Firmness, Commodity, Delight
Vitruvius
Truth, Goodness, and Beauty; the full power of these subtle qualitative forces is beyond description. They capture the essence not only of architecture, but quality in all forms of life: Functionally, ecologically, and psychologically these properties structure and bring vitality to the places and things we find most charming or intriguing, as well as those best fit to our needs. Nature, through laws and rations supplies her creations with all the necessary tools for maintenance of order.
Ancient man understood how to use these tools to strengthen local harmonies in ways that gave structure to his world, smoothed over difficult predicaments, and generally simplified his day-to-day activities. Belonging to a time and place, each community assumed a unique character that was expressed through their arts, local handcrafts, and the skill sets suitable to local trades.
Unlike the rapid progress that characterized modernism, cultural growth in the past had always been slow and measured; change in any form was considered suspect and guarded against. Whenever adjustments did become necessary, whether institutional, ritual or practical they were made in accordance with laws of nature.
Permanence, distinctiveness, community benefit and ritual meaning carried equal value in the productions of early builders and craftsmen. They influenced the patterns and colors used in carpets and weavings; geometric forms shaping vessels and baskets; and engravings decorating utensils, tools and weapons—infusing designs with local character and collective meaning. Value based principles functioned effectively for thousands of years.
For modern man the clues to natural order have become muddled. Only the haziest memory survives, which we feel in our gut or call intuition. Our connection to community and place has become tenuous, and any roots we do establish are easily dislodged. We have become accustomed to a life of variability and adjustments.
Because of a strong scientific orientation, symbolic conventions—once a major element of art and literature, as well as the forms and patterns that embellish architecture—have been lost. A whole new approach and attitude will be required to extract their meaning and reestablish the old bonds.
Intuition no longer suffices as an effective guide for reestablishing firmness, commodity, and delight as essential to the integrity of everyday places and things, and at the root of purpose and meaning in life.While the imprecise and spontaneous nature of intuition may not meet the technical needs of modern society, the scientific method is equally ineffective at holistic integration of social and spiritual needs into a mechanized, materialistic world.
Modernism grew out of a culture mesmerized by rapid changes in state. Industrial advances resulting from rigorous application of empirical science were ever-present. Properties of the physical world were being counted, measured, and weighed with a level of accuracy and at magnitudes of scale never before imagined.
Whole worlds became physically visible that would have once been ridiculed, or considered artistic fantasy. Descriptions of the Hubble images of distant nebula, or the microscopic mites that crawl in our eyebrows, would have been dismissed as absurdities.
Unlike the objective nature of matter and energy, a quality is subjective. Even with today’s most sophisticated tools or calibrated instruments, the intrinsic value of a color, a joke or a mood like joy or sadness remains immeasurable. Traits such as beauty, harmony and truth, recognizable even to a small child, have eluded scientific definition.
As the functionality of measurable characteristics such as strength, volume or level were quantified, their perceived value increased. Key qualities that could not be quantified, numbered or measured lost value, often became inconsequential or even worthless. Whereas the sciences thrived in this atmosphere, the arts withered.
The physical consequence of this separation of art from science—or, quality from quantity—was that the most highly regarded facets of natures beauty, truth and goodness were forced from the marketplace, and thus out of daily life. Quality was alienated from its inverse principle quantity, when relegated to the province of art and separated from science.
Valuing quantity over quality, or matter over spirit is a phenomenon exclusive to modernism. Whereas quantitative functions like accounting and trade address material or monetary concerns, qualities like beauty and warmth assist man in a spiritual or psychological capacity, contributing meaning to experiences, and inspiring cosmic connectedness.
In a world focused on the bottom line, qualitative principles seem to float in an ethereal zone beyond the reach of ‘number crunchers.’ Although beauty and harmony are intuitively recognized as desirable traits, modern society has found establishing a market value for specific qualities impossible. Until we devise a way to quantify the qualitative, we will continue to live in the same lopsided materialist world.
