Wednesday, August 17, 2005

The Space in the Image


When I look at "architecture," I find it so easy to focus on the materials, rather than the space that is shaped by the materials. After all, it is so easy to forget about the space because it is not visible.

(What makes the space that is occupied by a material different from the space that is immediately beside that material? I am often awe-struck by how we can even move through space. How can we displace it so easily?)

The tree does a particularly fine job of informing us of the space around itself. In this photo I am aware that the space around this building is particular, and I am again awe-struck to understand that the space described in this photo continues out in every direction into a great vastness seemingly incomprehensible to a material made being such as myself. As Peter Zumthor is so keenly aware, the materials become "architecture" when they glorify the space they share and help to define.

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