How does a tomato come to life? You don’t assemble a tomato like a machine. You don’t conceptualize it like a work of abstract art. A successful gardener merely creates the conditions that allow life to unfold. If we seek to create buildings that have more “life”, can the design profession learn from the wisdom of a gardener? Is there a way of thinking about design, and a process, that offers a pathway to more life-filled buildings and spaces? In this presentation, members of TKWA, an architectural and interior design firm with 25 years of Pattern writing experience, demonstrate how to break out of the profession’s familiar, yet limiting, Cartesian design framework. Ariel Steuer and Tom Kubala will articulate and demonstrate how written Patterns, as developed by Christopher Alexander, can support a pathway to beauty, inspiration, and buildings imbued with life.
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With Notes: In A World Where Buildings Are Alive, Architects Are More Like Gardeners
1. In a World Where Buildings are Alive
Architects are More Like Gardeners
LIVING
FUTURE“We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough?” Wendell Berry
Don LaFontaine…”Thunder Throat”
3. 1. See how pattern writing can bring a new
kind of accuracy to your work.
2. See how the process of Pattern Writing can
be Creative in its own right.
3. Consider a New Definition of Beauty and
Inspiration.
4. Recognize how Pattern Writing can bring
Beauty and Inspiration into a central role
in the making of buildings.
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8
Targets of Understanding1
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3
4
5
6
7
8
4. Chapter One:
On Undividedness and Beauty
ChapterTwo:
Can a Building be Alive enough to Smile?
ChapterThree:
Reduced to Tears
Chapter Four:
The Dance that is a Pattern
Chapter Five:
The Beauty of Becoming
Chapter Six:
Patterns’ Unfolding Potential
Chapter Seven:
To Beautify the Gaze
Thoughts & Questions
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
5. 1 On Undividedness and Beauty
“It is shown that both in
relativity theory and
quantum theory, notions
implying the undivided
wholeness of the universe
would provide a much more
orderly way of considering
the general nature of reality.”
David Joseph Bohm
“The physics of beauty is one department of natural science still in the Dark Ages. Not even the manipulators of bent space have tried to solve its
equations. Everybody knows, for example, that the autumn landscape in the north woods is the land, plus a red maple, plus a ruffed grouse. In terms of
conventional physics, the grouse represents only a millionth of either the mass or the energy of an acre. Yet subtract the grouse and the whole thing is
dead. An enormous amount of some kind of motive power has been lost.” Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac
6. We presume
that the world is undivided,
whole and meaningful,
that a Unity of Creation
Exists and it is Beautiful.
1
7. 1
“Wholeness is grounded in
that which is fundamentally
conducive to life.”
Stuart Cowan
Minnesota Tall Grass Prairie
10. 1
2 Can a Building be Alive enough to Smile?
“People are not perfect
(except when they
smile).”
Author Unknown
“All the statistics in the
world can’t measure the
warmth of a smile.”
Chris Hart
Smiling cannot be analyzed mechanically.
It has much more to do with wholeness.
Smiling, it turns out, isn’t so easy to understand.
Especially for a building.
11. Can a Building be Alive?
1
2 First things first…
Ask audience “what makes a building ‘alive’ in their opinion
12. What is it that makes a
Building Alive?
1
2 If so…
Ask audience “what makes a building ‘alive’ in their opinion
13. 1
2
How can I recognize one?
If a building can be alive…
16. 1
2
3 Reduced to Tears
“Our times are driven by the
inestimable energies of the
mechanical mind…”
John O’Donohue
17. Reductionism’s Henchmen1
2
3
The theory that every
complex phenomenon,
especially in biology or
psychology, can be
explained by analyzing the
simplest, most basic physical
mechanisms that are in
operation during the
phenomenon.
STYLISTICTHINKING MECHANISTICTHINKING
“It deals in pure and
simple shapes, often at
the expense of problem
solving.”
Robert A.M. Stern
19. 1
2
3
“the first effect of the lines
is the only effect they will
ever have, no amount of
pondering will make them
glow”
Robert C. Morgan
Beauty vs. Glamour
April 2014
20. 1
2
3
“There is an unseemly
coarseness to our times
which robs the grace from
our textures of language,
feeling and presence.”
John O’Donohue
Surrounded Professionally
May 2014
21. Surrounded by Reductionism1
2
3
What was a fully alive
ecosystem becomes…
Leveled parcels of zoned uses connected to
customers and services by a vehicle
conveyance system.
27. 1. forces designers to stop listening.
2. is not easily shared.
3. must over-simplify complexity.
4. is deaf to ecological needs.
5. lacks long term value.
4
1
2
33
Stylistic Thinking
28. Mechanistic Thinking
1
2
3
4
Descartes held that
non-human animals
could be reductively
explained as
automata.
De homine, 1662
The digesting Duck of Vaucanson • 1738
3
Reductive reasoning
29. 1
2
3
4
Mechanistically driven process
‘Rooms’ are often considered the real parts of a building
3
Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Programmed SpaceProgrammed Space
Programmed
Space
Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Programmed
Space
Programmed
Space
Programmed
Space
Programmed Space
Circulation
30. 1
2
3
4
reduced to the measurement of its Energy Utilization Intensity
3
“High Performance” buildings are often conceived as energy machines
Reductive reasoning
31. 1. fragments a larger continuity.
2. discounts Feeling & Emotions.
3. marginalizes Art & Beauty by definition.
4. is often imposed on Nature.
5. artificially separates Form from Function.
1
2
3
4
3
Mechanistic Thinking
32. So, what way of thinking
has a better chance at
producing a building
that is alive?
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2
3
4
3
33. The Dance that is a Pattern
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
“…when we find ourselves
in a place of great beauty,
clarity, recognition and
excitement awaken in us. ”
John O’Donohue
39. What isn’t a Pattern
A Pattern is whole, in that it
excludes nothing and is
connected to everything.
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7
8
40. What isn’t a Pattern
A Pattern can be archetypal,
crossing cultures and history.
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41. What isn’t a Pattern
When a building is alive,
Patterns occur at all levels of
scale, nested in a continuous,
unbroken field.
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42. What isn’t a Pattern
Do Patterns represent the
Authentic Parts of the
Built and Natural World?
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43. 2 ways of seeing the PARTS of the world
AssemblyDifferentiation
Apply a TheoryBegin with the Whole
Spectator ConsciousnessConscious Participation
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3
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8
Lead into Alexander’s Fundamental Process
44. Discovering Patterns
1. Observe everything, without abstraction.
2. Hold what you observe in your mind.
3. Feel where discontinuities and features occur.
4. Name the discontinuities and features.
5. Discover the reasons for their appearance.
6. Propose a solution that resolves these forces.
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Goethe story vs. Linnaeus
Nina story about the Family car
45. Center to Area Connection
1.
The Land Ethic
2.
Thread to a Pre-Settlement Ecology
3.
Portals to the Legacy
4.
Home Base
5.
Local Materials,Ways and Means
6.
Window to the Sun
7.
Rain isTreasure
8.
Wall of Noise
9.
Fresh Air Naturally
10.
No SuchThing as Waste
31.
Working Home
32.
Personal Home-Base
33.
The Exec’s Parlor
34.
Intern Niches
35.
Kitchen in the Middle
36.
Copy Cell
Construction Process
37.
Small Machines
38.
Strike While Dormant
39.
A Healthy Fear of Landfills
40.
Scrap Bank
41.
Posting a Scrounge List
Details
42.
RoughTrim
Daily Work
43.
Working at Low Power
44.
ConnectedThrough Record Keeping
45.
FromTree to Stove
Building to Land Connection
11.
Park and Hide
12.
Electric Roof
13.
Positive Outdoor Space
14.
Building Cluster
15.
Forward Garden
16.
Welcome Garden
17.
Sheltered Edges
18.
Gathering Under aTree
19.
Seed Gathering Hall
20.
Dialogue House
21.
Inside-Out House
22.
Leopold MemorialTrailhead
Building Internal
23.
Comfort Gradient
24.
AcousticVariation
25.
Don’tTurn on that Light!
26.
Never too Far from Outdoors
27.
Mudroom In-Between
28.
Leopold Reading Room
29.
Archival Core
30.
Deep in Dialogue
Organized by scale, not importance
Aldo Leopold Legacy Center1
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3
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6
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8
46. 1
2
3
4
Center to Area Connection
1.
The Land Ethic
2.
Thread to a Pre-Settlement Ecology
3.
Portals to the Legacy
4.
Home Base
5.
Local Materials,Ways and Means
6.
Window to the Sun
7.
Rain isTreasure
8.
Wall of Noise
9.
Fresh Air Naturally
10.
No SuchThing as Waste
31.
Working Home
32.
Personal Home-Base
33.
The Exec’s Parlor
34.
Intern Niches
35.
Kitchen in the Middle
36.
Copy Cell
Construction Process
37.
Small Machines
38.
Strike While Dormant
39.
A Healthy Fear of Landfills
40.
Scrap Bank
41.
Posting a Scrounge List
Details
42.
RoughTrim
Daily Work
43.
Working at Low Power
44.
ConnectedThrough Record Keeping
45.
FromTree to Stove
Building to Land Connection
11.
Park and Hide
12.
Electric Roof
13.
Positive Outdoor Space
14.
Building Cluster
15.
Forward Garden
16.
Welcome Garden
17.
Sheltered Edges
18.
Gathering Under aTree
19.
Seed Gathering Hall
20.
Dialogue House
21.
Inside-Out House
22.
Leopold MemorialTrailhead
Building Internal
23.
Comfort Gradient
24.
AcousticVariation
25.
Don’tTurn on that Light!
26.
Never too Far from Outdoors
27.
Mudroom In-Between
28.
Leopold Reading Room
29.
Archival Core
30.
Deep in Dialogue
Sustainability issues are solved along with all other issues
Aldo Leopold Legacy Center
47. 16. GatheringTogether
17. Staff Hearth
18. Privacy Gradient
19. Education Hall
20. Gradient of Classroom Sizes
21. Musical Suite
22. Coming of Age
23. Information is Like Food
24. Sounds Like a Green Room
25. Kitchen Party
26. Home Away from Homelessness
27. Small Child Care
28.Written Word
29.Archive
1. NationalTreasure
2. Bike, Bus & Walk
3. Parking Pockets
4. Shuttle System
5. Auto Underground
6. The Dance of Delivery
7. Open Green
8. Building Shape
9. New Front Door
10. Family of Entrances
11. Universal Access
12.Trust in God, butTie your Camel
13. Conference Capable
14. Family ofVenues
15.The Community Crossing
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition1
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3
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purposefully no energy patterns
48. 16. GatheringTogether
17. Staff Hearth
18. Privacy Gradient
19. Education Hall
20. Gradient of Classroom Sizes
21. Musical Suite
22. Coming of Age
23. Information is Like Food
24. Sounds Like a Green Room
25. Kitchen Party
26. Home Away from Homelessness
27. Small Child Care
28.Written Word
29.Archive
1. NationalTreasure
2. Bike, Bus & Walk
3. Parking Pockets
4. Shuttle System
5. Auto Underground
6. The Dance of Delivery
7. Open Green
8. Building Shape
10. Family of Entrances
11. Universal Access
12.Trust in God, butTie your Camel
13. Conference Capable
14. Family ofVenues
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition1
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3
4
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9. New Front Door
15. The Community Crossing
49. 9
New Front Door
The bottleneck at the current front door
and lobby cannot be repaired without either
reducing the number of people utilizing that
entrance, or by greatly increasing the size of
the lobby, thereby altering forever its original
character and presence.
Problem Statement
Solution Statement Create a new prime door and lobby
sized appropriately to handle
anticipated population levels. Give the
door clear markings as to its function
and importance. Locate the new front
door within visual proximity of the
historic entrance.
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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3
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50. 5
The Community Crossing
With the contemplated addition of
15-20,000 sf of new facilities, it will be a
challenge to insure that the campus feels
like a single entity with various parts, not
the other way around.
Problem Statement
Solution Statement
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
Establish a place where all paths cross.
Make this place adjacent to the new front
door. Give it a distinctive character, a strong
place on everyone’s cognitive map.
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8
1
52. The hearer participates!
Meaning is not imposed or
predetermined.
1
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5
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8
“…a process must occur for
the metaphor to work
effectively…”
John Hatcher
tenor vehicle
54. 1
2
3
4
The Beauty of Becoming
“Architects are much too
concerned with the design of
the world, and not yet
concerned enough with the
generative processes that
create the world.”
Christopher Alexander
5
So, we have a list of Patterns….what happens next?
Patterns in dynamic context.
“…the beautiful offers us an invitation to order, coherence and unity.” John O’Donohue (this quote is on slide 54)
55. Nature models a living process: Morphogenisis
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
from the Greek morphê:
shape and genesis: creation,
literally, beginning of the
shape
The process controls the
organized spatial distribution
of cells during the embryonic
development of an
organism.
even our understanding of this is evolving
Morphogenesis (from the Greek morphê: shape and genesis: creation, literally, "beginning of the shape")
The process controls the organized spatial distribution of cells during the embryonic development of an
organism.
58. 1. Discover ALL the forces at play.
2. Identify recurring conflicts, diagnosis.
3.Write patterns, gain consensus.
4. Produce pattern resolution map.
5. Obtain feedback.
6. Unfold Permutations.
7. Narrow the Choices.
8. Choose a Direction.
It is roughly similar for every one of our projects
Pattern Writing is a part of our overall design process
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We first engage the eventual occupants and region in intensive sessions of listening and seeing. Listening for
What? Seeing What?
Attending to What? Knots,Tears or Features in the Whole
59. Order is not only helpful, its crucial,
promoting smooth unfolding
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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60. 1. NationalTreasure
2. Bike, Bus & Walk
3. Parking Pockets
4. Shuttle System
5. Auto Underground
6. The Dance of Delivery
7. Open Green
8. Building Shape
9. New Front Door
10. Family of Entrances
11. Universal Access
12.Trust in God, butTie your Camel
13. Conference Capable
14. Family ofVenues
15.The Community Crossing
16. GatheringTogether
17. Staff Hearth
18. Privacy Gradient
19. Education Hall
20. Gradient of Classroom Sizes
21. Musical Suite
22. Coming of Age
23. Information is Like Food
24. Sounds Like a Green Room
25. Kitchen Party
26. Home Away from Homelessness
27. Small Child Care
28.Written Word
29.Archive
Organized by scale, not importance
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
61. Unfolding… Site Constraints & Conditions
Setbacks
Protected Views
Sacred Ground
Untouchability
Gradient
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
62. Unfolding… Probable Locations for the proposed Addition
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
63. Geometry meets Pattern
9. New Front Door
Create a new prime
door and lobby sized
appropriately to
handle anticipated
population levels.
Give the door clear
markings as to its
function and
importance. Locate
the new front door
within visual
proximity of the
historic entrance.
Unfolding…
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
65. HS
SELECT.
dn
1R
up
4R
up
2R
up
1R
FIREPLACE
UP
UPUP
UP UP
DN
BA
LC
ONY
TERRACE
dow
n
dow
n
17R
dow
n
dow
n
B3
Open Office
B1
Classroom
B4
Corridor
A16
West Living Room
A17
Loggia
A18
Corridor A7
Conference
B5
Corridor
D35
Coats
D36
Vestibule
Elevator 1
ThyssenKrupp
Seville 35
Oildraulic
D33
Upper Crossing South
Stair 1
D31
Link
D34
Balcony
Stair 3
dn
1R
up
1R
up
4R
Existing
Skylight
Existing
Skylight
Line Of Roof
Existing
Skylight
Existing
Skylight
Dn
Stair 2
up
2R
up
1R
A8
Open Office
A9
Office
A10
Office
A11
Office
A12
Office
B2
Toilet
3’-5
”
D32
Upper Crossing
North
1’-
9”
1’-1
0”
2’-
0”
2’-1”
2’-1”
2’-1”
1’-9
”
Upper Level Plan
New Front Door
Historic Entrance
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
Geometry meets PatternUnfolding…1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
66. D15.1
Plenum
D12.1
Storage
D13.1
Storage
D14.1
Storage
B8
Corridor
ST
Cart
File
File
File
Flat
File
(5) New Adjustable
Shelves For Artifacts
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
17 18 19
21 22 23
16
20
Ne
w
up
New Ramp
Ne
w
Ra
mp
HS
SELECT.
H
C
C
D
HC
D
D
C
H
C
R/F
R/F
up
4R@
6”
ram
pup
up
up
do
wn
up
up
17R
up
up
18R
B14
B13
B11
Archives
B9
MHNS Office
B18
RE Storage
B6.1
Toilet
B16.1
RE Storage
B15.1
RE Storage
B19
B Mech.
B6
Classroom
B10
Classroom
B12
MHNS Storage
B15
Classroom B17
Electrical
B16
Classroom
C5
Classroom
C7
Classroom
C9
Classroom
C11
Classroom
C12
West Court Yard
D2
MHNS Storage
East Court Yard
D1
RE Storage
D4
Mech. North
D21
Kitchen
D11
Ramp
D10
Custodial
D26
Table/Chair
Storage
D12
Classroom
D13
Classroom
D14
Classroom
D15
Mech. South
D17
Women
Stair 1
D25
Cry Room
D27
Music
Storage
D30
Music Rehearsal
D29
Music Office
D28
Music Office
D23
Lower Crossing South
D16
Men
D5
Education Hall
B6.3
Storage
B10.1
RE Storage
D6
Lower Crossing North
D24
Auditorium
B20
Corridor
up
D8
Women
D9
Men
D22
Library
Unexcavated
UP
A Mech. 1A Mech. 2
Unexcavated
Existing Raised
Planter
ELEC. HD
Elec.
do
wn
C13
Corridor
D6.1
Corridor
B2
0.1
Kitche
ne
tte
Elev 1
D7
Coats
D19
Elev.
Equip.
D18
AV/IT
Room
D20
Pantry
D3
Ramp
Stair 2
Stair 4
Stair 3
Rolling
Cart
Lower Level Plan
Geometry meets PatternUnfolding…
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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67. First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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National Treasure ripple effect
Feeling as a guide/validation
76. 1
2
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5
6
7
8
To Beautify the Gaze
“Ultimately beauty is a
profound illumination of
presence, a stirring of the
invisible in visible form and
in order to receive this, we
need to cultivate a new style
of approaching the world.”
John O’Donohue
“Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself” Hans Urs von
Balthasar
“The human gaze is not the closed, fixed view of a camera but is creative and constructive. Both the gaze that
sees and the object that is seen construct themselves simultaneously in the one act of vision.”
John O’Donohue
77. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Writing Patterns requires a
new kind of education, one
steeped in the ability to
recognize wholeness when it
occurs.
Non-abstract Observation (to Beautify the Gaze p.18)
78. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
“Both the gaze that sees and
the object that is seen
construct themselves
simultaneously in the one act
of vision.”
John O’Donohue
The duck or rabbit can be reconstructed without changing a line.
79. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
“You are asked to record your
own inner feeling, your own
inner wholeness - and this is
used then as the measure of
the degree of life in some
system you are observing.”
Christopher Alexander
from ‘The Nature of Order’
80. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 Thoughts & Questions
“What Beauty is can never
be finally said.”
John O’Donohue
saying Beauty deals with only a small slice of its larger reality
82. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1. allows the subtlest kinds of information to
migrate, untrammeled, into the design/
construction process.
2. organizes design intent.
3. builds consensus amongst design team, client
group and stake holders.
4. educates client who becomes a quality design
critic.
5. stimulates visualization.
Pattern Writing
83. Within it’s outlook are ways to resolve many of the significant problems of our time.
Operates in the everyday practical realm of doing and making.
Its general approach is one of affirming life. Healing the built environment while
healing oneself.
Its conclusions are being drawn from a wide diversity of sources. It is general
enough for artistic and scientific problems to merge.
Relies on scientific rigor and a thirst for objective knowledge.
Relies on PROCESS. This Architecture unfolds through the operation of a
fundamental process similar to natural organic growth and maintenance dynamics.
Because of its focus on a shareable language, the discussion of matters normally
considered ‘subjective’ becomes possible. Everyone can contribute.
The maturation of one’s spiritual self is both a requirement and a benefit of Living-
Based Building. It offers a clear way of seeing the world.
Requires acquiring the fundamental skill of unveiled, objective choosing. A skill basic
to learning anything well.
Healthy:
Pragmatic:
Optimistic:
Robust:
Disciplined:
Dynamic:
Cooperative:
Fulfilling:
Educational:
1
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5
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7
8
…and Further Hints at a “World Where Buildings are Alive…”