The Inner Studio - Riverside Architectural Press

EXERCISE: EXAMINING ARTIFACT AS SYMBOL
Think about what is your most prized possession. It may be a bicycle, a
carving, or a chair. How did you acquire it? What does it allow you to
do? What does it ask of you? If you have difficulty choosing something,
think back to your childhood and see if there was a favorite activity or
plaything.
EXERCISE: LEARNING TO RELATE TO SYMBOLS
Draw a door that opens onto your life at this moment.
Draw a door that opens onto your past.
Draw a window that allows you to see into the future.
What size would it be? What color? What material? Is it heavy or light?
Is there an inscription above the door?
Designers’ Dream Work
Artistic creations perform for society what the dream performs for the
individual.
–E. EDINGER
THE INNER STUDIO
An architectural student in her final year, Sally was stuck. She
was undecided about what her thesis project should be. A daughter
of a Holocaust survivor, she had discussed designing a
memorial, but that challenge didn’t feel quite right. For some
time she had been unsure where to find inspiration. She
mentioned that she had repeatedly had the same dream for years,
and so I suggested that she might try drawing images from a
dream. The next time we met, Sally showed me a series of drawings
that immediately had everyone’s attention. These drawings
were images from dreams she remembered having as child. I
never heard the complete dream narrative, but many of the
images had to do with hiding and, indeed, her family’s survival
during the war had rested in part on their ability to evade capture
by hiding. A very gifted artist, Sally had shown these drawings to
her uncle, who had until then been unwilling to discuss his experience.
Somehow these images allowed a new attitude to emerge. He
began to open up to her and more drawings followed. From her
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