HOUSE NOT HOUSE

Would our art be advanced if we eliminated nouns from our design vocabulary?

Bachelard advises us that if we want to find the essence of something, we should look to the adjectives. He writes that …”the world is not so much a noun as an adjective.”  P. 144

What if we took this thought to the extreme and eliminated nouns from our design vocabulary and discussion?

Let’s consider the word house. In it’s typical application, house is a noun. People ask us to design a building for human habitation. That’s what we call a house.

But consider the verb house. In this application, the usage becomes much more involving and elaborate. The use of the verb house implies the action of the provision of shelter or living quarters. With the verb, you house; you provide space for, you accommodate.

The point here is that the elimination of nouns might change our perceptions by causing us to think a bit more deeply about words that we think we understand. The elimination of nouns would help to focus our efforts on conditions and experiences, rather than simply a thing.

So when we could no longer understand a house as a static object, we would derive a design for living that is more tuned to how the inhabitants behave. That is to say, when a house is no longer a noun, we may indeed open our imaginations to far greater possibilities. One huge plus is that there would no longer be books titled 100 house plans.

So the next time that someone asks you to design a house for them, you might say, I’m sorry, but we do not use the word house in our office. But what we can do is provide a solution so as to house your specific needs and desires.

Granted, your ear may hurt after your potential client hangs up on you by slamming the phone down. Yet you will have the satisfaction that you at least their imagination was opened ever so slightly.

More background can be found at WAR ON LANGUAGE and LIPPITY LANGUAGE.

1.  Bachelard, Gaston.  The Poetics of Space.  Beacon Press:  Boston.  1958.  TPS.