The Narrative

The Narrative

By: Van Dwinnells

         How things come together is at the heart of architecture; the interactions of specific elements and the creation of zones with all their varying amounts of light and volume.  These connections are what offer unique experiences.   Whether they are from one zone to the next direct or only visible, the intrigue, the understanding that there is something more drives us to search it out.  It seems that in order to create an interactive space there needs to be a complete understanding of this separation and it is the obligation of us architect to at least reference this through visual cues like permeation or transparencies, at least in some manner.  It is our duty to narrate spaces.  In memories, the permanence or sticky factor of a space and how we use it is determined by how we remember it and what occurred there.  These memories are created more easily and reflected upon through a narration.  It sometimes can be simpler to explain a series of circumstances, i.e. a story, to better emphasize a situation than only giving specific details.  In my mind this is very similar to a descriptive piece of literature.  A noun is better accented by the adjectives and sentence structure, giving new life and meaning to a generic depiction.  In a way, our architecture can represent the adverbial structure that dictate why and how we do things surrounding this noun.  Therefore, our construct is that of a descriptive yet kinetic nature based on the subject of the narrative.  I reference this idea, because I have been thinking about how we view our lives.  Maybe we see it as a timeline.  Some of us see our lives as a film.   Personally, I see my life as chapters that enable me to scan them in order to go back and replay these individual narratives as desired.  It is my belief that paying close attention to the narrative and working out a series of events within the context of our design problems we will inevitably create a more interactive and experiential environments; one's that will be more memorable.