfficeD28

Music Office

D23

Lower Crossing South

D16

Men

D5

Education Hall

B6.3

Storage

B10.1

RE Storage

D6

Lower Crossing North

D24

Auditorium

B20

Corridor

up

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Lower Level Plan

Geometry meets PatternUnfolding…

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Completed Project

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Completed Project

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Completed Project

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Completed Project

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To Beautify the Gaze

“Ultimately beauty is a profound illumination of presence, a stirring of the invisible in visible form and in order to receive this, we need to cultivate a new style of approaching the world.”

John O’Donohue

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Writing Patterns requires a new kind of education, one

steeped in the ability to recognize wholeness when it

occurs.

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“Both the gaze that sees and the object that is seen construct themselves simultaneously in the one act of vision.”

John O’Donohue

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“You are asked to record your own inner feeling, your own inner wholeness - and this is used then as the measure of the degree of life in some system you are observing.”

Christopher Alexander

from ‘The Nature of Order’

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8 Thoughts & Questions

“What Beauty is can never be finally said.”

John O’Donohue

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Pattern Writing is a way forward. The making of Living Buildings demands

a Design Process that is Alive.

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1. allows the subtlest kinds of information to migrate, untrammeled, into the design/construction process.

2. organizes design intent.

3. builds consensus amongst design team, client group and stake holders.

4. educates client who becomes a quality design critic.

5. stimulates visualization.

Pattern Writing

Page 83: In A World Where Buildings Are Alive, Architects Are More Like Gardeners

Within it’s outlook are ways to resolve many of the significant problems of our time.

Operates in the everyday practical realm of doing and making.

Its general approach is one of affirming life. Healing the built environment while healing oneself.

Its conclusions are being drawn from a wide diversity of sources. It is general enough for artistic and scientific problems to merge.

Relies on scientific rigor and a thirst for objective knowledge.

Relies on PROCESS. This Architecture unfolds through the operation of a fundamental process similar to natural organic growth and maintenance dynamics.

Because of its focus on a shareable language, the discussion of matters normally considered ‘subjective’ becomes possible. Everyone can contribute.

The maturation of one’s spiritual self is both a requirement and a benefit of Living-Based Building. It offers a clear way of seeing the world.

Requires acquiring the fundamental skill of unveiled, objective choosing. A skill basic to learning anything well.

Healthy:

Pragmatic:

Optimistic:

Robust:

Disciplined:

Dynamic:

Cooperative:

Fulfilling:

Educational:

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…and Further Hints at a “World Where Buildings are Alive…”

Page 84: In A World Where Buildings Are Alive, Architects Are More Like Gardeners

LIVINGFUTURET H A N K Y O U [email protected]