Rhyme Paysage

For this fall’s stu­dio course, I pro­posed a theme of pil­grim­age. Each stu­dent, wher­ev­er they were through­out the world, would design a pil­grim­age path close to their own home, and redesign the vacant spaces and streetscapes along it to make it more wel­com­ing, more hos­pitable, more correct.

Like I talk about here, dis­ap­point­ment is for­bid­den in the world of design. Our CVs tell the famil­iar sto­ry of nar­cis­sism: that didn’t hap­pen, and even if it did, it wasn’t that bad, and even if it was…

So, what is it real­ly like when a project goes on for too long? When a pil­grim pro­ceeds two thirds of the way down the path, but can’t go any fur­ther? Add far down the list of pan­dem­ic con­se­quences dis­ap­point­ment, the old Five of Cups; we couldn’t get to our des­ti­na­tion, out of some com­bi­na­tion of over-ambi­tion, exhaus­tion, dis­trac­tion, and depres­sion. There has to be some way to per­se­vere work­ing in good faith, to make your way slow­ly down an icy road; I haven’t found it yet. But it will need to be found, because this con­di­tion doesn’t end with 2020, or any vac­cine; you don’t need to think in apoc­a­lyp­tic terms to under­stand that the axis of the world will only con­tin­ue to tilt. Any­way, we start­ed out with every­thing spark­ing, and I’m shar­ing the best of what my stu­dents achieved, which is very good indeed.