CREATING AN EROTIC PARADISE

 

The study of “quality of life” is the job of an architect. 

 

The secret of a paradise is not the physical building, but the understanding of people’s subconscious needs. 

 

This blog is an attempt to convey the secrets of designing little paradises that are more than just normal architecture.

 

THE CREATOR, THE STAGE SET

AND THE PROTAGONIST 

The person experiencing a space becomes an “protagonist”. The protagonist interacts with the space, and with the others in the space. The created space becomes the stage set. A successful stage set will challenge the hidden subconscious needs of the protagonist.

 

Without a “successful” stage set, the hidden subconscious needs of the protagonist will not be set free to create the magic moments that everybody craves.

 

PROVOCATIVE PLACES MUST RELATE TO THE SUBCONSCIOUS NEEDS 

The honest erotic impulse of any person is created by transcending normal cerebral experiences. The honest erotic impulse is deeply seated in the subconscious mind. 

Honest erotic experiences are normally strongly contrasted with accepted day-to-day social standards of behavior. 

 

EMOTIONAL FULFILLMENT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS NEED 

It is important to define the difference between emotional fulfillment and the subconscious needs.

  

The elements of a fulfilling life must not be confused with the hidden subconscious needs of the protagonist.. A person’s need for love, emotional peace and security cannot be ignored. Procreation is normally a very fulfilling act, as it gives meaning to a person’s life. The feeling of fulfillment (of a person’s emotional needs) is the result of positive actions. 

Eroticism is a very important aspect of the subconscious inner life of most people. Through eroticism the human being can transcend “reality”, deliberately.

 

The erotic is not about the feeling of fulfillment, but of moments of extreme excitement created when a person dares to go beyond the normal. Experiencing the incredible feeling of doing what has never been done before.                          

 

EROTICISM IS MORE THAN SEX

Eroticism more than sex. 

Sex is the natural animal instinct to procreate. Sex can be the consequence of the erotic impulse, or it need not be.

 

The normal reproductive sexual act does not rely on breaking any taboos. Feelings of anticipation of an abnormal event, or the occurrence of an event that transcends the normal, are the essence of the erotic. 

The sexual act can only be erotic when it creates anticipation of, or actually transcends, the normal. 

Some extremes associated with the sexual act, such as some perversities and violence, could destroy the erotic impulse for some participants, and must thus be treated with great discretion.

 

EROTICISM VERSUS ACCEPTABLE SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

The feelings of extreme excitement occur when an event relates to the deep inner subconscious psychological quest for a person to satisfy some desire. 

The feeling of extreme excitement will be enforced if such a desire is repressed, or possibly taboo. 

 

EROTISM: A PRIVATE EMOTION

The erotic experience is always based on private emotions and needs. 

 

STATE OF MIND

A person’s state of mind will determine the level of involvement in actions that create intense excitement.

  

VIOLENCE AND OTHER NEGATIVE FORCES

De Sade stated: “… and there is not a libertine some little way gone in vice, who does not know what a hold murder has on the senses....”

 

I believe that serious violence is the pinnacle of the negative forces. 

I believe in the erotic as a positive life force. This is the difference between violence, the negative force, and living life as an art form, the positive force. 

 

Western industrial society is a power based system. Power utilizes many forms of violence. The need for sanctuaries where people can escape from these negative forces is great.

 

CONSEQUENCE

Taboos are always society based. The young are taught to convert social taboos into personal fears.

 

Although western industrialized Christian society hides behind a smoke screen of “personal freedoms”, it has very strict rules of conduct. The breaking of taboos carries varying levels of punishment. 

It is however possible to create places, and rules of social interaction, that are protected from the rules of society. Space can be created where normal social taboos can be broken freely, and without consequence.

 

It is also possible to create spaces that are erotically charged. Such spaces will subconsciously dare the inhabitants  to express their inner erotic needs freely.

 

DEFINING “EROTIC SPACE”

What might have an erotic impact on one person might leave another person indifferent.

 

What a person might find erotically provocative one day, might leave the same person cold the next day.

 

Like desire, erotic space is in essence provocative. But, this provocativeness constantly escapes distinct definition, although it normally causes a response. The quality and meaning of spaces are closely related to the associations it triggers in the mind of the spectator, whom might be encouraged to become an actor within the space.

 

STYLE VERSES EMOTION

Most modern architecture is guilty of using attached fashion symbolism to try and give “the styles” credibility.   And so we live in a “birthday cake environment”.  

 

Prostitution, pornography and fornication are based purely on the physical element. Because the emotional element is omitted, the initial erotic impulse of these acts disappears like mist in front of the sun. Instead of fulfilling the deep erotic needs of the participant, it leaves a feeling of emptiness and loneliness. The erotic is based on the essential and very delicate relationship of emotional excitement and physical beauty.

 

Within industry, emotion is not productive. Emotion wastes money. Emotion is to be avoided. The erotic impulse of modern western architecture is physical only.  High fashion modern buildings must have an impressive “wow factor”. Because the “wow factor” is only physical, this initial erotic impulse cannot last, and soon loses its impact. These buildings are like prostitutes. 

 

Successful spaces will always mix the very emotional with the physical. Only then can the result be purely erotic. It is an erotism that lasts. It is an erotism that is fulfilling and that constantly renews itself.

 

 

THE CURSE OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

Modern technology has the ability to give a false impression of reality. It is like a mind alternating drug.

 

Although this false sense of reality might seem highly erotic, it will always simply remain “a false sense of reality”. Anybody who has been drunk and had committed a “one night stand” will know that it is true.

 

INDUSTRY: THE DARK FORCE

The western industrial society is very much driven by power and greed. People’s behavior and interaction with each other is strongly influenced by the rules of power and greed. In such a situation, the erotic loses its foundation, and can only become a shadow of itself, and try at most, to exist through consumerism.

 

THE RELATIONSHIP:

ARCHITECT AS SCIENTIST, ARTIST versus INDUSTRY

Generally speaking, architects and engineers have betrayed their calling. Most of these professionals simply perform repetitive small actions as part of the industrial system.

 

For the true scientist, and true artist, the end result is in the challenge of breaking the rules, and making new rules.

 

 

IMMORTALITY

All things were made to be born, grow, mature and die.

 

For some strange reason, man has the silly preoccupation of always trying to make life, and especially the built environment, immortal.

 

LOVE

For anything to have a spirit, it needs to be loved.

 

To love something or somebody is more than to have respect for that something or somebody. Love means that you care for that something all the time, that you notice the smallest details and continuously try to make the world around the thing, or person, you love, better.

 

The person that loves does not have to deny himself or herself. However, love is an act of "giving and caring".

 

No matter how good the architect is, without this act of care and giving, no building can ever transcend from being a "building" to a place with "spirit".

 

It is this "love" that one feels in the buildings of Gaudi? It is this "spirit" that is missing in most modern buildings and cities.

 

The problem is that love is not financially profitable, and so it has become very scarce.

 

FREEDOM

Without "freedom", man cannot perform beyond the mediocre.

 

The notion of “freedom” has many different meanings, for many different people. It could mean the condition of being free of restraints, such as slavery, detention, or oppression. It could mean the capacity to exercise choice and free will such as political independence and civil liberty. It could mean the ease of movement and exemption from an unpleasant condition. It could mean the right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference.

 

The industrial system gives people choices, but not freedom. Democracy is the tool used for change, and it gives the illusion of freedom and power to the individual person. 

 

No matter the propaganda, industry, government, society and the church all strive to limit man’s freedom. Rules are aplenty. From the way in which the sewage leaves your toilet, to how you shall pay taxes and raise your children. In the industrial world, almost all facets of life are regulated.

 

Mass media and advertising strive to further regulate and indoctrinate the way we think. Money is the tool that is used to mobilize. The driving force behind money is the fear of sickness and death.

 

To find freedom and the strength to continually break the rules, the individual must lose this fear of sickness and death. Only then, the need to think about tomorrow is eliminated, and the moment becomes the end product.

 

The "act of daring" becomes the erotic moment. If it is enjoyed like it should be, it can never be qualified in monetary terms. It cannot be regulated. It can never be industrialized, or become a commodity. It will be pure. It will be worth living for.

 

FREEDOM FROM ALL SYSTEMS

It is never possible to be free from all systems. Even anarchy is a system. 

Any system, by its nature, dictates the way people must live. 

Systems must be regarded with utmost caution. Systems automatic aspire to become authoritarian. 

 

Systems work on two levels.

 

The first is the interaction of the people that partake, or reject, the system. 

 

The second is the stage set created by the system. The stage set is the spaces in which people can play out “the system” game. Spaces  always reflect the values of a system.

 

THE SPIRIT OF A PLACE

Every place on earth has a “spirit”.

 

The spirit of a place gets formed and shaped by the experiences that the place is subjected to. If it is positive experiences, then the space will be happy, plants will flourish and it will be nice to spend time in the space. Negative experiences will have the opposite influence on a space. If a space is continually subjected to negative and unhappy forces, its spirit will be destroyed.

 

PORNOGRAPHY AND THE FASHION MEDIA

Pornography and the fashion media are huge industries.

 

These industries try to shape the way we understand the erotic, and perceive our own bodies. The act of passion is reduced to an unnatural circus of grunts, gropes and slaps. Fetishes lead the way. Forgotten is the feeling of excitement that a hug, or the touching of hands, or an eye contact can generate.

 

Pornography never shows people laying in each other’s arms, and softly playing with each other’s bodies. The sensations and beauty of touch and smell and taste and shape and sound is replaced by crude positions, slaps, grunts and the obvious need for time to pass.

 

PHYSICAL EROTICISM DEVOID OF REPRODUCTION

My interest is not with the feelings of fulfillment gained from reproduction, but with the much wider notion of extreme excitement created by human eroticism. The erotic is not only the state of sexual arousal, or anticipation, but the direct attempt trough various physical means to incite feelings of great excitement and desire.

It is in this conscious provocation that the creator of space, and the space itself, plays such a vital role.

 

NAKEDNESS AND THE MEANING OF CLOTHING

The first layer of a person’s identity and expression is the naked body. Then clothing creates the second layer of identity and expression. Thereafter the spaces we choose to interact within  becomes the stage set of our actions.

 

The quality and value of a space is a strong influence on human behavior. It dictates the meaning of nakedness and the meaning of the clothing a person wears. Clothing appropriate for one type of action within a specific kind of space might not be appropriate for another. Beach wear cannot be worn to formal dinners in a restaurant, etc.

 

Culture and moral standards are the defining factors that give space its imposing values, which in turn dictate the standards of appropriate or inappropriate clothing to be worn within a specific type of space, and the level of allowed nakedness.

 

WHEN THE STRICT SOCIAL NORMS ARE DESTROYED

Sexuality is such a powerful natural force, that authority normally severely controls, the expression of the physically erotic. 

Business and politics dictate that work and negotiations are to take place in specifically erotically neutral spaces. After the work and negotiations have been completed the actors will then move to more “relaxed spaces”, and may attach a partner to themselves that openly expresses their physical exoticness through wearing provocative clothing and limited nakedness. Still, the rules of behaviour are strictly imposed.

 

I once attended a workshop in the capital city.  On the evening of the final day we were all invited to a farewell function at the studio of a famous local photographer. The atmosphere was more relaxed and “arty”. I invited to accompany me a free spirited lady friend.

 

Later, while I was politely dancing on the thick lounge carpet with an ambassador’s wife, my free spirited lady friend walked into the lounge stark naked and wet. She politely asked for a towel to dry her with, but did nothing to hide her nakedness. The polite party of much respected members of society was shocked beyond belief. Even though the music was still playing, the incredible power and strangeness of the event zoomed in at such a pace that every person could hear a pin drop. She apparently simply could not resist going for a swim in the luxury pool. However, the naive honesty with which she acted challenged, and temporarily destroyed, many of the strict social norms that were practised by the witnesses of this event.

 

This simple and honest action suddenly set free the deepest hidden erotic secrets of most of the people at this party.

 

Lives changed.

 

It was like a veldt fire that was lit, and burned furiously.

 

MONOGAMY

Classic religion has a sensitive relationship with physical erotism.

Western industrialized Christian society generally advocates the idea of the  “monogamous marriage system” to regulate sexual behaviour, but do not clearly specify the meaning of, “monogamy”. It is very much left to the individual to decide “where to draw the line” and whether it entails physical exclusivity, emotional exclusivity or exclusivity of both. Because of the lifestyle most western industrialized citizens live, monogamy is normally regarded as exclusivity in terms of the reproductive sexual act. By implication, it is thus possible for people in our society to be intensely emotionally involved in several relationships, without crossing any “monogamy borders”. It also implies that physical intimacy such as entering someone’s personal space, touching, kissing, hugging and caressing do not exceed the monogamy limitations. Only the act of sexual penetration and reproduction is prohibited.

 

The traditional exclusive union of people sanctioned by society and the church is very much not the only emotional relationships and support systems used by people. The idea of “that extra special and exclusive” relationship is a fantasy. Relationships are not carved out of stone, and situations change constantly. The “extra special” relationship between a newlywed husband and wife cannot eliminate the relationship that will develop between parents and children. The business relationships that matters, are normally based on a deep and instinctive trust.

Every person will be involved in many different relationships during his or her life. Many of these relationships might even be regarded as taboo by society, but the value of these relationships to a person cannot be denied.

 

Emotional monogamy simply does not exist.  The boundaries of physical monogamy are varied and subjective.

 

MARRIAGE CAN ELIMINATE FEAR

The value system whereby people live is partly individual character, and very much the result of their upbringing.

 

A person’s understanding of a society’s values and taboos are gained in childhood. These values and taboos classify right and wrong. It also gives the person a sense of how to relate to what society classify as right and wrong. A person’s character will determine how he acts upon the values of right and wrong imposed on him by society.

 

Society determines that certain wrongs may be transgressed with serious consequences, while others will have hardly any consequences. Certain wrongs may be transgressed and even be considered a right, while transgressing the same wrong in a different situation might be punishable by death in some societies. The classic example of these contradictory values is killing in war or in peace time.

 

It is natural for all animals to start reproduction soon after puberty. However, in western industrialized society it is not considered well for teenagers to have children. The act of reproduction carries serious financial and social responsibility consequences. And so, much effort is made to hide the beauty of sexuality from the young. Young people are generally indoctrinated with a very strong sense of fear regarding the consequences of sex.

 

Eroticism  is not about sex or reproduction. 

 

However, sex, and even reproduction, can play a role in the erotic life of people. Accordingly, western industrialized society tries its best to oppress the erotic needs of the young. The “fear of the physical and sexual” is cultivated intensely by society, authority, education and the church.  Some young people rebel against this indoctrination. Most submit. Society refers to youngsters as good girls and boys, or as bad. Bad girls especially, are rated as substandard by society, enhancing the fear factor.

 

Traditional society marriage does not actually change the rules. Couples are supposed to have sex and reproduce. Society considers sex to be a masculine physical need, that females are supposed to try and avoid.

 

Because of the long term anti-erotic indoctrination, females are caught up in a confusing dilemma. Even in marriage, they are not allowed to admit that they enjoy their erotic natures, especially not in public. They change from good girls to good wives and good mothers. Society promotes the idea that bad girls become “sluts”, reinforcing the dreaded “fear factor”. Fear and denial are the death of the erotic. Without the erotic, no relationship can bloom. I believe that the oppression of the erotic contribute to the high ratio of divorce in the western industrialized society.

 

The notion, generally promoted by society, that the erotic needs of males are simply physical, is absurd. The erotic needs of males are just as sensitive and complex as that of females. Males are just as confused as females by the rules of “good and bad” imposed on them by society, the church, authority and mass media.

 

And so, the most important emotional advantage of marriage is being denied.

 

In normal circumstances, erotic behavior in marriage can be completely separated from the reproductive sexual act. In marriage the erotic act can be free from carrying the burden of unwanted reproduction. Marriage can, and should, allow a person to live and develop their erotic inner lives fully, without the burden of consequence.

 

In marriage, both the husband and wife are supposed to protect and support each other emotionally and physically. It is this emotional and physical protection that sets them free erotically. The more the emotional trust between a couple develops, the more the husband, and wife, is set free to express their erotic lives. Fear of humiliation is destroyed and replaced with strength. This expression of secrets that is normally safely hidden inside every person is in return the basic ingredient for the development of trust between a husband and wife.

 

The expression of the erotic may in some instances be public. Public acts might be provocative, and normally will cause a response from a witness. This is why the trust, physical protection and emotional protection of one’s partner in a marriage, is so important. Without this protection, the person will make himself, or herself, totally vulnerable by expressing their erotic lives in public. But, the protection provided by one’s partner, removes the fear of ridicule, and makes light hearted any erotic situation that might otherwise be interpreted as obscene, perverse or overtly sexual. It is also this protection that enhances the bond between the actor and the partner. It gives the partner power, which if treated with respect, strengthens the emotional bond between the couple.

 

The emotional protection of the partner qualifies the consequences of any erotic act in public. As such, the actor becomes free to “walk away at any time” from any unwanted response of a witness. This freedom is totally liberating.

 

Building might be a rational exercise. But, the quality of space is always a very honest reflection of the spiritual and emotional state, and well being, of the creator.

 

The extent, in which the creator becomes involved in the creation process, is the only qualifying factor.  The creator has the option to withdraw himself emotionally from his creation, and that is the case with most modern industrialized society buildings.

 

However, for spaces to become erotically charged, and thus exciting and provocative, the creator must become emotionally involved with his creation. Because the creator’s spiritual state is always very honestly reflected in the result of his creation, he needs to be free and strong. To achieve this emotional strength, the creator needs the emotional protection of his marriage partner to set free his erotic life from criticism by society. Consequences must be eliminated.

 

INDUSTRIALIZED MAN’S AVERSION TO ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

Imagine.......

 

A big party is held on an empty piece of land. In an act of ecstasy, two bricks are placed together. The bricks start to multiply by themselves and build a most beautiful building complete with windows, doors, fully automatic air conditioning system, and a sound system. But besides that, the building is capable to renovate itself continually, and waste removal and cleaning are also done automatically. When the building has reached it “sell by date”, it starts to demolish itself until nothing is left.

 

Is there any property developer that would not like to have the plans for such a magic building? Is there anybody that would not regard such a building as a miracle?

 

Or, would man slap rules of morality on such buildings? Would parts of such buildings be wrapped in plastic to hide it from sight? Would man be told that such an incredible design is “sinful” and its beauty should be denied?

The building that was described is a metaphor for the human body. The human body is the envy of all good designers.

 

Somewhere in the process of evolution man lost most of his hair. He needed to wrap himself in cloth and skin to protect himself from the elements. Clothing has become an integral part of human life. But more than simple protection, clothing has taken on the moral role of denying the existence of a design that man has always tried to copy, but has never succeeded in doing.

 

It is as if the beauty of the human body has brought out the worst of jealousy in man. Man cannot accept that he is not the greatest architect. And so, the invention that man cannot match, must be hidden at all costs. Strict moral standards dictate the amount of skin that may be visible. Culture, situations, place and age adjust the severity of these moral standards.

 

The young and beautiful of western society has tried to rebel against these moral standards. So, society has granted a very limited freedom to these youngsters. At specially designated places such as beaches, exposure of certain parts of their bodies are acceptable, but other parts of the body are still strictly off limit. Some exposure is allowed on the premises that it is healthy to “catch the sun”. When these people leave these designated areas, they are required to immediately cover up again.

 

Society regards nudism as an eccentric cultural phenomena. Nudism is limited to special clubs and resorts, so as to not affect society in general. Nudism is not the acceptance of the beauty of the human body, but a controlled socio-political solution of a difficult problem.

 

Some tribes in the under developed world wear the minimum of clothes. Clothing is normally limited to a loin cloth. Because nakedness is a way of life amongst these people, the physical erotic element of “exposing the secret”, is eliminated. In this situation, the understanding of the naked human body is purely beauty. Older people are not regarded as physically ugly, but the human body that shows signs of old age becomes a symbol of respect.

 

DANCING NAKED WITH MY WOMAN

The other day I went for a walk. I noticed some youngsters having a party on top of an old disused reservoir. They were drinking, singing and dancing to the latest tunes. It made me angry and I wanted to report them to the authorities, because “it was a dangerous place to party, and I was sure they did not have permission”.

 

Then I realized that I was angry with them simply because I was jealous of not being included. I also wanted to be young again, and dance to the sunset on top of a special place with the woman I love. I also wanted to drown myself in the music and feel the blood in my veins flow in harmony with creation.

 

The basis of eroticism is the reaching beyond the norm for that something “extraordinary” Experiencing the extraordinary is highly erotic and makes the person feel alive. It could be religious, it could be emotional or physical, it could be material, or it could even be sexual. The search for the extraordinary is closely related to “breaking out of the rules”, in one way or another.

 

“Breaking the rules” differ from culture to culture, and from religion to religion.

 

For a Himba woman to be topless, publically, is normal. For a western woman to expose herself in public is a taboo.

 

For a Zulu man to have more than one wife is normal. For most a western man to share his love with more than one woman is taboo.

 

Society, religion, and education, controls by highlighting the negative consequences of “breaking the rules”. We are taught that “living by the rules” will enhance the individual’s quality of life.

 

But, does it?

 

I smiled at the young people on top of the water reservoir, and in my heart I saluted them. I did not report them, and never will.

 

Please also do not report me when one day you find me dancing naked with my woman, at sunset, on top of an illegal and very strange place!

 

THE EROTIC

Boredom is the antithesis of the erotic.

 

Man gets bored.

 

Boredom is the perception of a persons’s life as tedious and lacking in stimulation.

 

Boredom is a very strong driving force in the lives of people.

 

Boredom distinguishes between animal, and human, behavior. 

 

Animals are content with their environment, till physical needs such a hunger, thirst or temperature forces them to move along.

 

Primitive man felt the rational need to leave the security of the cave and explore what is behind the next horizon. Because primitive man got bored, fire was discovered, tools and weapons were developed, and the search for the new, the exciting, and the exotic, started.

 

Industry relies on standardization, repetition and simplification.

Consumerism digests the magic of places, events and culture.

Advertising formulate the exotic.

Because the exotic experience is formulated, and defined with a price tag, it becomes the industry.

“The exotic” has become a highly sought after, and profitable commodity product.

 

In a society based on these values, the erotic experience that is not a consumer by-product becomes extremely hard to find.

 

IS REALITY IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER?

The erotic value of a building, or space, is not in how it looks, but what it is. Important is the values that a space represents. The erotic value is created by the spirit of the place, the atmosphere, the magic of the space, and what normal taboos a space allows to be disregarded.  If a building, space or room cannot transport a person out of reality, then it is a failure in terms of the erotic.

 

Often, when I talk to European tourists that have traveled the rural areas of our country, they express their impression of the locals living in utter poverty.

 

The fact that the homesteads are built from mud with grass roofs and natural timber fences, signify poverty to the western mind. Sympathy is expressed because the women have to collect water from windmills and do not have plumbing in their houses. The kids run around with barely any clothes, and often ask for sweets or money.

 

The western mind is generally conditioned to look at what things look like. Objects that look expensive are normally regarded as superior. Spaces built out of sticks represent hardship, poverty and failure.

 

Few people looking through the eyes of western Christian industrialized eyes realize that their philosophical system replaces freedom with material success.

 

FOR THE CREATOR THERE CANNOT BE ANY COMPROMISE

For a space to be successful, the creator may not compromise in any way.

 

Erotic space is about entertainment. When entertaining, there cannot be any compromise. Any compromise will show.

 

Do not substitute intellect for passion.

 

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CREATOR

Because the creation of erotic space is such a personal activity, the creator must be involved in every aspect of the construction.

 

The creator cannot be a consumer. The creator cannot be an architect working as agent for a client in his air conditioned office with a fancy cellphone and a designer haircut.

 

The creator must live on site. The creator must be the master builder.

 

The creator must get to know every brick, every stone and every piece of wood personally. The relationship between the creator and the materials must determine how the materials are used. The relationship between creator and craftsmen must determine what the materials are to become.

 

The creator must become one with the project. While the craftsmen have gone home to rest, the creator must walk around inside the project, or sit while looking at the stars and the sunrise. The creator must get to know the sounds of the place. The nice places in the sun where people drink their morning coffee must develop naturally. So also the places where the children play, and the women cook.

 

CAN THE CREATOR DO IT FOR SOMEONE ELSE?

If the creator is doing it for somebody else, then the creator must take the role of a teacher.

 

The “somebody else” must be taught how to build up a personal relationship with the event, the place and all the people involved. The “somebody else’s” fingers must also bleed. The “somebody else” must taste the sweetness of a drink, when his muscles ache from hard labour.

 

If the creator is doing it for someone else, then a very special relationship is needed between the creator and that someone else. The moment that the “someone else” distances himself in any way from the project, the project will fail.

 

The creator can never be regarded as an agent or project manager. The creator will always be the teacher, simply because of his knowledge. The teacher should never interfere negatively with the relationship between the “somebody else” and the project. This relationship must be nurtured, and be allowed to grow, at all costs.

 

The “somebody else” must become the creator. The teacher must allow and help the “someone else” to become the creator. The original creator must know when and how to withdraw his powers, thus allowing the new creator the freedom to act.

 

THE PROJECT MUST GROW AND CHANGE

People change. People’s desires change. Family structures change. Friendships change.

 

Projects must have the freedom to change whenever a need requires it to change. Buildings must be able to adapt to the needs of the creator and other inhabitants.

 

Buildings that restrict change in function, purpose and quality of space cannot have an erotic quality.

 

NEVER PRECONCEIVE A BUILDING

Industry requires that buildings be properly planned, recorded and specified before construction. Preconceived buildings can never have a strong erotic spirit.

 

The creator must move to the site, and continue every day to create the world around himself. The needs, the spirit of the day and the interpretation of the world and its values must be allowed to determine the life and growth of the project.

 

CHOOSING A SITE

Most creators will look for the prettiest, or strategically the best, site available. This concept is nonsense.

 

Beautiful sites forces buildings to be extrovert and looking out. This modern idea has been proven a failure. Only introvert buildings that look inward, and turn their backs to the rest of the world, can become mysterious, and develop a sense of the erotic.

 

If the creator chooses the most beautiful site, the building will have to compete with the beauty of the creation of God. The building will fail aesthetically. In comparison to God’s creation, man’s attempts are always insignificant. Beauty is instinctively measured against its terms of reference. 

 

The strategically best sites will always have to compete with other successful businesses, or successful buildings. Strategically good sites will always have parameters in place that dictate the rules of the area. Strategically good sites always carry a corresponding financial burden.

 

The creator must choose the ugliest site with the least strategic value for his building. Only then does the possibility exist to create a true jewel.

 

ENTRANCES

The entrance to a building is symbolically probably the most feminine erotic aspect of a building.

 

JOURNEY THROUGH BUILDINGS

The quality of spaces, and the layout of a building, should not be predictable. Standard plans, and open space buildings are boring.

 

Buildings must allow people to journey. Spaces must allow people to explore. Spaces must interlink in unexpected ways. Entering a space should always hold a sense of surprise

 

It is easier for organic spaces to subtly change its qualities.

 

BEAUTIFUL BUILDING MATERIALS

It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, industry is competent at shaping the eye of the beholder.

 

Consider a simple item such as a door handle. Open any building related magazine and you will find a fashion type advert for the latest door handle designs. All hardware stores exhibit huge ranges of door handles of all shapes, designs and colours.

 

When an architect asks a client what the door handle should look like, the client will automatically refer to a catalogue. The eye of the beholder has been manipulated and shaped. The beholder has been taught how to think.

 

The magic of using a special piece of scrap metal, beautifully rusted in natural colours, or a piece of wood that was collected and shaped by the hands off the creator, is lost.

 

INTROVERT BUILDINGS

Modern Western architecture is normally extrovert. Large glass windows connect the private inside directly with the outside public domain.

 

For the erotic to flourish, building must be introvert and secretive.  A sense of privacy and security must prevail. Buildings must act as emotional sanctuaries. Psychological and physical barriers between the public and private domains must be created. The transition areas and transition elements such as doorways and windows must be clearly defined. These transition elements must allow the inhabitants to secure the private spaces both physically and emotionally.

 

The public domain must be separated from the most sacred interior spaces by many space layers and transition barrier elements.

 

A SPECIAL VIEW

Scopophilia is an important aspect of the sensual. The deriving of pleasure from looking and watching is a normal human activity.

 

Pleasure may be derived from looking at a specific topic of interest.

 

Buildings must exploit all opportunities to allow the watching of interesting activities, unnoticed.

 

THE HEART OF A BUILDING

Every building must have a heart.

 

A space that is most private. The heart is space that may only be entered by those that have earned the privilege.

 

The heart of the building must be the space that contain in safety, the creator’s most treasured thoughts, ideas, passions, dreams and things.