Sadness (as architectural goal)

The emotional quality Alexander aims for in buildings; it is not gloom but a deep connection to existence that allows tears, a sign of true life.

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Chapters (1)

chapter

The Goal of Tears
aboutassociated_with
The title concept: tears represent the achievement of unity and sadness in a work, where the geometry itself embodies a quality that brings one to tears.

Concepts (1)

concept

unity
associated_with
The indivisible oneness, meltedness that is the source of life; it cannot be described as a structure because it is pure one.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

What I aim for is, most concretely, sadness. I try to make the volume of the building so that it carries in it all feeling. To reach this feeling, I try to make the building so that it carries my eternal sadness. It comes, as nearly as I can in a building, to the point of tears.claim0.807
The explicit artistic goal: to shape space so that it evokes tears, the most direct route to the I.
This sadness of tears, when I reach it, is also joy. ... What makes it sad is that it comes closest, in the physical concrete beams and columns and walls, as close as possible, to the fact of my existence on this earth.claim0.763
The ultimate sadness is not miserable but a profound acknowledgment of existence, which is both sad and joyful.
The task of architecture—building—directly impacts the wholeness of the world, increasing or destroying living structure on a planetary scale.claim0.754
Result of the new view: architecture becomes a vital ecological and existential issue.
The quality of 'tears,' the sadness that necessarily characterizes all living art, is inherent in the geometry, it is not only an emotion, but is a character of the geometry itself.claim0.752
Sadness is not subjective feeling alone but a structural property of the geometry.
When you are done, if you have reached what you aim for, you feel the impact of its 'presence.' This is how architecture comes about.claim0.738
Defines the experiential criterion — felt presence — as the endpoint and definition of successful architecture
life (as quality in architecture)concept0.732
The felt quality of wholeness and aliveness in a building or a work, the aim of the fundamental process.
Architectural 'design,' the 20th-century process, does not work and cannot work in principle.claim0.731
process, not designconcept0.731
The idea that the life of a building comes from the process of its creation, not from a preconceived design on paper.