Praxis

A practical example using Embodied Imagination to develop an architectural concept

A Quick Note on Beauty...

Alchemy is a foundation of Embodied Imagination. In alchemy the energy which transformed lead into gold was/is the goddess of the copper planet; Venus. Venus in ancient Greece was called Aphrodite; the goddess of beauty.  For Plotinus, the neoplatonist, she is the soul of the world and the one who produced it by acting as a bridge between God and the physical world.

For Dante, Aphrodite and soul are inseparable which according to James Hillman means that beauty is not a mere motif to be understood, it is actually an essential characteristic of the psyche; because we are all contained within her divinity.

In other words beauty and our soulful engagement/experience of this world are the same thing. Beauty is essential, not only as an experience of reality but for reality to exist in the first place!

Echoing Alexander, James Hillman believes “we possess beauty when we are true to our own being; ugliness” he says, “is in going over to another order”. And for Corbin it is through or because of beauty that we meet God as the Dues Revelatus in the physical world around us. And finally in “The Thought Of The Heart And The Soul Of The World”, Hillman reiterates, it is Aphrodite’s beauty that makes the archetypes manifest as the perceptible sensible cosmos.

Accordingly, how we make the archetypes, in other words; how we design and environments we build, should always be by virtue of beauty. Furthermore, the more we resonate with this divine and inherent aspect of the world the more harmonious and refined our expressions will be.

How then do we resonate with beauty?

By exploring our connection to her of course; the soul. And this is exactly where Embodied Imagination comes into the picture. In relation to architecture EI gives us two things.

Firstly it teaches us to use our body which is our direct connection to Aphrodite and the realm of soul. For it is by means of embodiment that we are able to sense deeply into the image. In the case of architecture, the image is the site, the intention, our design intervention or even the requirements of the brief, including the quality or personality of the client. This sensing with the body produces the aspect of 'relatability' which is the very essence of soul making. For as John Keats has said, “This world is the vale of soul making”. It is in this valley of life that we deepen our capability to feel and experience the beauty of life around us.

Secondly because phenomenology is foundational in the EI approach, we come to the image, the site or the design from the perspective of Negative Capability. Quite at odds with our modern drive for knowledge and understanding, Negative Capability, refers to being comfortable in uncertainty and doubt “without” says Keats, “the irritable reaching after fact and reason”. Thus the phenomenological approach brings the beginners mind or child’s eyes of “unknowing” to the problem and is only aware of what is experienced and felt in the body, all other judgements and projections are suspended.

We therefore have embodiment as the 'sense organ' and Negative Capability, by means of phenomenology, as the 'method'.

Before we explore the practical example, I need to introduce one more notion. The idea that imagination comes through you as apposed to from you. Very briefly the ancient Sufi’s, a mystical branch of Islam, believed in the existence of an in-between realm known as the Mundus Imaginalis or the Imaginal World. The Sufi's held that this world (where soul originates) is the source of imagination, creativity and our very thoughts. This perception of the imagination placed it as 'outside' or independent of the human psyche. A corresponding notion to the otherness of imagination may also be found in the Greek concept of the daimon and the Roman genius who visited the artist as the 'One' truly responsible for the work.

Site Dreaming: Spirit of Pace (Breath) & Soul of Place (Pathos)

To feel into the site. To let the soul (contained within the body) as “the thought of the heart” begin to explore the truth of the site; its geological, climatological, historical and cultural and archetypal patterns.

This inquiry branches into two pathways, firstly feeling into the spirit of the site; from the Latin spirare - to breath, similar root as spirit. Here we embody as the way the site breaths, how it is alive, how it manages or perhaps choreographs the flow of energy?

The second path senses its soul as in the pathos of the site or how it suffers. Suffering and pathos are aspects of depth, for it is in the depth in the heavy and dark moments of life that soul is made. Therefore when we enquire into the soul of a site we begin to feel with/through/in our body into where it feels blocked or dead, asking where it requires healing? But we can also look into its history, and its associations to human civilisation and culture. Feeling how there layers affect our body as the proxy for the body of the site. In the same way we can feel into how this specific site relates to its greater context, to its local and global connectedness.

The important and unique aspect of this inquiry is that we do not try to understand the problem with our mind, we solely use our body to explore and to feel.

Concept: Wine Bar

Blumberg Drive Stellenbosch. Western Cape. Cape Town. South Africa

Site breakdown

4 Hectare site. 3 Hectares under pinotage vines. 1 X Existing structure: family house + small olive grove and private garden.

Spirit/breathe

The site breathes along its periphery. Enquiring into this image the client feels breadth and expanse in his shoulders, accompanied with a freedom of moment and an abundance of energy. There is an existing 2 meter padestrian path along the site perimeter, acting as a buffer between the site boundaries and the vineyard. Wild life enters the site along with perimeter, especially from the natural forest (private property) immediately north of the site. The vineyard is securely fenced off, to prevent any animals from damaging the vines. As a result the site does not breathe into its core/interior. Furthermore there is an uncultivated field on the site's southern boundary next to the small olive grove. From this analysis as well as deeply felt in the body of the client, the site breathes, as it were, north and south.

Soul/pathos

The site's pathos, its suffering, starts along the boundary of the vineyard and projects into the core of the site. The client feels a dead, heavy leaden mass in his stomach (there is no life in this vineyard, it's dead and heavy). The vines are sprayed with insecticides, the ground is kept acidic and the fence is impenetrable to critters.

proposal

Following the Embodied Imagination exploration there is a need for life to be brought into the site. The heart of the site needs to live again. To achieve this we have to connect to areas adjacent or close to the site that are established living areas.

Intervention

A land bridge is proposed; connecting the natural forest north of site with the uncultivated open field in the south.

Site Analysis

Sun crosses in the northern hemisphere.

Primary wind direction: E.S.E, Secondary: N.W & occasionally E.N.E

The primary views are towards a N.W direction into the valley.

From this analysis it is decided that the best location for the new architectural intervention is close to the southern perimeter, in a North/South orientation. The proposed new building will form the initiation of the proposed land bridge.

concept

Basic diagram of proposed concept.

Land-bridge allows cross access to continue cultivation of vineyard.

Building is nestled into a new planted area - breathing life back into the heart of site & activating access to the land-bridge.

Screen walls are proposed as wind breaks, creating 2 natural courtyard areas on both the northern and southern sides of the building.

Massing Diagram