| 12 feet of counter |
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Place the most Important part of the working surface in the sunlight—sunny counter (199); put all the kitchen tools and plates and saucepans and nonperishable food around the walls, one deep, so all of it is visible, and all of it directly open to reach—thick walls (197), open shelves (200). . . .
| 185 SITTING CIRCLE* |
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857
. . . according to the sequence of sitting spaces (142), there will be a variety of different kinds of sitting space throughout an office building or a house or workshop—some formal, some informal, some large, some small, laid out in part according to the intimacy gradient (127). This pattern deals with the actual physical layout of any one of these sitting spaces. And of course, it can be used to help create the sequence of sitting spaces, piecemeal, one space at a time.
V
A group of chairs, a sofa and a chair, a pile of cushions —these are the most obvious things in everybody’s life—-and yet to make them work, so people become animated and alive in them, is a very subtle business. Most seating arrangements are sterile, people avoid them, nothing ever happens there. Others seem somehow to gather life around them, to concentrate and liberate energy. What is the difference between the two?
Most important of all, perhaps, is their position. A sitting-circle needs essentially the same position as a common area at the heart (129), but in miniature: a well defined area, with paths running past it, not cutting through it, and placed so that people naturally pass by it, stop and talk, lean on the backs of chairs, gradually sit down, move position, get up again. These characteristics are vital. The reasons are exactly the same as those given in common areas at the heart (129); only the scale is different.
Second, the rough shape of a circle. When people sit down to talk together they try to arrange themselves roughly in a circle. Empirical evidence for this has been presented by Margaret Mead (“Conference Behavior,” Columbia University Forumy Summer, 1967, pp. 20-25). Perhaps one reason for the circle, as opposed to other forms, is the fact that people like to sit at an angle to one another, not side by side (Robert Sommer, “Studies in Personal Space,” Sociometry, 22 September 1959, pp. 247-60.)
In a circle, even neighbors are at a slight angle to one another. This, together with the first point, suggests that a rough circle is best.
But it is not enough for the chairs to be in a circle. The chairs themselves will only hold this position if the actual architecture— the columns, walls, fire, windows—subtly suggest a partly contained, defined area, which is roughly a circle. The fire especially helps to anchor a sitting circle. Other things can do it almost as well.
Third, we have observed that the seating arrangement needs to be slightly loose—not too formal. Relatively loose arrangements, where there are many different sofas, cushions, and chairs, all free to move, work to bring a sitting circle to life. The chairs can be adjusted slightly, they can be turned at slight angles; and if there are one or two too many, all the better: this seems to animate the group. People get up and walk around, then sometimes sit back down in a new chair.
Therefore:
| rough circle |  |
Place each sitting space in a position which is protected, not cut by paths or movement, roughly circular, made so that the room itself helps to suggest the circle—not too strongly—with paths and activities around it, so that people naturally gravitate toward the chairs when they get into the mood to sit. Place the chairs and cushions loosely in the circle, and have a few too many.
BUILDINGS
Use a fire, and columns, and half-open walls to form the shape of the circle—the fire ( i 8 i ), the shape of indoor space (191), half-open wall (193); but do not make it too formal or too enclosed—common areas at the heart (129), sequence of sitting spaces (142). Use different chairs (251), big ones, small ones, cushions, and a few too many, so that they are never too perfectly arranged, but always in a bit of a jumble. Make a pool of light (252) to mark the sitting circle, and perhaps a window place (180). . . .
I 86 COMMUNAL SLEEPING
. . . by this time the sleeping areas have been defined—couple’s REALM (136), children’s REALM ( I 3 7) , SLEEPING TO THE EAST (138), bed cluster (143). It remains only to build in the actual detailed space which forms the beds themselves—marriage bed (187), bed alcove (188). However, before we consider these patterns, we wish to draw attention to a slightly more general pattern which may affect their detailed positions.
In many traditional and primitive cultures, sleep is a communal activity without the sexual overtones it has in the West today- We believe that it may be a vital social function, which plays a role as fundamental and as necessary to people as communal eating.
For instance, in Indian villages during the dry season the men pull their beds into the compound at sundown and talk and smoke together, then drift off to sleep. It is a vital part of the social life of the community. The experience of the campfire is the closest western equivalent: people’s love of camping suggests that the urge is still a common one.
It is possible that sleep as a communal activity may be a vital part of healthy social life, not only for children, but for all adults. How might we harmonize this need with the obvious facts of privacy and sexuality that are linked with sleeping?
Of course, it is a beautifully intimate thing—the moment in the morning and at night when a couple are together, in private, falling asleep or waking up together. But we believe that it is also possible to create a situation where, occasionally, people can sleep together in big, family-size groups.
In particular, we can imagine a special version of this activity for metropolitan culture, where so often friends live many miles
BUILDINGS
away from each other. How many times have you experienced this situation: You have been out for the night with your friends and end up back at their house for drinks, to talk, to build a fire. Finally, late into the night, it is time to leave. Often they will say, “Please, spend the night”—but this rarely happens. You decline, and make the weary, half-drunken drive home to “your own bed.”
It seems to us that under these conditions especially, communal sleeping makes sense. It would help to intensify the social occasions when we do see our friends who live far away.
But the environment must invite it, or we shall never overcome our reluctance. People are uneasy about spending the night because it usually means having to make up a guest bed, or sleeping on the rug, or cramped on the sofa. Think how much more inviting it would be if, at the end of the night, people simply dozed off, in ones and twos, in alcoves, and on mats with quilts, around the main sleeping area of the house, or around the commons.