|
Showing 1 - 4 of
4 matches in All Departments
House as a Mirror of Self presents an unprecedented examination of
our relationship to where we live, interwoven with compelling
personal stories of the search for a place for the soul. Marcus
takes us on a reverie of the special places of childhood--the forts
we made and secret hiding places we had--to growing up and
expressing ourselves in the homes of adulthood. She explores how
the self-image is reflected in our homes; power struggles in making
a home together with a partner; territory, control, and privacy at
home; self-image and location; disruptions in the boding with home;
and beyond the "house as ego" to the call of the soul.
As our culture is swept up in home improvement to the extent of
having an entire TV network devoted to it, this book is essential
for understanding why the surroundings that we call home make us
feel the way we do. With this information we can embark on home
improvement that truly makes room for our soul.
A journey of healing takes Clare Cooper Marcus on a 6-month long
solitary retreat to the remote Scottish Island of Iona. Here she
experiences a mirroring of her soul and reflects and reviews the
life that brought her here to this magical place. Her compelling
memoir "Iona Dreaming" is an inspirational account of personal
survival and hope in which Clare shares her recovery from a
life-threatening illness, which deepens into a contemplation of the
events in her life and her physical, emotional and spiritual
healing.
Clare Cooper Marcus brings both a personal and academic life-long
interface with place, environment and people. Her five previous
books about human response to architecture and environment were
popular with the public and well-received by the press. "Iona
Dreaming" will reach out to a broad audience: people entering
retirement, dealing with serious illnesses, gardeners, lovers of
nature, architects and landscape architects, people who are
becoming more heath conscious, women who have shared the social and
cultural shifts she lived through--especially those coming of age
in the 60's--and all those who seek a more authentic life.
From the Introduction: Consider these two places: Walking into
Green Acres, you immediately sense that you have entered an
oasis-traffic noise left behind, negative urban distractions out of
sight, children playing and running on the grass, adults puttering
on plant-filled balconies. Signs of life and care for the
environment abound. Innumerable social and physical clues
communicate to visitors and residents alike a sense of home and
neighborhood. This is a place that people are proud of, a place
that children will remember in later years with nostalgia and
affection, a place that just feels "good." Contrast this with
Southside Village. Something does not feel quite right. It is hard
to find your way about, to discern which are the fronts and which
are the backs of the houses, to determine what is "inside" and what
is "outside." Strangers cut across what might be a communal
backyard. There are no signs of personalization around doors or on
balconies. Few children are around; those who are outside ride
their bikes in circles in the parking lot There are few signs of
caring; litter, graffiti, and broken light fixtures indicate the
opposite. There is no sense of place; it is somewhere to move away
from, not somewhere to remember with pride. These are not real
locations, but we have all seen places like them. The purpose of
this book is to assist in the creation of more places like Green
Acres and to aid in the rehabilitation of the many Southside
Villages that scar our cities. This book is a collection of
guidelines for the site design of low-rise, high-density family
housing. It is intended as a reference tool, primarily for housing
designers and planners, but also for developers, housing
authorities, citizens' groups, and tenants' organizations-anyone
involved in planning or rehabilitating housing. It provides
guidelines for the layout of buildings, open spaces, community
facilities, play areas, walkways, and the myriad components that
make up a housing site.
|
|