The Inner Studio - Riverside Architectural Press

PART FIVE | USING THIS LIFE TO BE CREATIVE AND WISE
would explode or walk away when he heard a comment he did not
like was always there. For his final project, Carl had chosen to
design a new inner-city community. His proposed site was an old
industrial area, full of abandoned buildings, whose toxic soil had
been ignored and abandoned by the city for years.
One day, as Carl was talking about his most recent drawings
and models, I found myself saying, “You know, this is such a
rejected site. It has always been ignored. No one has ever really
cared about this place. I wonder if it will always feel rejected.” I
continued speaking in this way for a few minutes, talking about
how unloved the place was and how toxic it had become. As we
spoke, Carl’s face began to change, his mouth softened and his eyes
became very sad. He nodded as I spoke and agreed that the site
was rejected and felt very abandoned and it was strange and even
difficult to propose living there, but for reasons he did not fully
understand he felt deeply drawn to the difficulty of the place. He
knew this was the right place for him to start creating something
new. I agreed with him and our conversation shifted to a discussion
about how to approach the recovery and regeneration of this
wounded part of the city.
During our conversation, it seemed for a moment that the line
dividing Carl and his project had slipped away. Carl could have
chosen any part of the city, but he had unconsciously been drawn
to this part of the city because it reflected his own need to wrestle
with a rejected part of himself. Perhaps he felt that if he could
bring new growth and new hope to old and rejected places in the
city, it might not seem so impossible to one day help himself.
Over the years I have seen that designers are inevitably drawn to
create projects that reveal unconscious intentions. Design travels
between worlds. Creative work always supports making the unconscious
conscious.
The Wall
Not a shot was fired when the Berlin Wall came down. Like everyone
else, I was stunned to see the images of people knocking it
down with sledgehammers. After nearly 50 years the wall had
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