GRIZZLY PEAR
Its funny how you can do something and very quickly get distracted by all the things around the something you set out to do. In this case after a week and a half I started looking at stats and have been playing around with ways to redesign the blog. I’ve decided to force myself to get at least a week ahead in posts before messing around with the design of the blog.
But still, its so easy to be distracted doing all the auxiliary stuff in lieu of the primary task!
Or really, Peppercorn’s bedroom. She loves to sneak into the bedroom of our 1 bedroom apartment. Its her major project in life. She picked up this habit in our previous apartment and has continued it here.
I’m not sure why she loves to get into the bedroom. There’s nothing special there for her and even though she likes to hang out under the bed, she splits out pretty quickly when we chase her.
I guess she just likes to come in and inspect. You know, just to see what’s there, same as it ever was, but you never know…
(from a forum conversation on boardgame geek, elaborated to tie into architecture)
There’s a particular game of Go between two masters that’s held up as a classic, even for the eventual loser. Perhaps it’s strange that one’s best game would be one you lost, but I like that attitude.
There is an interesting idea in our Tai Chi class. When we do push hands (basically trying to make your partner lose their balance) we use the term “partner”. It is light martial training for real confrontations, but they strongly emphasize the fact the person your training with is not an “opponent”. In that vein, this anecdote seems like a case where the high quailty game that was produced came because both game partners so skilled.
I think its because of my background starting with residential remodels and additions, but I’ve always contended that great architecture often arises due to a confrontation between an architect and nasty limitations. When given a blank slate, even the most brilliant architects struggle with the lack of limitations. That’s why I think Villa Savoye is a great rhetorical gesture, but I find Villa La Roche an infinitely more interesting project.
Witold’s Rybczynski discusses the idea of having 36 inch deep counters in his book about building his own house, The Most Beautiful House in the World.
Typical kitchen counter are 24 inch deep.
It has been years since I read about the idea and I think it would work. It sure would blow some minds if you tried to pull it off though.
Alongside the break, I had been mulling over whether to start studying a weapon as a part of my Tai Chi studies. And if so which weapon. I had been thinking about it on and off during this monthlong hiatus without any real conclusion. So while getting back working on the form this Monday, I came to an epiphany. (For those curious, I think I’ll study the saber because it has both a kung fu and tai chi form).
It reminds me of my old approach to design in school. If I ran into an intractable design problem, I’d often take a nap. Shutting down your brain for a little and then cranking it back up was often the best way to cut through the haze and make some decisions.
I just took a month long break from rock climbing…and unfortunately as it turns out the Tai Chi form. The climbing break was due to my fingers, they were feeling the strain and I had to take a break. The Tai Chi hiatus was just an unfortunate confluence of a long vacation with lots of work before and after.
As I experienced after a previous lengthy break from Tai Chi, cranking up the form again was painful. I could just feel how utterly unsharp I was – not that I was all that great to begin with – but it was really bad, out of rhythm, unrelaxed, just “off”. Surprisingly, the climbing went surprisingly well. I stayed on the easy routes, but I was surprised how much muscle memory and technique remained. The stamina and strength was not all there, but surprisingly not nearly as diminished as I expected.
To drag all this back into architecture. I think the practice of architecture, as a professional in the building process, a our work is much more like rock climbing than Tai Chi. Its a practice of working through problems and sustained effort, not as much a high finesse skill activity. And similarly taking a long break is a lot more refreshing than one might intially expect.
I was reading the cover story of Afforable Housing Finance“Seniors Tsunami” and coincidentially Professional Builder (which deals primarily with ground up tract homes) had an article “Multi-Generational Joins the Product Mix”.
It somewhat mirrors the forked path I stared at in my master’s thesis where I was debating between larger buidling products (apartment complexes) and small scale upgrades (such as the single family homes with in-law units in the second article). My personal interests lie with the latter, I think its a more interesting architectural design problem to develop a new housing typology. But honestly, the example of my girlfriend’s grandma, who lives on her own in Hangzhou, pushes me towards the realization that higher density is what we need.
High density is the drum I seem to be hammering all the time, but I think that our suburbanized cityscape is just an unsustainable way to design our metropolises.