The Inner Studio - Riverside Architectural Press

the need for me to change my perspective. The opening of the
dream narrative locates the psychological orientation of the dream,
and when we look at the setting of the dream, we find ourselves
examining places that are either built or natural. The setting may
be familiar or exotic, real or richly imagined, but it will always
point to where we are in our unconscious.
The way a real setting is used symbolically by the psyche to
present information about the places in our lives where we are
unconscious began to interest me. I wondered about the role of the
setting because it is so important to the meaning of the dream and
it is so important to work done by architects and designers. From
basements to grand boulevards, from modern airports to mountains,
there is no limit to the kind of settings found in dreams. And
these are the very settings designers struggle with when they try to
bring meaningful places to life through their work.
I began to think that even though our society essentially
dismisses the meaning of architecture and the value of placemaking,
it is obvious that the psyche is tuned in to its importance.
And it therefore follows that the modern designer has a key role to
play in not only designing the built world, but in also creating
settings for the dreaming that comes from our inner world.
Everything we make exists in the built world and the dream world.
Our conscious mind may be busy taking a photograph at the
cottage or drinking coffee in the kitchen or angrily driving to work,
but our unconscious mind is aware of absorbing the experience
from a symbolic angle. The cities and landscapes we inhabit are
experienced consciously and unconsciously, exactly the same way
we create them. Just as centuries of place-making are available to
our dreaming mind, so too new creations offer settings that speak
to states of mind yet to be dreamed.
Working with the Dream
PART THREE | INNER RESOURCES
One night, when I was traveling by car through rural Arizona, I
had a dream about tree roots. In this dream I found my house full
of these extraordinary pieces of wood. When I woke up I felt
happy–there was something rich, dark, and abundant about these
pieces of wood. Later that day I was surprised to see in the local
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