Abstract:
This project is an ancillary facility to a supposedly existing post-moderne Rare Book Library located near The River, at the outskirts of the City. The project is treated as an educational experience, and is based on Socrates’ thoughts about learning. He contended that those who felt they posessed great knowledge, were in fact ignorant because they limited their capabilities. He also felt that those who could admit to ignorance were considered to be knowledgeable because they had the universe open before them. The ignorant man who places himself at the center of the universe will be forever bound and gagged by his own intrepid ego. These notions become organizers for the design: A sequence through two points with a barrier in between.Kato stands at the point of ignorance. He posesses all literary knowledge. He feels himself moving from the world of reality to a world of contempolation. Under a leafy canopy, the gridded shadows provide a constant constant, but the effects of weaving about the sterile trunks remove him from his sense of intrinsic value. Kato is surprised when the forest suddenly opens up to a green, grassy flat. He is in search of his place at the center of the universe. His eyes are riveted in focus on the Temple of Man. He approaches it casually, it seemed farther away than it was. Kato enters the Temple. He is inside of the flaming wall. He knows he is at the center. Kato can see his own ego acting as a barrier which is preventing him from extended life. He can see the struggle ahead, a stairway embedded in an earthen, inclined plane. He decides to press on. For some reason, the stairs are getting harder and harder to climb with every step. Kato is below the landscape, removed from the Sun. In darkness, feeling his way up a set of stairs based on a progression of the perfect Golden Section, he sees a light coming down from above. The stairs are nearly impossible to scale upwards. They are impossible to traverse downwards. The light illuminates the edge of each stair. Finally, at the top, he realizes he is trapped. He is tired, sweating, and humbled. Kato has entered the point of knowledge. He is greeted by a man in a white tux who pours him a glass of red, sweet vermouth. Outside, Kato finds himself on a large, grassy cliff. He looks back over his path. He turns and enjoys a view to The City, and over The River to The Mountain. He enjoys a liesurely stroll along the edge of the cliff with the treetops at his feet. Kato, thinking to himself, realizes that the universe is now before him. He remembers the Temple, and recollects the symbol of Total Knowledge meshed within the trees across The River on the mountainside. He leaves the world of the possible and enters the world of the plausible. He sees the treetops at his feet as an extension of the ground plane. Kato moves above the trees in quest of the utopian symbol. Images roar through his head. He remembers the flaming wall. He remembers the center. He remembers the sweat and the humility. He turns to go back to knowledge. It is too late. He is back in the world of the possible. Suddenly… the treetops… Kato falls.
