Another, more down-to-earth, view of the need for fire comes from Mrs. Field, quoted in Robert Woods Kennedy, The House and the Art of Its Design, New York: Reinhold, 1953, pp. 192— 93:
During the winter months, when the children are often confined indoors for their play, it often happens that around four o-clock or a little after they become cross and grumpy in their playroom, or wild and almost hysterical with boredom. Then I light a fire in the living-room fireplace, and send the children in there to watch it; if the fire were not lighted they would continue their quarreling and perhaps try to turn the quiet room into another bedlam, but with the burning flames on the hearth, they relax into easy interest. They see things in the fire, someone tells a story that interests the whole group, they quiet down, leaving me free to prepare the supper and serve it. It lias a definitely hypnotic quality that can be turned to good account.
Of course, we must fac£ the fact that in many parts of the world wood and coal fires are ecologically unsound. They pollute the air; they are inefficient for heating; they are a drain on wood reserves. If we wish to maintain the habit of burning fires in the home, we shall have to find a way of supplementing wood fuel. For example, we can cultivate the habit of burning the inflammable materials that become waste around the house and throughout the community—paper, cloth, non-chlorinated plastics, wood scraps and sawdust. In short, if we want the emotional comfort that can be drawn from a fireplace, we shall have to learn to use the fireplace in a concentrated way, producing our own fuel from materials that would otherwise go to waste in our neighborhoods. It is easy to imagine, a simple hand press which people can use in their homes to press this waste into dense “logs” to make the fire more substantial.
Assume then that we are to have some kind of fireplace— perhaps something entirely simple, but an open fire nonetheless. Where shall we put it? There are four points to consider:
I. Certainly, the main fireplace should be located in the com-
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mon area of the house, it will help to draw people together in this area, and when it is burning, it provides a kind of counterpoint to conversation.
2. However, the fireplace should be in view for people passing through the room and people in adjoining rooms, especially the kitchen. The fire will tend to pull people-in and make it more likely for the family to gather. And also it is good to view the fire in passing. A welcome time for a fire is in the evening when the family is gathering for the evening meal; and the activity tends to balance between the kitchen and the fire.
3. Make certain, too, that there is a space where people can sit in front of the fire; and that this space is not cut by paths between doors or adjacent rooms.
4. And be sure that the fire is not a dead place when the fire is not burning. A fireplace without a fire, full of ashes and dark, will turn the chairs away, unless the chairs which face the fire when it is lit face something else—a window, or activity, or a view—when it is not lit. Only then will the circle of chairs which forms around the fire be stable and keep the place alive, both when the fire is burning and when it isn’t.
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| A daytime focus. | |
Therefore;
Build the fire in a common space—perhaps in the kitchen —where it provides a natural focus for talk and dreams and thought. Adjust the location until it knits together the social spaces and rooms around it, giving them each a glimpse of the fire; and make a window or some other focus to sustain the place during the times when the fire is out.
I 8 I THE FIRE
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glimpses from other rooms
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Even where the traditional open fireplace is obsolete for heating or where fuel is scarce, find some way of converting refuse, paper, scraps of wood and cardboard into logs which can be burned, and which smell good—perhaps with some kind of natural resin in a home-made press. Burn all the dry organic materials that do not go to the compost (178), so that the leftovers from the materials which come into the house all serve a useful function, either as fertilizer or as fuel; indeed, the ashes from the fire may go into the compost. Make a circle of chairs around the fire—sitting circle (185); perhaps these chairs include a window place (180).
I 82 EATING ATMOSPHERE
. . . we have already pointed out how vitally important all kinds of communal eating are in helping to maintain a bond among a group of people—communal eating (147); and we have given some idea of how the common eating may be placed as part of the kitchen itself—farmhouse kitchen (139). This pattern gives some details of the eating atmosphere.
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When people eat together, they may actually be together in spirit—or they may be far apart. Some rooms invite people to eat leisurely and comfortably and feel together, while others force people to eat as quickly as possible so they can go somewhere else to relax.
Above all, when the table has the same light all over it, and has the same light level on the walls around it, the light does nothing to hold people together; the intensity of feeling is quite likely to dissolve; there is little sense that there is any special kind of gathering. But when there is a soft light, hung low over the table, with dark walls around so that this one point of light lights up people’s faces and is a focal point for the whole group, then a meal can become a special thing indeed, a bond, communion.
Therefore:
Put a heavy table in the center of the eating space— large enough for the whole family or the group of people using it. Put a light over the table to create a pool of light over the group, and enclose the space with walls or with contrasting darkness. Make the space large enough so the chairs can be pulled back comfortably, and provide shelves and counters close at hand for things related to the meal.
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| light in the middle |
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Get the details of the light from pools of light (252) ; and choose the colors to make the place warm and dark and comfortable at night—warm colors (250); put a few soft chairs nearby—different chairs (251); or put built-in seats (202) with big cushions against one wall; and for the storage space—open shelves (200) and waist-high shelf (201). . . .
Many of the people who live in metropolitan areas have a weak character. In fact, metropolitan areas seem almost marked by the fact that the people in them have markedly weak character, compared with the character which develops in simpler and more rugged situations. This weakness of character is the counterpart of another, far more visible feature of metropolitan areas: the homogeneity and lack of variety among the people who live there. Of course, weakness of character and lack of variety, are simply two sides of the same coin: a condition in which people have relatively undifferentiated selves. Character can only occur in a self which is strongly differentiated and whole: by definition, a society where people are relatively homogeneous, is one where individual selves are not strongly differentiated.