Muscles not used will atrophy. The same applies to the Beauty Mind.
Take a hike! Look around. Take note of what draws your eye.
The first step to reviving the muscles of the Beauty Mind is to pay attention to the spaces and details that delight you. What feels good? Which ones make you smile? Compare one with another. Which seems to be more alive? Which is brighter? Which is flat? Which is duller?
As with music appreciation, start with paying attention to what feels good.
12.09.2007
Awakening the Beauty Mind
You wouldn’t think that a 1/2-inch would make much of a difference. But when I saw the front door of a new house we were constructing, something was off. The trim of the divided lites of the door seemed awkwardly out of scale. With a ba-jillion details to specify, I overlooked that I wanted ogee-shaped mullions 1-1/4 wide. We got the 1-3/4 inch version.
This kind of pickiness gives fuel for construction-site jokes about architects. But I wager that most people, when given the choice between the two versions, will agree that the thinner one is more graceful and has more life than the other. Even the guys on the job site will agree.
Does it make a big difference? By itself, not a lot. All together? Absolutely.
The ability to perceive these differences is very similar to having a musical ear. No matter how gifted a pianist may be, if the piano is out of tune, it will never sound right. Ask me to sing karaoke and I become a wallflower. I have such a hard time singing on pitch that I make people cringe. Or have a good laugh.
Yet Norah Jones floats to the top. Her voice is so alive and vibrant; you just want to move with the music.
That’s a pretty obvious difference. The point is that you don’t need to be a master musician to hear the difference. You just hear it.
In the same way, when a space or detail is “in tune”, you know it. You can hear its richness and vibrancy with your spatial ear. I don’t mean literally hearing with your ear. Rather, I mean sensing with another kind of ear that perceives beauty. I call this sense the Beauty Mind. Everyone has it. Not everyone uses it.
This kind of pickiness gives fuel for construction-site jokes about architects. But I wager that most people, when given the choice between the two versions, will agree that the thinner one is more graceful and has more life than the other. Even the guys on the job site will agree.
Does it make a big difference? By itself, not a lot. All together? Absolutely.
The ability to perceive these differences is very similar to having a musical ear. No matter how gifted a pianist may be, if the piano is out of tune, it will never sound right. Ask me to sing karaoke and I become a wallflower. I have such a hard time singing on pitch that I make people cringe. Or have a good laugh.
Yet Norah Jones floats to the top. Her voice is so alive and vibrant; you just want to move with the music.
That’s a pretty obvious difference. The point is that you don’t need to be a master musician to hear the difference. You just hear it.
In the same way, when a space or detail is “in tune”, you know it. You can hear its richness and vibrancy with your spatial ear. I don’t mean literally hearing with your ear. Rather, I mean sensing with another kind of ear that perceives beauty. I call this sense the Beauty Mind. Everyone has it. Not everyone uses it.
Multiple Intelligences and the Beauty Mind
Frank Lloyd Wright had the ability to see his buildings whole before putting a pencil to paper. Blues guitarist Cory Harris is constantly tapping out a rhythm or singing lines to a song. And NPR’s Will Shortz attracts puzzle masters who make short work out of word games. Each of these people excels in a different mode of thinking.
Harvard psychologist, Howard Gardner, has developed a theory of multiple modes of intelligence to help understand and appreciate the different ways that people think. One of his key ideas is that all of the intelligences are innate in each person, and all are trainable to some degree. There is hope!
I suggest that the ability to perceive beauty is active across several modes of intelligence, and is itself a kind of intelligence. I call this the Beauty Mind.
When an artist contemplates adding a line or wash of color, she is engaging her Beauty Mind. A dancer moves in ways that feel good and look pleasing. A writer considers the structure of a sentence and the impact of a word. A finish carpenter decides to match the grain of wood on the trim on both sides of the doorway. In all of these ways the Beauty Mind is engaged. The Beauty Mind asks, “what looks/sounds/feels better: this or that?”
Harvard psychologist, Howard Gardner, has developed a theory of multiple modes of intelligence to help understand and appreciate the different ways that people think. One of his key ideas is that all of the intelligences are innate in each person, and all are trainable to some degree. There is hope!
I suggest that the ability to perceive beauty is active across several modes of intelligence, and is itself a kind of intelligence. I call this the Beauty Mind.
When an artist contemplates adding a line or wash of color, she is engaging her Beauty Mind. A dancer moves in ways that feel good and look pleasing. A writer considers the structure of a sentence and the impact of a word. A finish carpenter decides to match the grain of wood on the trim on both sides of the doorway. In all of these ways the Beauty Mind is engaged. The Beauty Mind asks, “what looks/sounds/feels better: this or that?”
Welcome to this Blog
I’m an architect from Whidbey Island, north of Seattle. I’ve been designing and building ‘sensibly-sized’ houses for nearly 30 years, and have been fascinated with what makes a house “come alive”. I’ve always had a natural design sense, but the last several years I’ve been asking myself, “why am I making this or that choice? What is the process by which beautiful places come to be?” This blog is about sharing my findings.
I’ve also been confronted all of my adult life with the vast mediocrity and ugliness of the American built environment. It’s appalling what we put up with, and what have done to the planet with our consumer-driven lifestyles. Now that we’re beginning to experience global warming and entering into the post-peak oil economy, we’re seriously questioning how we live.
About a dozen years ago I teamed up with a developer to demonstrate viable alternatives to the typical suburban sprawl. We created what I call “pocket neighborhoods” -- houses gathered around a common garden, with cars to the side. Our initial neighborhoods quickly attracted the attention of mainstream media, as well as city planners, developers and consumers across the country. The architectural and planning professions have given our neighborhoods numerous awards, calling on their peers to “give them serious study”. (The website of my office highlights this work: www.rosschapin.com).
So in this blog I will also share some of the philosophy and design principles that shape these neighborhoods and contribute to livable communities.
I look forward to seeing where these musings go and listening the conversation that comes from it!
I’ve also been confronted all of my adult life with the vast mediocrity and ugliness of the American built environment. It’s appalling what we put up with, and what have done to the planet with our consumer-driven lifestyles. Now that we’re beginning to experience global warming and entering into the post-peak oil economy, we’re seriously questioning how we live.
About a dozen years ago I teamed up with a developer to demonstrate viable alternatives to the typical suburban sprawl. We created what I call “pocket neighborhoods” -- houses gathered around a common garden, with cars to the side. Our initial neighborhoods quickly attracted the attention of mainstream media, as well as city planners, developers and consumers across the country. The architectural and planning professions have given our neighborhoods numerous awards, calling on their peers to “give them serious study”. (The website of my office highlights this work: www.rosschapin.com).
So in this blog I will also share some of the philosophy and design principles that shape these neighborhoods and contribute to livable communities.
I look forward to seeing where these musings go and listening the conversation that comes from it!
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