Designing a music cabinet

A center is a good center, or a profound center, when it seems to be a picture of my own self. However, in order to probe this idea, to establish this idea concretely, and to put this idea into the objects, buildings we make — indeed, into the world we make — I must have the utmost clarity about what it means. What it really means is this: A center is a valuable one when it makes me feel the ultimate existence of the world, most deeply. Everything hinges, in the end, on my ability to make this happen. It therefore depends on my ability to experience it, to feel it, and to act upon it. And it also depends on my ability to understand what it means, in the most concrete fashion.

Alexander describes in detail the process of designing a music cabinet. He tries to sketch something with feeling and focuses on the top of the shelf first, then the different depths of the top and bottom parts, and then the number of shelves within it. Once he draws something with more feeling, he moves on to sketch the next part. The last sketch he uses to measure proportions and scale up the sketch to real-size.

Which means the main purpose of the first sketches is to develop a form which has feeling, and then use the last sketch to figure out exact proportions.

#book/The Nature of Order/2 The process of creating life/14 Deep feeling#

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