Make Hay

I’m a firm advocate of the notion that Architecture lives beyond the boundaries of what is its traditional definition – as being the art and science of designing and erecting buildings. I posit instead that Architecture encompasses all manufactured volume that defines or alters space, even if only by proxy.

The hay bales, so common in agricultural areas, is an example – the linear array of the hay bales serves as a visual reference from afar, and helps an observer understand the scale of the landscape. By offering one the opportunity to mentally position one’s physical self in a landscape, these grass “building blocks” offer the observer a fundamental architectural quality – that of reference. Similarly, the wall-like nature of these hay bales define a “here”, and a “there”, that which is nearer, and that which is further.

In the split second of passing by in a moving vehicle, a spatial relationship is defined. In its essence Architecture strives to do this.