Rooms Make an Entrance
Imagine the imagination and generosity it took to make such buildings. Imagine the imagination and generosity it took to respond to such spaces with such words:
[He], who was the most practical, democratic, and visionary architect of our time, was seldom given the opportunity to build in Europe. The few buildings he put up were all prototypes for series which were never constructed. He was the alternative to architecture as it exists. The alternative still remains, of course. But it seems less pressing. [Since he has died,] his insistence is dead.
It [the Unite d'Habitation at Marseilles] wears like a good example that hasn't been followed. But the kids still bathe in their pool on the roof, safely, grubbily ... .
The most important thing about the whole building is so simple that it can easily be taken for granted ... . If you wish, you can condescend towards this building for, despite its size and originality, it suggests nothing which is larger than you -- no glory, no prestige, no demagogy and no property-morality. It offers no excuses for living in such a way as to be less than yourself. And this, although it began as a question of spirit, was in practice only possible as a question of proportion.
[...]
I do not know how to describe, without recourse to drawing, the complex simplicity of the abbey [the Cistercian abbey at Le Thoronet]. It is like the human body. During the French Revolution it was sacked and was never re-furnished: yet its nakedness is no more than the logical conclusion to the Cistercian rule which condemned decoration. Children were playing in the cloister, as in the pool on the roof, and running the length of the nave. They were never dwarfed in the structure. The abbey buildings are functional because they were concerned with supplying the means rather than suggesting the end. The end is up to those who inhabit it. The means allow them to discover themselves and so to discover their purpose. This seems as true of the children today as the monks then. Such architecture offers only tranquility and human proportion. For myself I find in its discretion everything which I can recognize as spiritual. The power of functionalism does not lie in its utility, but in its moral example: an example of trust, the refusal to exhort.
-- John Berger on Le Corbusier in The Look of Things
Although written in a book, take this out of the context of books in general. Imagine this is being said, one man to another. Imagine people don't make buildings -- or write books -- for careers or fame or money or busy-ness, but imagine they make things because they believe they can contribute in a meaningful way. Imagine there are people who appreciate the details, the nuances, enough, to be be generous in their praise. Imagine folks brave enough to let their vision show, to offer it, and then being open enough to pay detailed attention and then appreciate the creations of others.
I think this is what I think the most fundamental lynchpin of any masculinity should be.
[He], who was the most practical, democratic, and visionary architect of our time, was seldom given the opportunity to build in Europe. The few buildings he put up were all prototypes for series which were never constructed. He was the alternative to architecture as it exists. The alternative still remains, of course. But it seems less pressing. [Since he has died,] his insistence is dead.
It [the Unite d'Habitation at Marseilles] wears like a good example that hasn't been followed. But the kids still bathe in their pool on the roof, safely, grubbily ... .
The most important thing about the whole building is so simple that it can easily be taken for granted ... . If you wish, you can condescend towards this building for, despite its size and originality, it suggests nothing which is larger than you -- no glory, no prestige, no demagogy and no property-morality. It offers no excuses for living in such a way as to be less than yourself. And this, although it began as a question of spirit, was in practice only possible as a question of proportion.
[...]
I do not know how to describe, without recourse to drawing, the complex simplicity of the abbey [the Cistercian abbey at Le Thoronet]. It is like the human body. During the French Revolution it was sacked and was never re-furnished: yet its nakedness is no more than the logical conclusion to the Cistercian rule which condemned decoration. Children were playing in the cloister, as in the pool on the roof, and running the length of the nave. They were never dwarfed in the structure. The abbey buildings are functional because they were concerned with supplying the means rather than suggesting the end. The end is up to those who inhabit it. The means allow them to discover themselves and so to discover their purpose. This seems as true of the children today as the monks then. Such architecture offers only tranquility and human proportion. For myself I find in its discretion everything which I can recognize as spiritual. The power of functionalism does not lie in its utility, but in its moral example: an example of trust, the refusal to exhort.
-- John Berger on Le Corbusier in The Look of Things
Although written in a book, take this out of the context of books in general. Imagine this is being said, one man to another. Imagine people don't make buildings -- or write books -- for careers or fame or money or busy-ness, but imagine they make things because they believe they can contribute in a meaningful way. Imagine there are people who appreciate the details, the nuances, enough, to be be generous in their praise. Imagine folks brave enough to let their vision show, to offer it, and then being open enough to pay detailed attention and then appreciate the creations of others.
I think this is what I think the most fundamental lynchpin of any masculinity should be.