home the of time biography
Bibliography
The
house in my first dream
My house is a box. Inside the box, I remember that we used to have a garden, the garden paved with stones, where I like to play with my sister, there were a lot of plants, trees, and also a dog. The garden opens up to the sky above, it is an invitation for the sun, the air and nature to penetrate the house. Next to the garden, there is an alley where neighbors come and go, in the alley, there is a sequence of a small stair, a ramp, and a small stair, we as kids used to play a game called “crocodile”, we jumped from one stair to another as if they were a sort of landscape of wonder. Going back inside, in the back of the house there is a small space under a tilted roof, I remember very well in an afternoon, the sky was grey, inside it was dark, there is a small opening from the ceiling where light comes in, and I lay down with my mother, I still remember so vividly the warmth, and the conversation I had with her. To the front of the house, there is also a stair which underneath is my father’s working desk. He used to sit there working, repairing things until very late. Somehow this corner always reminds me about an image of him working. Going upstairs, there is a space me and my sister used to call study corner, every evenings we sit down and do homework together, I often come to her to ask everything because she is a very good student, later she moved away to another city, this room became my own. In this room, there is a door opens to the balcony outside, in the door threshold I really like to sit down under the sun and look to the pine forest far away in front of my house.
Overview model of the House, view to the small space with tilted roof in the back, and the alley aside
The house can be seen as a recollection of memories I had at home. I believe it stands somewhere at a special location in between what is reality and what is dream: on one hand, it follows the form of my actual house, the tilted roof in the back, the new volume in front and the alley aside, but on the other hand, it does not look like any states of the house itself, it suggests something else further than reality.
When I think about my childhood home, an image of our garden starts to appear, the same applied to my sister in an interview with her, for her, the garden connects to our Dad, back then he used to be a forest keeper, he often went to the forest and sometimes brought home an orchid to put in this garden. In Home, I believe that the garden has always been there, in our minds, in our hearts, standing somewhere special, however, in the House, we know that there is no longer the garden, it has died since I was 5 when my parents decided to build a concrete house on top, we can never think of having the garden again. This contradiction of Home and House makes this house- the collection of memories becomes fundamentally important, because it suggests that the garden comes back in a new form of a courtyard. In other words, through this house of memory, the garden which I can only find in Home, now can be found again in the House in a new form of a courtyard.
Overview
model of the House, view to the alley on the right, and the door view to the pine forest on the left
I believe this is a moment of realization, I knew that I want to continue my search further with this house- the subject about time in Home, to look at Home with the aspect of time, the length of time, or what I call “the Biography of Time”. Speaking about Home, if we only look at one specific time or the mere reality that is given in front of our eyes, we might have been blinded by all the spaces that have been lost and gone in times. In other words, in Home, time guides us to travel to a special location in between dreams and reality, where memories about the spaces that have been lost and gone- even though how important they remain to us- can be seen and recollected again.
“ [...] the way we recall our lives in the house that is lost and gone, dissolved in the waters of the past, is no ordinary way.” 2
- Gaston Bachelard
1. Frontal view to the courtyard- the new form of my garden
2. Frontal view to the back space with tilted roof
1. A picture of me and my sister in the garden
2. A picture of the stairs in the alley, this image surprised me of how humble the reality is, compared to what I have in my memory of this space.
3. Back then when there were still some open spaces.
4. The dense neighborhood of today, view to the alley and my house, with the “concrete box” in front and the tilted roof in the back.
The house in my second dream
(1) At first I sit in a self-made wooden house on the street
(2) I met Mr. Cliff, who was so kind to invite me to his home later.
(3) My trip to Vietnam, with a self-made interview pavilion to carry around.
(4) With the help and understanding of a lot of people, I was able to conduct several interviews.
With this idea of time in Home, my intuition told me to go out to see what is out there, to find if this fundamental theme of time also resonates to other people’s ideas of Home.
At the same time, practicing as an architect suggests me to look at the task of architecture in Home. I believe: As an architect, I can give you a house, and you make it home. As an architect, I can also understand about Home, the core essence of living at home, because at the end of the day, we are all human beings, we are dwellers since the beginning of time, there should be an understanding of the way we dwell at home for me to “prepare this realm” better and give you a house, so you can make it home.
Understanding the difference between these two gives me a confidence about the relevance of the topic of Home in architecture. I am going out to search for the core essence of Home through time, through recollecting memories and spaces that might have lost and gone.
“one thing that the architect can do nothing about, and that is home [...] except that he must prepare this realm to make it suitable for “home” 3 - Louis Kahn
Fortunately, thanks for the kindness of people I met, I am able to conduct several interviews with people in different phases of life, different backgrounds, people in The Netherlands, in Vietnam, people I know, people I do not know and just simply knocked on their door for a talk.
In conversation with Mr. Cliff, one of the first interview that he welcomed me to his home, just behind my school. We talked about his childhood’s round living room, and the courtyard house he is living now with other residents and elderly people.
In conversation with Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Giao at the ground floor of her apartment building, she told me stories about the river running behind her childhood house that in the afternoon, boys and girls jump to play together.
In conversation with Ms. An inside her current apartment unit in a social housing. She talked passionately about her childhood house where she likes to play with other kids in front of the house.
In conversation with Ms. Ha inside her current apartment unit in a quite famous social housing within the Chinese community in Ho Chi Minh City. She likes to sit down in the gallery or visiting people around.
In conversation with Ms. Nguyen Thi My Chanh at the small (about 800mm wide) gallery way in front of her apartment, also a neighbor of Ms. An in another interview. For her, the neighborhood is important in Home, she often initiate such things like collecting laundry from other people when it rains.
In conversation with Ms. Y at the stair landing of her apartment building. I met her while visiting this building and saw her sitting there, she told me she likes to sit here so she meets and greets people walking by.
In conversation with Ms. Linh- my sister just in front of our house. She told me about the childhood memory of our garden back then.
In conversation with Mr.
me their
an indigenous
K Hai Krajanh-
man living at the foot of the Lang Biang mountain in my hometown. He described to
traditional Long House with a fireplace in the heart of the house.
In conversation with Ms. Matty, our librarian at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, it was a very nice evening to have a conversation with her through her moments in phases in her life. She told me about her vivid memory sitting with her Mom back then sewing in a small corner, and her current living room where we were sitting then.
In conversation with Mr. Dung, one of my neighbors, we sat in front of my house next to the alley, he paid very much attention to the old days when the alleys were still connecting houses together and how influential it was to the connection of the neighborhood.
In conversation with Ms. Tran Thi Xuan, she was one of the residents that still lives in the slum area next to the canal that is going to be wiped away by a new urban plan. She also told me about the water at the canal, and the neighborhood surrounding her house, the school, the hospital, market.
In conversation with Ms. Alexandra, one of our librarian at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, she told me about a space of her own at the pantry of her childhood house, until we both realize that this idea follows her until the other houses she has lived later then.
In conversation with Ms. Tuyen, the owner of this wood workshop where I was making the canopy in Ho
She told me about a little corner in the back of the house where she and her husband spent almost every evening sitting, looking around and remembering about their hometown.
Chi Minh City.
In conversation with Ms. Le
she lives in a generational house near by the
in
We were just sitting in a dark corridor but serves as a communal space for all the members, all include a kitchen, dining, bathrooms, entrance to all the rooms of the house.
Thi Nam,
Xuyen Tam Canal
Ho Chi Minh City.
In conversation with Ms. Nguyen Thi
she lives with 7 people in a less than 40 m2 unit in a social- rehab building in Ho Chi
city. For her, the privacy and quality of the living unit remains the most important for her about home.
Hang,
Minh
I remember my father taught me how to swim in the river at the back of our house, there also, every afternoons, boys and girls jump to the water, it’s a cheerful, youthful memory.
The alleys connect all the houses together, that makes a lot different. Later then, some alleys disappeared, there are dead end, houses are disconnected, as same as the neighborhood.
I remember after school, I would run outside of my house playing with the other kids in the neighborhood until my mom calls us back home for dinner.
For me, Home is about the community, the courtyard where we gather and help each other, the communal living room we organize events together.
I really like that when I am sitting here, people pass by and we meet each other, talking, greeting each other. When I sit inside my house, nobody comes to talk to me.
In the evening I put a chair in the gallery and relax, I can also walk around and visit people. For me the most valuable thing is the happiness of this neighborhood, it influences your mood as well.
When it rains I would go around this corridor and collect laundry from the neighbors, you have to initiate such things so everyone will do the same.
My father, back then when he was a forest keeper, after a few days going inside the forest, sometimes he brought home orchids and planted here in this garden.
We spent a lot of time together in this round living room, sometimes we play Shakespeare together, that was a splendid childhood.
Traditionally, we used to live in this Long House where rooms are extended for generations, but we all have one central room with a fire pit, every communal activity happens here.
And now, my living room with this specific setting is the Home for me, I have here my paintings and ceramics, classical music, and receiving guests such as my daughter, my neighbors.
I remember a study corner in the house where me and my sister have our table, we studied a lot at night, and I would always come to her table to ask stuffs about homework.
For me the most cozy moment about Home was sitting in this corner of the room sewing with my Mom, I can ask her everything.
The balcony, also as the pantry of the house is where I felt my freedom as a young girl being able to do a lot with my hobbies.
Now I realized that this idea of a space for my own follows me to another house as well.
Every evening, I would sit here with my husband, in the back yard of the house looking at the sunset and remember about our good time back then in the hometown.
I believe when we think about our memory that is when we start a conversation, with ourselves or the abstraction of the selves. In Home, these memories guide us travel to a special location where poetry and dreams collide. Through these interviews with people I met, I feel privileged and honored to witness and share these special moments with them.
“[...] by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams, we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost. [...]” 4 - Gaston Bachelard
WILD NATURE
ALLEY
FRONT DOOR
STAIR LANDING
COURTYARD
GALLERY
GALLERY
GARDEN
LIVING ROOM
FIRE PIT
LIVING ROOM
CORNER
STUDY CORNER
PANTRY
BACK CORNER
The result comes out from this search are something we can all expect: there are diverse ideas about Home. However, looking at the overall picture, I can see that there is a theme running through Home, it goes from something bigger and outside the border of the house, such as wild nature (the river behind the house), the alley connects houses, towards the inside of the building but still remains exterior, such as the front door, the courtyard, the stair landing, the gallery, to come closer and inside the house like the garden, the living room, the fireplace, and then to such an element or a small living corner as the pantry, the study table, the chairs. The notion of Home goes from big to small, from outside to inside, open to enclosed.
When I reflect this theme to the house in my first dream, I realize that in my house, there is also an alley- the outside space, the courtyard- the inside space but still considerably connects to the world collectively, and the space in the back of my house which is small and personal. This connection forms a starting point for the house in my second dream- I dream of the house that I am able to live in, and invite people to come join dwelling in these three spaces.
My house
1st floor
Scale: 1.50
My house Section Scale: 1.50
The house, which comes from the first dream with the recollection of my memories, now in the second dream, becomes more substantial, there are presence of walls with materials, columns, beams and doors suggest that I am able to live in.
Constructively speaking, this house still maintains the “concrete box” in front, but with a secondary wooden frame structure support to open the courtyard inside that guides the house to orient inwards with an open roof above. Inside the courtyard, there are walls with earth plastered follows a traditional method of the indigenous people in my region.
1-2.The earth house from the indigenous K’ho people in the area of my hometown inspired me to use earth as the fill-in for walls, structured with bamboo net and wooden frame.
3. The existing wooden structure from the tilted roof in the back of my house.
4. An overview to the “concrete box” in front, and in the back is the tilted roof of my house.
5-6. A mock-up model of wooden structure with bamboo net inside and plastered by a mixture of earth.
7. Diagram shows the earth mixture- bio based and local material, plastered on a bamboo net inside a wooden frame, and then connects to the wooden structure beam and columns of the house.
Wooden structure
Wooden frame
Bamboo net
Earth mixture
Situation model shows the house sits in a small hill, with the ever-changing surroundings, in the front is the pine forest hill seen from my balcony.
Talking about the location of the house, it sits in the context of a high-dense neighborhood that constantly changes in time. I remember there were times we had some open spaces and greeneries, and there were times when my toilet was just two meters apart from my neighbor’s kitchen. When we want to connect, we do not have space to connect, when we don’t want to connect, we are forced by the lack of given space.
That is a reason why to a certain point, I believe that the context of this house becomes secondary, instead of constantly looking outside to the ever changing surroundings, the house must turn inwards and finds the perspective from within, this is the reason why I believe the opening of the courtyard, and further more, the realization of the importance of this space in my house becomes very important when critically examining dwelling experience in the House.
In architectural study field, the too-much preoccupied idea of contextual approach was also mentioned by The Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati in a lecture delivered in 2010: “I am convinced that it is possible to make architecture that is not primarily contextual... I think that architecture can be developed out of an idea, out of a concept, and that this idea or concept basically has nothing to do with the context. As historical examples, I take temples or churches. As a further example, I take the barns in Switzerland, which are wonderful buildings and almost all, without exception, are not contextual.”5
Overview model of the House in my second dream
As mentioned before, there are three important spaces in the House where my memories are collected, in which there is a connection to the theme of Home in my research from other people. I call them: The Alley, The Courtyard, The Chapel.
- The Alley with stairs that we as kids used to play a lot around, there are people come and go in the alley, some we might know, some not, and they all do not mean to stay, it is a very vibrant, dynamic and welcoming space outside of my house.
- The Courtyard is different, it is the central heart of the house, with the opening from the roof that serve as a place for meeting and inviting for all the activities within the house, its difference from the Alley is that here I meet people from my family, the garden I played with my sister, my father’s working table, the study corner I had with my sister, they are all my inner circle.
- The Chapel, which name does not come from any religious background, remains a small, private and hidden space, related to the sacredness, intimacy, and silence I had with my Mom in my memory of this house.
1. The Alley with stairs
2. The Courtyard in the heart of the house, connects both floors
3-4. The Chapel in the back with a small space inside.
Exploded diagram model I imagine the first floor of my house has 5 times bigger scale.
I am going to invite people, or I shall say, people’s ideas of Home that I have collected in my interviews to join dwelling inside, by imagining the first floor of my house has 5 times bigger scale.
In other words, the building that you are looking at is still my house, however, there is a secret world on the first floor which I imagine has 5 times bigger scale for a greater number of people to dwell in. In the coming pages, I would like to invite you to come inside visit my house, I will explain more carefully the dwelling experience, as well as let the dwellers speak about their lives here.
0 1000 2000
Section my house
Scale: 1.50
Section my house with x5 scale on the first floor
Ground floor scale: 1.50
First floor scale: 1.250
My house Ground floor Scale: 1.50
People’s house
1st floor
People’s
1. Ms.Y was sitting at the stair landing when I came across her and asked her for an interview.
2. Suddenly there was another lady passed by, she was curious about us, and we just invited her to join.
4. Perspective view to the gallery- the open space and greeneries with courtyards from the 1st floor.
3. Model view on the stair at the alley.
In the open spaces:
My name is Y, I live in this apartment building with my children, but during the day they are all gone for work, I consider this stair landing, the alley, or the gallery in the building is my home during the day, because I can meet people and talk, kids are playing around, there are very open spaces, lots of greens and welcoming atmosphere for everyone, when I sit inside my unit, nobody comes to talk to me.
When we were sitting there for the interview, suddenly there was a lady came by and she was curious about us, we then just invited her to join our conversation. This is exactly what the Alley is all about: the spontaneous space, the space of meeting and integrating to the outside world.
1. Wild nature, front door, alley and stair landing, they are the expression of one core idea in Home.
A core idea in Home, in this project I call it “The Alley”
WILD NATURE
ALLEY
FRONT DOOR
STAIR LANDING
Reflect Ms.Y ‘s idea of Home to other people in the research before: there is also a wild nature - the river in the back of the house where boys and girls jump to and play the whole afternoon, or the alley connects the neighborhood, the alley and the front door where kids spend a lot of time to play.
It can be undeniable to say that in Home, there is a space outside the border of the house that remains very important to the dwellers, this is the first core idea of Home I have found, and in this project, I call its name after the space in my house: The Alley.
In Home, The Alley stands for a meeting place, an inviting place welcomes everyone, people you know, people you might not know, you do not select who you meet, but people just come and go and do not mean to stay, it’s like a two-side open bottle that water can just run through. The space is as spontaneous and random as the way how you might encounter people, this is not a cultivated space that the sun and nature might just enter on its own, in other words, the Alley can be seen as the wilderness and the most open space at Home.
1. An image of me and my sister in the garden- which now becomes the courtyard.
2-3. Model view inside the courtyard
4. Ground floor plan, shows the courtyard in the heart of the house.
Ground floor- my house:
Come inside the house, you encounter a courtyard which is a new form of my garden. The courtyard is like a small open space in the heart of the house where the family meets, we grow a tree and some plants, have a dog, me and my sister play with each other under the open roof where sunlight comes in. There are four earth walls that separates this inner- open space to the flexible functions surround it such as study corner, bed, bathroom, kitchen and so on.
1. Mr. Cliff walks inside the courtyard in his communal house.
2. Model shows the difference in scale between my house ground floor and people’s house upper floor
3. Model view to the 1st floor courtyard of people’s house
4. Perspective drawings view to the 1st floor courtyard of people’s house
1st floor- people’s house:
Going upper floor to the people’s house, there are several communal units (40-60 m2) as elderly house, or student house which share some smaller courtyards in between. This is Mr. Cliff, I followed him walking through the courtyard where all the residents meet and help each other, do gardening, children play, it is a very open and green space, welcomes everyone from this floor or other floors to join.
1-2. The indigenous man Mr. K’ Hai, traditionally in the heart of his house there is a fireplace.
3. Ms. Linh- my sister, on this floor her home also has a garden in the heart of the living unit.
4. Perspective drawings show the living in this individual unit floor.
5. The gap between the floors allow interaction of the residents between two floors.
2nd floor- people’s house:
This floor has different individual units (40- 60 m2) with their own courtyard in the heart of the unit, suitable for small families or couples.
There is a house of Mr. K’ Hai- an indigenous man whose traditional house has a fireplace in their house as a meeting place of the family, he is now also living in a unit with a courtyard open to the roof above, thanks to the structure of the building.
A neighbor of K’ Hai is Ms. Linh- my sister, she is now living with her husband and a small kid, they also have a small garden inside their house, as same as the garden in her memories about Home where family gathers, there are orchid plants and the sun is shining inside. Her kid can play in front of the house, in the gallery, or they can even go further to the 1st floor with the elderly people in the open courtyards. There is a small gap between these two floors (figure 5), it makes a big difference to allow a certain connection and interaction among them, she can look after the kid, and call them to go home for dinner, for instance. When the kid grows older, she can extend her house by simply connect her unit to the 3rd floor with a room (13 m2) just above. (figure p.124)
1.
4. Perspective drawing shows the communal courtyard with kitchen, dining, sofa, bathroom.
5. Perspective drawing shows a view inside the private courtyard inside each units.
An image of me and Ms.Nguyen Thi My Chanh sitting at the small gallery in front of her unit.
2-3. Ms. Matty and Ms. Alexandra is showing me their hobbies in their individual unit.
3rd floor- people’s house:
This floor has several individual units (13 m2) with their own small courtyard inside, suitable for students, or single persons.
When you first enter the floor, you will encounter an open gallery serves as a communal courtyard, with lots of activities and people hanging out, a kitchen, dining, sofa, bathroom facilitates the residents collectively. Residents such as Ms. Nguyen Thi My Chanh, who values the relationship among neighbors, she likes to initiate such things like helping collect laundry from others when it rains, for her, this communal room is important to help her to connect with others.
Inside the units, there are residents such as Ms. Matty or Ms. Alexandra, who lives with their hobbies as ceramic, screen printing, or collect books and old stuffs, they have also their own private world with the opening to the sky above, beside being able to connect to other through the communal living room outside the unit.
1. Diagram shows the structure of the building which integrates open courtyards in each living units, as well as allows flexibility to extend units by adding a stair to connect the floors.
2. Axo diagram shows structure of the building and the interior livings.
1st floor
2nd floor
3rd floor
Detail floor plans of people’s house
1. Different spaces, names, functions, scales, are an expression of a core idea in Home.
A core idea in Home, in this project I call it “The Courtyard”
The courtyard, gallery, garden, fire pit, living room, they are at first different in scales, functions and names, however, when we look at the way how people are dwelling in these spaces, they speak about just one same thing: the connection and gathering among people in the inner circle. These spaces are different than The Alley, even though remaining as inviting spaces, there are only the people in the family, or the people in an inner circle with selection or invitation, even the way the sun and nature enter these spaces is also cultivated by the making of the roof or the defined specific functions.
In other words, in Home, there is a space that connects and gathers people in the inner circle to join together, looking towards the inward, and in this project, I call its name after the space in my house: The Courtyard.
In Home, The Courtyard stands for a meeting place, an invitation of the inner circle, the family or the people you choose to invite, and unlike The Alley, people here are meant to stay. This is a cultivated space, you are able to choose how the sun enters, the plants, trees and animals dwell in. The name “courtyard” already depicts an enclosed space with four walls, the focus is not towards the outside but to the heart of the space. In other words, The Courtyard guides us to look inward finding the perspective and the connection in the relationship with each other.
1-2. Images of my Mother and our livings at home, ordinary but special and personal to me.
3. Model image of inside the small space, called Chapel, depicts exactly my memory of the afternoon I had with my Mom.
4. Ground floor plan, in the back of the house there is a small space I call The Chapel.
Come back to the ground floor of my house, there is a small space in the back, where in my memory, I remember an afternoon I lied down with my Mom, it was quite dark and there was a small light coming from the ceiling, I remember vividly this special moment, the conversation we had.
When I think of my Mother and this space in the house, I think of something so special and personal that it transcends the idea of privacy or intimacy, it is the sacredness and the spirituality of living at home. This finding for me is a sparkling light in the project, small but very treasured, like a candle light in the dark.
1-2.
and
with their own special space related to the intimated and inner most piece of Home.
3. Model view on the Chapel space in the back of people’s house, accessed from the 1st floor.
4. Perspective drawings show the Chapel is a flexible space, it can be open, closed, dark or light.
5. Drawings of the Chapel on the first floor- the collective Chapel of the whole house.
Ms. Tuyen
Ms. Matty
I believe this special space can also relate to others, such as Matty in a corner sewing with her Mom, as much as almost 50 years ago, she still remember so vividly how the space was and how much felt at Home there; or Ms. Tuyen with the corner in the back of the house where she and her husband, almost everyday sit down to look at the sunset, think about the day passed and remember about their hometown.
In every living units of people’s house, either a collective or individual space, there is this special space arranged inside. It can be open, closed, can be very dark or light, depends on how people might want it to become.
1. Different spaces, names, functions, scales, are an expression of a core idea in Home.
A core idea in Home, in this project I call it
The study corner, the pantry with hobbies, a corner with table or chairs, a bed with a small light coming from the ceiling, such spaces don’t just exist on paper, or any kind of required floor plan when building a house, but it does exist in people’s ideas of Home, even one of the strongest and most profound, sometimes vulnerable, but above all, a very personal space in Home.
These spaces are different than The Alley or The Courtyard, because they focus only on the space of one’s own, there are no invitation or suggestion to connect to the external world, it remains the inner most- intimated space. In this project, I call its name after the space in my house: The Chapel.
In Home, The Chapel stands for a very personal space, this is not an inviting place, nor a place of meeting, but a place of one’s own. It can be big, small, dark, light, sometimes can be even awkward, like a little corner of the bed, can be so ordinary yet beautiful as a chair with the view to a window, a cold morning and the smoke coming out of a warm tea from a breakfast table. The Chapel, whose name does not come from any religious background, can be related to the spirituality and sacredness, holiness of living at home, in which one looks to the inward and could possibly find the perspective from within.
1. A view of the house from the back, with the Chapel.
2. A closer view to the Chapel on the ground floor and the collective Chapel on the first floor.
1. An overall view to the house that sits in a dense and ever-changing neighborhood.
2. Model view to the secret world in the first floor which I imagine to have 5 times bigger scale.
Three spaces, the core essence of living at Home that I have found through my own memories of home and in reflection to other people.
The house in my third dream
1. The long, dark and empty, lifeless corridor connect all the front doors of our individual studios
2. My window exposes my whole living studio to the hotel in front
3. When I turn my chair in a specific angle, I can see a very nice view with river and open space
4. Sketch floorplan of the Alley with stairs, the Courtyard, and the Chapel inside my studio (7m x 3m)
I live in a student studio in Amsterdam, about 21 m2 ( 7m x 3m). There are about more than 300 units, which are very individually oriented with a dark and empty corridor connects all the closing doors (figure 1), inside each unit, there are all necessary facilities such as bathroom, kitchen and bed. In my studio, I have a big window with lots of light, but it opens and exposes the whole unit to the hotel in front (figure 2), there is an angle of the window I can look out to a very nice view with a canal in front (figure 3).
As I said in the very beginning, I want to live physically in my dreams, to be able to critically examine them, experience them with my own body. How is it to live in the house that I have dreamed twice? In the third dream, I decided to build the housethe core essence of living that I have found in the house that I dreamed about: The Alley, The Courtyard, The Chapel.
These three spaces are built inside my student studio (figure 4), it becomes such an experience in which the house, comes from the dreams, penetrates the reality. I have written down a dairy for my experience living inside on one specific day.
Today is another day, but also a special day. Today I do not think about the time on the wall, but spend the day as it goes. I ‘d like to have breakfast at the table in the corner that looks to the courtyard, in the morning I don’t want to go out yet so I keep myself quiet and focus from the inside. Next to the courtyard, there is a small hidden space I ‘d like to call chapel- a small room with a window looking to the outside, I sat there on my chair and see the changes from the outside world. Then I did some reading and working, I listened to some soft music, today it is cold and windy outside, I thought how good it is to be here. Later in the day, after spending times on my own, I started to have a feeling that I need to open my day to the outside world, I came to the alley, opened the door and sat at the stair- the stair of my childhood where I used to play a lot with other kids in the neighborhood. Here I met quite some people passing by, some focused on their own, some were curious but didn’t dare to break the bubble, and some were willing to stop by and even sat down a bit for a small talk. I also invite a person I know to come and have a talk with me after dinner, it was very nice to have a conversation with the people who you know, we drank tea and talked in the courtyard. The day feels more fulfilled to be able to connect with others, that’s what I thought. I know that if there is a given situation, there will be opportunities for people to open their threshold to others. The day went fast, I have found my focus, a time on my own, a time to connect to others, to reflect and sometimes to think of the nothingness. At the day’s completion, I paid another visit to the chapel to sit down and prepare myself to complete the day.
- Can you tell me a little bit about this built?
I decided to make this built because I want to be embodied in the space, the world that I have imagined. I believe that the work of architecture can be a drawing, can be a model, can be text, but when the work of architecture is a physical space, I believe that is when my physical body can start to memorize. The first moment I come inside the courtyard, the chapel, that is when I start to memorize my feelings, and I believe my body also memorize it by physically touching and living inside.
- Is there anything changed after you physically living in this house? And do you relate this house to the houses in the other dreams as well?
It is a little bit diverse in spaces. The one that extremely changed my day is the Alley. I was very scared to open my door to go out and sit in the alley. As I said, I believe that when there are opportunities, there will be people who are willing to open their threshold to others. The building has trained us towards a very individualistic way, therefore suddenly this act of sitting in the Alley becomes so abnormal, but if you can think of what is normal, or what should be a new normal, it raised a question to me. In this phase of my life, do I really want to connect? Or a bit later, then I really face the need to connect to others. But I think it does not really matter, what matters is that the building gives opportunity for people to be able to choose to connect, or it does creates chances that people randomly meet and connect to each other. Behind these doors in the 50 meters long corridor, who knows how many people are currently feeling lonely now?
The Courtyard and the Chapel, on the other hand, are more familiar to my experience, I have had the feelings or the routines when I stay in these spaces, but the difference is that they gave me more focus. You might know that I really got distracted by the opening and exposure of my whole living space to the hotel in front. Living inside the Courtyard and the Chapel, I am turning myself towards the inside and find my perspective from within, instead of constantly looking out for a way to close off, or a corner to hide from the distractions, The reason why I think looking inward is necessary because I believe sitting inside these inner spaces and reaching to connect to others from the outside just do not make sense, but only creates distraction, therefore the Courtyard and the Chapel are different than the Alley for sure.
- So the moment you walked in and sat in the Chapel, how did you feel? Was it the same as the way how you remembered about it in your childhood memory with your Mom?
I would like to answer in a way that, lately, I have radically a strange thought, I start to think that my Mom is a figure that I built up inside my head. I believe that the outside world actually exists in the way of the interpretation inside our heads. My Mom gave me this physicality, she also built up the ideas of Home inside me, and all have been stored in my memories, now I hardly see her, but all the ideas I have about my Mom, the memories about Home, I take them out of my memories and give them an interpretation, I carry it with me further.
My Mom is also a human being, she has to also follow this process of born, live and die, but I start to have a feeling that I have to continue to memorize about her, and continue to find a form, a way to interpretate, to find a way to live together again. That’s how I find the connection to the Chapel.
1-2. I believe when there are opportunities, there are people who willing to open their threshold to others. The experiment sitting at The Alley of my house, with the door open to the corridor.
1. The Courtyard becomes the focus heart of the house, where I like to sit down, working, reading books.
2. In the afternoon, I invited a friend to come over for a talk in The Courtyard.
1. The big scale model I built in my house, being on display during my examination.
2. I had a conversation with myself during my examination.
Home, the biography of time
Once a little girl asked Thich Nhat Hanh:
“I have a doggy and this doggy died and I was very sad, so I don’t know how to be not so sad?”
He then answered:
“Suppose you look up into the sky and you see a beautiful cloud, and you like the cloud so much. And suddenly the cloud is no longer there, and you think that the cloud has passed away. Where is my beloved cloud now?
So if you have time to reflect, to look, you see that the cloud has not died, has not passed away, the cloud has become the rain, and when you look at the rain, you see your cloud, and when you drink your tea mindfully, you can see the rain in your tea, and your cloud in your tea, and you can say “hello, my cloud I know you have not died, you are still alive in a new form”. So doggy is the same, and if you look very deeply, you can see doggy in its new form.”6
More than a year ago, I started the project by staying at the Monastery designed by Dom Hans van der Laan in Vaals, and since then, I do not find it necessary to see the difference between this building and my house. I see shadow, light, I see my solitude as well as my relation to the outside world, I see the figure of The Mother, I see a monk, after the day’s completion, comes to The Mother to say a prayer before going to bed. The differences in scales, names, functions of space therefore remain the absolute shell of its own, we do not build our homes from the ornaments and nonsense, we build our homes from the core essence of dwelling, in which by operating on my own memories of home and in reflection to others, I have found a core concept of dwelling at home: The Alley, The Courtyard and The Chapelthe ideas in which I believe of how and where to look at Home, the look to the outside world, the inner world or the world of the most inner self.
The architect Aldo van Eyck once said: “Architecture need do no more, nor should it ever do less, than assist man’s homecoming.”7 I think I cannot agree more than that, as human beings, we constantly search for the representatives of things that come and go in life, people, emotions, times, figures, objects; and as architects, to assist man’s homecoming I believe is to constantly search for new forms, which are the representatives of the ideas that come and go in life, of something that implicit in the body of our lives, people, emotions, times, figures, objects.
When I dream about Home, I dream about the biography of time, the recollection of my memories in phases of life, the people I met, the emotions I perceived, the time, the figures and objects I encountered, in which new interpretations, new forms are awaiting to begin again.
