My interpretation of Dream as Both Void and Solid

In class we discussed the main points of the readings. We spent a bit of time discussing the opposing relationships brought up in Experiencing Architecture. Some examples of these relationships are:

slack - taught

heavy - light

hard - soft

force - gravity

smooth - rough

wet - dry

density - porous

elite - common

odd - proper

Above is an image of "slack" from Webster's visual dictionary. To me, it appears to better demonstrate taughtness, but I can imagine the string that would go with the casting rod and it could be slack.

In class we also discussed what the purpose of greenrooves is. In addition to replacing what a building has removed, I have heard that they can keep buildings cool. This made me think of an article in Popular Mechanics magazine I had just been reading about a rooftop greenhouse made by an engineer in New York. This is different because it is actually an enclosed garden, rather than one that is open to the elements. This rooftop greenhouse brings oxygen from the plants into the building below and brings routes carbon dioxide to the plants. The building uses gray water (used water from bathrooms and sinks) to irrigate the plants. I think this is a cool idea because it has a mutually beneficiary effect.

Quotes I liked in our Class Reading

From Experiencing Architecture

You must observe how it was designed for a special purpose and how it was attuned to the entire concept and rhythm of a specific era. p.33

You must experience the great difference acoustics make in your conception of space: the way sound acts in an enormous cathedral, with its echoes and long-toned reverberations, as compared to a small paneled room well padded with hangings, rugs and cushions. p.33

From The Poetics of Space

...People need houses in order to dream, in order to imagine... p. viii

...Setting is more than scene in works of art...it is often the armature around which the work revolves. p.x

From Maps of the Imagination

The earliest maps were thought to have been created to help people find their way and to reduce their fears of the unknown. p.11

No matter how hard we try to be "objective" or "faithful," we create.

Even by choosing the language in which we will write, and by choosing to paint or sing, we are defining, delineating, the world that is coming into being.

We cannot create a structure without understanding its purpose, any more than we would pick up a hammer to make some indetermined building out of wood and nails.

...anyone who has ever been transported by reading knows.. that enchantment and beauty transcend the rational.

Experience reminds us that there is often a world of difference between what we hope to find, or think we might find, and what we discover.

Without our false starts, we would have gotten nowhere at all.

Only work we believe to be of tremendous potential value is worth pursuing to the end of our days.

...translate one's sensation.