Shree: a pattern language

Shree: a pattern language

Reference from a pattern language is taken. Following are my thoughts -

Perception in life is a given default mode of existence to us - as human forms. All is by God and this is accepted with due respect. Unless we respect this phenomenon, we will not possibly come to understand or realize the greatest amount love that exists as One medium. We may not be able to venture on this path with conviction unless the present phenomenon of perception is "felt" deeply within us.

the central message in existence is - "connection" and whatever can endorse this realization should be pursued by each of us - for some it would be through feelings, intellect or action - all forms of realization are allowed and finally will take one to the same destination.

Each of us has a strong preference to understand the language of existence. a preference is what is inherited by us through many vibrations, forces, forms, past lives, momentum and many other things. What makes things and gives "meaning" to them is our way of looking at them or sensing them or making them real for us. "Reality" is what we keep on doing and we have a role of engagement in it. Trust your preference and trust God wherever this preference will take you and expand you. There is no right or wrong in preference - we exist as preferences and hence we connect through them.

One of the patterns talks about children's sense of walking and preparing cognitive maps mentally and generating a sense of place - or a connection with people and the world. if whisked away by cars or buses to different destinations, then that cuts off this sense of connect with everyone. i should be able to approach home or mother or a friend "as a continuity of space and time" and NOT as a rupture or a sudden encounter. For me this is extremely important fact of existence of feelings and making a home in the world. This means to walk, see, sense, smell, touch, hear everything around me. that brings me and expands me with everything around me. Subtleness of such things is actually profound in everyone but modern pace ignores this feeling and ruptures spaces, rips them far apart, brings them in immediate contact without preparation, has no sense of transition at all, is too much focused on production or self absorption, fragments things. this sense of rupture and extreme focus on "activities" results in only cubicalized spaces, no passages or throughfares, no dialogue or loitering around, zipping past by automobiles and highways, closed doors, closed windows, closed compounds, privatized spaces, regimented and systemized cycles of production, multitasking ideas, faster cycles of production, disengagement with multipurpose activities or spaces or time and so on.

in fact modern times imbibe the idea of private mindscapes reflecting on privatized spaces and times  - again reflecting on closed buildings, non shared built spaces, no open spaces where people can linger and interact, no waiting, no loitering, no change to be accepted and so on. The damage is already done and there is much to learn from acknowledging slowness, transitions, encounters and so on. architecturally that may mean rediscovering walking distances, wider pathways, meandering spaces, full awareness and allowance of change of environment, relationships, multipurpose spaces, (although i hate this word of "multi-purpose" as if it is a summation of predefined purposes known to mankind!), ambiguous and transitional spaces, hierarchy of spaces, silence and light, landscape and so on.

The role of feelings, no matter how subtle and ambiguous they may be, is extremely important. They may lead to situations and people and relationships and some eventuality. Difficult and intimate feelings are very, very important for coming to a sense of "being". There is no escape from this requirement and anyone who thinks that avoidance is the answer to difficult feelings then you are mistaken.  Accept everything as things come, become, evolve and go. All of this is required to be learnt.

The role of feelings can be a fundamental language of understanding everything of life, past, future, space, time, technology - that can be made as the core. Feeling has its own language of being and it requires its unique definition of space and time. In no way am i dismissing intellect's role however to compartmentalize the two of these dimensions is not required. An intellectual ability is infused with emotional feelings and vice versa.

Coming back to the rupturing trend, it causes a sense of loss and disconnect. Philosophically we are ruptured from the One. And just as architecturally we try to become connected, philosophically we try to become One by remembering the One from where creation begins.

Hari Om.

 

Shree: uncomfortable silence

Silence is uncomfortable when there does not seem any purpose or meaning in creating it. This is the reality of common spaces in developed nations many times - they become silent and "dead". If everything is made so much purpose driven and individualized prompting self absorption, isolation, cocooned movements and living and cocooned spaces and time capsules - where does the need of sharing and common interests get generated? As humanity, our spaces and time call for enormous sharing and these get reflected in activities, meaning and spaces in architecture.

Idea of transition, buffer, and common spaces comes from the need to connect. All these dimensions in architecture are lost if the need to connect is not realized. This need of connecting it seems is now getting reflected in virtual spaces instead of real spaces and hence real space-time does not seem to offer solace or nourishment for the self. Without the anchor of community life, the self loses meaning.

What can be done to respond to this mental frame of mind? it maybe closeness to nature, silent time giving, touching, sensing, hearing, listening, maintaining eye contact, communal dining, and many other opportunities that give back a sense of connection.

Hari Om.