- Systemic changes
Where some wish to draw distinctions, we wish to shed light on what we all have in common: to demonstrate that the appearance of difference is an illusion. Within this universe, there are not many things but just one thing: one life, one love, one eternally temporary moment. The world is not made up of separate entities and forces that sometimes overlap; instead, all things are born from the same circle with one boundary—a perfectly overlapping Venn diagram containing all there is.
Below, This concept is presented in a series of five essays, all responding to the same question: what does the 'one circle venn diagram' mean to you? Each essay presents a unique perspective that aims to broaden the notion of what architecture is/can be. Accompanying each essay are annotations in the page margins giving insights into various projects built by our collective, i/thee. Each project complements the essays and embodies the ideas conveyed within them.
Essay: Martin Hitch — Annotations: Ferris Wheel, 2019, built for Hello Wood in Budapest, Hungary. — "The venn diagram represents a break from a millennium of duelist, us vs. them, thinking. It encourages people to look at their body, their inner-self, nature, the built world, and the spiritual world and examine how each of these things exists on top of each other."
Essay: Kevin Knox — Annotations: ghost house, 2018, built for Space Saloon in Morongo Valley, California. — "The illusion of separateness is the single greatest cause of suffering in the cosmos."
Essay: Bobby Johns — Annotations: Giant Purple Prickly Pear Cactus, 2018, built for The Imperial Valley Desert Museum in Ocotillo, California. — "Everywhere you go, everything you see, everyone you meet. It is all the river. They are all the river. You are the river."
Essay: Xavier Morla — Annotations: Final Foam Home, 2019, built for Judson University in Elgin, Illinois. — "Once we accept that the root of all things is one thing, we begin to see the world differently. The abstract conceptualization moves to the heart. How can we hurt and violate others when to do so would mean we are hurting and violating ourselves?"
Essay: Neal Lucas Hitch — Annotations: Ebb (and Flow), 2019, built for Space Saloon in Morongo Valley, California. — "We are not the chosen ones—there will be no chosen ones—so we have to choose ourselves: to rise up, to hope, to love unconditionally, to persevere in the face of adversity."
