Sayre BP7 IAR 221

One of the few pyramid like features on campus that I’ve found is this little bench area around a raised tree platform. I chose this area because I often sit here between classes on the side facing the parking lot. If you removed all the buildings in the vicinity except this back porch of the Graham you would notice the height of the porch area better. The land seems to slope downward until it hits High Point Road. What I am getting at is that this area has a large vantage over the area, the sky looks huge here. I love the sky, it’s always surprising what clouds can do. Not that I look at clouds to see animals or something like that. Just find them interesting. I would choose this place as a happy place on campus. According to the Western rules it follows a few, and disregards others. Layers and groves are here, as long as you count the benches as part of the architecture, which I do. If you can count stairs I think you can count benches. One western rule that is completely disregarded is placing man at the center. Here, there’s a tree surrounded by grass. Nature is at the center.

Finding a happy space was harder as it required more of an enclosure (in my opinion) to be defined a space. I guess the closest we got to is the small art courtyard behind the Weatherspoon Art Museum. When you walk in through the back the bricks enclose you in a way that isn’t intimidating, or comforting. Just seems to be a walled in area which attempts to be open using black metal fencing which also lets the wind through. This space seems to be an area which attempts to allow for meditation. Bamboo lines the edges and a somewhat failed monkey grass garden covers the middle. However, this walled in area was quiet. Traffic was somewhat muffled by the walls while allowing wind through. A happy space is definitely somewhere that you don’t mind being when you have to do something you don’t want to. So I would say it would be enjoyable to study in this area. Following rules here plays with a few of them. Since this area has manmade art it would seem man is at the center. Surface through materiality was emphasized here, especially with the disguising of a comfortable and calm area blended with the noisy business of a brick school building. I observed a possibly strange mixture here of stacks and groves with the zigzag partitioned monkey grass area. If the plants were in bloom I can imagine that it would look great.