The Yellow House

Programs at The Yellow House

In the late 1980s, I proposed a study, in which I was hoping to enlist about four to six students.  The title of the program was Deepening of the Understanding of the Structure of the Metaphor By Way of An Academic Program; it was an undergraduate thesis studio for Bach. of Architecture students.  I had been interested in generative strategies, and believed that the concept of the metaphor–as I had been studying within the work of Ortega Y Gasset–held an inherent value in this regard.

As I look back, I see how, in that studio, I had outlined a complete curriculum, not just for the generation of architectural form, but for a process of imagining.  I have continued to think of the problems that generated these ideas, as well as a basic definition of what, indeed, constitutes architecture.  As my idea of the breadth and scope of architecture has expanded, it has allowed me to believe that I may have divined a system that–it would be hubris to say–would allow me to teach imagination; but I do feel comfortable in saying that the use of these exercises would allow me to cultivate imagination in an individual, in the broadest sense, and to the greatest audience possible.