The Blanket

Dwellings = The Blanket
Comfort
Security
Liberty
Privacy
Companionship
Utility
Sense of belonging "I live here"

Industrious, Purpose, Sense of achievement

Quotes from patients who are admitted to psychiatric hospitals have described the feeling of being safe, like being swaddled in a warm blanket, a security blanket (like Linus, the Peanut's cartoon character).

Science & Magic

science + magic = the architectural placebo for restoring sanity

• science = evidence-based design
• magic = haptic architecture & the philosophy of dwelling; the more spiritural, indefinable (often nonvisual) qualities of architecture

Patterns of evidence-based design applied in combination with the more intuitive 'magic' of sensory design and phenomenology/the philosophy of dwelling.

• I will define these patterns as qualities and relationships that can potentially be applied to any building to enable an 'architectural placebo for mental health', repurposing the Kingseat administration building  as a case study

Why Kingseat?

• Kingseat is a site of celebrity, it is infamous for bad memories of psychiatric care ((gather some quotes etc. on this)) so to overcome the stigma of ghosts of mistreatment will be no mean feat. 
• My patterns will be robust if they prove to work for this building ((how to 'prove' this though?))

Who, What, How?

Who
Rehouse the 'lost' population of patients with mental illness - those for whom there is no architecture, only the streets or a revolving door at the acute wards of psychiatric hospitals.

What
Repurpose an abandoned psychiatric hospital. The insertion will treat the occupants like fragile humans rather than dangerous animals, people rather than patients, family rather than renters. An architecture of normality and domesticity, but also an architecture of restoration. A place to dwell.

How
Cover the building lightly with a 'blanket' of dwellings

• clad with zinc or similar so that on gray days it merges into the sky. It does not stand out and perhaps is invisible when first entering the site - similar to the Moritzburg museum extension (see previous blog entry)
• the description of 'blanket' conjures up feelings of comfort and security, sitting 'lightly' above the heavy older building
• like a collection of nests - there are so many pigeons nesting in the nearby trees who live up high, this has been their home for generations

Design ideas

The further away from the entrance/ground, the more private, the more 'like home'. Extend the structure upwards.

Or, mirror the structure in the field in front - this space needs to be kept so to preserve this, go down?
The grounds are the things most commonly refered to and remembered by psychiatric patients as being somewhere free, unrestrained.

Potential precedents:

• Bessboro psychiatric unit: Mcullough Mulvin Architects, Dublin (originally an 18th century house the chapel and maternity hospital then repurposed as a psychiatric unit).
• their projects are worth checking out!
• Huggenbergefries architects (Swiss) geriatric psych unit in Switzerland
• look in particular at their solution for preventing falling from balconies using the perforated brick facade see
• Detail, 2012, v.52, n.6, p.637-641. (journal article) (English; German
• See this video of a psychiatric hospital project in Rodez, France (St Marie Clinic) - not sure I like the design, makes me feel uneasy somehow but the commentary is interesting

Thesis ideas (for layout/images/presentation)

(1) Relevant quotes, include something from Janet Frame (autobiography)
(2) Sketches, images, impressions
(3) Central theme for organisation - dining table?,

Personalised spaces enabled through familiarity and intimacy, the continuous arranging and re-arranging of the necessities of daily life. The making of 'home' is a continual, persistent process.


Books to look at:
Adam Sharr, Drawing in Good Faith

• 
  

Kintsugi

Kintsugi (金継ぎ) (Japanese: golden joinery) or Kintsukuroi (金繕い) (Japanese: golden repair) is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer resin dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum a method similar to the maki-e technique.

As a philosophy it speaks to breakage and repair becoming part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

Why am I doing this?

What is the thesis?
That is, what is the proposition stated or put forward for consideration/discussion and to be proved or to be maintained against objections?

NB. this final year is about the design (1) and the thesis (2)

Original critical question:
Using phenomenological and salutogenic design frameworks, can the stigma of an old ‘insane asylum’ be overcome and/or used to advantage to create an ‘architectural placebo’ for mental healthcare?

- haptic and sensory design to create the feeling of the architectural placebo
- the placebo effect will enhance the belief of the staff that this place will help these patients recover and restore their mental health, and maintain this
- are these enough to overcome the stigma of this old insane asylum?

The placebo and the guitar

Luka's new guitar had the main attributes of a successful placebo:

1. Belief & enthusiasm by those who administered it  - me (it was more expensive therefore I believed it must be better ;))
2. Style - it looked so much nicer than the old one, therefore it will sound better
3. Luka then believed he would play better (and he did)

But strictly speaking, the new guitar does not really represent a true placebo as it does sound better than his old guitar and didn't look at all like the old one. However, even before he played it, Luka believed it would sound better.

The style effect is certainly true of many things - in particular software (if something looks good, it's easier to use...or at least we have more tolerance for anything that might be annoying), and also architecture.

Music and sound has a profound effect on how we perceive the character of our surroundings. The strings of the guitar would sound hollow and dull without the proper crafting of the body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber.

The old guitar is in the midst of being repurposed into something else - it is obviously no longer functional as a guitar but no matter what is done to it, you'll always know what it once was and the potential is there for music.
The soul of the guitar, it's body, is still there.

The concept of the architectural placebo is closely linked with architectural determinism - architecture can change your life, 'healing architecture'.
However, the placebo concept acknowledges that people and culture play a huge role - the therapists who use the space and who believe it will help their therapy to work, the cultural backgrounds of the patients, the visitors who might be awestruck at the intriguing spaces and powerful presence of the entranceway.

Perhaps the main effect of many active ingredients in therapeutic drugs is the belief effect (the placebo effect) - this should work therefore it will.

How does architectural space encourage restoration of a troubled mind, and exert it's placebo effect?
- by providing space and privacy to think and to be
- by providing nonvisual support that this space is somewhere to relax and be comforted, somewhere safe (sounds of birds, nature, smells of natural timber, flowers, different textures, warmth and resilience rather cold and hard)
- by the contrast of the entrance and the living quarters
- the relationships between all these things, and the other spaces, the contrasts of light and shadow/high ceilings and low/views of the garden versus views of the other buildings/wood panelling versus tiles/smells of chemicals and therapy versus scents of the garden, grass, pine
- enhancing nostalgia, memories of past homes, mingling these with the new structure such as similar proportions, building materials (brick, plaster, wood, glass, vinyl), furnishings (shower curtains rather than glass doors, wooden toilet seats rather than plastic, wooden floor boards, retaining the old windows,

Kingseat - first site visit

Finally made it to see Kingseat - I made contact with the property manager who arranged for the caretaker ('Woody') to let me into the main administration block. I had a chat with Woody who clarified a few things about it's recent history. It's current owner bought it from the previous Korean businessman who owed money to the bank. During the latter's ownership, the previous caretaker renovated the top storey to live in, so the floors above had vinyl covering the tiles and wood flooring, and the walls had been painted.

I also chatted to one of the rental people who lived in one of the villas - he was wandering around with a friend who showed me the old morgue..
Coincidentally, while trying on shoes later (of course) I bumped into an old friend (also trying on shoes) who told me something about her past I never knew - she originally trained as a psychiatric nurse and had worked out at Kingseat as a student nurse. Her first comment was how gorgeous the grounds used to be which seems to reinforce a previous comment I'd read about how patients and staff at many of these old psychiatric hospitals became very attached to the grounds.

Impressions

Fantastically atmospheric place. The entrance is pretty powerful, long driveway lined with trees and huge palms with the main admin building staring at you like the custodian of the site (which I guess it was).
Everything driving in seems very symmetrical and ordered - the buildings, the plantings.

Walking in through the front door reinforced this order - the long corridor with a glimpse of the internal courtyard/light well at the end, lined with wood paneling in a grid pattern and flooring like parquet (was it? might have been)

Smells & temparature - walking in the building had that locked up slightly stale smell and was several degrees cooler in the first part, however, as you walked out to the winds it warmed up and felt more lived in for some reason.

The main sounds all the time I was there and wherever I was were the pigeons - either cooing, or flying or walking on the roof. And the crickets.

Big contrast between the ground floor rooms and the upper levels - those above had a more homely feel, less institutional, especially with the staircase treatment. Sunnier, more cosy, less of that strange empty vibe.

Concepts for mid term crit

I have access to the administration block tomorrow, for my site so will have some images to work with.

For the crit on Thursday:

1. a collage of images, things that will be informing my design
• precendents
• internal images of  Peter Zumthor's thermal spa at Vals
• the extension of the Moritzburg Museum by Nieto Sabajano
• Josef Hoffmann's Purkersdorf Sanatorium
• the newer mental health unit at  Kfar Shaul, Israel
• the 'clubhouse' model of mental health care in the community
• programme - the idea of a 'retreat' for mental health patients - we have retreats and spas for the rich and pampered but perhaps those who need it most are found on the streets
• a place to 'live'
• dwelling
• architectural contrasts
• the old, imposing double storey brick buildings with all their associations and memories; institution, somewhere to be treated as a patient; impersonal
• the new, more comforting and welcoming interior, different but 'feels like home' somehow; home, somewhere to 'dwell' as a person; individual
• the inside will be a relief, will feel familiar
• architectural placebo
• the building will heal you
• architectural determinism
• placebo and belief, subliminal messages, haptic architecture to encourage this sense of belief (supported by the people, the staff, the therapists)
• cultural differences in the placebo effect
• space & time
• the architecture should not only provide the desired physical space, but also encourage your 'head to be in the right space' - this 'head space' could be encouraged in different spatial ways (eg. best ideas are found in the shower/in bed), or temporal ways (eg. early in the morning, while doing something else at the same time etc)
2. the problems I need to solve
• site - should it be rural (a 'retreat') or urban (a 'club')
• site - should it reuse Kingseat, can the stigma of this site be overcome or can it be used to advantage?
• is it somewhere to live or just somewhere to be treated or both?

Some excellent journal articles...

Healing by Design - NEJM 

"Medical care cannot be separated from the buildings in which it is delivered. The quality of space in such buildings affects the outcomes of medical care, and architectural design is thus an important part of the healing process." 

This quote was not from an architect or designer, but a medical doctor. Nor was it published in an architecture or design magazine, but in one of the most prestigious medical journals worldwide (one of the 'top 4') - the New England Journal of Medicine which reflects the fact that design is taken seriously in this respect. However, often the complexity of these building types and budget restrictions mean that well intentioned design can be diluted and restricted.

The article is a general review of hospital design so while it didn't add significant information to my research topic, it did provide an interesting overview plus research links to follow up. For example, the unique characteristics of hospitals with respect to scale and symbolism were outlined quite well by providing a quote from architectural historian Talbot E. Hamlin in 1940:

"The hospital is not a home, nor is it a factory; its character must have a subtle balance of human scale and community scale...". 

Many modern hospitals have reflected current technological preoccupations in their clean, streamlined facades and exposed structural and mechanical elements. However, the resulting resemblance of some of these to office blocks, high tech factories and airports presents a symbolism at odds with the desired message that hospitals care about individual patients. Instead, they emphasise subordination of individual occupants (office block), materials to be processed (factory) or units to be transported (airport).

Horsburgh, CR. 'Healing by Design.' New England Journal of Medicine 333, no. 11, 1995: 735-740.

Applying a Salutogenic Model to Architectural Design for Psychiatric Care - Facilities

This article was a well documented and supported review of salient points for the design of psychiatric care facilities from a salutogenic viewpoint. This overlaps with much of the environmental psychology research I had been reading. Plus it just seemed to 'make sense'!

Salutogenic theory is a useful framework to apply to mental healthcare, particularly where rational decision making is needed but there is no relevant research to provide support.
Salutogenics is a psychosocial study of what keeps people healthy, starting from the perspective that illness and health are different points on the same continuum of life and death. The key premise is that a 'sense of coherence' (SOC) is strongly linked with a better resistance to illness. SOC is defined as the ability to identify and use one's health resources and is critical for a person's ability to gain health and have a healthy orientation in life. It's something that increases with age, implying that it is a life long healthy learning process.
Having a strong SOC means you have a sense of confidence that your internal and external environment are predictable and there is a high probability that things will turn out well.

Comprehensiblity - reducing perceptual distortion

The salutogenic model describes the relationship between the patient and the environment as transactional rather than fixed - the environment changes according to the patient's sensory and perceptual abilities. Many mental health problems occur as a result of imbalances or distortions of perception. Making sense of your experience is important, but in the case of some psychiatric patients this ability is impaired. Everyone's experience of the world is different but under normal circumstances, the gap between our own perception based on subjective experiences and that of reality is not significant and/or resolved without problems. However, with many mental illnesses, this gap is significant. So, it's important to design the environment to reduce the possibility of perceptual distortions:

• keeping spaces small and to comfortable proportions
• using textures
• horizontal courses in masonry or timber to assist linear perspective
• normal objects placed to assist with size perspective (eg. no blank rooms or outdoor spaces, minimalism is not your friend in this case)
• we understand our environment through association with familiar things so provide a typology that is not institutional but more like a cosy and safe home
• avoid sound distortions such as echo, or excessive or repetitive noise
• provide clocks, calendars, other cues to provide information about the date and time
• avoid ambiguity - a door should be 'door-like', clear distinctions between wall/floor/ceiling etc
• unambiguous materials, ideally natural materials that are found everywhere such as exposed timber, brick, stone, natural carpets, so they will resonate with a wider range of cultural backgrounds
• strong structural grids and spaces associated with traditional building methods

Manageability - ability to exercise control over their environment

The feeling that a person is in control of their environment and life in general, is ideal. For psychiatric patients, this is the thing that is lost entirely (not only a loss of control over their activity, but also a loss of trust in their own perceptions, memories, and their own selves). So it's important that their remaining shreds of control are supported. The most significant thing here is to keep the numbers of people they interact with small - the number never larger than the archetypal human community, the nuclear family. More than 5 or 6 patients should not have to come into contact if they don't wish to.

• no large dayrooms, dining rooms, living rooms
• should be very easy to maintain personal hygiene
• rooms with ordinary day to day facilities - a kitchen, laundry, bathroom, telephones etc which are open and available for use anytime
• opening windows, controllable heating
• physical retreat spaces
• movable but sold feeling furniture

Meaning - enriching the environment

Mental health patients have experienced a rupture in their social relationships, a significant source of meaning. Provide other ways to introduce meaning.

• mental health patients often place huge importance on and feel very emotional about things and places
• there should be no sense of 'punishment' embodied in the architecture
• bare drab spaces directly affect perception - research has shown that such reduced environments causes hallucinations, confusion and depression even in normal healthy people - so provide generously detailed and decorated spaces
• provide good spaces for visitors, special personal belongings (including favourite music) and even pets - relationships with pets are often of more significance to these patients than relationships with other humans 

Golembiewski, Jan A. 'Start Making Sense. Applying a Salutogenic Model to Architectural Design for Psychiatric Care.' Facilities 28, no. 3/4, 2010: 100-117. doi:10.1108/02632771011023096

Stressed Spaces: Mental Health & Architecture

Another good (and very comprehensive) research review of specific design features was found in the Health Environments Research & Design Journal.

Connellan, Kathleen, Mads Gaardboe, Damien Riggs, Clemence Due, Amanad Reinschmidt and Lauren Msutillo. 'Stressed Spaces: Mental Health & Architecture' Health Environments Research & Design Journal 6, no. 4, 2013: 127-168

The research question posed in this review was: how does the intersection of mental health care and architecture contribute to positive mental health outcomes? Thirteen major themes emerged as follows (in order of prevalence):

1. security/privacy - people in ward environments occupy 70% less space than their counterparts of 150 years ago. Violence against patients and staff in psychiatric wards is prevalent and increasing. This stresses the importance of including demarcated spaces for particular activities and extra space provided where possible.
2. light - the main findings here were the importance of light for controlling the circadian rhythm in order to reduce depression and improve sleep and eating patterns. Patients in brightly lit rooms stay on average 2.6 days less in hospital than those in dimly lit rooms. A lack of natural lighting can cause seasonal affective disorder (SAD), changes to hormonal body rhythms and increased staff stress, and decreased staff satisfaction.
3. therapeutic milieu  - includes therapeutic design and environments; patient-centered design; healing environments, especially the Planetree approach; and the need for a multidisciplinary approach to healing.
4. gardens and contact with nature -extremely important for both patients and staff for renewal/restoration of attention, stress relief, and for its social aspects.
5. impact of architecture on health outcomes - architecture can enrich the environment with complexity, order, and aesthetic considerations offering perceptual cues to assist and avoid confusion. Access to nature and sensory/salutogenic considerations are important themes within this literature as is the need for privacy and a preference of single bedrooms.
6. interior design - furnishings, color, wayfinding, cognitive mapping, spatial organization, and type of patient room, the need for clear visual communication balanced with a home-like environment
7. psychogeriatric considerations - the need for quiet spaces and gardens, with an emphasis on deinstitutionalizing design features to encourage social interactions
8. post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) - deals with the lack of effective evaluations in health architecture generally and mental health particularly.
9. nursing stations - nurse-only and patient-only spaces are beneficial to both groups. Closed nursing stations often convey an image of staff inaccessibility to patients and visitors 
10. model of care - biopsychosocial approach that deals with the patient holistically, length of stay, personal visual elements in the environment, and homelessness. The literature shows the need for a balance between drug-therapy, environmental context and psychological and social therapy and interactions
11. art - as an activity but also as an aesthetic therapy; a key finding is that depression and anxiety were 34% and 20% lower, respectively, in contexts where patients were exposed to arts.
12. adolescent mental health - the need for maintaining connectedness to the outside world, including family-centered care; the role of visual preferences, including medium density gardens with water; as well as the need to keep personal items, have access to movies, and have private bathrooms
13. forensic psychiatric facilities - safety, privacy, and escapes. The literature emphasizes a pleasant domestic atmosphere that is well-lit with natural light and provides ample space for patients

This article presented the data in a fairly prescriptive manner but was useful and had a very comprehensive reference list which I will continue to scroll through!

First Eureka! moment...

My early morning run this morning worked - the dots are starting to join...

1. Healing architecture is bollocks
2. Faith is what you need - the architecture must support, enhance, & inspire this
3. Thus, the 'architectural placebo' - a belief that you will feel better in this environment, supported by:

• faith - staff, therapists, other patients, who also 'believe'
• calm - restorative surroundings
• contemplation - spaces which enhance spirituality and inspiration
• contrast - between these restorative surroundings and those that are not (reinforcement of the place)
• time  - to live and dwell in these surroundings
• trust - no locks, no bars, no obvious fences - enclosure will be subliminal, implied rather than enforced
• home - domestic details, personalisation, imperfections, textures, smells, sounds of 'home'
• therapy - spaces to support this

4. Reasoning to produce the results will be based on inference or abduction rather than deductive reasoning (see end of previous post, 'Eating Architecture').

This helps to refine my critical question. Rather than asking if architecture can enhance the therapy of mental health patients, I should ask how does the architecture support the belief that the patient will get better/how does architecture inspire this belief or faith? (how does the architecture become the placebo?) But how would I ever prove or validate this?

Concept - Architecture of madness vs. the architectural placebo

I remain to be convinced that architecture per see, on it's own, can affect behaviour or effect a 'cure' in the case of mentally ill patients. However, research does suggest that the architecture in combination with other factors does have an impact.

Like the placebo concept, if you believe the environment will enhance mental health, then it probably will (especially if you're German - see previous entry).

Reusing old asylum architecture will provide a contrast both visually and theoretically - the architecture of madness versus the architectural placebo. Contrasts between the two should emphasis the more restorative environment of the new. See the Moritzburg Museum extension.

Table Manners

Wigglesworth, Sarah and Jeremy Till. "Table Manners." Architectural Design 68, no. 7, 1998: 31-35.

The dining table formed the design reference for Sarah Wigglesworth's new residence in London. The 4 drawings below were an exploration of the idea of order in architecture, documenting the transformation of the ordered set table into a house plan. From the perfect plan to the slowly undermined stability during the course of occupation to the palimpsest of the table and its remains after the diners have left.

I thought this was an interesting way to conceive a plan and intend to try this out during my project.

Rationale - the dining table is representative of the normal daily social interactions involved in sharing a meal. This interaction is important for building and restoring normal relationships, an idea worth pursuing in my 'architectural placebo' dwellings.

Eating Architecture

Singley, Paulette and Jamie Horwitz. "Introduction" In Eating Architecture, edited by Jamie Horwitz and Paulette Singley, 5-17. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 2004.

The book 'Eating Architecture' enticed me from one of the dark libary bookshelves - it's title beckoned with it's combination of my passions. Taste and architecture as a subject is hard to find, so this seemed to be a rare book.This was an interesting series of essays but probably won't form the main mix of ingredients for my project.

However, a drawing by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects in the introduction did capture my attention..

The Lay of the Table - an architectural ordering of place, status and function. A frozen moment of perfection. This is how architects see...

 The Meal - use begins to undermine the apparent stability of the architectural order. Traces of occupation in time. The recognition of life's disorder.

The Trace - the dirty tablecloth, witness of disorder. A palimpsest. This is the reality of domestic life.

This is then translated into a plan (9 Stock Orchard Street, London) of Sarah Wigglesworth's house. Clutter filling the plan, domestic difficulties interrupting the order of the grid.

See these links for more on this.

http://www.ediblegeography.com/dining-disorder/

http://www.swarch.co.uk/research/stock-orchard-street/

http://strawbalehouseislington.wordpress.com/design/

See also Architectural design 68, issue 7, 1998 pg:31  

Semiotica ab Edendo

Frascari, Marco. "Semiotica ab Edendo, Taste in Architecture." In Eating Architecture, edited by Jamie Horwitz and Paulette Singley, 193-1203. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 2004.

The chapter by Marco Frascari describes the relationship between taste and tactility, following Frascari's assertion that,

 '...contemporary architecture is almost entirely tasteless...This has, I think, resulted in a meaningless architecture.' 

This relationship is demonstrated linguistically. The word 'taste' in Greek and Latin (gustus, sapor) is related etymologically and semantically with the act of generating knowledge. The highest form of knowledge, sapienza (wisdom) is related to taste (sapor) as outlined in a quote he provides from Isidore of Seville:

"The word sapiens (a wise man) is said to be derived from the word sapor (taste) for just as the sense of taste is able to discern the flavors of different foods, so too is the wise man able to discern objects and their causes since he recognizes each one as distinct and is able to judge them with an instinct for truth."

The childhood phase of development when objects are interpreted only via oral satisfaction - a desire to learn though a form of cannibalism - is discussed in the context of surrealist Salvidor Dali's descriptions of edible buildings being a new poetic dimension of architecture. To eat the object of one's desire.

Frascari concludes with a discussion of deductive versus inductive versus abductive reasoning, that is:

• deductive reasoning = application of a general rule to a particular case to obtain a result
• inductive reasoning = inference of a general rule from specific cases and results
• abductive reasoning = inference of a case from a rule and a result, for example a chef understands when a piece of meat is perfectly cooked (a case) by inference from rule and results (practice)
• abduction is a productive inference and an instinctive activity

The reading was interesting in its discussions of 'taste' but not terribly useful though I did think some more about the distinctions between the different types of reasoning. That has led to my ability to articulate more easily my scepticism about evidence-based design being the cure for all. That is, evidence-based design and research results from environmental psychology texts are in the deductive and inductive reasoning realm, whereas the architecture I want needs to use more instinctual responses (abductive).

While the rest of the essays were interesting, I doubt they will add to the mix of ingredients in my project...

Returning home - Readings in Phenomenology

Time for Juhani Pallasmaa and Steven Holl, Peter Zumthor, Martin Heidegger...

I'd have to say that the most influential book I've read during my time as an architecture student has been the colleciton of essays by Juhani Pallasmaa, Steven Holl and Alberto Perez Gomez in Questions of Perception. Phenomenology of Architecture. Part of the reason it resonated so strongly was a shared experience I felt I had with Steven Holl in his description of his experience of the Pantheon in Rome. The powerful interior of this building had such a huge impact on me, in part because of totality of the experience - not just a visual but a spatial and temporal experience - but also the snippets of memories it provoked and what it represented to me. Memories of school art history classes mingled with the ancient, timeless impression of the interior, the tomb of Raphael, the sparkling shaft of light. The astonishing contrast between this interior and the surrounding haphazard lanes and stone walls, cars and scooters. This was 'architecture', a total experience. Something I was looking for to anchor my designs.

The architectural spaces described in this book are ones in which you are truly present in that moment, the spaces may trigger a memory which stops your mind skipping ahead and thinking about where you have to be. You're more aware of your breath and the quality of the air. The smells, the textures and sounds all combine to provide that unique, brief moment in time that gives you pause. Those are the moments that give you space to think of esoteric things like your place in the world, your smallness but also your value and meaning to others.

The importance of details, the things you touch everyday (handles, taps) is articulated well - I've always loved Pallasmaa's description of the door handle being the handshake of a building. It's true that I feel less of a connection with spaces that don't require any effort to enter, with generic automatic glass doors. You've entered those spaces without any acknowledgement, no trace (except perhaps a video surveillance image).

This book gave me a renewed appreciation of materials that collect a patina of age, displaying their ability to represent history and human use; glancing at a wooden hand rail may thus make you pause to recollect past events represented in the scratches and grooves.