WATER AND THE POETIC

poetics of building

Advanced Design Spring 2016 | Coleman Coker

The Three Fours

It is human nature to strive to comprehend being. The sciences, philosophy and religion are all fields in which humans interpret the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.  The concept of distilling the world into four elements, earth, water, air and fire, is an ancient notion; it is an attempt to organize, define, and understand what comprises the world in which we live. Just as humans have always pursued discovering the secrets of life, we have also always built shelter using the four elements. As technology has progressed, it can be argued that we have deviated from our original intent as builders.  Architects are too often preoccupied with form making while neglecting to address a building’s materiality, contextuality, temporality and geoality as inherent qualities of a built construction on Earth. These four qualities are vehicles through which we can begin to reconnect back to the four elements, despite technological advances that so often prevent us from creating poetic works. 

Heidegger argues that building is the main vehicle for creating a relationship between man and space. Humans, by nature, dwell in space and a building can then host the act of dwelling. The fourfold - earth, sky, divinities and mortals - is the central aspect of dwelling. The fourfold cannot be divided into each individual entity as the elements and materiality, contextuality, temporality and geoality can; they exist as one.  So, if the fourfold is the basis for all dwelling and if buildings and space are places to dwell, then the fourfold must be hosted by built environments.  Building is a form of dwelling and dwelling is a form of thinking.  To build is to be on earth, to build a life, or to dwell. 

By this logic, if humans live or dwell poetically, then they may also build poetically.  In sparing and preserving the elements, by building with regards to materiality, contextuality, temporality and geoality, humans can dwell poetically. We have evolved as a species to wield the elements to perpetuate progress; humans have historically desired to conquer the elements as demonstrated by Modern architecture. This is as a result of humans’ tendency to think calculatively instead of meditatively. Our obsession with progress and dominion over land has regressed our abilities to spare and preserve the elements through building and therefore it has regressed our abilities to dwell poetically on the Earth. 

In dwelling, we humans acknowledge our limited existence or sense of temporality. Death is an aspect of being which speaks to our relationship with the elements. As Matthew Arnold states in Empedocles on Etna, “To the elements it came from, everything will return…” everything on earth that is a thing is derived from smaller parts and elements. This notion of our elemental roots is based in spirituality as well; our awareness of our temporality is what makes us human and because of this, we desire to comprehend forces that are greater than us. The fourfold exists as a summation of these relationships. Humans, as mortals, reconcile their relationship with the mysteries, or divinities, aspects of our being which do not have temporal qualities. Temporality is a quality that architects can harness and use as a way to cultivate and embrace the elements.  Poetic buildings accept the process of aging and therefore allow the elements to change a constructed work. It is a passive act but also an ethical act to yield to the natural processes of the earth and to accept these realities of existence.  Aging is just another aspect of being; as things age, they change being.

Human beings are an essential component to the creation of an architectural space. Humans experience buildings, and buildings experience its inhabitants.  Mortals dwell in built environments as members of the fourfold. Modern architects ironically tend to eliminate humans from the equation of space and dwelling through pure form making, despite the fact that all works of architecture are so obviously manmade. Humans’ experience and process information about their context through their senses, and humans’ experience of a work of architecture includes their memories. Juhani Pallasmaa suggests that we cannot think through architecture, we can only feel it with our presence. We inadvertently are constantly separating our bodies from our mind in relation to space. This relationship that humans have with any architectural work is what gives a building the potential to possess the poetic. In his book, “Atmospheres”, Peter Zumthor refers to this intangible, indescribable quality of certain spaces as “singular density and mood, [a] felling of presence”.   Without humans, buildings could not create atmospheres, instigate poïesis, or unite the fourfold because humans’ presence is so directly linked to being on Earth. 

Architecture is a social art but it is also an ontological pursuit. Architecture can be an instrument for creating presence. To be present is to emerge. To be is to have a presence. Architecture is a thing because it can gather the fourfold; it can also be an object because architecture can act as a symbol and have meaning inserted into it due to its objectivity. A bridge is a thing because it can gather the fourfold but it is also an object because we as humans insert our own personal meaning into a bridge based on our past experiences and memories.  Space can communicate in a way that language fails us. Language is limiting and not universal, but spatial qualities share the same meaning across cultures. For example, tall spaces of grandeur instill a sense of awe and wonder in everyone.  

The elements – earth, air, fire and water – are the basis of what composes our world in which we understand it. The presence of technology has driven humans to conquer these elements, when, in reality, we are meant to preserve the elements in order to dwell poetically. Using these elements and letting them perform the way they naturally do when building is a passive yet appropriate way to respond to the resources we have on Earth. By acknowledging a building’s materiality, contextuality, temporality and geoality, we are yielding to the powers of the elements and allowing for poïesis. 

Ultimately, the objective as architects should be to build a space that invites and unites the fourfold: earth, sky, divinities and mortals. This can only be done by revealing the elements and designing a building which expresses its materiality, contextuality, temporality and geoality, or its earthly qualities.  It is through this implementation of the three fours that can yield poïesis in a built work. 

Site Reflection Poem 1

A white sheet descends from the clouds 

Translucent and fine, its silk texture billows in the air

Ever so slightly

It falls at a constant rate, yet floats in one place

And stretches infinitely

It expands from the horizon and encompasses me within this domain

It will eventually land on this earth

And lay gently upon the grasses and water

I know this to be a fact 

It will touch the highest point first, resting upon it

Then slowly cover all else in its path

When it arrives at the water it will dip into and break the surface

Sinking to the very depths of the ocean’s abyss 

Everything on earth will know the sheet’s embrace 

It is separate from me, from my surroundings, from everything I know to be true

It transcends both time and space 

My presence and my attention is grounded to this place and this site

I cannot comprehend or understand anything beyond my immediate surroundings

My perception is limited 

I must remember that there exists place, time and memory beyond me

My consciousness is concerned with what is here and now

Yet this place pays no mind to my existence

Ebb and flow the water lives

A pattern emerges 

I see the water wash upon the shore 

It greets my feet 

In a quick embrace the water forms around my ankles

Then quickly retreats from where it came, grabbing everything smaller than me in its path

At a moment’s notice it could have taken me too

I am at the water’s mercy 

SITE REFLECTION POEM II

The wind embraces my face

It moves with fluidity as it reaches far past me

Stretching beyond my surroundings

It continues past whatever crosses its path

Never stalling, it pays no mind to its barriers

It weaves through everything that stands in its way

Traces of its presence remain within every being it touches 

I feel the salt begin form on my face

It reminds me that I am not from here, I do not belong 

The site is transforming me in this physical sense

The sand sticks between my toes

The hairs of my arms begin to stand when I am at the water’s edge

They greet the sun begging for warmth 

And remind me of the wind’s presence 

The movement of my surroundings creates a rhythm

It is a secret rhythm

I am a foreigner and I cannot hear unless I listen intently

The grasses never miss a beat 

I can almost detect a tune

These elements are so in sync as they play this song together

The grasses and water and everything it contains 

Are so well acquainted

I imagine the same song has been playing for centuries

This song has no beginning and it will never have an end 

The musicians play for no audience