Trying out Downing's Spatial Solitaire

Unfortunately, Downing doesn't spell out the details of the parameters for her Spatial Solitaire game. But I really want to try it out, so I've made up some of my own, following the references she makes to the game in her book:

1. Part I: Brainstorm memorable places from my past
2. Part II: Categorize spaces remembered
   
3. Part III: Assess relevance of remembered places to thesis (GBJ)

I allocated 20 minutes for each part (I always work better under pressure...), so here we go!

Part I: What are these memorable places?

• My grandmother's kitchen, blue tiles white grout, cold, with window and crows cawing - my grandparent's apartment in Mumbai, Scandinavian furniture - low, small, wooden legs at angles, watching TV with grandfather on couch, the side room with the built-in cabinetry, writing desk, figurines I can't reach, the entry foyer with the "old-school" phone, wooden divider between foyer and dining room, balcony overlooking pool.
• Queen Mary School: courtyard, dusty, with basketball hoops, corridors along interior, open to atrium, the bridge (overpass) to the school - steps (steep for a child) coming down to the school's entrance.
• Carcassonne: the wall-walk, old stone, Roman brick wall, reconstructions, spaces between walls as rooms, open to the air above, grass as floor, tiny streets, cobblestone paths, ivrée, raining, wet dark.
• My room (s) at the MIJE in Paris, the courtyard (1: main entry, stone feet-smoothened steps, rough cobblestone, sparrows, wandering ivy; 2: side entry, protected from street by wall, very secret, discovered), the view from the window to the photo museum across the street
• The café outdoors, on steps, slow meandering, right near the Seine
• The hallways in Craig Manor Apartments: playing with barbies, secret club meetings, access "through" buildings
• Honeysuckle growing on the path behind the apartment building, riding bikes on path to local 7-11 store
• Cowgill ledge: sitting on ledge, 1 story above ground, legs dangling, smoking cigars and watching the sunset over the parking lot, yellow glow of lights
• Airplanes: view from airplanes of Roanoke, coming into the city, night, day, rolling hills
• Room in La Tourette: small, stucco walls, sharp, insects, torn screen door, dimly lit
• Sagrada Familia: bright, light (no roof!), dancing colors, cool stone, walking down from tower - view of city not as breathtaking as the building itself
• Parc Guëll: view from above purple-flower planters, onto plaza, view from tile-covered benches, talking to artist at top of planters, wandering through park, finding park (lost! help from Asian boys from Ohio)
• Crazy Crab restaurant in Barcelona: sitting outside, watching clouds, thunderstorm roll in over Mediterranean Sea
• View of water feature from basement floor of East Wing of National Gallery of Art (not specific at all...): awe, at first seeing it, the tunnel to the floor, brushing hands against the curved wall as floor moves beneath me
• Paley Park: peaceful. quiet. step out: hello City / missing parks in Harlem
• The Chinese restaurant in NYC we went to with Moriah's friends: eclectic design, mixture of Classical columns and Asian inspired prints, artwork, beautiful lighting (low, warm, cozy), dark bathrooms with individual stalls with doors, tall tall ceilings in bathrooms
• Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea in Salem, VA: red walls, crown molding and green up-lighting, tin tile ceiling painted white, couches always changing, locals enter in back, newbies in front
• Park in Savannah, GA, where two girls were practicing (volleyball? field hockey? lacrosse?), sunlight through foliage, cast shadows, housing on all four sides, structure and freedom
• The un-restored room in Fontainebleau castle, with the silk wallpaper - bright where sheltered from sun, faded in other parts, the wall covering peeling from the walls, tufted seats torn, shredded, still delicate and beautiful

Part II: Domains and remembered places

• Outdoor spaces: Parc Guëll, Paley Park, missing parks in Harlem, Cowgill ledge, Queen Mary School, Carcassonne, café in Paris, Honeysuckle path, (Sagrada Famila), Savannah Park, MIJE courtyards, Crazy Crab restaurant
  
• Indoor spaces: grandparent's apartment, MIJE rooms, Craig Manor hallways, La Tourette bedroom, Sagrada Familia, National Gallery basement, Chinese restaurant in NYC, Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea, Fontainebleau room
• Dark places: side room in grandparent's apartment, Craig Manor hallways, La Tourette, Chinese restaurant, Fontainebleau room, Carcassonne, thunderclouds at Crazy Crab, stairs to Queen Mary
  
• Light-filled places: grandparent's balcony, Carcassonne wall-walk, MIJE, Paris sidewalk café, Sagrada Familia, Parc Guëll, park in Savannah
• "Up high": Carcassonne, airplane, grandparent's balcony, Sagrada Familia, MIJE room with a view, overpass near Queen Mary
  
• Alone (people-less): Carcassonne wall walk, café in Paris, Airplanes, La Tourette, Sagrada Familia, Crazy Crab, Fontainebleau room

It was significantly easier to come up with the places than it was to categorize them - maybe because I had Downing's domains in mind, and yet wanted to try and ignore them to come up with my own categorizations. With categories like "alone" and "up high," it's not so much that there weren't any people there, but that my memories of those places are not contingent on people being there - they are more about my personal experience of the place, not the people in the place. Of course, like Downing notes, each places as several attachments: Carcassonne, one of my favorite places in the world, is such because I associate several memorable "happenings" with the place: meeting fellow travelers, watching the rain, the textures of the place itself (sensate place), my own epiphanous moment (place of self).

I noted earlier that I often dream of places, imagined places and places I have visited that I recreate to suit my dream world (sometimes mixing and matching) - in my attempt at this game, I mentioned two places that feature in several of my dreamscapes: my grandparents' apartment and the bridge near my school (Queen Mary) in Mumbai. Ancestral places, perhaps, with some tinge of secret place, place of self, and sensate place. Today, rain will always remind me of Mumbai (monsoon season, wading through water that came up to my thighs, even though I'm 5'0" that's still quite a lot) and crows will forever remind me of my grandmother's kitchen and balcony (I used to chase them away while she and her servant cooked). My dreams imagine these places relatively accurately (though once I put a shower in her kitchen); these aren't "designed" places, the bridge and steps from it are quite ugly, dirt covered, strewn with garbage, and yet they continue to have a power over me...it's not that I don't appreciate the modern white on white aesthetic, I wouldn't mind playing around with it in my own work, even, but these places (for the most part) are dark: is that why Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows resonates with me so?

Part III: What kind of place should GBJ be?

A Third Place like GBJ is inherently a sensate place (the smell of coffee, the feel of the chair beneath you). But it is also a secret place. Within the experience of a coffee shop, there is the idea of being alone with people: you come to do your work (I am sitting in Mill Mountain as I type this), in your own "zone," with the bustle of the shop and its other clients in your periphry.

I decided to use my memory of the hallways in the apartment complex in which I grew up (Craig Manor) to sketch the possibility for secret place within the GBJ complex. This secret place is for Sarah, a first-year Industrial Design student. She spends a lot of time in studio (in Cowgill, the building next door), and sometimes just wants to get a way for a few minutes.

I wanted to create a small space that allowed her to sit and observe the action without feeling obligated to participate, where she could view but not be viewed...here's the sketch from my Moleskine...not perfect, by any means, but a start.