The Inner Studio - Riverside Architectural Press

a travel diary. The journey that is being described is a spontaneous
record of how the built world is moving you, what you like and
dislike, what opens you and what causes you to shut down. To do
this, it is important that you draw first and describe later. In this
format the journal seeks to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary
though your capacity to pay attention to your design instincts and
reflexes. This journal rests on the transcription of drawings and
experience, so it asks you to bring your eye, hand, and sense of self
into a flexible, unified trio that is willing to learn from the subjective
experience of perception.
With both of these approaches the key is learning to express
what is happening inwardly. This is a private record of what is
moving you in the built world, a tool that will help you develop a
more robust and agile sense of your design voice.
Visiting Places
THE INNER STUDIO
When I first visited Italy, I was surprised by the way people filled
the public spaces of the towns and cities. Where I come from,
people think of the city only as a place to move through, and
because they feel consistently frustrated in their efforts to do this,
the city is always being blamed. Every rush hour the traffic report
describes the city as a failure because our desire to get somewhere
is constantly being thwarted. Cities become the cause of our lateness,
the reason why we are stuck sitting in cars. The city won’t let
us move. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
In Rome there is no hope of moving easily through the city.
Everyone knows this. Everyone knows that this is not what cities
are for. They are not for moving through–they are for being in. In
Rome I saw people who knew instinctively how to be in a space
and I wanted to join them. They were standing in public places, in
streets, plazas, doorways, balconies, near fountains under loggias,
on steps. I wondered, Where did they learn this? Everyone–men
and women, young and old–seem to just know what cities are for.
They are standing alone or in groups, talking, looking, whistling,
smoking, eating, congregating. They have all acquired some basic
skill for being in space. They know what it feels like to have their
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