Lecture II on Virtual Spaces: From the Past to the Future
Lecture 2. Spatial Relations and Patterns (空間關係及模式)
The Timeless Way (道可道 非常道 名可名 非常名)
A building or a town will only be alive to the extend that it is governed
by the timeless way. It is a process that brings out of nothing but
ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own
accord, if we will only let it.
The Quality (無名 天地之始)
The quality that is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man,
a town, a building, or a wilderness is objective and precise, but
it cannot be named. To define it in buildings and in towns, we
must begin by understanding that every place is given its character
by certain patterns of events that keep happening there. These
patterns are interlocked with certain geometric patterns in the space.
Each building and each town is ultimately made out of these patterns
in the space. The specific patterns out of which a building or a town
is made may be alive or dead. The more living patterns there are in a
place - a room, a building, or a town - the more it comes to life as
an entirety, the more it glows, the more it has the self-maintaining
fire that is the quality without a name.