CLOSE TO HOME​
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SELF
At every 0.1m
At every 0.1m
Is the house only a place to live?
Can the house become a
space that allows to you to express yourself?
How does the house allow for an accumulation of memories?
How do disparate homes come together as a community?
If the city is a home, who owns the house?
Is the home situated within the city or is the city contained in a home?
Resting space for self
2 sqm
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What is peace, but a state (the faculty would interject, 'space!') of mind?
Or is it? Do I sleep on the bed more often than on the floor? Is my back more at ease when arched or straight? Is my peace undisturbed ensconced in one corner or do I like the liberty of freely changing my surroundings when I'm trying to relax?
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The body is a sensitive being and it reacts to the light, texture, air, material and form of the volume it is situated in. I think of the space where I'm most rested, tight, yet free to change posture, I think of moments of solitude, inconspicuous to the world around, yet able to see the goings on outside to ruminate or wax poetic in my mind.
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This lead to an anthropometric and sensual mapping of my body in this space, this feeling, and trying to "draw space" for the first time in architectural school.
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The exploration started with the question:
What is the most exact space my body needs to feel rested?
What is this 'space-face' word i'm being assaulted with over a period of the last few weeks? I thought during the whole duration of the project. Space. That fresh hell. The new frontier.
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It was my first architecture project and I had no idea of where I was going with this.
When the faculty posed the question - what is your favourite resting place, I knew what they were asking. I looooooved my solitude, I knew what that feeling was, to be by oneself and feel rested. It is also that place of reflection and creativity.
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Oh, there were so many: the terrace, my sofa, the old rickety window out of my living room looking onto the gulmohar tree outside, the beach, the library, the mountains - it almost felt like space itself was irrelevant. Peace was in the mind.
i'm asked by my guides to become more aware of my body, as it functions in "space", to explore the sensitivities of the body. I think of these moments of solitude, in abandon of the real world, as i know it: a blanket-like tight space, shifting support, changing positions, gentle light, the ability to see things, see color and movement.
Not quite sure if that was "the space", but for a rookie architect, space was all feeling, I had to go with my gut and make models and drawings, week after week, not quite sure what I was making, but trusting that I would reach some "solution" soon. My first architecture jury was not as memorable as I thought it would be. I was grilled about things I was not asked all those weeks I toiled and talked and trundled about. Oh, well.
That was the short or long of the project Close To Home.