2018 Channah MourmansChannah Mourmans - Morpheus
MORHPEUS
Architecture and the logic of dreaming
I'm chasing the night so I can find rough bones and bitter diamonds Let it find you
-Oscar and the wolf
Just as the contradiction in the band name ‘Oscar and the Wolf’, which on the one hand embodies the light and cheerful but on the other also the dark and sombre, these lyrics reflect a contradiction as well.
On the one hand they are about the chase, the act of feverishly searching for and finding of something you are longing for, even though it also has a rough, painful, bitter side. On the other hand, the songwriter is advising to have whatever it is that you are actively searching for find you instead. To let go of the convulsively search for a while.
This ambiance of antithesis shows some analogy with the quest of the architect for the right, appropriate design. In particular this applies to the quest of the architecture student during the graduation project, in my opinion a process of finding and being found, balancing between actively focused searching and leaving things up to chance. And which, more specific, design assignment serves in this view as the ultimate self- flagellation for the architect? The autobiographical house, and preferably designed for a well-defined character that floats between dream and reality, that does and does not exist. A biographical house already presents quite the challenge, but an autobiographical house requires a perfect tailor-made approach and demands for an intertwining of the designer with the client and his life.
The conductor of this quest for an autobiographic house is the soul of Oscar and the Wolf, to me a surrealistic muse that personifies the current zeitgeist. As architect I get under his skin and the psyche of the character indicates the rhythm.
Architecture and the logic of dreaming
I'm chasing the night so I can find rough bones and bitter diamonds Let it find you
-Oscar and the wolf
Just as the contradiction in the band name ‘Oscar and the Wolf’, which on the one hand embodies the light and cheerful but on the other also the dark and sombre, these lyrics reflect a contradiction as well.
On the one hand they are about the chase, the act of feverishly searching for and finding of something you are longing for, even though it also has a rough, painful, bitter side. On the other hand, the songwriter is advising to have whatever it is that you are actively searching for find you instead. To let go of the convulsively search for a while.
This ambiance of antithesis shows some analogy with the quest of the architect for the right, appropriate design. In particular this applies to the quest of the architecture student during the graduation project, in my opinion a process of finding and being found, balancing between actively focused searching and leaving things up to chance. And which, more specific, design assignment serves in this view as the ultimate self- flagellation for the architect? The autobiographical house, and preferably designed for a well-defined character that floats between dream and reality, that does and does not exist. A biographical house already presents quite the challenge, but an autobiographical house requires a perfect tailor-made approach and demands for an intertwining of the designer with the client and his life.
The conductor of this quest for an autobiographic house is the soul of Oscar and the Wolf, to me a surrealistic muse that personifies the current zeitgeist. As architect I get under his skin and the psyche of the character indicates the rhythm.
