Intimate Immensity

developing a reference point for architecture

submitted for the assessment of module AR30039 History & Theory 4 by Alex Marlow, 22nd January 2010

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To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.
william blake

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Contents
IntroductIon
Our traditional understanding of scale Contradictions Intimacy and Immensity A flawed approach to architecture Proposal

1-IntImateImmensIty
Poetic writing & Bachelards interpretation hidden depths

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2-archItecturalovervIew
Critical view of the built environment

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3-tadaoando
His work Chapel on the Water Childrens museum

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4-PhIlosoPhy
Man Simplicity breeds complexity Relative scale

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conclusIon
Intimate immensity - parallels of architecture and human nature The danger of a transient race Embodiment of soul A reflection of ourselves

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notes lIstofIllustratIons references

Auguries of Innocence William Blake Leisure W H Davies

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Introduction
ourtradItIonal understandIngofscale

he human race is obsessed with scale. Throughout history man sought to build the largest building to honour his god. Scientific endeavours pursue the smallest particles in order to gain an understanding of the universe. Ships, cars, aircraft - each generation bigger, faster than the last. A neverending game of one-upmanship in a world where numbers are King. In this pursuit of record-book fame we have sought to reduce the world to statistics, where everything can be measured, compared, and ultimately ranked accordingly. In a basement underneath
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Paris, the references for these values lie carefully protected by controlled atmospheres and security clearances - an inauspicious lump of precious metal and a rudimentary ruler1. History marks each advance, and the human race progresses.

contradIctIons

et there are phenomena that escape the mundane restraints imposed by the modern world. Moreover there are those that seem impossible to measure, or that embody contradictory values if we try. A quality referred to by philosophers and poets as intimate immensity. Consider the vista at
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the top of Mt. Everest. Quantitative science would state that the altitude is 8952m, and that visual range extends to approximately 300km before the curvature of the Earth blocks the view. Yet for those at the top, these values are meaningless, irrelevant even, for they do nothing to describe the experience. The values would imply that the climbers should feel exposed and helpless - no shelter as far as the eye can see, and an awfully long drop. But instead accounts have been of exhilaration, wonder, and tranquility2. Clearly there is more to the world than can be measured and put in a bar chart.

IntImacyandImmensIty

o define immensity, then, is as subjective as a definition of intimacy. It relies upon surrounding conditions, and a personal observation. An authors studio tucked away at the bottom of the garden may, to him, be an immense space because of the freedom it gives him to imagine. In contrast, Westminster Abbey may be considered a very intimate space to an ageing acolyte, who has paced the aisles for decades and experienced moments of great emotion within its walls. Scale is a more mysterious phenomenon than our regular understanding of the word would suggest.

aflawedaPProachtoarchItecture

s a result of our attempts to rationalise this concept of scale, we live in a world which is becoming increasingly disenchanted with architecture. Thanks to the proliferation of photography and media coverage through the internet, buildings are judged by the majority on a few snapshots and a set of statistics. Architects can pander to these, deliver exciting visuals and futuristic forms and the building will be judged a success by all but those who visit it. To compound matters, commercialisation means that the client who would prefer a great building to a balanced ledger is fast becoming a fictional character.
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Buildings are no longer things of value, they are tools with which to do business, and are tossed aside in the same manner when the job is done.

ProPosal

adao Ando talks of the soullessness of modern existence, where convenience is sought at the expense of spiritual richness ... a trivialisation of human existence. 3

hen we build according to quantitative rules, we only satisfy the statisticians. Our current methods are those of human proportions, yet proportions tell nothing of our nature.
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Identical twins share the same visual identity, their individuality lies in their personality; emotions, sensibilities, intellect. To create successful architecture requires more than creative use of anthropometric data, it requires a deeper understanding of human nature. After all, the architecture we create is a reflection of ourselves. Key to an understanding of human nature is an appreciation of the contradictory concept of intimate immensity, and its embodiment in the natural phenomena that surround us. We must understand that the world can be experienced on more than a simply objective level.

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1 - Intimate Immensity
PoetIcwrItIng&Bachelards
InterPretatIon

One might say that immensity is a philosophical category of daydream. Daydream undoubtedly feeds on all kinds of sights, but through a sort of natural inclination, it contemplates grandeur. And this contemplation produces an attitude that is so special, an inner state that is so unlike any other, that the daydream transports the dreamer outside the immediate world to a world that bears the mark of infinity.4

hus starts Gaston Bachelards chapter entitled intimate immensity. Not being restricted by
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functional requirements, other art forms such as poetry, sculpture and music are free to develop in these areas of ambiguity and intrigue. Many poetic works delve into such contradictory realms and our culture is the richer for it. They encourage contemplation, daydreaming, as Bachelard describes it. Yet this is not the idle dreaming begat of a stuffy classroom on a summers afternoon. Bachelard is writing of an imagination removed from its earthly surroundings, occupying the space of elsewhere5. By escaping such trappings, this leads to a deeper level of thought where the corporeal world ceases to exist and in its place are memories, perceptions and pure thoughts. An immense world where scale has no
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meaning, no relative marker. Intimacy promotes such imaginings, and, as in the case of the author in his studio, releases the mind.

hIddendePths

ntimacy and immensity appear to be intrinsically linked - to experience one requires an acceptance or expectation of the other. Key to the understanding of immensity, is that everyday phenomena have hidden depths, beyond that of objective impressions. We experience this world on more than one level
Architectural space has to be experienced: It is touched, heard, smelled, tasted and seen. The wind brings comfort, the
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sound of footsteps provides grounding. The scent of wood transports us to memory places, the taste of a madeline fills the deepest desires, the soft concentrated light gives assuring presence. Architecture exists in its tangibility. 6

he hidden depths of poetic works serve to transport the reader into the imagination of the author. It could be argued that this is not required of architecture - the building stands testament to the dreamings of the architect - but it is in the nuances of the design that the soul of the building lies. Buildings do not sit as abstract forms in a landscape of white. As the quote above concludes, they interact with the surroundings, as we interact with the building.
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2 - Architectural overview
crItIcalvIewofthe BuIltenvIronment
...A poor life this, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.7

he greater proportion of our built environment is gearing towards a transient race. The opportunity to stop and relax seems to be a privilege granted to few. And this is embodied in the buildings we create. Transport hubs, hot-desk office spaces, even the ubiquitous coffee shop, whilst offering an envied few a chance to sit, ultimately all add to our to go culture.
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t is outside the scope of this essay to criticise the work ethic of modern society. However, to pander to this culture is to reduce architecture to building, and to reduce buildings to little more than tools with which to conduct business. Like tools, architecture risks being tossed aside when a more efficient method is found, or when the job is complete.

erhaps this stems from an increasingly secular culture. Religious buildings have long been the mainstay of subtlety and depth of design. When the only higher order is the hierarchy of company executives, subtlety and depth have no worth.

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et there are still building types which would support this level of design. Notably cultural facilities - museums, libraries, concert halls - buildings within which we are expected to surrender our day-to-day entanglements and open our minds to the possibility of daydream. These buildings, when successful, instil in us a sense of hidden grandeur as the depth of intellectual content they hold is married with our own dreams and memories.

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3 - Tadao Ando
hIswork

he contemporary work which seems to best follow this philosophy is that of Osaka born architect, Tadao Ando7. Unsurprisingly, for one whose education stemmed from stolen hours in a carpenters workshop, Andos work displays an honesty to materials and close attention to detail. Japanese architecture bears a close link to nature, and Andos is no exception. In contrast to the western approach, where nature is, if not secondary to the architecture it surrounds, then at least a distinct element, Ando treats the landscape
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and building as a whole. Seasonal changes affect the building as much as the gardens in which it sits. This connection, of building and landscape as one, is tantamount to the success of Andos projects.
Andos work aims to reconnect man with man and man with nature, with architecture as the intermediary.9

hrough this connection, the earlier themes of intimacy and immensity become apparent in the building. The connection the visitor feels with his surroundings engenders relaxation and depth of thought.

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chaPelonthewater

ndos Chapel on the Water, Hokkaido (1988), is an incredibly evocative piece of architecture, seemingly formed of subtle changes of light and intense reflections. The concrete structure acts merely as a muted backdrop against which the drama of the surroundings unfolds.
...the landscape changes its appearance from moment to moment. Here, I sought to create a place where man and nature, through mutual sympathy, evolve toward to the realm of the sacred.10

n this project, the building pays homage to its surroundings. It is intrinsically subservient, and therefore
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humbling to those occupying it. Here, the mixture of awe and tranquillity embodied in the idea of intimate immensity is engendered by the mutedness of the building and its, both literal and metaphorical, reflection of nature. There seems to be no distinct point where the building ends and nature begins.

chIldrensmuseum

f course, in the design of a chapel it is easy to justify such simple, minimalist designs, as religious buildings are inherently spiritual and warrant such ethereal treatment. Indeed, one could argue that the building would
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have failed if it did not embody such feelings.

ndos Childrens Museum, Himeji (1989), is an altogether different building type, and whilst it takes a different approach in its form, many of Andos philosophies perceived in the Chapel are also evident here. The building is not a slave to function, Ando eschews that dictation of Modernism, instead revelling in refined irrationality. However, irrationality does not in this case imply random, nor superfluous. His methods seek rather to challenge our preconceptions of how man-made space and the natural world interact.

ithin the central plaza of the museum sits a grid of 9m high

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concrete posts. These posts serve no structural function - they stand apart from the main body of the building yet they serve an architectural function purely through being. They act as a reference to the landscape, to recall the quote from Tom Heneghan, with

architecture as the intermediary. The posts are read individually from a human scale, each relating to its immediate neighbours and the child running between them. Yet on a greater scale, the posts collect as one unit, cuboid in form, as a challenge to the landscape.

o the child, these posts are immense, and can occupy space individually. Yet to the wider landscape
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they are small, significant only in their grouping. A simple example of how elements can embody contradictory parameters, depending on our point of reference.

his notion of relative scale, as

alluded to in an earlier chapter, is subject to intense philosophical debate, and requires us to address the fundamental reference point, ourselves.

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4 - Philosophy
man
Man is not a dualistic being in whom spirit and flesh are essentially distinct, but a living, corporeal being active in the world ... The world that appears to mans senses and the state of mans body [are] interdependent ... The body articulates the world. At the same time the body is articulated by the world.11

irtually every religion regards the human being as made up of three separate yet interwoven parts; body, mind and spirit. Andos philosophy is there is no distinction between the three, that it is through the combination that
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we perceive the world. To use only the physical characteristics of the human body in our understanding of the world is an intrinsically flawed concept and herein lies the reasoning. This tripartite nature of our being lends itself to more than a physical relationship with our surroundings. Virays earlier quote spoke of the five senses alone and how each may promote an understanding of our environment, and that is without taking into consideration intellectual impressions such as memory, or imagination.

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sImPlIcItyBreedscomPlexIty

he danger with this methodology is concluding that complexity is required to generate depth. Andos projects rescind this theory, it is their very simplicity that allows one to free ones mind and relax into contemplation. Being bombarded by visual complexity hinders the other senses. However, these notions of simplicity and complexity are as intrinsically linked as those of intimacy and immensity. Scientific endeavours are constantly in pursuit of empirical formulae to define the most complex phenomena. This has come to a head in the field of chaos theory and the study of fractals. A simple looking equation developed as an
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understanding of the patterns of coastal erosion produces a graphic of infinite complexity. An eternally repeating array of curves at ever decreasing or increasing magnitudes.

ikewise, a subtly detailed design can lend itself to extrapolation, wherein the extents of the surface, be it a wall, do not end at the physical limits, but can imply a connection to other phenomena in its plane.

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relatIvescale
I could be bound within a nutshell and count myself King of infinite space.12

C T

learly, to interpret scale we require a point of reference or else the image is meaningless. The drawings of Piranesi stand testament to this: he myriad arches, statues, and fallen carvings create an impossibly vivid scene. Elements that appear in the foreground might recede when another catches the viewers eye, supplanting it. Visual tricks that confuse the eye and inhibit perspective, an approximate scale is guessed at, until a human figure is identified in the background, and the scene expands ten-fold.
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ikewise, the expanse of ocean seen from a ship on a clear calm day is unintelligible until a distant tanker comes into view, silhouetted against the horizon. Yet the view without the tanker is somehow more meaningful. Without a reference point, the ocean could stretch to infinity, or drop off the edge of the world fifty metres away. The expanse once more encourages that special state of daydream.

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Conclusion
IntImateImmensIty-Parallelsof archItectureandhumannature

cale then, is subjective. Our perception of the world around

us relies on more than our objective impressions of space. If human nature is to be understood as multifaceted, several parts all woven into one being, then the architecture that we create must relate to each of these levels. As long as architecture is created purely for visual perception, we are clearly going to live in a world of soulless buildings. If instead we can instil within these places an essence of interwoven
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intimacy and grandeur, a hint of higher orders, hidden depths, they can awaken in us a will to reconnect. To ourselves and to the world around us.

thedangerofatransIentrace

he danger of our current state is an obsession with time, where convenience is more highly prized than spiritual richness13. The buildings we produce naturally reflect this state, superficial forms created to satisfy a consumerist culture. By prioritising as such, placing speed before quality, valuing time spent producing rather than time spent developing, we devalue our very nature. To readdress this
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balance we must open our minds to the creation of buildings that satisfy our inner longings for grandeur.

emBodImentofsoul
In certain almost supernatural inner states, the depth of life is entirely revealed in the spectacle, however ordinary, that we have before our eyes, and which becomes a symbol of it.14

he worst examples of architecture are typically described as soulless. Simply speaking, they are purely threedimensional, built on a whim of form. Little more than sculpture, they exist as a shell, ignorant of the life around
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them. But that is to do an injustice to sculpture, which at its best captivates us, and hurls us into the imagination of its creator. Architecture should seek to emulate this. As Baudelaire here intimates, the richness of architecture is in its ability to reflect and amplify life around it. Architecture that displays the philosophies of its creator allows us to perceive these deeper levels.

areflectIonofourselves

truer appreciation of immensity is necessary to reveal the depths of humanity. However, immensity does not require great scale, in the same way that intimacy must not imply smallness.
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Both are human appropriations based upon a limited understanding of human nature. When we begin to understand, as Bachelard writes, that immensity is within ourselves15, we begin to understand that the spaces we create exist not only through objective observations, but instead are perceived through the many different states of our being. With an appreciation of this, we can start to create architecture that encourages the reconnection of man with man, man with nature.

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Immensity is within ourselves. It is attached to a sort of expansion of being that life curbs and caution arrests, but which starts again when we are alone. As soon as we become motionless, we are eleswhere; we are dreaming in a world that is immense. Indeed, immensity is the movement of motionless man. It is one of the dynamic characteristics of daydreaming.

gaston bachelard

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Notes
iii 1. Blake, W., Auguries of [excerpt] full text on p52.

Innocence

Nowadays only the lump remains - the International Prototype Kilogram made of platinum-iridium. The ruler was a platinum-iridium bar with two notches denoting one metre length. The metre was redefined in 1983 as a function of the speed of light in free space. Personal recollection of accounts from school alumnus who climbed Everest in 2009. Heneghan, T., Tadao Ando | The Colours of Light, 1996. p16 Bachelard, G., The Poetics of Space, p183 Ibid, Viray, E., 10x10_2, p415 [essay - Ten Thoughts on Architecture] Davies, W. H., Leisure [excerpt] full text on p59.

2.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

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8. 9. 10. 11.

Osaka is Japans third largest city, long the commercial capital of the country. Heneghan, T., Op cit. p.13 Ando, T., The Yale Studio & Current Works, p 88 Ando, T., Architecture and Body, Precis, (New York, 1988)

From an essay originally written by Ando in 1986 discussing shintai, a word denoting the sentient being around whom his architecture is formed - Heneghan, T.

12. 13. 14.

Shakespeare, Hamlet Heneghan, T., Tadao Ando | The Colours of Light, 1996. p16 Baudelaire, Fuses et journaux intimes, p29 Bachelard, G., Poetics of Space, p184 Ibid.

Referenced by Bachelard in The Poetics of Space, p192

15. p43

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List of Illustrations
p3
(www.flickr.com/3289/ 2405242110_6b78e96c6b_o.jpg)

View from Everest Rouen Cathedral

p6

(www.flickr.com/photos/oliviamair/4199900900/)

p7

Bookshelves

(www.flickr.com/3139/ 2593182303_2b404da2eb_o.jpg)

p22

Chapel on the water

Pare, R. The Colours of Light, p133

p26-7 Museum
Pare, R. The Colours of Light, p112-3

p32

Mandelbrot model

(img26.imageshack.us/img26/8478/outputxl4.jpg)

p35

Piranesi, G. [Glancey, J.], Lost Buildings, p237

Carcieri dInvenzione II

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References
The following, whilst not explicitly cited in the essay, were useful in provoking thought and refining ideas. 1. Bachelard, G., The Poetics of Reverie (1969)

Not as relevant to the topic as his first book, nonetheless, Poetics of Reverie develops a number of Bachelards ideas further, exploring the nature of memories and dreams.

2.

An extremely easy-to-read introduction to the world of chaos theory.

Gribbin, J., Deep Simplicity (2004)

3.

A collection of seven lectures orignally broadcast on French national radio in 1948. A good introduction to phenomenology.

Merleau-Ponty, M., Perception (2004)

The

World

of

4.

A heavy read, but worth persevering for the insights into human nature and its struggle finding place in the cosmos.

Frayn, M., The Human Touch (2006)

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augurIesofInnocence wIllIamBlake
To see a world in a grain of sand, And heaven in a wild flower Hold infinty in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all heaven in a rage. A dove-house filld with dove and pigeons Shudders hell thro all its regions. A dog starvd at his masters gate Predicts the ruin of the state. A horse misused upon the road Calls to heaven for human blood. Each outcry of the hunted hare A fibre from the brain does tear. A skylark wounded in the wing, A cherubim does cease to sing. The game-cock clipt and armd for fight Does the rising sun affright.

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Every wolfs and lions howl Rises from hell a human soul. The wild deer, wandring here and there, Keeps the human sould from care. The lamb misusd breeds public strife, And yet forgives the butchers knife. The bat that flits at close of eve Has left the brain that wont believe. The wol that calls upon the night Speaks the unbelievers fright. He who shall hurt the little wren Shall never be belovd by men. He who the ox to wrath has movd Shall never be by woman lovd The wanton boy that kills the fly Shall feel the spiders enmity. He who torments the chafers sprite Weaves a bower in endless night. The caterpillar on the leaf Repeats to thee thy mothers grief. Kill no the moth nor butterfly, For the last judgement draweth nigh.

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He who shall train the horse to war Shall never pass the polar bar. The beggars dog and widows cat, Feed them and thou wilt grow fat. The gnat that sings his summers song Poison gets from slanders tongue. The poison of the snake and newt Is the sweat of envys foot. The poison of the honey bee Is the artists jealousy. The princes robes and beggars rags Are toadstools on the misers bags. A truth thats told with bad intent Beats all the lies you can invent. It is right it should be so; Man was made for joy and woe; And when this we rightly know, Thro the world we safely go. Joy and woe are woven fine, A clothing for the soul divine. Under every grief and pine Runs a joy with silken twine.

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The babe is more than swaddling bands; Every farmer understands. Every tear from every eye Becomes a babe in eternity; This is caught by females bright, And returnd to its own delight. The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar, Are waves that beat on heavens shore. The babe that weeps the rod beneath Writes revenge in realms of death. The beggars rags, fluttering in air, Does to rags the heavens tear. The soldier, armd with sword and gun, Palsied strikes the summers sun. The poor mans farthing is worth more Than all the gold on Africs shore. One mite wrung from the labrers hands Shall buy and sell the misers lands; Or, if protected from on high, Does that whole nation sell and buy. He who mocks the infants faith Shall be mockd in age and death. He who shall teach the child to doubt The rotting grave shall neer get out.
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He who respects the infants faith Triumphs over hell and death. The childs toys and the old mans reasons Are the fruits of the two seasons. The questioner, who sits so sly, Shall never know how to reply. He who replies to words of doubt Doth put the light of knowledge out. The strongest poison ever known Came from Caesars laurel crown. Nought can deform the human race Like to the armours iron brace. When gold and gems adorn the plow, To peaceful arts shall envy bow. A riddle, or the crickets cry, Is to doubt a fit reply. The emmets inch and eagles mile Make lame philosophy to smile. He who doubts from what he sees Will neer believe, do what you please. If the sun and moon should doubt, Theyd immediately go out. To be in a passion you good may do, But no good if a passion is in you.
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The whore and gambler, by the state Licensed, build that nations fate. The harlots cry from street to street Shall weave old Englands winding-sheet. The winners shout, the losers curse, Dance before dead Englands hearse. Every night and every morn Some to misery are born, Every morn and every night Some are born to sweet delight. Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night. We are led to believe a lie When we see not thro the eye, Which was born in a night to perish in a night, When the soul slept in beams of light. God appears, and God is light, To those poor souls who dwell in night; But does a human form display To those who dwell in realms of day.

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leIsure whdavIes
What is this life, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beautys glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.

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