Friday April 29, 2022; 8:58 AM EDT
- How the Tao of Systems Thinking informs the interbeing, and ethical questions about the places we live...#
- Designers Whitney-Hall#
- We are a yin-yang design team. Mary Ann and I are grateful we had the skill and opportunity to design our own home together- over three decades ago. We applied the conceptual knowledge we learned as architects, and our animate intuitions and shared values. We have learned much from our home since then. This is what it says to us today...#
- Tao Generates One#
- "I emerged from the great void, brought into the universe in a natural unfolding process of design and construction. The land on which I live is a south facing slope, perfect to tuck into the hill and keep warm while peeking out at the sun in the winter. The sloping street next to me rose to a mound and then descended to a rain swale across the width of me. That, together with lack of financial resources imparted a frugal nature to my existence that limited what I could become. Constraints are a source of creativity from which I benefitted. Constraints generate solutions."#
- One Generates Two#
- "Yang energies forced me into straight lines for simple construction and less wasted materials. Bulldozers prepared my earth pad with a balanced cut-and-fill to save energy and earth material. Industrial civilization provided hookups for my sewage wastage off-site. Electrical inputs are from local hydraulic dams which lower my carbon footprint. Not all of my materials are harmless, but the insulation tempers heat loss and gain, and in general I am small, using less of everything. Small is beautiful."#
- "Yin energies provide me with living qualities. I mimic the conifer tree’s to shed rain water, and long overhangs shade my trunk in the summer but allow the winter sun deep into my interior. My boundary expands south into the yard in the summer when it is warm, and collapses inward in the winter when it is cold. Parts of me peek through the roof envelope so that I have eyes onto the world around me. I am comprised of four living centers that descend down the hill on which I stand, all of them with eyes to the south. The simple sloping roof changes height over the four descending living enabling a unique life energy to emerge at each. Simple is beautiful."#
- Tao Generates Three...#
- "I am oriented to the Sun, and know my place in the Universe. Yin and Yang energies flow though me harmoniously. As I live, I change over time. More efficient appliances reduce the materials crossing my boundaries. Better interior materials improve my indoor air quality. I am sad that I lost three of my Tree People friends on the south side in a winter freeze on my last trip around the sun, but my People have planned to change my eyebrows so that the warming sun is not so bright in the summers to come. I helped raise two young girls into fine young women that now have families and homes of their own. I am watching my People grow old as I too am engaged in my own natural processes or order and disorder. It is good to be alive."#
- ...and Three Generate All Things#
- "My good life is the result of a natural unfolding in creation, from stillness to movement- “Wu-wei” comes to my mind. My living qualities are the result of living patterns that bring life to materials and processes- “Li” is the Taoist term for the patterns that unify and structure our world. I am an expression of the underlying principle of unity and mutual interbeing of the 10,000 things, events and processes. I am Tao of Home."#
Friday April 29, 2022; 8:58 AM EDT
- How the Tao of Systems Thinking informs the interbeing, and ethical questions about the places we live...#
- Designers Whitney-Hall#
- We are a yin-yang design team. Mary Ann and I are grateful we had the skill and opportunity to design our own home together- over three decades ago. We applied the conceptual knowledge we learned as architects, and our animate intuitions and shared values. We have learned much from our home since then. This is what it says to us today...#
- Tao Generates One#
- "I emerged from the great void, brought into the universe in a natural unfolding process of design and construction. The land on which I live is a south facing slope, perfect to tuck into the hill and keep warm while peeking out at the sun in the winter. The sloping street next to me rose to a mound and then descended to a rain swale across the width of me. That, together with lack of financial resources imparted a frugal nature to my existence that limited what I could become. Constraints are a source of creativity from which I benefitted. Constraints generate solutions."#
- One Generates Two#
- "Yang energies forced me into straight lines for simple construction and less wasted materials. Bulldozers prepared my earth pad with a balanced cut-and-fill to save energy and earth material. Industrial civilization provided hookups for my sewage wastage off-site. Electrical inputs are from local hydraulic dams which lower my carbon footprint. Not all of my materials are harmless, but the insulation tempers heat loss and gain, and in general I am small, using less of everything. Small is beautiful."#
- "Yin energies provide me with living qualities. I mimic the conifer tree’s to shed rain water, and long overhangs shade my trunk in the summer but allow the winter sun deep into my interior. My boundary expands south into the yard in the summer when it is warm, and collapses inward in the winter when it is cold. Parts of me peek through the roof envelope so that I have eyes onto the world around me. I am comprised of four living centers that descend down the hill on which I stand, all of them with eyes to the south. The simple sloping roof changes height over the four descending living enabling a unique life energy to emerge at each. Simple is beautiful."#
- Tao Generates Three...#
- "I am oriented to the Sun, and know my place in the Universe. Yin and Yang energies flow though me harmoniously. As I live, I change over time. More efficient appliances reduce the materials crossing my boundaries. Better interior materials improve my indoor air quality. I am sad that I lost three of my Tree People friends on the south side in a winter freeze on my last trip around the sun, but my People have planned to change my eyebrows so that the warming sun is not so bright in the summers to come. I helped raise two young girls into fine young women that now have families and homes of their own. I am watching my People grow old as I too am engaged in my own natural processes or order and disorder. It is good to be alive."#
- ...and Three Generate All Things#
- "My good life is the result of a natural unfolding in creation, from stillness to movement- “Wu-wei” comes to my mind. My living qualities are the result of living patterns that bring life to materials and processes- “Li” is the Taoist term for the patterns that unify and structure our world. I am an expression of the underlying principle of unity and mutual interbeing of the 10,000 things, events and processes. I am Tao of Home."#