When I am reading on my favorite chair by my bedroom window, I am the best version of myself. But why is this? What about this arrangement of sunlight and soft surfaces brings this sensation out of me—and how can I help others make spaces that help them feel this way? Alain de Botton wrote that “Belief in the significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are… different people in different places.” To better understand the workings of this mysterious practice, I interned for a month this past summer at an architecture & design firm in New York City.
Each week I worked with a different designer. Transitioning from designing private residentials to selecting materials for high-end boutiques to cataloging woods by their grain made for a whirlwind experience that stunned me with the breadth of what this field holds. Getting to know my coworkers involved marveling as much at their niche expertise as their career journeys. An older woman from Italy was able to visit her old home plenty often as she traveled around Mediterranean marble quarries in search of the perfect material to apply her complex mathematics on, arranging the stone in infinitely repeating patterns around a bathroom wall. One man I worked with was a teacher in the past and expressed his strong belief that more welcoming classrooms would lessen behavior problems and promote learning. And while most people scroll Instagram in an absent daze, one co-worker of mine saw the trim of a friend’s bridesmaid’s dress and imagined how it might serve as the fringe on a curtain.
I left this experience abuzz and invigorated with the desire to push myself to master this artful science. After a restful night’s sleep, I practice modeling my bed in Rhinoceros 3D to get a clearer sense of what makes its shape and structure so inviting. I’m reading in that favorite chair about how Gaudí could see God in its curved lines. And when the sun is warming the smooth hardwood floors beneath my feet, I find myself running the calculations on how much flex is needed in their placement to allow the material to expand as its atoms excite. In all this, I aim to do the same: grow in response to what sends excitement through me.
Allegra on Art & Architecture 