7 A paradox about uniqueness

The intense feeling of uniqueness in these houses comes, in part, of course, from the fact that each house was generated, uniquely, by the family who lives there and according to the demands and character of the particular bit of land where they placed the house. But it comes no less — I may say that it comes even more — from the fact that all three houses were built the same way, with the same rules of the game, the same construction details, the same approach or feeling in the way that they were built.
The uniqueness of the houses, the sensation that they are like nature, different leaves off the same tree, comes in large part from the way these houses were later built.

One might make the mistake of thinking that if each house had its own unique system of construction — as it would have in a typical group of “custom” homes, they would be more individual, more particular, and therefore more unique. But this is not the way it works.

The quality of uniqueness is a quality of particularity which stems only from necessity. Because the houses are all built the same way — each has the rounded copper plaques, used as ornaments; each has enormous wooden corbels on exterior beams; each has plaster outside and inside — because of this, we see the differences stand out more sharply. Only because of this are we truly aware of the differences. It is because we all have noses — essentially similar in shape and structure — that we recognize a certain person’s nose, mouth, eyes. The sameness provides the ground against which we see their uniqueness.
And just so with these houses. They are more particular, more unique, because they are all made within the same process of formation and construction — and the differences that come from place, person, and temperament are made more visible, stand out, are there to be loved — because they “beat” against the shared sameness.
That is where their uniqueness comes from.

#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/12 The uniqueness of people’s individual worlds#

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