Connection - Belly of the Dragon
 
Thesis
    Statement
    Concepts
    inspirations
    connection
       introduction
       sundial
       windmill
       waterwheel
       a planted tree
       footbridges
       dragon
       the path
       conclusion
    vocabulary
    Precedents
    Site
    Programme
    Scratch Pad

EcoResearch

Bibliography

Portfolio

     The ancient Chinese practice of Feng Shui has defined where to locate buildings in order to create a secure sense of place.  They call this location the ‘belly of the dragon’.  In an ideal world, this place is midway up the north slope of a hill overlooking water at the bottom of a valley.  Here you have access to the sun.  You are high enough to avoid flooding and pooling cool air and low enough to avoid the winds that blow over the top of the hill.  You have a view for protection against invasion and yet reasonable access to water.
    Locating a public place in ‘the belly of the dragon’ will naturally attract people and give them a sense of security.  Protection from the wind; exposure to the sun; a place to sit and get a view; and proximity to water appeal to us on a primordial level.  It creates a space where events can take place - where life can take place.  Buildings designed with this in mind offer their inhabitants an intangible quality that adds to their comfort. 

Any preconception about the way things ‘ought to be’ always interferes with your sense of reality; it prevents you from seeing what is actually going on -- and this will always prevent you from making the environment alive.  It will prevent you from inventing or discovering new patterns when you see them -- and, most of all -- it will prevent you from using such patterns properly, to create a whole environment. (Alexander, pg. 303)

    It is clear that not all spaces nor buildings in our urban environment are in ‘the belly of the dragon’, but new interventions in the urban fabric can repair rifts and help in the creation of this phenomenon.  This naturally implies a contextual sensibility for a site’s surroundings and the concept of urban integration.  With this sensitivity, the building itself would not have to be a masterpiece of unique design; rather, it should contribute to the overall livability and sense of place to its neighbourhood.