Musings - For a ’Quiet’ Architecture

—Sacred Window to Meditate

This is something I think about — How to make a space that is 'quiet'.

A space that does not demand the senses.

It instead puts the senses at ease, puts the mind at ease.

A 'quiet space' is a 'felt' space, that allows for expansive growth of those that occupy it. Allows for creative thought / action to flow. It is a space that feels instinctively right, it settles the busy mind. This for me is a sacred space, the sacred of the everyday. For me 'quiet space' is achieved through many observations of site conditions, through the use of natural materials and through the way these materials are assembled together.

I like the idea of creating a special window in a space, to observe the world from. A window where you can watch the day, I like to sit in such a window in the morning. Look at the trees, the birds in the garden, a place for contemplation. This idea of creating a very considered window for this purpose, made of natural materials, and its size / shape tailored to the space, the view, the movement of the sun.

Windows let the outside in and the inside out, it is a balance to get this right, each circumstance is different. Windows are the 'eyes' to the changes of the day, they allow the day or night to enter, allow the sun to track through a space into once shadowed corners of a room.