whysIdeas

Normally you wouldn’t image finding an engaging architectural experience in the bathroom of a tract home bathroom, but it happened to me.  This architectural experience was not purposefully designed in to this house, but it revealed itself after Hurricane Ike.  The front of the house faces SOUTHEAST and the back of the house where the bathroom is located faces NORTHWEST.  There is an operable window (2’x3’) in the bathroom.  For most of the bathroom’s life this window was blocked by a large tree that set just about 15 feet from the house. When Hurricane Ike made its way through Houston it knocked down that large tree that had been taking light from this little bathroom.  

I had just finished some yard work and I was making my way toward the master bedroom, before reaching the room I could see the whole room was glowing red.  Upon reaching the room I was covered in a red warm glow.  The sun was making its way into the bedroom through the red shear drapes we had hanging in the window of the room.  The light was magnificent, the glow of the room was amazing.  I made my way to the doorway of the bathroom and I could see this soft white-bluish beam of light flooding the shower. The transition from the bright warm glow of the red room, to the soft white-blue beam of light in the bathroom was an moment of clarity and delight.  I did as I normally did, opened the window, turned on the shower, got in, and closed my eyes.  There it was, it happened.  I could hear the wind, the birds, the trees.  I could feel the light, its warmth, contrasted by the cool water. I was outside and inside.  I was for sure that this was a freak accident and I wouldn’t be able to experience it again, so I took a long shower, enjoying the experience.  To my delight it was another Saturday late afternoon, and I was going to take a shower after working in the yard, and again I was treated to this wonderful experience.  It is a treat each time I am able to take a late afternoon shower, during late spring or summer, to be greeted by this architectural experience, that was formed after the storm.

As designers/architects we sometimes forget that it is about the human experience. That moment could only be experienced, it could not be seen in a magazine picture, or understood by a sketch and a 3d rendering, it had to be experienced in person.  Even in “ordinary” designs hidden within can be extra-ordinary experience to be had.  I cherish this moment of discovery and hope that in my own designs I can purposefully create extra-ordinary experience for people to love, and be renewed by.