Our
buildings can be made of real materials - soil, wood, stone, water. Think of
building materials as the food we eat: The more our food lived a healthy
life - with no pesticides, hormones, etc.; wasn't processed with chemicals or
in-organic additives, etc.; was grown under the sky and fed intrinsically
nurturing food - the more it feeds and nurtures us. Being surrounded by
real materials, simply rendered, surrounds us with a vibration or resonance our
bodies and minds have always known.
Building
forms can be sensual and alive, as our body, not rigid and hard and lifeless
(think drywall). Surfaces can have
vitality, hold an intention atuned to the what we want to experience in each
room: Be soft, or vibrant, or rough, or glassy/reflective, or……..
In the
way that our breath is perhaps our most vital aspect of living, our buildings
can breathe, drawing in the world around us. A building can pull in
the breezes, gather daylight into most parts of the building. One room can open
into a garden while another expands out to a distant view. At another level, just as we breathe in
and out, one space can be expansive, while another space can be inward-focused.
Buildings can provide place for inner, reflective solitude, and
outward-reaching gatherings.
Our buildings
can be as a wave, which is the meeting of the deep energy of the ocean with the
firm soil of the earth. A wave puts us in one of the most ancient
dynamics of the earth. Our buildings can also put us in-between realms -
a building can be just inside the edge of a forest overlooking a meadow, or a
bay window in a bedroom looking onto a city street - opening up
reflective chords.
There
are many ways our buildings can be interwoven into the natural world. The first
and essential step is to awaken our awareness to this possibility. A
simple exploration of this opening: Go into the woods, find a small,
intimate space, and sit. Be still. Listen. As when dropping a
pebble into a still pond, soon your mind will be clear of ripples. You'll
be deep in the pond (the place), and the world around you will begin to embrace
you. Animals will resume their goingson, birds will land on branches
nearby; you'll slowly become a part of the place. Then you can begin to
consider how the spaces you create and live in can be an extension of the
centered place this consciousness was born in.
