A universal sequence for a room

Every act in a living process, creates a center. Although no two centers are the same, nevertheless there is a deep structure which all centers share. Perhaps too crudely put, each center is a nested system of layers.

Here is a completely general generating process for making a room

  • Set the focal point of what is to become the living center.
  • Make a boundary which is the outer boundary of the place, which is to focus on this focal point
  • Thicken this boundary, and make it up from smaller coherent ornamented centers, thickened, and significant in their own right
  • Inside the boundary, shape the main center, a large zone and space which is supremely positive in shape and character
  • There is a gate or entrance to this place.
  • Create a gradient which leads from the entrance point towards the focal point.
  • Shape the focal point as positive space
  • Around the focal point put detailed centers of romantic and touching quality
  • Against the romantic touching quality, put a stark simplicity and plainness that sets it off.
 Use this sequence to make any room

You can use it, too, to elaborate any one of the subsidiary centers which you have just made within the first center.

NOTES
The structure of every living center

  1. The outer shell is a boundary where the center meets the world beyond.
  2. Inside the outer boundary, is a wider, deeper boundary zone. This protects the main center.
  3. The main center is entered by a passage which connects the outer to the inner. This is a gate. There may be more than one gate.
  4. As one passes through the main center, there is a gradient toward a smaller, finer center. This gradient focuses attention, life, towards some still smaller center, which gives focus to the whole.
  5. The smallest, focused center, is more elaborate, stands alone, offers opportunity for contemplation and quiet. But it is not the smallest, or the most focused place.
  6. Standing apart, in contrast to the smallest center, there is an even smaller center. This gives the whole its zest.
Applies to all rooms, large and small

  • This description applies to a kitchen.
  • It applies to an armchair or a table.
  • It applies to a neighborhood.
  • It applies to the downtown of city.
  • It applies to a lake, and its ecology.
  • It applies to a single room.
  • It applies to a monastery.
  • It applies to a house.
  • It applies to a garden.
  • It applies to a jug that has been filled with flowers.