Wednesday, October 09, 2013

squared life


What is the link between today's buildings and today's ideas? If I say the squared thinking, can you see it?

Often we hear linear thinking contra holistic or system thinking. But to think inside the box or outside the box is more than that. System thinking is to see that the forest is built up by trees and connections between. But to think outside the square is to use knowledge from other fields to understand that the forest is not only trees and connection between but from another point of view it can be something else. For the forester, the forest is money. For an architect, a growing forest is most likely seen as something huge, magnificent in or outside a house. For the biologist, the scientific names are important. For a gardener the order and structure and somewhere to walk. For the naturalist is the wild and untouchable. And for a dog owner some privacy. What would happen if all these people would come together to discuss the forest?

Conflict? Some of all is some kind of consensus?


A house is usually built with four similar walls and a flat or leaning roof. Square-shaped. Rooms are squares in different sizes. If you are lucky or unlucky you get a room with a different shape. Maybe a room very hard to furnish. Because book shelves are squared. Beds too. And tables mostly.

What would happen if all people in a multistory building would discuss what to do with the house? Would it be all crazy?

Human is all covered with structures and laws and "this is wrong, and this is right". How exactly sure can we be, and with who's perspective? The collective? Or some people with the master plan or the most powerful?


We are as much as buildings are built as squares, squared in our minds. We know better with buildings, showing a lot of examples here in this blog. Why do not do the same with thoughts? And in the time we work with construction.

Truths is not out there, except some physical laws. But how we work together and how we see each other should and have to change. Because we are no squared robots even if it seems as communities have to be built up very simply to be usable.


A lonely man. Doing exactly the same procedure every day, eating breakfast in the same order, taking the same bus/road at same time, doing same job, calling same people, talking to same... Is mostly more respected, even if he is a bit crazy, than a man with a mess around. Coming too late and so on. Is this because even if we are not involved in any of those two men, we do understand what is going on in the first place but not in the other. We just love simple stuff with easy numbers to measure. That is why this world look like it does. Other things not measurable are not as important, or very very hard things to measure; happiness, ease, comfort. We construct a house or a bike road or a bus line and say "hey!! you have one now. be happy!". Things are not as easy as that. Buses have to be connected to other buses. Bike lines can't be with dozens of crossings. High-rise buildings can not be the solution for a happy life if it does not include social networks.

I think we need complexity around, different thoughts, challenges, interdisciplinary workspaces. Simple is not good enough. Mind is not squared from birth.