Three Passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have led me to the kingdom of architecture: the longing for our outer habitat, the search for our inner dwelling, and unbearable pity for the suffering of us mankind as well as nature.
Since there’s nothing in the cosmos could be so self-sufficient to survive without its surroundings, the habitat becomes the most imposing and necessary of all activities in which we are involved in. I’m longing for exploring the countless possibilities of our outer habitat, not only because it is really an immense imposition and transformation of nature into Shelter, but if our choice of habitat is the wrong one, we are in for catastrophe… "feeling like being cabined, cribbed, and confined…"
With equal passion I wonder how to build the outer habitat from within ourselves as creative agents. “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society.” When penetrating inside my inner dwelling, I’m surprised to find how we could generate another dimension to the physical world we are part of — Emotion. The more we build up within ourselves by way of acting upon our physical surroundings, the more we are becoming a great expression of our emotion. Without the dimension of emotion, architecture and even the whole outer habitat are simply so "flattened out" … meager and pale.
Love and Compassion out of our inner emotion, as far as they are possible, lead upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Though, spanking new buildings are erecting everywhere, the unexpected prosperity enjoyed by human beings during the past decades helps to disguise some sentiments which are never too far below the surface. Since the limitations of the resources can no longer be ignored, we should be aware of the price, which is to take the Responsibility for our own actions. We are capable of building the world we are living in, and the fantastic ability comes with the very responsibility, which might serve as a catalyst for a revolution of our outer habitat in a wiser direction as well as a revolution of our inner selves.
That’s what I study Architecture for and find it worth striving for.
