The Inner Studio - Riverside Architectural Press

in the chairs and stand in the room for hours at a time. I could not
leave. Looking back, I would say what attracted me most was the
meditation that these works embodied. Not the meditation of being
swept out of the body, out of matter, but a meditation in matter.
Nakashima’s furniture became a meditation on building a life
centered in the inseparability of physical experience. Viewed this
way everything fell into place and I began to see the possibility that
creating could come from this place inside me. This was where
wisdom comes from. Why do so few objects or places in the world
carry the message of meditation, patience, and reflection? Why
does so little of the built world embody the value of contemplation?
Dream
Dreams may contain ineluctable truths, philosophical pronouncements,
illusions, wild fantasies, memories, plans, anticipations, irrational experiences,
even telepathic visions, and heaven knows what besides.
–C.G. JUNG
THE INNER STUDIO
Architecture at Night: The Dream
Dreaming is ancient. A recollected dream can deeply affect our
sense of self and time, giving the present an unforeseen depth,
relating us both to distant ancestors and to new possibilities. A
recollected dream can bring us a sense of wonder or dread and
reminds us that we belong to something beyond our normal experience
of the world. This is because in our normal experience of
the world, we are identified with our ego.
The ego is so devoted to its role as decision maker that some
liken it to a ruler in a citadel. The ego is not naturally accepting of
other points of view, particularly those coming from sources that
cannot be controlled. In fact, it can be highly resistant to them.
Suggestions and messages from other sources can trigger such
strong tactics as defending or counter-attacking; these responses, in
turn, are often the triggers of conflict. Yet the covert vocation of the
unconscious is to oversee the regular capitulation of the ego’s
strongly held positions in order to teach the ego to accept sources
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