SHELLS

“Everything that has form has a shell ontogenesis, and life’s principal effort is to make shells.” 1.

We have used the word envelope in these pages many times. We have stated that in the making of our transparent drawings, we are creating envelopes, or enclosures. The term Forclosure has been coined in these pages.  Indeed, as form creators, a most basic task is the creation and resolution of an enclosure.

So it is interesting to read Bachelard and his use of the word shell for envelopes and enclosures. The word shell is even better than enclosure, as indeed this more accurately describes our constructor mindset. Definitions of the word shell typically involve the words hard, protective, outer, and case.

I really can’t think of anything that we build that does not fit the definition of a shell. When we stick build a house, we really are creating a shell our of long straight and thin planes of wood. Or when we build a steel frame covered with panels, this truly is a hard protective outer case.

In Robinet’s discussion of shells, he is thinking of form from the inside out. When we think of a crustacean’s shell, it is formed and shaped from the inside. The form is created as a direct result of the animal’s life. And the shell is self supporting as a three dimensional form.

So quite possibly a more honest terminology from here on out to use the word shell rather than envelope. Quite possibly our use of the word shell will trigger some level of questioning of our form generation methods. Our more honest use of the word shell will jog our memories and imaginations.

Building shells is what we really do. I guess we are really no more evolved than a humble mollusk. And a transparent drawing allows us to see the shell in its totality.

1. The Poetics of Space, p 112.