Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Inside Out Part 1

Something I have known for a while -- years -- is again brought home to me: I don't engage with interior spaces. The vast majority of memorable places I have been, those I can recall, memories I cherish years later -- are outdoor places. Landscapes, parks, bridges, vacant lots, city streets, skyways (interior?), woodlands, etc. I don't easily visualize renovations to interior space -- paint changes, walls removed or added, windows widened, etc. I can't see these possibilities, with my mind's eye, or my body, the way I can see a woven wall-hanging in an atrium or a font in the sanctuary. I don't love interiors. I can admire them, and prefer some furnishings over others -- but the real aspects of interior are largely abstract to me, and I see this in my workplace now that I'm involved with the efforts of both architects and landscape engineers.

To be randomly specific -- I hate chairs. I have chronic pain in my lower back, and all chairs are of the devil. I sit in front of the computer typing, a large portion of each day, and this is likewise of the devil. All chairs are crap.

Work surfaces are crap. Though I like high tables, like library tables, and chairs (stools) that match. Someplace to put my feet. A clean surface to work on. Large. Everything else is crap.

Lamps are crap. Fluorescent lights in particular.

Give me natural light, big wide spaces with stone-like boundaries and comfortably natural textures. Give me the feeling that I am outside -- not with the bugs or the bright hot sun, necessarily, but outside and free to fly.

Give me a bike I can ride.

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