thought.

there are a handful of things that i have learned are impossible to escape. one of these obsessions appears to be oppositions.

now that i actually consider this idea, i have come to realize that i have been consumed by this for as long i can remember. is this by design? the problem is i have only recently been physically toying with these ideas; since around 2nd, maybe 3rd year of undergrad. that said, it would make some sense why its taken some time to come to terms with this habit of mine.

nearly every single project, no matter what the program or context, managed to transform into meandering and occasionally fruitless investigations into the strange territories of two oppositional things. projects were always about dualities, divisions, competition, boundaries, juxtaposed materials and forms, and so forth. realizing this now has me alarmed, confused, and a little surprised. on some level it makes no sense why someone would continue to unwittingly and relentlessly bang his head on the wall, agonizing over the many ways to appropriately to resolve such a simple idea through architecture. the coolest part is that i think my mind just might be trying to say something, and i've only begun to actually listen.

that said, i think i've actually had it all backwards. what's exciting about this idea, and what i've only recently begun to consider is the notion that i may have been distracted by the wrong thing. previous studies were always about the oppositional conditions, but rarely about the threshold that divided them. my hudson house design ( our final project fifth year ) is good example of a discovery that simply made sense to me, but i could not possibly explain why. of course this is not simply about number one versus number two, because things are rarely that easily contained and simplified. nevertheless, i'm beginning to wonder if the separate conditions are significantly less interesting than the boundary that stands between them. this idea, despite its simplicity and relatively obvious conceit, has me tremendously excited about the future. its applications both conceptually and materially are innumerable, and i suspect that because this is something that i obviously cannot escape, it is the territory that which i must pursue.

this is especially exciting considering its application to my current studio topic in which we will be in an ongoing discussion about lagos and its role as a global city, as well as africa's role in general, and its historically central position within the thousands of complex political, national, and economic webs that exist in the modern world. what's more, the president of nigeria is speaking at columbia on monday, which should be fascinating. needless to say, i'm beginning to ask myself - can columbia get any more exciting than this? if it does, will i be able to handle it?