As an inspiring interior designer, I walk through the pages of design magazines and books. The following poem by architect, Le Corbusier, really moved and inspired me. I came across this poem looking through the book, “ARCHITECTURE Form, Space & Order, (Francis D. K. Ching, 2015, 4th edition). The title of the poem: Towards a New Architecture. It is in this mindset I want to bring design elements together in space to inspire and move the people who inhabit them.
“You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work.
“But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say, “This is beautiful.” That is architecture. Art enters in.
“My house is practical. I thank you, as I might thank Railway engineers, or the Telephone service. You have not touched my heart.
“But suppose that walls rise toward heaven in such a way that I am moved. I perceive your intentions. Your mood has been gentle, brutal, charming, or noble. The stones you have erected tell me so. You fix me to the place and my eyes regard it. They behold something which expresses a thought. A thought which reveals itself without word or sound, but solely by means of shapes which stand in a certain relationship to one another. These shapes are such that they are clearly revealed in light. The relationships between them have not necessarily any reference to what is practical or descriptive. They are a mathematical creation of our mind. They are the language of Architecture. By the use of raw materials and starting from conditions more or less utilitarian, you have established certain relationships which have aroused my emotions. This is Architecture.” (Le Corbusier, 1927)