WRITING ARCHITECTURE
In searching for a place of fond memories I find myself in a space between spaces. Not the studio and not the home where days are spent, but a place that physically connect the two and yet will remove ones self from both. In these pathless and undulating horizons one is overcome by transcending notions of melancholic thoughts. The fragility of it, the timeless reverie that is over all to quick as one begins to realign with the turbulent mechanisms that surrounds it. These brief moments of arcadic expanses create a sense of solitude, a sense of being that would be otherwise forgotten.
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The location that was chosen for this research task was a place of fond memories for myself. I felt that this had to be essential to the project, as I could not have composed my work about an architectural experience with such intimacy if I did not have an already formed relationship with that space. I therefore selected South Park (image 1) for this research project as I had walked the grassy paths through this space for as long as I had lived in Oxford. The original research intentions were to write a paragraph relating to an architectural space of the built environment however I felt that this was not suitable to the task at hand. By no means have I intended to abandon architecture but quite the opposite. It is the way in witch I have come to use the architectural landscape around me that has allowed me to find this arcadic oasis strung out between the built environment. All this said there is perhaps a wanting to leave behind the “grotesque one-dimensional complex commodity that is the city. (Edwads, s. & Charley, J, p 8) I chose to base my writing in a style similar to the work of Peter Zumthor as the narratives in “Thinking Architecture� share the same purpose as my own narrative. Having written and framed my statement of architectural thought (previous page) I nailed it to a tree in the park that I had written about. (Previous page) There was a sense of hesitation in doing this as a personal thought made so public is a daunting task but nevertheless it was secured in anonymity. Once the work was nailed in place I left it, awaiting a possible response or reaction to my now public thoughts of the park. Early the next morning I went to inspect the work and found it still hanging against the tree. However, later that evening I revisited my work and a response was found but certainly not what I was expecting. As seen in images 2,3,4 the framed paragraph was lying scattered across the ground, shredded into eight evenly sized pieces. This act of vandalism must have happened only minuets before I arrived, as I was able to locate all the pieces within 10 meters of each other with the frame 4 shards of wood that was once the frame. I quickly gathered my written memories and left the park to inspect the work in closer detail once I returned to the studio.
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My initial thoughts of what had happened were of disgust, anger, and abhorrence toward the person or persons that tore up a laboured piece of work such as this. However, after lamenting in the fragments I realised that what had occurred was a re-action to an action. A cyclical event where my personal thoughts of space, made public for all to see, retuned to being personal again. Form a different perspective the vandal can bee seen as participating in a public service, an act of kindness on my behalf to return to me what is rightfully mine. The system becomes balanced as if nothing had ever occurred except for two large nail holes in the side of a tree somewhere in a park that represent a formalised memory for no one to know of but me and one other person.
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