#-came to japan first based on the architecture of a building or something. like

[archersgaymerblog]

Regarding Volo at the moment, but also in general with any hardcore villainized characters, I certainly get the sentiment behind wanting to not woobify antagonistic characters too much, but also like. I think for me, when the primary fandom take away is that a character is HARDCORE IRREDEEMABLE, NO GOOD QUALITIES IN THIS ONE!!! it’s almost like… an act of balancing out. Yes, I get Bad Man did Bad Things, I’m a person with a brain, but when it seems like EVERYONE is talking about how the Bad Man did Bad Things and needs to be, generally, physically harmed for the Bad He Did, it just feels like an act of balance to say,

“Okay but why don’t we explore this line where he said he’s experienced trauma before? And how he instantly backs away from talking about it under the explanation he gave himself that everyone must experience trauma to that degree?”

Or, “Hey, the guy has three friendship evolution Pokémon, two of which notably will leave their trainers if they don’t like them. Why do people extrapolate from that that he must be an abusive trainer?”

Or, gods fucking forbid, “Hey. Why is this character, who’s notably got indigenous roots to the setting, constantly being made the villain in angsty stories for the two white twins?”

Idk man, again I get not wanting to woobify too much, not wanting to strip a complex character of their complexity and the like, but if your takeaway is that any sympathetic or nuanced takes on a heavily villainized character is “woobifying,” like… idk, touch grass as the kids say. Who’s going to stop me, the Anti-Wooby Police?

[singular-yike]

Any thoughts on melon-chama? (What the hell is that nickname my brain just vomited Tenkai's not even young)

Ahh, Tenkai, known by many titles: The "Melon of Terror", the "Terrifying Flying Death Melon", the "Flying Melon of Terror"... "Melon-chama", apparently (It's fine Tenkai can get a little baby talk, as a treat for babysitting Sukune and Sese)

I'll admit I tend to overlook Tenkai themself as a character, treating them more as a lore expositor, but that's absolutely not all they are. Let's dig into One of the Old Dictators—Tenkai Zuifeng

Behind the Melon

Tenkai (天�� heaven border) is based on the 14th-century Japanese Buddhist monk "Tenkai" (天海 same pronunciation, different kanji).

Tenkai's (the monk) first Buddhist name was actually Zuifuu (随風), which is again similar in pronunciation to Tenkai's surname, Zuifeng (瑞風 lit. fresh, vibrant wind, taken to mean "auspicious wind"). Although Zuifeng takes a Chinese pronunciation of 風 rather than a Japanese one, a reference to the association between the concept of barriers (結界) and the Chinese philosophy of the Five Phases (五行 wǔxíng).

In addition to being a high-ranking Buddhist priest, Tenkai also served as the advisor to the shogun at the time, the great unifier of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu (on whom Tsurubami is themself based). This is the basis upon which Tsurubami's relationship with Tenkai comes from.

While the monk's later life is well documented, his early life actually remains an overall mystery. Perhaps similar to how Tenkai's own backstory is unclear, other than that they're related to a famous barrier builder and came from the outside world.

Tenkai's Designs

I'm not usually all that good at talking about the visual side of things, but Tenkai does have some unique points that I'd like to touch on

Tenkai's outfits are often compared to melons, specifically the Yubari King melon, which is hilariously enough Tenkai's favorite food. They are the only character so far to have actually received three distinct designs, aside from Sese Kitsugai:

There's their work outfit, which they wore in RMI and as a boss in BPoHC (the latter, funnily enough, has the words yuubari (夕張) on a sleeve)

Their casual outfit, which they wore as a playable in BPoHC

Their melon outfit, which they showed up in as Tenki [Melon] in BotC

In addition, Tenkai's headband is a part of a running gag from JynX, where they insist that they do not remember what they based it on. (Even though I myself confirmed with them what it was once lol)

Pixiv FANBOX 29 April 2022 — Donors-Only Article "By the way, I still haven't recalled what that stick on Tenkai's head was supposed to be. I'm sure it was based on something related to their character basis, but what was it...? Eh, let's just say that it's a melon's vines, alright?" — JynX

It is, in fact, based on nokimarugawara (軒丸瓦), a style of roof tiling in Japanese architecture. (As a bit of a side note, Len'en seems to view barrier building as they do any other type of normal building, making Tenkai somewhat of an architect themself)

Spell Cards

And we come to my absolute FAVOUITE part about analyzing Tenkai: their spell cards. There's honestly something to say about every single one of them, but here I'll focus on a particular set with a common theme: The Nikkō Tōshō-gū Shrine.

The shrine is a marvel of Japanese shrine and temple architecture, and is where Tokugawa Ieyasu was buried and enshrined, who, if you'd recall, is who Tsurubami themself is based on.

Here I'll go over a few notable locations and features of the Nikkō Tōshō-gū Shrine, and point out how they influenced Tenkai's spell cards:

The Shrine's Main Gate — Youmeimon Gate (陽明門)

It's directly named in the spell Youmei "Higurashi-no-mon", where Higurashi-no-mon (日暮ノ門 gate of the sunset) is another name for the gate, as it is so beautiful that one could spend the whole day staring at it.

The spells Inverted Pillar "Guri Carving" and "Reversed Second Pillar Among the Twelve" also reference the gate, "guri carving" refers to the swirling pattern on the white pillars that support the gate. (One may note that this pattern is also what Tenkai's shot options are like!)

While the "inverted/reversed pillar" refers to a particular pillar that's erected inversely to all the other ones, which can be distinguished by the very guri pattern on them. (Leftmost in the first image) This was done to counteract a superstition at the time that since completed buildings will one day break down, an imperfection should be left to leave it "incomplete".

The spell "Dragon Head Tiles" likely references the dragon head carvings on the gate as well.

The corridors on the two sides of the gate feature extensive and ornate carvings of birds and flowers, referenced in the spell Calm "Sparrow in the East-West Corridor".

Shrine Carvings — Nemuri-neko, Three Monkeys, and More

The card Closed Eyes "Nemuri-Neko" references the carving of the same name, which simply means "sleeping cat". Said to represent the peace that Tokugawa's reign brought to Japan.

Behind Nemuri-neko is a carving of several sparrows, to remind us that even in times of peace, we mustn't lose vigilance. This was referenced again in Calm "Sparrow in the East-West Corridor", the hard/unreal version of Closed Eyes "Nemuri-Neko".

Three Monkeys "The World is Impure; Shut Everything Out" references this carving of the three wise monkeys.

It always seemed, at least to me, that by basing so many spells on the shrine, that Tenkai is simultaneously paying homage to other architects of the past and thematically mourning the (seemingly permanent) departure of Tsurubami. A most beautiful collection of references.

And I think, that makes for a fairly nice stopping point this time, I know I haven't gone much into the in-universe side of Tenkai this time, but maybe that can be the topic of yet another deep dive :)

[lady-lancer]

A personal rant about why I dislike the inclusion of Celestica/Volo in PLA, or rather, the way it was used

If you're expecting a nicely organized essay, move along. This is one giant brain dump that has been percolating in my brain for months, and I just needed to get it out. 

Comments and asks are welcomed, but don’t expect to hide behind anon. You want to talk? Let’s talk.

Volo and Celestica are interesting in Pokemon Legends Arceus. And by interesting, I mean “why the hell are you here?”

There are the known parallels. Sinnoh is the Pokemon version of Hokkaido. Hisui has a new name because Hokkaido used to be known as Ezo by the local indigenous population - the Ainu.The Galaxy Expedition Team is obviously a parallel to the Japanese government colonizing (yes colonizing) Ezo into Hokkaido.

So that leaves the Ainu. My thought was that the Diamond and Pearl Clans are the Ainu parallel. 

So where does that leave Volo and Celestica? Well, Celestica is the Greeks, and Volo is an entitled brat.

Confused? Let me explain. 

Well, as this graduate student on AO3 writes, there’s a pervasive idea in Japanese history that the Greeks lived in Japan long before anyone else did. The TL;DR of the post is that based on the architecture of one important temple in Japan, the Greeks had contact with Japanese soil back in the BCE era. That theory includes the idea that the Greeks settled Hokkaido before the Ainu.

Now, if we take the parallels from above, that sentence becomes: The Celestica people settled Hisui before the Diamond/Pearl Clans.

This would explain the Temple of Sinnoh being very, very Greek-like, down to the Parthenon style building its in. It also explains why Volo wears that chiton Arceus outfit - because he’s Greek coded.

Now, why does this make me mad? Simple - because it makes it look like the Diamond/Pearl Clans are like the Galaxy Team - colonizers taking over a land that isn’t theirs.

And it's not just that. The Old Verses bring it up as well. And let me break down why it makes me mad!

Take Old Verse 5: 

The first line is clear: Long and longer yet ago, Celestica was here. But folk and town alike, both did disappear.

Celestica was in Hisui, and for some reason they “disappeared.” We have no idea why they disappeared. The only clue of what happened to them is most likely in Old Verse 20, where it states that the writer’s people - ostensibly Celestica -  ‘weep, to grief we fall, starved of light now it has gone.’ We know something happened to the people of Celestica. But it continues with “And some they go, despair withal, in search of it they reel and run. They quit their hearths, abandon hall, and leave our lands to be undone.” I read this as the people of Celestica choosing to leave, not being forced out, especially when you read the next part.

Back to OV5, the second and third lines are: In time, came new folk sailing, sailing ‘cross the sea, called by their love for Sinnoh, great and almighty. But diff’rent were the Sinnoh that each folk did hold dear, And bitter strife and angry war were always at the near.

The arrival of the Diamond and Pearl Clans. Reading between the lines, we see that the clans came after Celestica left. And they were called to Hisui by their love of Sinnoh. Eventually, they fall into battle because they can’t agree on who’s the ��right” Sinnoh, leading to the clashes that made the Clans dislike each other.

The fourth and fifth lines: ‘Celestica’ they called themselves, the name not theirs to take. Yet claim it from the past they did, for tragic quarrel’s sake. So once again did our name live, though all our people gone. But even if the name endures, its heart does not live on.

Now these lines. These lines grind my gears. 

I have scoured the game, looking for where the Clans claim to be Celestica. There is only one place I can find it: on the Celestica Flute. 

And I see nothing that tells us where ‘for tragic quarrels sake’ the clans claimed the name. 

The only other places the names of Celestica are found are in the ruins.The Celestica Trail and Ruins in the Coronet Highlands are the most obvious.There, you also find the Primeval Grotto, Ancient Quarry, and Sacred Plaza (where the statues of Dialga, Palkia, and shattered Giratina are). Outside of the Highlands, there’s the Shrouded Ruins and Solaceon Ruins in the Mirelands, but that’s it. Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t other, non-named locations of Celestica ruins, but I have only ever seen them in the area’s I named above. 

Now overall, why does this Verse make me mad, besides what I said above?

There’s a couple of things. For one, it insinuates that the clans don’t have the right to call Hisui their home. Just like the Galaxy Team, they came to Hisui and took over; they were not born on the land. Except that’s just human migration. Celestica left Hisui for some reason, and the clans came upon an empty land and settled. 

For another, it claims that the clans ‘took over Celestica’s name’, but again, there is no evidence for that claim. The clans came to Hisui following Dialga and Palkia. There is no proof that the clans even knew much about Celestica except for the ruins that remained. (And their interactions with Celestica architecture is interesting as well, but that's a discussion for another post.)

And then, Volo. Volo comes in, claiming that because he holds the blood of the ancient Sinnoh people, he is…. *checks notes* you know, I have no idea what blood has to do with anything. 

In the post game, Volo takes you on a journey to find the plates and Arceus. Then at the Highlands, he drops this tidbit. “You see, ever since I was young, whenever I met with something painful or heartbreaking... I couldn't help but wonder why life was so unfair. Why I was cursed to live through such things. Of course, I imagine we all go through something like that. Eventually, I chose to direct all my energy into my own natural curiosity and ambition. And what tickled my curiosity more strongly than anything were the mysteries to be found in legends, in history, in ruins... You see, I fancied that by unraveling these mysteries, I could find out how the world itself came to be–and with that knowledge, maybe even forge a new, better world!” Then you meet him at the temple, and you meet Arceus-hair version Volo. No more lead up, just *BAM* Greek Volo.

There's the subtext, of course. Volo claims to be Celestican, and has all the knowledge about the plates, the myths, ect. Ergo, one can consider that Volo learned all of this as a way to reconnect with his heritage. But that doesn’t fit, when you consider his ultimate goal: If I can meet Arceus myself, then I may also be able to subjugate its power... And using that, I will attempt to create a new, better world!

That… doesn’t sound like someone who wants to reconnect with his heritage. It sounds like a bratty teenager who’s mad that their parents enforced a curfew, and are moodily claiming that when they have their own house, they’ll never have a curfew. But ‘their own house’ is running back to the home their great-grandparents lived in and trying to evict the new residents, all while working with a loan shark to tear the house down to build one that suits them better.

So, let’s tie it all together.

Gamefreak has written a game that perpetuates a historical theory (that can’t be proven or disproven because of lack of evidence) that the Greek’s colonized Hokkaido before the Ainu (Aka, Celestica lived in Hisui before the Diamond/Pearl Clans). They claim that the Clans appropriated Celestican culture and presented it as their own, despite the fact that we see no sign of what is Celestican versus Clan based, after such a long time. 

They barely touch on it until the end game, where a blonde hair/ light eyed white skinned male coded character suddenly claims to be a heir to the land of Hisui. Volo feels they are entitled to their God’s favor, because they learned and searched for a way to meet Them. This becomes using God’s ‘banished’ child to cause another tantrum to call Them down. When the child that God sent to defeat them wins, Volo refuses to learn his lesson and states that he will meet Arceus and conquer it.

And now, the real world implications.

The Ainu aren’t the indigenous people of Ezo/Hokkaido. The Greeks are. 

Therefore, the Japanese government did nothing wrong in forcefully colonizing the Ainu people.

In game, can you see Volo as indigenous? Sure. But I’d be more inclined to think that way if we had more signs of other Celesticans. Or hell, instead of Celestica, a third Clan that followed Giratina. If Giratina was banished, then so was its clan. And Volo is here to get revenge for that. 

But no. We just get a man who wants to remake the world  because someone was mean to him. 

[sunshine-likes-drstone]

The Boy Who Built a Bridge of Stars

AO3 link • FF.net link

This story is based a bit on the story of the Tanabata Festival of Japan: Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively) are separated by the Milky Way and are only able to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunisolar calendar.

—

Long, long ago,

there lived a girl named Kohaku, a daughter of the King of Heaven.

She had an older sister named Ruri that she loved dearly. Her sister was sick and needed the healing water of the River of Heaven to be brought to her daily to keep her healthy. The only one fast enough and strong enough to bring that water was Kohaku, and she did it without complaint, bringing water to Ruri every day for years.

There lived a boy named Senku on the other side of the River of Heaven. He was a scholar of both the heavens and the earth below, studying the rules of nature and man alike.

He observed Kohaku on her daily journeys (for she took several a day), wondering what such a strong and healthy woman could need so much healing water for.

“Where are you going?” he called to her one day.

She ignored him and went on her way.

“Why do you need the water?” he called to her the next day.

She ignored him and went on her way.

For a week, Senku asked questions that Kohaku would ignore. Finally, curious and a bit frustrated, Senku decided he would build a bridge and ask her directly.

Kohaku was curious about this man as well—but she would not stop to talk while her sister needed water. When she came to the river one day to see a bridge crossing the river and the man standing on her side of it, she was startled but did not stop.

“Who are you?” the man asked, leaning against his bridge. “Tell me your name, unless you’d rather have me call you ‘lioness.’”

“Tell me yours first,” she said, putting her jug into the river to fill.

“I am Senku.”

“I am Kohaku.” And then she ran off, her jug full of water.

The next day, he asked, “Why do you need this water? You’re obviously healthy.”

“It’s for my sister. She’s very sick.”

The next day, he asked, “Do you do anything besides bring water to your sister?”

“No,” she said as she jogged away.

The next day, he asked, “Why do you need to take so many trips?”

“I can only carry so much at once, and my sister needs a lot of water.”

He was gone the next few days, and even though his questions were kind of annoying, Kohaku found that she missed him. She didn’t get to talk to many people. But she figured he had gotten bored—she did, after all, do the same thing every day.

And then he was back, with a weird thing behind him.

“It’s a cart,” he told her. “It can hold more than one jug of water. You pull it behind you.”

And suddenly Kohaku had at least half a day to herself, something she couldn’t even remember having before.

Intrigued by Senku’s invention, and very grateful, she went back to the river.

“Thank you,” she said. “What do you want in return?”

He shrugged. “I don’t need anything. I just wanted to help.”

Kohaku thought for a moment. “Well, could you use my help with something? I’m very strong and very fast, and you don’t look strong or fast at all.”

Senku cackled at her words. “So rude, lioness! But you’re right, I’m not strong or fast, so if you’d like to help me, I’d appreciate it.”

So she helped him with the tasks he struggled with, like cutting up wood, reaching high places, or finding rare minerals hidden in the earth. He told her about all the things he’d learned as they worked together, about math and architecture and physics and so much more that she didn’t understand. She helped him as he observed the humans below the heavens, her keen eyesight able to pick out things he was curious about. Even when she had more than paid him back for the cart, she kept coming back, to learn and to help.

And though he never said so directly, Senku greatly appreciated Kohaku’s help. If he ever thought of something that he thought she might like, he’d make it for her. If he saw something she might like, he’d show it to her.

Once they had known each other for a while, Senku asked, “Why doesn’t your sister move closer to the river?”

“She has to stay in the Palace of Heaven. It keeps her alive.”

“And the water keeps her healthy?”

“Yes.”

He hummed thoughtfully and focused on the fabric he was stitching together. “Why are you the only one getting the water?”

Kohaku did not answer this question at first, and Senku could see that it had pained her to think about it, so he did not repeat it.

“My sister,” she said at length, “can do her duties whether or not she is healthy. She doesn’t complain, so no one knows how much pain she’s in when her illness is very bad. I know her, though. I know she’s always trying to hide her pain, and I know that the water from the River of Heaven helps her. So I bring her water every day without fail.”

Senku thought about what he would do in Kohaku’s position, and was glad that Ruri didn’t have to depend on a weakling like him—she had a lioness for a sister, who would do whatever it took to help Ruri feel better.

Neither of them knew how many days or months or years they spent together like that, creating and talking and observing, but Kohaku began to notice that Senku spent a lot more time looking at earth, muttering about inventions they could use, as time went on.

So she was not surprised when he told her that he wanted to leave the heavens to journey down to dwell among the humans, to help them—for they badly needed it.

He did not ask her to come with him, and she did not ask if she could. She was a dedicated sister and would not leave her sister to suffer in her absence.

But he did hold out his hands, palms up, eyes more gentle than she can remember seeing them. She put her hands in his and he gently passed his calloused thumbs over her knuckles. “I’ll miss your strength, lioness,” he said, the closest he would come to saying he would miss her.

She squeezed his hands. “Well, I won’t miss your annoying questions at all,” she teased, her heart full of emotion.

Senku swallowed, then said, “Every year, every year on this day, I will build a bridge to visit here, just for a night.”

“Then every year I will be here to meet you,” she promised. And then she had to leave, had to run back to the palace, afraid of being tempted to leave her sister behind.

The first year, she did not watch the earth below at all, instead trying to spend time with her sister. When the anniversary of Senku’s departure arrived, she delivered the water, then went to the place Senku’s bridge would connect the heavens and the earth. She watched him try to build it, but the materials on earth were inferior to the ones in Heaven, and the bridge was not completed in time.

In fact, it was not completed at all. Senku worked night after night on the bridge (his days being dedicated to helping humans), having expected it to go as smoothly as the one he built to journey to the earth. He worked on it until the next anniversary of his departure, and the next, and the next, and on and on and still it was nowhere close to being done. After years of work and failure, he now knew it was impossible to build a bridge back to Heaven with the materials of earth.

With a heavy heart, he abandoned the project on the day of the anniversary (for he had not and would not forget). He looked up to the heavens, even though he could no longer see the land of Heaven, and hoped Kohaku didn’t think he had forgotten her or didn’t care. Did she still remember him? Did she still want to see him again?

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, turning to leave, feeling sick with regret.

And a shining star fell to his feet.

Confused, he picked it up and examined it. The light was still bright within it—it hadn’t burned out and fallen.

And then another star fell, and another, star after star littering the ground around him.

He smiled, for who did he know that was strong enough to throw the stars from the sky?

Stars in hand, he started a new bridge, this one built of a material as heavenly as it got—the stars themselves.

And he built his way up to Heaven and saw Kohaku again. She was panting from exertion after throwing him the stars he needed, but smiling brightly. “I should have known,” she said, “that you needed my help. I’m sorry I didn't think of it sooner.”

They spent the rest of the night together, talking as they did before, enjoying their time together. And they had missed each other so greatly, so dearly, that neither of them thought it was strange that they sat side-by-side, arms wrapped around each other.

Senku left Heaven just before the sun rose and the stars vanished, with the promise that he’d see her in a year if she would help him again.

He kept that promise, and Kohaku would throw stars down to help him. The only time the bridge wasn’t built was when it rained and the stars didn’t come out, and Kohaku and Senku would both deny shedding any tears when that happened.

It was actually a human that Senku had grown fond of, a young inventor named Chrome, who thought of something that might help Kohaku the most. Farming had recently been invented by humans, and Chrome had noticed that some areas didn’t get enough water to support crops. He built a series of channels and bridges to carry the water from the river to where it was needed, and Senku realized he could try something similar in Heaven.

He blessed Chrome for his ingenuity and waited impatiently for the night when Kohaku would throw stars to the earth.

Building the water-carrying system was ridiculously easy in Heaven. Senku asked Kohaku to build a pond where Ruri could reach it while he worked on something else. Kohaku was confused, but she trusted Senku and got to work. Soon Ruri had a constant fresh supply of water from the River of Heaven to use at her convenience, and Kohaku no longer needed to carry heavy jugs back and forth.

Before Kohaku could ask, Ruri gave her blessing for her sister to journey to earth with Senku. “I know you’ve missed him greatly,” said Ruri as she hugged her sister goodbye. “You shine brighter when you’ve been together. Thank you for taking care of me for so long.”

And Senku and Kohaku left Heaven to live on earth together, to build a life together, working side by side to help people as they built and invented and worked through problems that seemed impossible when faced alone.

And they were very happy.

@senhaku-week

[itsuki-minamy]

“K - THE FIRST STORY”

CHAPTER 13: ADDY (Complete)

* K - The First Story (List of Chapters) * Projects & Chapters

Translation: Naru-kun Raws: Ridia

His world was made up of many books and his sister.

Immediately after being called a genius brother, his life changed. They took him out of a school where ordinary children gathered and told him to study in a place where all the people around him were adults. There was no dissatisfaction or loneliness about it. He did not find anything funny in the school lessons that tried to teach what he already knew in a simple and one-sided way, and even in an environment without children of the same age, there was no problem as long as he had his older sister.

For him, a large number of books was better than a teacher, and the knowledge he gained from discussions with his sister became more and more profound. With his sister, he was absorbed in learning various things with his intellectual curiosity. The adults around them generously gave them what they needed to learn.

They told him to take part in the German military investigation when he was fifteen and his sister was seventeen.

They joined the military investigation team as requested. It was a tribute to the fact that they were given an environment to learn, and he also thought that the research and development site would be a place where they could play an active role.

Starting with the development and design of new weapons in the Artillery Board, they achieved several results. Apart from military research and development work, they wrote several treatises and obtained a doctorate. The teenage brothers' medical advancements were well received and sought after in the military, architecture, industry, and many other fields, and they did well everywhere.

It was in 1943, when he was 20 years old, that they were appointed chief and deputy director of a strange investigation.

"This is the Slate."

In the basement of a church in Dresden, he crossed his arms in front of the huge stone. Next door, his sister, Claudia, looked at him with a serious expression.

"Yes. This was embedded in the innermost wall of this underground worship hall until two years ago. There were rumors that a believer might see a miracle, and the institution of 'ancestral inheritance' excavated it. Due to this size, they did not carry it out and keep it here. Two months ago, in front of the guards, the same miracle that the believers saw happened."

He stood with his head held high when he heard the words of an investigator who was to be a subordinate in this investigation.

"It is a procession of the Holy Sun Han. A few feather insects formed a procession with a bright red light in front of this 'stone slate', and finally they were burned."

Well. The researcher looked deeply.

He approached the "Slate" and gently touched the surface with a geometric maze-like pattern.

It felt like a smooth rock. The hardness did not appear to be that high to the touch. However, the usual method has been found not to harm one.

"I wonder if the 'Slate' emits some kind of energy that affects living organisms. What do you think, sister?"

The older sister squeezed her kind expression, always smiling, and looked at the "Slate" with investigative eyes.

"It is too early to hypothesize that this bedrock itself is energetic. Perhaps the cause of the St. Johann procession was direct contact with the energetic magma or residual heat from the rock. I need a verification multifaceted."

"Yes. It seems that the truth of magma is a long way off, but let's start with the observation. It is very interesting. This 'Slate' has tremendous potential that no one has touched yet."

"I am also curious about the inscription on the stone monument that was excavated with the 'Slate'. The word 'King' written in modified Latin letters."

"I think the investigation begins in that area. It is a good place to probe, but it is very exciting, sister!"

When he returned his smile with his growing expectations and curiosity, she smiled as if she was in awe.

"Addy. You're like a kid again..."

Even if they called him a doctor, he would still be a child. With his sister, he was a free-spirited younger brother who was intellectually curious and enjoyed chasing what was in front of him, much like a child playing with toys.

"I feel like I can do it if you are with me, sister."

That said, the investigation on the "Slate" was extremely difficult.

He was appointed principal investigator of the investigation called "Project König", and his sister was appointed deputy director, and the elite investigators and the most modern equipment were prepared, but it was difficult to see the progress that seemed to be progressing.

To study the miracle, they first had to recreate the miracle. However, there was a long way to go to find out what factors could cause it.

For the moment, it took time to prepare all the measuring equipment, restore and decipher the pieces of the stone monument.

The investigation progressed dramatically after a Japanese officer arrived from Japan, an ally of the Third German Empire, in March of the following year.

Lieutenant Daikaku Kokujoji.

The encounter with him was important in his investigation of the "Slate" and in his life.

"It was an idea that he couldn't reach unless he met the Japanese magic lieutenant."

As he walked down the hall with his research materials, he said that he was ill. The lieutenant walking beside him flirted with a serious face.

"The opinions of the magic side would have been unacceptable to you, but thanks to the fluid understanding of the theoretical system based on the Five Element Thought, the progress of the investigation was rapid."

Lieutenant Kokujoji seemed to come from an "Onmyouji family" and was connected to a path that could only be described as "Japanese magic". The analysis of the "Slate" that the lieutenant had made from that perspective had taken a leap forward in the investigation of the brothers.

The Five Pillars is an idea based on the five elements of wood, fire, earth, gold and water. It seems that the "Slate", which suppresses the original power by sealing one of the items, was simply sealed like this.

The lieutenant used his technique to break a part of the seal and gave him knowledge. To be honest, he was too unknown to come to a full understanding, but he was able to continue developing equipment to operate the "Slate", and his sister and he built the theory of the energy that the "Slate" possesses.

"I don't think science is everything. If you stick only to the world you are aware of, you cannot wait for development. Thanks to the lieutenant, my world has expanded and I am sure it will expand even more in the future. W deflection modulator seems to be able to start early next year if it is in this condition."

He and the lieutenant were in the process of carrying out the institute's reports.

The Institute of the "König Project" uses the basement of the church where the "Slate" was found as it is. The place that should have been harsh is sacred because it is buried with various research equipment and materials. The air had completely vanished, but it was a familiar place to him, like his nest. In fact, his sister and he were building a house in a corner of this church. It was a small place for the brothers to live while they remodeled.

"Addy."

He hears a soft female voice. When he saw her, Claudia was across the hall.

The older sister who left the area where they lived approached them with a short run.

The lieutenant who stopped next to her seemed to stiffen his spine and was a little nervous. But this was not a bad tension. It is a thoughtful attitude of a young man towards a woman of strange age, and a reaction of a man named Kokujoji Daikaku towards a woman named Claudia Weismann who is "a little excited".

When she arrived in front of them, she first bowed slightly to the lieutenant. Her silver hair flowed smoothly from her shoulders. She had a soft smile on her gentle and delicate face.

His sister's facial expressions and movements were very graceful, but this is a bit different than when they were alone. In front of him, she came out more "squeaky", but with the lieutenant, she became a little softer and more feminine. A woman named Claudia Weismann was shown in front of a man named Daikaku Kokujoji, like a cute kitten.

"Thank you for your hard work, Lieutenant Kokujoji. Addy, are you ready to go to Berlin?"

"Yes. These are all supplies to bring."

He slightly lifted the box of supplies he was holding on his arm.

He was about to go to the party headquarters in Berlin to report on the current status of the "König Project". His sister and he were heading to Berlin with the lieutenant to explain that the long-defeated "Slate" investigation had finally progressed.

When he got up from the basement and opened the church door, it was raining outside. Large raindrops fell to the ground.

"It's raining. It's bad if the material gets wet..."

"No problem. I have an umbrella. Use it."

The lieutenant said that and opened an umbrella.

It was a red Japanese umbrella.

The skeleton was made of bamboo and lined with elegant red Japanese paper. The waterproof Japanese paper had a low sheen.

"Wow, a Japanese umbrella? It's cool."

"It's called an umbrella."

His sister, not the lieutenant, replied him, who gave a voice of admiration.

His sister had become thoroughly familiar with Japanese culture since she met the lieutenant. After the lieutenant sorted the Japanese ingredients that he received from his homeland, she became very interested in Japanese food, and had recently been thinking about it herself.

His older sister slid her slender finger over the bamboo handle of the lieutenant's umbrella.

"This is the first time I have seen something real. The skeleton is very beautiful."

His sister looked happily at the umbrella with a face that seemed delighted. The sound of raindrops falling on Japanese paper was a bit different from the sound of an ordinary umbrella and was pleasant to the ear.

"I want to go to Japan one day. In fact, I will see the culture and climate of the country where the lieutenant was born and raised."

His sister's suggestion made his heart stand out.

"I like it! Lieutenant, please give us a guide at that time."

She wondered if she would get a small answer, like a little carefree, but the lieutenant moved the military cap a little to hide his eyes from her and replied: "Yes.", in a shy way.

"I'm sure you will like it."

His sister and he looked at each other and smiled.

The three of them huddled like little birds in the lieutenant's red umbrella and walked a short distance to the car in a playful way.

The lieutenant was a collaborator in the investigation and at the same time the only friend to him and his sister.

The presence of the lieutenant blew a new breeze on both brothers who lived in a closed world with a wide range of knowledge, dedicated to study and research from a very young age.

Of course they talked about the "Slate" investigation, but they also talked a lot about other things.

The lieutenant listened with interest to the story of the investigation that his sister and he had done so far, and both he and his sister loved hearing the story of Japan from the lieutenant. The discussion with the lieutenant, who gave a sharp opinion from a different point of view than his sister, tended to be enthusiastic.

When the investigation got off to a good start, they had more work for their investigators than the lieutenant, and they loaned several books to the lieutenant who used to have more time. The lieutenant was a good reader, he read romantic poetry books that don't look good on his face, he read military books that fit his face and other books like history books, literature, plays, political science books, books of economy and several specialized books. He read anything. For Christmas, he also loaned her the first edition of "A Christmas Carol" that he read as a child. It was nice to see that lieutenant reading the fairy tale with a serious face.

He liked the printing of the book the lieutenant had.

Initially, the party headquarters in Berlin, rushed towards the outcome of the "König Project" and eager to hear the report, gradually waned interest in the investigation. The war situation deteriorated and there was no space to devote to research and other non-immediate effects.

Still, he was not told to stop the study. They continued the investigation of the "Slate", they left it half abandoned and unexpected. In a war that was to be ruined like an avalanche, they lurked in the underground laboratory of a quiet church in Dresden, on an isolated island, as they watched the violent muddy currents around them.

It may sound unscrupulous, but for him, the time spent there was a modest amount of happiness. He was able to dream the biggest dream of his life in a miserable time.

He hoped that, if this dream were to come true, it would glow in an era closed to darkness, leading to the realization of a world where everyone can be happy, regardless of war, enemies, or allies.

Almost a year after the lieutenant's arrival in Germany, the experiment that he believed in took shape and that led to the realization of that dream.

Based on the theory brought up by the lieutenant, his sister-designed W deflection modulator was completed by the end of the year. The functional test had been repeated since the beginning of the year and the results were obtained.

"Today, a formal initial experiment of the 'Slate' will be conducted with the presence of the lieutenant."

Before going to work, he put on a new lab coat to get excited. Commuting to work was just a short walk down the hall to institute. As he dressed in the living room shared with his sister, he suddenly noticed the carved wooden doll that was carefully displayed on the shelf and smirked.

It was a hand-carved klippe for him, the lieutenant, and everyone in the lab at Christmas. A set of dolls showing the Nativity scene. Centered around the Virgin Mary and Christ, Saint Joseph, the Magi and the angels are aligned. Between them, the two magicians, Gaspar and Melchor, were the work of him and the lieutenant. The personality and characteristics of each creator were reflected in strange ways, and it was strange that he and the lieutenant seemed to be lined up with mysterious faces.

It was the Christmas they held to hold their breath during the war, but that night, where he rode around the klippe he made for his sister, and a little gift with his sister and the lieutenant, was probably the most fun he'd ever had, can have been a holy night with hope for the future

Hope, yes, hope. He had hope beyond the miracles that this "Slate" brought. The lieutenant often raised concerns due to his personality, but is also passionate about the possibility of the "Slate."

He had never had a friend, but he thought he would be fine if he was with his older sister, but found the joy of working toward the same goal as his friend.

"Today I have to show the results."

Hoping the world would change, he turned over a new lab coat and headed for the "Slate".

That day there was tension between the investigators around the "Slate" due to an experiment that left an official video record to inform the top management.

"Ready to measure."

"Checking the Camera Operation."

"There is no abnormality on the 'Slate'."

"You can start the experiment."

"What about the example mouse?"

"Dr. Weissman will bring it in now."

With the serious voices of the aspirants flying around and the cage with the mouse in it, he walks to the experimental field connected to the "Slate".

The back of the mouse in the cage was marked in blue with ink. This mouse was a small creature with great "potential" that woke up during the "Slate" test the other day.

An experimental field, a dozen white mice had already been released into a large mouse maze almost 10 meters long, and they moved as they wished.

After confirming the situation, he lifted the mouse bearing the blue mark from inside the cage as if picking it up with both hands.

When he looked up, she found a serious-looking lieutenant standing in front of the experimental field. That day, it was the first time that he would witness the results of an experiment. After involuntarily smiling, he gently stroked the back of the mouse in his hand.

"Alright, it's time, little mouse. Show the good points to the lieutenant from Japan."

Showing the mouse he was holding, one of the researchers asked the lieutenant to listen.

"It is an experimental organism of the EX-Alpha group. It is under the influence of the 'Slate'."

EX-Alpha, that's what the "King" shows engraved on the stone monument excavated with the "Slate".

He gently left the mouse in a labyrinthine experimental field. An investigator in charge of the recording announced the start of the experiment.

"The blue mouse is ready."

The mouse was clearly different from the other mice that roamed the maze in an irregular manner. Lifting and wiggling his little nose, he catches the light of reason in his eyes and look around.

Suddenly, the "Slate" began to emit a faint blue glow. Just by looking at the sacred blue light from the "Slate" that had been there for a long time, he felt the unholy joy of receiving a colorful reaction from a person who had refused to approach for a long time.

A blue mouse in the experimental field was stained with blue light in response to the glare from the "Slate".

The bright light was also generated in the air one meter above the blue mouse. A sword-shaped crystal appeared from the round blue light.

"There is a reaction to the 'Slate'."

"Sword-shaped glow confirmation."

As the researchers watched, the blue mouse stood on its hind legs, wearing a blue light, and looked at the sword that appeared above it.

It was a beautiful blue sword with a hard mechanical shape. To humans, the little sword would appear huge to the mouse. The sword gleamed solemnly, point down. He believed that the sword-shaped blue glow is a symbol of "order."

After a while, the blue mouse started running through the maze of the experimental field without hesitation.

He never hit a dead end or wander in the same place. With a movement of being convinced of the way forward, he ran through the maze without hesitation.

Then the other mice moving through the maze suddenly changed their movements. They began to run with will and determined stride, and followed the blue mouse.

The mice formed a group and began to take in the same blue light as the blue mouse running in front.

The mice quickly went through the maze in the shortest distance, and when they reached the open area, they lined up behind the blue mouse and stood on its hind legs.

It was a strange sight. It didn't look like the action performed by a mouse, and he wondered if it was a mouse-shaped toy made by a human. However, this was the power of the group with the EX-Alpha of an individual "King". The group, led by the "King", with its sword-like blue glow, exhibited controlled demeanor and abilities comparable to trained human soldiers.

The lieutenant overseeing the experiment was impressed.

"Incredible! Will such power appear in humans?"

"Sorry, but this is just the tip of the iceberg."

Satisfied with the lieutenant's reaction, he smiled. He began to explain with an excited heart, illustrating on the board.

"The strength of the link with the "Slate" is proportional to the complexity of the brain. To be more precise, the deviation from the law of chance creates a force field that envelops the Beta bodies in the vicinity, as it increases its intensity in the form of a geometric progression. As a result..."

"Will an army of super humans be born...?"

The lieutenant said in a heavy voice.

Certainly, that is why the party is investigating the "Slate". Bring the miracle of the "Slate" to humans, create immortal soldiers, form an invincible army, and finally create an immortal realm of the Aryan scientific race with the "Transcendental Master Race". Of course, he knew that "miracles" were needed to reverse the crisis.

But besides that, he denied the lieutenant's words.

"No, lieutenant."

He wrote "Freude!" on the blackboard and laughed at the lieutenant.

"This will bring happiness to everyone."

What he saw was not the victory of the country. This "Slate" shouldn't be used for something so small. What he saw was the happiness of humanity that would enter a new horizon after ending such a foolish war.

When the lieutenant answered something, there was an explosion.

"Red mouse, shot down!"

One of the investigators yelled.

When he saw it, a mouse maze that was not the experimental field where he was filming exploded and broke.

A mouse with a red mark on its back lay in the rubble of a maze that was broken and strewn across the ground.

The power of the red mouse seems to have escaped. A red, sword-shaped glow spawned in the air a meter above him.

The red mouse had been confirmed to have a tough temperament and the ability to provoke a firing phenomenon. Since he doesn't do well with the blue mouse, he let him play in a remote-placed maze, but it may have been stimulated by the generation of the sword-shaped blue glow.

He giggled cheating as he pondered the fact that he should have kept it in a separate room, and he heard a woman's voice saying "Addy!"

Perhaps he rushed after hearing the explosion, his sister was standing. Recently, his sister was doing research on her own and she was often in charge of the "König Project".

As always, he was glad to see her face and shouted: "Sister!", and raised his hand. The lieutenant was worshiping in silence.

His sister ignored him and spoke to the lieutenant.

"That... is there a problem with my little brother?"

"I just showed you the experiment. Right, Lieutenant?"

"We have confirmed the remarkable results. It is truly surprising."

"Well! But the lieutenant thinks these kids are like tools of war or something! It's terrible, isn't it?"

When he made a fool of himself, his sister yelled at him, scolded him like a son, and pinched his side hard.

"You shouldn't say such things out loud. We are receiving a stipend for your research."

"That hurts, sister!"

The older sister who scolded him like when she was alone with her brother, she remembered being seen by the lieutenant, and she smiled a cute smile that seemed to repair itself when she hastily let go of her hand.

"Ah... Lieutenant Kokujoji. Please... ignore what I just said."

She wondered how he reacted to her. The lieutenant, who always maintained his strict demeanor, wandered his gaze in slight consternation and replied.

"Hmm... Don't worry, I don't understand technical jargon anyway."

Before the serious answer, his sister and him, looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

In front of them laughing, the lieutenant was trying to put on a serious and expressionless expression, but when he saw his sister, he lowered his gaze a bit embarrassed.

The miracle caused by the "Slate" would create a world where everyone was happy. It was the day that the dream they had begun to take concrete form and he took the first step.

It was supposed to be like this.

Dresden was a city that remained beautiful during the long war, with little damage from air raids.

Many Germans said that Dresden, which had nothing to do with the munitions industry and had little military importance and was lined with beautiful historical buildings or had high cultural value, would not be damaged by airstrikes.

It happened on February 13, 1945.

A myriad of Lancaster bombers flew over Dresden, showering blocks and incendiary bombs.

The city became a sea of ​​fire and many people died. They were evacuated to the bomb shelter, but many of them were vaporized.

The city of Dresden, where the anti-aircraft guns were no longer working when the air defense organizations moved to the front, was left unprotected and unilaterally conquered.

His sister, Claudia Weismann, also died there.

"Sister! Sister!"

A roar shook the underground laboratory intermittently. The smoke rushed in and visibility was poor. The upper church could be on fire. The air was terribly hot. It was painful from the lack of oxygen.

He moistened the washcloth with the jug beside the bed, covered his mouth, and crawled across the floor.

His sister was not in her room. Recently, his sister seemed to be studying the "Slate" from another direction by herself. Not being in the room probably meant that she was with the "Slate". He whispered to his consciousness from afar and crawled desperately forward.

"Sister! Uh, ugh…"

As a consequence of calling his sister and screaming, he inhaled smoke and suffocated.

Still, he didn't stop and called his sister many times in a weak voice.

It took an enormous amount of time to walk down the corridor, which would normally walk too fast, and push the door to the lab room with the "Slate" to open it.

Immediately after that, heat rushed from the hall to the point that it was incomparable to the hallway. He accidentally closed his eyes. He managed to open his eyelids, which he didn't want to open to protect his eyes from the heat, and he saw the scene from the hallway that was in the lab.

The roof had fallen.

The collapsed rocky shoreline was crushing the experimental equipment. It was the "Slate" and the body of the woman that collapsed in front of it that left a safe form.

"Sister!"

He ran as best he could and hugged her. His sister's body had lost all power and felt heavy. She had almost no scars on her body and she closed her eyes with a calm expression to sleep, but she was not breathing. There was no pulse.

His sister, Claudia Weissman, was dead.

On the roof of the collapsed hall, the part of the church on the floor was raging with fierce fire. The air was boiling. The moment the roof came off, he breathed in the hot air that had entered, he burned his throat and suffocated.

He was looking up in a daze as he held his sister.

He couldn't think of anything. They, who were said to be the two-headed geniuses of the Third German Empire, were once again unable to think of anything, and one was useless and vaguely gazed at the sky.

The flame swirled. The roof of the church had already disappeared, either from flames or bullets, and he could see the sky beyond the flames.

The bomber was flying. Although that was hell, they never got tired of it and kept dropping bombs. From above, despair fell one after another.

He vaguely thought that he wanted an umbrella.

A soft umbrella that would protect him from this despair.

One rainy day, he remembers that the three of them got into the Japanese umbrella that the lieutenant was carrying.

The lieutenant protected him and his sister from the rain, while he wet his shoulders and back.

The sound of the rain hitting the umbrella was soft.

His sister was laughing happily.

(I want to go to Japan one day.)

When he realized it, he didn't feel the heat or the pain that had been bothering him.

He looked at his body slowly.

His body glowed pale silver.

He looked away from him. The "Slate" also emitted the same silver light as his body. He knew that scene. That was a luminescence phenomenon that occurred when an EX-Alpha individual was born in an experiment with mice, in which a W shift modulator activated the "Slate".

He looked up again.

A silver light was born in the night sky where black and red mixed reflecting the color of the flame.

The light fell apart and spread like an umbrella.

The umbrella of silver light that appeared above his head glowed for a while and then lost its shape and became the shape of a pointed down sword.

It was a sword-shaped glow.

A huge sword-shaped silver glow that was incomparable to what appeared on the mouse, was silently floating in the night sky that dispersed despair.

A bomb fell next to him. He could feel it. The detonation would take his eyesight and the scattered projectiles would hit his body.

However, that which would have ripped his limbs apart in an instant, did not inflict a single scratch on his body.

He, his sister's body, and the "Slate" that stood abruptly while the surrounding substances could not retain their original form, were there without any damage.

He was an EX-Alpha individual, that is, the "King" who displayed the stone monument, the "transcendental master race" who sought the party headquarters, and had the power to "make everyone happy". It was what he believed.

"Sister?"

He shook his sister in his arms and called out to her. If he had become a "King" with paranormal power, he now only had one wish.

"Sister, get up."

By incorporating others into the feedback loop of the causal bias generated by the EX-Alpha individuals, a new causal bias is generated and 8 individuals are produced. In other words, it is possible to give birth to a "member" who has shared the power of the "King".

He instinctively knew how to do it. The brain naturally understands more than the knowledge acquired as a result of research and experiments. Upon becoming an EX-Alpha individual, a strong resonant action occurred between him and the "Slate", and what could be called the memory of the "Slate" was flowing.

"Sister, take my power. I won't hurt myself anymore. The sore throat that just burned me is gone. I won't hurt myself or die. So, sister, you too."

He developed his own strength and continued to pour it into his sister. Waiting for an answer from his sister. If possible, he wanted to give everything he had to his sister.

But his sister never opened her eyes. His sister was dead. The power of the "King" cannot bring the dead back to life. Everything was slow.

He was supposed to be the "King", and he only held the corpse of a single family member helplessly.

How long had it been like this?

Before he knew it, the hellish night was over and the bombardment had stopped.

The sky was white and the early morning air was rapidly cooling the rubble of the city, which had been set ablaze by fierce fire.

He heard the sound of military boots running in the quiet that made him think that all the creatures had died.

When he raised his face, he saw a lieutenant out of breath.

The lieutenant was supposed to have been in Berlin, but hurried after hearing the news of the Dresden bombing.

He laughed softly at the lieutenant who stood up with a clear face. His cheeks shook his smile, and for the first time he realized that he was crying all the time.

"Lieutenant. My sister..."

His sister's body was already cold.

The lieutenant moved to Berlin with him, which was completely useless.

The Dresden bombing was divided into several waves and continued into the next day, resulting in a tremendous number of deaths. Due to the large number of evacuees and refugees in Dresden, which was thought to be safe, it seemed difficult to determine the exact number of deaths. Many of the bodies were burned by a whirlwind of fire and suffered indistinguishable damage.

For a few days, he was dumbfounded. The lieutenant told the party headquarters that he had become the first of what they called a "transcendental master race" by the "Slate." In fact, at that time, he was like a wooden puppet, far from being a "transcendental master race" or a "King". As an investigator that he was pitifully burned to no avail, he was left unguarded.

"The reason for the bombing was found."

One day, a few weeks after the Dresden bombing, the lieutenant approached him and said.

"It was a leak of information. The allied forces that seized the existence of the 'Project König' decided that it was a threat to eliminate."

The lieutenant's voice was clear. No anger or sadness appeared on the surface, and he made a calm, unwavering and firm voice.

"Weissman. If you still desire the realization of your ideals, abandon your human life from this moment on."

Hearing the lieutenant's voice, he couldn't even lift his face as he sat on a chair and was choking.

"He reigns as the only 'King' and rules all human beings. He condemns the fools. The equality and prosperity of humanity can only be achieved by having the power of ruin beyond human intelligence."

He understood the lieutenant's words. They had been thinking of ways to make the miracle of that "Slate" desirable as they progressed with the investigation. That was probably the lieutenant's answer.

On the other hand, he had been thinking about it. How to make everyone happy.

But now he couldn't quite remember his thoughts.

"Fulfill the "King's" responsibilities."

He couldn't think of his thoughts. Of course he couldn't even put it into words. Still, he had the feeling that the lieutenant's words were "different."

He just shook his head wordlessly.

"Actually…"

The lieutenant said in a low voice and took the holster from his waist. He pull out the pistol and point it at him in one fluid motion.

"If you don't, I will. But there shouldn't be two 'kings' on earth."

The lieutenant's finger went off. He looked up and slowly compared the barrel, which was aimed at his forehead, with the face of the lieutenant, who was determined to look.

"A bullet... Is that the punishment for the great dream we had?"

"No. Weissman, you don't have to suffer anymore. If your dreams are sins, I will take full responsibility and punishment."

The lieutenant's voice remained calm. It already seemed to carry everything. The prayers of the late Claudia, the work of his trying to get rid of the great responsibility of the "King" and the lives of the people of Dresden who were burned due to the investigation.

"As the only 'King', I will carry all the hatred and resentment of the earth on my back and fall into hell. Therefore, I will not meet you in that world... Say hello to Claudia."

The lieutenant fired.

Shots rang out, but the bullet missed his forehead.

The bullet was still in midair in front of his head, as if it had driven into a transparent wall.

"It's useless…"

He said he, powerless in words.

"That's not good... Lieutenant, fear cannot make people happy."

The form of the dream he had was no longer uncertain. But he did not want to make the in-between world brought about by the rule of a lonely "King" beyond dreams.

"Give me time. The answer is... I'm sure there is a way to happiness."

The bullet that was parked in the air exploded and disappeared. No matter what the shell is, he was already a "King". Nothing could hurt his body, he was the "King".

The lieutenant waited without lowering the weapon.

"Do you think I can believe your words right now?"

"I do not know..."

He got up slowly and managed to laugh at the lieutenant, feeling that he was crying.

"If she was my older sister, I'm sure she would say that."

At that moment, the expression of the lieutenant that he hadn't trembled for a long time was distorted.

He said that with a mixture of anger, sadness and various other emotions and stopped.

In the end, the lieutenant never let go of the passion he had been through, but simply turned his back on him silently.

Two days later, he was kidnapped by a command unit of the United States Army.

"Dr. Adolf K. Weissmann, right?"

The men who intervened were camouflaged in German army field clothes, but it soon became clear that they were American special forces who came to seize the technology related to the "Slate".

Information about the "König Project" was leaked to the Allies, which was revealed in the event of the Dresden bombing. Not only did the "Slate" study eliminate the potential threat from the Third German Empire, but the United States seemed to have been interested in the technology itself. It was a plan that was about to be abandoned by the German center, but he vaguely thought it was ironic.

They stopped and seized him, and began a march into the mountains with the goal of joining the Allied forces clinging to the Western Front.

He did not resist at all. He was not afraid of the multiple weapons pointed at him, they handcuffed him and a soldier grabbed his arm roughly. It would take the power of the "King" to break the steel handcuffs that had been placed on both wrists. He was afraid of him.

It was not the judgment that he should hide the fact that he was a superhuman created by the "Slate". But stronger than that, the reason why he made the decision not to resist was an unmistakable "fear".

Without using the power of the "King", he killed his emotions and was attracted as he was, and on the second day of walking through the mountains, the march of the commando was greatly disturbed.

It seemed that the enemy had already started to take over his personality. The command unit, which had no land, was blocked by the pursuit unit, and gradually driven east, facing its original destination, the Western Front.

If he headed east as he was, he would reach the Eastern Front. While American and British troops were invading the Western Front, the Eastern Front was pushing the Red Army of the Soviet Union to the point where an all-out attack on Berlin was imminent. For the US commando unit, joining the Soviet Union's Red Army ran the risk of failing in the mission of stealing Adolf K. Weissmann's special confidential information from the Red Army's side, or worse, assassinating all members of the unit.

Looking at the faces of the Commando soldiers, who gradually became impatient and frustrated, he kept thinking vaguely the entire time.

If they could complete their mission and he was handed over to the United States Army, would he tell them about the "Slate" as they asked? Still, if they believe that "Slate" can bring happiness to humanity and he entrusted them with that dream, it was not an impossible option. He was like a salesman, but in any case, this war would soon be over.

On the other hand, what should he do if they joined the Red Army and fell into a life-threatening situation, or if they were captured and executed by a pursuit unit? Apart from the former, the latter was not something to be avoided for him, who was a German military officer. Rather, he would normally consider being rescued and punished by enemy soldiers a pleasure.

(No, Lieutenant. Everyone will be happy.)

The words he said circulated in his head many times.

Without an answer, he wandered through the forest surrounded by soldiers who were being chased and tired, that night they threw him directly to the ground and he fell asleep.

Feeling the cold that permeated his body from the cold ground, he dreamed of a conversation with the lieutenant again in a light sleep. From that day on, he remembered the exchanges many times and rebelled.

"He reigns as the only 'King' and rules over every human being. Condemn the fool. Human equality and prosperity can only be achieved by having the power of ruin beyond human intelligence."

The lieutenant said that in a strict voice.

What is a prayer? What is damnation?

For example, is the enemy who killed his sister and burned the people of the city of Dresden a sinner to condemn?

"Fulfill the "King's" responsibilities."

He denied with his head. He just shook his head weakly. Like a child throwing a tantrum.

"Lieutenant, fear cannot make people happy."

So how could they be happy? He believed that the potential power of the "Slate" would make people happy. What should he do to make everyone happy?

"The answer is... I am sure there is a way to happiness."

Really?

Could he really find something like that? No, did he really want to find the answer in the first place? Can he realize the method of happiness when he search for it and find it?

To himself with such muddy despair.

For himself bound by sadness, anger and fear.

If he really wanted to make everyone happy, what could he do now?

He was surprised when they called him and woke up from his dream.

"Hey, get up."

There was a grumpy voice. Realizing that the soldier had kicked him in the back, he slowly looked around him. The vague head of awakening slowly recognized reality.

"Go to the Captain."

The soldier said coldly and turned his back on him.

He got up off the ground in handcuffs. He went to the commando captain as he was told, looking at the passing soldiers, wearing dirty clothes with damp earth and leaves.

The handcuffs were heavy and would normally hurt his wrist, but his skin wasn't hurt at all. Nobody cared about the body of a prisoner of war, so he wouldn't suspect him.

"You called me, Captain?"

The captain was looking at the map surrounded by his subordinates. He looked at him with a flat face that didn't show his emotions.

"I'm sorry for the circumstances, Dr. The pursuit team is getting very close. Today we will move soon without waiting for the night to pass."

"Is that so."

"Dr., please provide topographic information to supplement this map."

"I'm not familiar with this area, so I won't be very helpful."

When he answered flatly, the NCO next to him showed frustration with the situation and hatred for him, and bit him.

"I can't take it, hey, stand up! Are you a genius and didn't even memorize a map of the country?!"

"Yes, Charlie. What happens when you say you know something you don't know?"

The captain controlled in a calm voice, but the surrounding NCOs tuned in to a man named Charlie and made a barking voice.

A voice that fears parting with the Red Army and contempt are mixed.

Dr. Occult Charlie, who was really delusional and investigating the "mass production of psychic bodies" pointed it out and cursed. The officers agreed and showed frustration.

US military executives may have had some interest in the "Slate", but for those executives tasked with stealing that information, it was a perception where life was at stake.

He was listening to his words in silence. There was pain. The dreams he had were scorned, pushed away and spit on. There was anger and sadness, but it was stronger and filled with a feeling of emptiness to give up.

The captain opened his mouth after hearing the resentment of his subordinate.

"I am also going to avoid joining the Red Army. I was thinking of getting further away from the chase, but they were unexpectedly quick. If we go any further, I would be behind the German front. Before that happens, I will look for terrain that will hide the entire unit. and I will move on to the pursuit unit. I will confront them and clear the way if necessary. Then, we will force the march to the western front. That is the mission."

With a dignified voice, the captain declared so. The NCOs cheered for inspiration from the stated life policy.

It was a thin thread of hope. The entire unit was desperately trying to hold on to the thread. However, he knew that the thread was easy to break, and that if the thread did break, death would be waiting for him, and everyone here, not just him, would hate him.

He was reflecting on their lives. What were his options?

"As a doctor here, it doesn't matter as far as I can see on this map. A ground where we can hide, please check together."

At the captain's words,

"Okay, that's it."

"Hey, how much did you help kill your countrymen?"

Charlie slapped him maliciously. The captain didn't scold him, but he said to Charlie, "We'll get out of here as soon as the scout gets back. Tell the soldiers.", And he hardened his attitude.

He also skipped instructions to drop off other subordinates, and the NCOs began to move accordingly.

In it, another malicious word hit his ear.

"If only my sister had survived, she could have enjoyed various things while she stalked."

The whole body was full of hair.

Instantaneous anger and hatred filled his thoughts with black, and he was taking a step forward.

The step lightly shook the ground with a loud noise.

He didn't know what the step was for. He didn't, but there was an undeniable killing intent in him at the time.

His sister's smile, the flames of hell that surrounded the city of Dresden, and his cold, hardened body shuddered at the same time.

"What? I mean, let's do it."

Charlie shuddered with a scared face.

What the hell was he going to do?

The passion cooled as fast as the moment it arose.

"No."

He coughed silently and stepped back with the power of the "King" that was about to express his emotions.

He couldn't do anything.

After all, he could do nothing and choose nothing.

(You reign as the only "King" and rule all human beings. Condemn fools.)

(Everyone will be happy.)

"Captain, the map."

He turned her back on everything and muttered in a dead voice.

After that, everyone turned around and didn't become obnoxious or talkative.

He made some supplementary corrections to the extent that he could see from the inaccurate map presented and, as he was told, showed where it seemed most suitable for the troop to hide.

Without including any other intentions, he simply derived and submitted the requested response. Deep in the forest that stretched across the mountains, there was a depression on the north side of the ridge that looked like an indentation. It seemed that there would only be one place where this number of people could hide.

Immediately the troops left and marched into the depression. They reached their destination before dark that day.

Here, they caught up with the pursuit unit approaching from behind and changed the direction of the march to target the Western Front. Since it would be a march of considerable strength to the western front, they had begun taking turns resting while preparing for the engagement when the pursuit unit found them.

But no one was willing to go to bed.

Suddenly, the sound of planes cutting through the air echoed off the trees in the forest and was heard eerily bulging, and the trees near him exploded.

It was a bombing.

Everyone in the unit immediately tried to lie down on the ground, but some were delayed a bit. The next bombardment came in rapid succession, crushing the last like clay dolls.

Within that, he was standing alone.

He quickly realized what had happened.

The impending manhunt was a move to bring the Command into that dead end. Germany decided not to recapture it, but to destroy it.

Without a recommendation of surrender, they unilaterally massacred with the arms deck of the tank unit that he had prepared.

A grenade-like thing hit his cheek and burned him. But he didn't even rip it off and he wasn't affected by anything.

He was stunned when the soldiers around him crouched on the ground and had to wait, trembling as they were hit by a projectile that crushed his body.

Explosive smoke, smoke from the dirt and body parts of the soldiers that were ripped apart by the projectiles splattered, blocking their view.

With the roar that even the screams near him couldn't reach, the smoke in front of him suddenly vanished and he could see Charlie crouched down.

He was crying. His eyes met. Until now, he had only faced malicious and hostile faces towards him. But now, they had all fallen off him and were there in a state of helplessness, trembling from the water that flowed from his eyes and nose.

A projectile entered before he thought of anything about it. Charlie's arms and part of his head grasped right next to him.

He was crying too before he knew it. He began to walk aimlessly, leaving it dripping without drying it.

"What should I do with them?"

There was no one around him who held the shape of a person.

"Everyone, then... should they have forgiven and saved them?"

He had that power. There should have been power so that no one could die.

But he didn't do that. No one was saved. That said, he doesn’t fight anyone.

He did nothing, they did not confront each other, they did not step on them, there was only slaughter.

The person who did it had his own dream, but he was dead.

"What did you want to do...?"

It was the lieutenant who protected him as he exited unharmed by the missile storm.

It was the Japanese lieutenant, Daikaku Kokujoji, who was entrusted with a power by the Führer, organized a pursuit unit and acted as a repellent himself.

The lieutenant who saw him said nothing. He knew the situation he was in and what he did or did not do, but he silently welcomed him.

The captain, who was in command of the pursuit, was terribly surprised to see him intact and protected, but the lieutenant cheated. The commando took him away, but he miraculously escaped just before the bombardment.

The lieutenant gave him winter clothes and rice balls made from rice cooked in Iikura. With the handcuffs removed, he received the rice ball from the lieutenant.

By the way, his sister, who was interested in the Japanese food that the lieutenant brought from time to time, served rice balls and pickles. His sister, who started her own research on fermented foods, which was considered the heart of Japanese food, produced a lot of terrible prototypes, but the pickles were good. Those went well with rice.

The lieutenant's rice ball he ate was sadly delicious.

There were various memories of the lieutenant, his older sister, and the three of them.

The meeting of his older sister and the lieutenant, who brought a new breeze to the world of the two.

Investigation of the "Slate" by trial and error of three people.

The Klippe that he carved with the lieutenant for his sister at Christmas. A little party that night.

Successful start-up experiment of the "Slate".

A dream told on the banks of the Elbe river.

"The "King" will open many possibilities and bring prosperity. With great power, he can provoke violence, or, on the contrary, squeeze it in order. However, he can be a force to protect what is important and, above all, he will change this situation. It has the potential to be anything."

On the banks of the Elbe river, he said that to the lieutenant and his sister. After a successful start-up experiment, he was fascinated by the light of possibility. The light looked like sunlight shining on a dark night.

"The dawn of humanity."

He does not cry anymore.

"Lieutenant."

He called out to the lieutenant as he looked at the half-eaten rice ball.

"EX-Alpha, the individual "King" creates an individual by incorporating others into the feedback loop of causality bias. You can share your strength with different strengths. My power as a "King" can be said to be to be immutable, a power that is unaffected by any tangible power, other than blue that has excellent mastery and red that specializes in destructive power expressed in mice. In other words, my individual B will have similar, if not immutable properties. I thought I would do that for my sister that night, but it was too late. My sister was dead. However, it works in the living. I was alive until then..."

He didn't quite understand what he was saying. Maybe the lieutenant wanted me to blame him.

He did nothing until they found him, because of his anger and the emptiness of his nest. He didn't even resist because he was terrified.

The lieutenant, who was silent the entire time, muttered a single word.

"Isn't there an answer, Weissmann... What do you say, the path of happiness?"

He couldn't return any words.

He was involved in aircraft design when he was on the Artillery Board.

He planned to organize it into an air fleet as a flashy new weapon, but when it was completed, the situation had changed so much that he was put to sleep in a bomb shelter without even flying.

The name of the aircraft was "Heaven".

At Tempelhof airport, on the outskirts of Berlin, he was about to leave with the Himmelreich.

The lieutenant who was walking a little behind him, had a stern look the whole time. The lieutenant knew well that what he was trying to do was not express the departure in neat words, it was just an escape.

"Are you sure you can break through allied air defenses?"

The lieutenant asked in a firm voice.

"Yes. Even at that size, it is possible to adjust the composition of matter and adjust it to me. Then it becomes an unbreakable shell that no one can invade. It is easy to get out."

Even his power, that he couldn't do anything, could easily create an escape route for him. Looking away from his own feelings, he asked the lieutenant.

"Is it okay for the lieutenant to be better than me? After finishing the cleaning, you will return to Japan by submarine."

"Yes."

"Are you really taking the 'Slate' to Japan?"

The lieutenant had already begun to deliver the "Slate" to the Japanese army and carry it out. Nobody was still worried about the abandoned "Konig Project" in the worst case, and he was able to handle it with the authority of the lieutenant.

"Oh. I should have said it by now. If you don't, I will."

The lieutenant's voice was unwavering. However, he was distressed by the lieutenant's determination and told him.

"Will you become 'King'? It's not an easy thing."

"I know." Said the lieutenant.

However, the lieutenant said throwing it out wouldn't help.

That's why he would.

At least to achieve the desired miracle.

Hearing the lieutenant's words, he felt like crying over defeat.

Unlike him, who was so desperate that he couldn't move, the lieutenant faced the light. He wondered if he would really realize the scene of the dawn of humanity that he one day dreamed of.

He narrowed his eyes and looked up at the sky. The color of twilight was spreading as the sun had just dropped beyond the horizon. The night would come soon. He would go to the night sky.

Crushed clouds flowed across the twilight sky.

"Everything flows and disappears. This war is over."

"Nothing ends."

"It's over for me."

Still, the words of a friend declaring that it was not the end under any circumstances, it was the only joy in the cold darkness.

"Finally, I ask again..."

"Bye, Lieutenant."

With his back to the lieutenant, he began to walk.

The distance between the two disappeared.

A huge rigid aircraft shaped like a whale. He walks to where his last home would be, traveling without destination.

"You run away..."

He heard a low voice.

An angry and scolding voice hit him on the back because he hadn't abandoned him during that time.

"You're running away, Weissmann!"

++++++++++

He drowned in the torrent of memories.

"Kukuku." A laugh rang out.

"You ran away. You turned your back on everything and chose not to get involved."

That's how it is.

He sent all his dreams to a single friend and he ran away.

"You didn't choose anything. You didn't save anything. You didn't do anything. You were afraid of your bloated dreams and you threw them all away."

Like a prosecutor reading the indictment, his voice pinpointed the crime.

"I won't blame you."

His soft voice stroking him suddenly, tickled his soul.

"Once again, throw everything away. I will pick it up and use it carefully. Anyway, you are empty. You have no intention of using that power for anything, you just have a surplus. Doesn't your heart seem to no longer is there?"

The voice laughed as he caressed the softest and weakest part of his heart.

"Leave it to me. I'll take all difficulties with you. You can also inadvertently close your eyes and dream of a happy high school student who has no responsibility. You don't have the power or the right to reject me, do you?"

He felt as if he were dragging him slowly to the bottom of the swamp. He couldn't resist, and was tempted to think that it would be easier if he slept like he was, as that voice said.

Yes, he had no power or right. He was a mindless creature who could do nothing, did nothing, and just floated alive. Whether his eyes were open or closed, nothing would change. He was caught up in those arrogant thoughts, and the world was going dark.

However, another voice emerged in his consciousness that was obstructed.

"I haven't given up yet."

"Neko is from Shiro and Shiro is from Neko!"

Kuro. Neko.

They kept looking at him the whole time.

He taught him the strength to never give up. She taught him the power of pure affection.

She gave him a name and kept calling him when no one else had.

As long as they were there, he could not abandon them.

He still didn't know how to be happy, but this time, he wouldn't run away doing nothing.

++++++++++

"Tsk."

The "Colorless King", who was repelled from the boy's body, returned to Kukuri's body with a pitiful voice.

"Kukuri!"

"Well, you're putting it off!"

The fighting voice of Kukuri and Kuro, whose body was taken over by the "Colorless King", was heard far from the boy's ears.

The boy was lying on his back on the floor and was looking vaguely at the ceiling. He still couldn't move well because his consciousness and his body were too big. He breathed quietly, so he was doing his best.

Neko, full of tears, was reflected in the boy's vague vision.

"Shiro! Shiro! Hold on!"

Oh, he wanted to tell her that she didn't have to see him that way.

Kuro, who had abandoned the pursuit of the "Colorless King", knelt beside the boy with a worried expression.

"Don't move! You were just attacked..."

He try to tell him that he didn't need any help. The piece of glass that pierced his abdomen finally fell off and his wound had been healed. Even if he forgot everything and became a helpless high school student, his body had unvarying power.

Before Neko and Kuro's words came out, silver power flashed on the boy's body. The power of the "King" that he obtained under a shower of bombs in Germany in 1945. However, after that, he did nothing and stayed alive.

Neko and Kuro stared at the boy who was glowing silver, speechless.

The boy slowly stood up and smiled to reassure the two with anxious expressions.

"Macht nichts, ich bin unverwundbar. (Don't worry, I'm immortal.)"

He then said that he was not hurt, but his facial expressions remained confused.

The boy kept talking to tell who he was. "Endlich habe ich verstanden. (I finally got it.)"

"So you're really the 'Colorless King'?"

The boy shook his head at the confused Kuro, saying that was not the case.

"Mein... (My name...)"

Only then did he realize that he had just spoken in his mother tongue, German, due to the sudden return of his memory. The boy changed the language to Japanese, which has been familiar to him for the past decades, and responds.

"My name is Adolf K. Weissmann. The first king, the 'Silver King'."

[tamtam-go92]

So, the thing is, my sleeping schedule is a little bit messed up at the moment, so I was bright awake tonight at 3 am and couldn’t go back to sleep any more so I kept myself occupied with random Sims related shit. So I tried to imagine how the neighbourhoods of the game would be connected if they were a country. So I took Germany, where I’m from, as a base (as you might see) and tried to match the ‘hoods with the climate imagine for each of them: Pleasantview: I’ve placed it at the region I’m living since I see a lot of similarities - we have a lot of really poor neighbourhoods and a lot of rich ones, sometimes they are only one street apart! Pleasantview gets all the seasons - spring, summer, fall, winter Strangetown: The eastern parts of Germany were really arid in the last few summers. Of course there is no desert yet but it’s been really dry so I moved Strangetown to the east. Seasons are summer, summer, summer, spring Veronaville: I moved Veronaville to the Rhine Valley, the architecture is fitting (at least from the Capp side of town) and it’s a fitting mild climate there. They crow whine there, and I definitely can see that for Veronaville. Seasons are spring, summer, fall, spring Sim State University: SSU gives me the image of the universities in my region, some run down, old and new combined campuses with some great buildings and some not so great. Seasons like Pleasantview. La Fiesta Tech: Moved it near Strangetown, of course, and took TU Dresden as example. Seasons like Strangetown. Académie le Tour: University Freiburg was what came to my mind. Rich kids studying philosophy for 15 semesters (no offence to those how studied there xD I wish I could have gone there!) Seasons like Veronaville. Downtown: At first I thought about the Ruhr district but then I had to move it to Frankfurt! Would have all the seasons, but has the rainy mild winter all big cities have so - spring, summer, fall, fall Bluewater Village: There’s a lot of water around Bluewater and I wasn’t sure what to do about that, it didn’t strike me as a real cost town until I thought about Lake Constance! It’s really nice there with a lovely weather all year round - spring, summer, fall, winter Riverblossom Hills: Of course this one is at the alpine region. They have a lot of snow and mountains. Seasons are winter, spring, fall, winter Three Lakes: The only vacation spot I kept on the continent. Struck me as the Mecklenburg lake district all the way up in north eastern Germany! Seasons: spring, fall, fall, winter Twikki Island and Takemizu Valley are on other continents (something like Maldives and Japan) Desiderata Valley: It’s a coast town and while I wanted it to have some nicer weather, the northern sea cost towns have some really rainy weather most of the time. So sorry Desi! Seasons are spring, spring, fall, fall Belladonna Cove: At first I wanted Belladonna Cove to be Frankfurt, but then the layout and overall style of the ‘hood struck me more as being Munich. Expensive and beautiful lots, as well as sophisticated inhabitants. It’s just meant to be! Seasons: spring, summer fall, winter

Yeah, I know, there is a lot in the south/west but that’s just where I’m from and I have to admit that I don’t know a lot of the middle or even east of Germany. There are a lot of other cities in the middle, maybe ones from other games. That’s just some small thing I threw together really quickly inspired by much better cards that are to be found on the internet. This is how I see it and how things are to be in the Uberhood I’m planning to play soon.

Hope you like it, suggestions are always welcome!

[project-rebirth]

Kurosaki Makoto - Between the Lines (1)

How long had it been since he had been knocked out?

Kurosaki Makoto could not ask or receive an answer as Darkness had filled his vision. he had remembered working a bit later than he had planned and had ended up going back to his house. However, the last thing he remembered was a black van coming out of nowhere and being grabbed by some guys.

And that was simply it. Nothing else he could think of that happened afterward he recalled.

But in that darkness, he had been given large amounts of information as various images came into his head. This was the result of his power that he had been born with for the better part of his life.

The first image he saw was that of a large city. The buildings and architecture were unique in design but Makoto felt as though he had seen it before. he could not place his finger on it, but it looked like something he had seen on TV or in a magazine.

the second was what looked like a conflict going on between armed people as well as with people with supernatural abilities? Based on the gear both sides was wearing he could tell that it was between what looked like armed criminals and some kind of specialized law enforcement.

The third was that of a helicopter that looked unfamiliar to him. It appeared that the helicopter in question had wings on it, six or so and it was armed with machine guns and missiles. Makoto shuttered thinking just how dangerous this thing was. It looked like something that would be used to be deployed in Afghanistan or something and the amount of destruction it could cause was something that he rather not want to think about.

The fourth was a bit odd. two figures leapt into the air and were clashing . One of them seemed to have wings, but the other did not. he couldn’t tell who the identities of the figures were, but he got the sense that they were people not to be messed with.

And the last one was something he couldn’t make sense of. In the image, he only saw one person, a boy with black hair, appearing to be styled in a distinct way that made it appear spiky, and appeared to be a few years younger than Makoto himself. His face expression seemed agitated as far as he could tell, and he even appeared to be yelling. But he could hear no such words.

He wondered what this all meant? What was that city? Who were those people, and why was he seeing a vision surrounding people he had never seen before? What had that spiky haired boy so angry? he pondered these questions before light suddenly filled his eyes.

*************

“...?!”

Makoto awoke in an unfamiliar place.

It appeared as though he was in a room with very minimal to nonexistent lighting and no matter how much he looked, he couldn’t see a thing.

He had been about to ask where he was, but then suddenly, a bright light turned on directly in his face, causing him to want to shield himself from the brightness.

However, as he tried to do so, he found that he was handcuffed to both sides of the chair, unable to raise his hands.

“Hey! What the hell? What is this?!”

“Greetings, Kurosaki Makoto.”

A mans voice spoke out from in front of him. it appeared as though he was behind whatever was causing the bright light, however, he could not see the figure well at all.

“I’m sure you have lots of questions. Mainly where are you, why are you strapped to a chair in a undisclosed location, and who might I be. I will provide you with answers.”

The man spoke, although the mechanical tone of it seemed to suggest that whoever this was is using some kind of software to hide his voice.

“To start off, my real name is unimportant, but you may simply refer to me as The General. That’s what everyone here calls me anyway. Secondly, you are no longer in the town you were brought in from. You are in Academy City, the city of science. An outsider like you should know what that is, right?”

Makoto narrowed his eyes. Anyone who didn’t know what Academy City was would have been living under a rock up until now. This City was well known around the world, and especially in Japan where it was based in for its scientific development and research into esper powers. He knew that such a city produced espers that were similar to him, although unlike Makoto who was born with his ability that manifested at an early age, the espers there were developed through drugs and machines. Then, they would be given some kind of rank or level that determined the output and application of such powers.

Makoto knew that much, and that the people who were considered normal were called Level 0s or something along those lines. But what was he doing in such a hyper advanced city to begin with? he was an esper, a Gemstone to be exact, but he had no connection to that city whatsoever.

“...What do you want?”

“We are a group that is seeking to overthrow the oppressive regime that is Academy City. More exact, we want to put those stronger than us level 0s in their place and prove that we can defeat a Level 5, just like how A Certain Unknown Level 0 had once defeated the Accelerator and the Railgun. To that end, we need your assistance. We need your power and your presence to do some jobs with us.”

“Oh yeah? And why the fuck should I join you? I have nothing to do with your little spat with this city nor do I care. I just want to get back to my ordinary life and not be bothered with crap like this.”

Makoto thought he had seen the figure behind him move his hand. It looked like he had something in his hand but for all he knew, it could have been a weapon.

He thought that they were going to threaten him at gun point, or maybe signal someone to come in and beat him up until he complied. His watching of western movies had influenced that line of thinking in what they were going to do to him.

But it ended up being much worse, despite it not posing any real harm to him at all.

The General threw what appeared to be four photos on the ground in front of him and upon seeing the photos, he thought he was about to go into cardiac arrest on the spot.

In those pictures was a girl, one he had come to know so well in the past week or so. It was the same girl who had revealed so much, who had admitted she had feelings for him, and who he had promised to not hurt and stay by her side, despite still being unsure of whether or not he had feelings for her to the same degree that she did for him.

“Y...You....”

As he stared at the photos, something chilling had just occured to him. These guys knew his full name, where he worked, and probably where he lived. It would make sense that they would also know who he talked to which, was not that many people before Grete had come along.

And for some reason, they also knew about his ability to see into the near future, something that only a handful of people knew. Makoto felt as if he had been violated. How long had these people been watching him? How much did they know about his life?

“Mamoru Grete was it? It would be a real tragedy if she were to get caught up in a... unfortunate accident.”

The General said, almost in tempting voice which caused a gear in Makoto to turn loose.

“Hey! Don’t drag her into your bullshit! She’s a completely normal person! She has nothing to do with your shitty movement or whatever the hell you call this is!”

“As I said, we need you to do a couple of jobs for us. If you manage to successfully carry them out without fucking it all up, then we will return you home and we wont have our... associates on the outside do anything to her. Now that you know what is at stake here, I will ask you one thing, and one thing once; Will you join our cause?”

Makoto gritted his teeth. This was worse than holding a gun up to his head. Someone he had sore he would never have hurt was being threatened, all so he could join their organization and work for them in a conflict he had no interest in whatsoever. It was scummy, and it pissed him off to his very core how they could be allowed to do something like this.

But in the end, what choice did he have?

He could be defiant, outright reject his “offer” and tell him to eat shit and die, but then this General guy could have his people on the outside mobilized and Grete would end up meeting an unfortunate fate, something that he very much wanted to avoid. Incidentally, they could always just kill him and dump his body in a ditch somewhere, which also terrified him.

Kurosaki Makoto wanted to live, and he also wanted Mamoru Grete to live and have a happy life.

So when it came down to it it was obvious what Makoto was going to do.

“...Alright. I’ll do it. I’ll join you and do whatever you ask me to do. Just don’t hurt her.”

The person known as the General smiled, although it was one that could not  be seen.

“A smart choice.”

The person stepped out from the darkness behind the light and Makoto felt something cut the chains that bound him to the chair. The General held out his hand, as if expecting him to shake hands.

“Welcome to the cause Makoto-kun. Welcome to MINUS.”

[un-enfant-immature]

Buildots raises $16M to bring computer vision to construction management

Buildots, a Tel Aviv and London-based startup that is using computer vision to modernize the construction management industry, today announced that it has raised $16 million in total funding. This includes a $3 million seed round that was previously unreported and a $13 million Series A round, both led by TLV Partners. Other investors include Innogy Ventures, Tidhar Construction Group, Ziv Aviram (co-founder of Mobileye & OrCam), Magma Ventures head Zvika Limon, serial entrepreneurs Benny Schnaider and  Avigdor Willenz, as well as Tidhar chairman Gil Geva.

The idea behind Buildots is pretty straightforward. The team is using hardhat-mounted 360-degree cameras to allow project managers at construction sites to get an overview of the state of a project and whether it remains on schedule. The company’s software creates a digital twin of the construction site, using the architectural plans and schedule as its basis, and then uses computer vision to compare what the plans say to the reality that its tools are seeing. With this, Buildots can immediately detect when there’s a power outlet missing in a room or whether there’s a sink that still needs to be installed in a kitchen, for example.

“Buildots have been able to solve a challenge that for many seemed unconquerable, delivering huge potential for changing the way we complete our projects,” said Tidhar’s Geva in a statement. “The combination of an ambitious vision, great team and strong execution abilities quickly led us from being a customer to joining as an investor to take part in their journey.”

The company was co-founded in 2018 by Roy Danon, Aviv Leibovici and Yakir Sundry. Like so many Israeli startups, the founders met during their time in the Israeli Defense Forces, where they graduated from the Talpiot unit.

“At some point, like many of our friends, we had the urge to do something together — to build a company, to start something from scratch,” said Danon, the company’s CEO. “For us, we like getting our hands dirty. We saw most of our friends going into the most standard industries like cloud and cyber and storage and things that obviously people like us feel more comfortable in, but for some reason we had like a bug that said, ‘we want to do something that is a bit harder, that has a bigger impact on the world.’ ”

So the team started looking into how it could bring technology to traditional industries like agriculture, finance and medicine, but then settled upon construction thanks to a chance meeting with a construction company. For the first six months, the team mostly did research in both Israel and London to understand where it could provide value.

Danon argues that the construction industry is essentially a manufacturing industry, but with very outdated control and process management systems that still often relies on Excel to track progress.

Image Credits: Buildots

Construction sites obviously pose their own problems. There’s often no Wi-Fi, for example, so contractors generally still have to upload their videos manually to Buildots’ servers. They are also three dimensional, so the team had to develop systems to understand on what floor a video was taken, for example, and for large indoor spaces, GPS won’t work either.

The teams tells me that before the COVID-19 lockdowns, it was mostly focused on Israel and the U.K., but the pandemic actually accelerated its push into other geographies. It just started work on a large project in Poland and is scheduled to work on another one in Japan next month.

Because the construction industry is very project-driven, sales often start with getting one project manager on board. That project manager also usually owns the budget for the project, so they can often also sign the check, Danon noted. And once that works out, then the general contractor often wants to talk to the company about a larger enterprise deal.

As for the funding, the company’s Series A round came together just before the lockdowns started. The company managed to bring together an interesting mix of investors from both the construction and technology industries.

Now, the plan is to scale the company, which currently has 35 employees, and figure out even more ways to use the data the service collects and make it useful for its users. “We have a long journey to turn all the data we have into supporting all the workflows on a construction site,” said Danon. “There are so many more things to do and so many more roles to support.”

Image Credits: Buildots

[denisehil0]

Another Glass Box: The Stalinist “Bunker” Edition

March 26, 2018 at 7:40 pm

cityscape

Another Glass Box: The Stalinist “Bunker” Edition

Mayoral foibles, Google's urban charm offensive, finalists for George Brown's new wood building, and how many avocado toasts will you need to give up?

By Dan Seljak

1

The Stalinist “bunker” in question.

Please don’t poke the mayor – Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson found himself criticized in light of calling George Bemi’s award-winning Ottawa Library a “Stalin-ist bunker”. Watson’s rebuke wasn’t so elegant, but the following debate explored how contemporary ideas of wellness and accessibility requires real investment in restoration and renovation.

Here in Toronto, Mayor John Tory was sent an open letter by a large contingent of the city’s urbanist intelligentsia, protesting his decision regarding REimagining Yonge, a proposal that would see changes to the streetscape in North York Centre. In short, the Mayor Tory has suggested a scheme that costs approximately $20 million more and retains the current number of car lanes, while the recommended plan (that has the support of city staff and the local councillor) removes one lane in each direction to add things like wider sidewalks and bike lanes.

2

A rendering of Google’s plan for Quayside. Image courtesy of Sidewalk Labs.

Big data city – Sidewalk Toronto, the massive project from Alphabet (aka Google’s parent company) proposed for the Waterfront, held two public roundtables late last week. It’s the first of many such meetings, where the public’s input will help shape the face of the development. For some context, over on Spacing, John Lorinc broke down the history of consultation on Toronto’s Waterfront.

Also released as a component of the meeting was a new app that maps historical photographs from Toronto’s archives all over the city. The initial reaction was largely positive, but as people used it, glaring errors and other issues provoked questions as to whether an incomplete but high profile app devalues the hard work of Toronto historians.

Google’s use of data on the site also came under scrutiny. Their mission is a bit of a tough sell as the public comes to terms with the Cambridge Analytica big data manipulations and Uber’s self-driving fleet killing its first pedestrian. I predict there will be some sort of larger reckoning as North American cities come to terms what it means to be part of a living lab. Arguably, social and economic theory has been tested in a living lab since organized government has been able to mandate policy, but I concede that argument is hard to make when crushed under 5,000 lb of autonomously propelled steel.

Now I’m truly on a tangent – but ICYMI here’s a compelling New York Times’ visual opinion piece on why autonomous vehicles may not benefit city design.

3

Shigeru Ban and Brock McIlRoy’s proposal for the new George Brown campus building, to be made from wood.

TIMBER!!! – George Brown has released renderings of the four designs proposed for a wood structure at its Waterfront campus. Contenders will present their designs on April 27. Early reactions on Reddit featured the eminent authority of internet commenters who worry this building is going to be destroyed by an errant cigarette butt before cooler heads prevailed – the entire thread is interesting exercise in individuals educating each other on a new building type.

Who are the players?

Moriyama & Teshima and Acton Ostry: Moriyama Teshima has historically provided Toronto with solid institutional design dating back to the Toronto Reference Library – a project that is still capturing cultural imagination. Acton Ostry is BC based and  recently completed an 18-storey wood tower there.

Patkau and MJMA: Patkau is BC based research/design firm, with a focus on institutional work like the recently completed Audain Art Museum. You might know MJMA for their community and athletic centres locally. MJMA won RAIC’s firm of the year in 2016 and has been putting out consistent institutional work for some time now.

Provencher Roy (this is a link to ArchDaily; as of this writing the firm’s website appears to be down and redirecting to ads) and Turner Fleischer: Provencher Roy is a Montreal-based firm and I personally am stoked to see some representation from Quebec. They recently won the National Urban Design Award from the RAIC in 2016. To my knowledge, Turner Fleischer is known for condominiums and big retail (like high profile Loblaws projects). Not to speculate too much, but their newly rebranded website and presence on this team might signal something.  

Shigeru Ban and Brook McIlroy: Arguably the team with the highest profile international firm on it. Shigeru Ban is a Japan-based firm with wood and design accolades – here’s their design for the Aspen Art Museum.  Brook McIlroy has done a lot of institutional and urban design work, and recently got a nod from the Wood Design and Excellent awards for their work on The Orillia Waterfront Centre.

Michael Green Architecture had some big news earlier this week with a mass timber complex being proposed stateside. Green set the record for largest mass timber project with T3 at 220,000 sq ft – this one more than doubles that. For those who don’t know him, Michael Green’s work has created a lot of momentum for tall wood buildings, with a popular 2013 TED talk that still inevitably comes up every time you mention the subject.

If you want to see some engineered wood here in Toronto relatively soon, The Star recently published an opinions piece by Christopher Hume featuring 80 Atlantic and its developer, Hullmark (full disclosure: I work at Quadrangle, the firm designing this project). The project is currently a hole in the ground but the structure is coming soon. And, while not wood, just a down the street Sweeney and Co. has another commercial complex coming.

4

Run the numbers – Realtor David Fleming broke down the costs and profits of the average Toronto developer. It’s a thorough take and worth reading. If you scroll down to the comments and you can see for yourself that the results basically proved what many already know: some people think developers make too much money and other people don’t think they make enough.

Mike Rosenburg, out of the Seattle Times, took a shot at patronizing millennial financial advice by noting that Seattle housing has gone up $266/day on average, meaning you’d have to give up 33 pieces of avocado toast every day to keep up. Apparently Curbed has also been at it with an entire instagram devoted to the subject. How does Toronto fare? Using TREB’s data from Dec 2017 and April 2016 in this CBC report, it looks like home prices across all types, on average, $521 every day. Assuming avocado toast is about $12, in that time period that’s:

43 avocado toasts/day

(Please check my math.)

Filed under urban design, Another Glass Box, Architecture, avocado toast, George Brown campus, Jim Watson, Ottawa Public Library, Sidewalk Labs, timber, wood, wood buildings

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[thetristoneera]

Sooooooooo, I’ve been working on a Mighty Ducks fanfic.  A lot.  A whole lot.  Like I’ve been spotted in flying V’s all fall, a lot.  Even in Minnesota a lot.  So the thing is, there’s a purified strong essence of inclusion with this fanfic. I have Asians, Indians, Blacks, Latins & Whites in the rank of the main team.  From all around the world, want to figure out how I came up with it? Well, here it go…

In a land of imagination… There’s a round table of elite spell binders that call themselves, “Full Guardians of the Universe”. Their technology is beyond splendid & their home planet is eons away from the Milky Way. It’s safe to say that they are immortals, friendly immortals; all they want to do is show their home planet how entertaining space travel is. Every time they come across humanoid species, they use their incredible chain of satellites to set up documentaries based on how interesting civilization is; that are light years away. They are beyond sneaky with how they move & have yet to be detected by anything; they look at Planet Earth for a full decade; researching it before they set up the Documentary of the Milky Way. They have dabbled in several things but all of them decided to indulge in hockey as the seventh documentary of this world. They have successfully infiltrated humanity to the point that they were able to do what they want within a ten year span but after deciding on making a free summer camp of hockey & to hand picked one thousand fifteen year olds around the planet for it; they didn’t mind extending it a little. After the summer camp came to an end, they created a scholarship for sixteen different academies, invited thirty students for each; veterans & rookies they found absolutely inspiring through out that summer. All of the parents say yes to it but no one knows how inspiring the Mighty Ducks Trilogy were to this magical round table. The scholarship is purposel set up for individuals to go after their dreams but they didn’t realize how entertaining the summer camp would become after the sixteen hand picked teams start a ruckus across their world.

Now, you may be wondering; why I did all this & how I came up with all of this.  It’s because of the euphoria I magically manifest in my own system.  Imagination land is an infinite place, the summaries, plots, stories & twists I create upon universes are not a joke.  I’m constantly filtering which ones I should keep or let loose.  This is one I definitely let loose, so here are the beans…  I’m in this fanfic, alone at first; like all of the rookies, we have ambitions that do not lie with hockey.  The veteran fifteen year olds that grew up with it or street hockey, were invited to the summer camp at a 3/5 capacity with the rookies being mostly 1/3 capacity.  The summer camp took over two months in Australia, in one of the most snowy regions in a facility that was designed to be a psych ward.  Because Full Guard had riches that were unlimited; they bought the facility out for preparation for one thousand kids while building two ice rinks & fortifying a frozen lake for hockey as well.  Because the spell binders were so powerful, everyone invited to the camp always felt welcomed because of all of the spells placed in the architecture, the vegetation & the grounds.  There was no excluding or bullying when it came to the summer camp because the Full Guardians of the Universe are of the Haaldeirez species; a humanoid carbon based life form species that are of thinner variations of human species.  They have gem stone based eye balls that glimmer & move at the slightest amount of light.  Comes in full spectrum of the rainbow but their insides are all black, from the bones to the teeth to their digestive system to their nervous system.  They always look healthy & fit but range from the adult heights of 6’ to 8’ tall.  Their skin is also the full spectrum of the rainbow but only in pastel colors; with thick to coarse to thin to fleauxing hair that are usually effervescent glow in the dark colors.  Unlike humans, the Haaldeirez do not have malicious DNA/RNA; they are completely peaceful as well as completely powerful species that have no real bound but the mortality rate.  Full Guardians may be around 22,000,000 years old but that’s because of the immortality spells they made that allow them to feed off of space air.  Majority of their maximum spells, hell; all of their maximum spells reflect from space air, since it’s immortal.  All of their satellites are built on nanotechnology that feed off of space air with fleets of gundams, mobile suits & spaceships that protect a Pluto Sized Satellite to send the video feeds they collect around the universe. Because of their intellect, even though their spaceship is the size of one of the Milky Way planets; they have cloaking mechanisms in place that keep them remarkably hidden.  As well as allowing them to devise their plans for documenting intelligent life forms; yet, the inspiration humans provide to them over the safe summer camp; will inspire them to make the sixteen special teams while giving all of the kids super powers while transporting them all the way to their home planet to learn how to deal with them.  They are not to be taken lightly, but no one will ever figure out about them because no one will ever reach their home planet; not any time soon at least.  Moving in a giant spiraling circle, the Full Guardians have traveled so far; the number of miles cannot be spoken in one or two breaths.  The total mileage is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000; give or take seven.  Wondering how they transport the kids to the Feiro Rotation (the Name of Their Galaxy) to visit Planet Ozeva.  The birth planet of their species that belongs to a single sun with a weird alignment of fourteen planets.  Each of them are aligned with one another, making seven pairs.  There’s two dead planets that hover directly over the sun, the other six pairings actually rotate, Ozeva was the first to habitat humanoid species; the neighboring planet that rotates ahead of Ozeva was the second. A planet of the next pairing behind their alignment was sustained naturally to habitat, so their species could utilize another planet.  The rest of the planets don’t have enough elements, life forms, are within enough distance of the sun with an ozone layer that can habitat life with out support or spell binding. The Feiro Rotation is a beautiful galaxy, but it looks like lavender mist outside of it because of all of the spell binding the Full Guardians have done since they were born.  All of the solar system activity with radio activity from the satellite feeds have changed it from being a misty white solar system to a misty lavender solar system.

Moving along, these kids…

Rookies: Diane Guerrero, Francia Raisa (Almendarez), Jaimee Wallace, Jared Tarquini, Jazmyn Wallace, Olton Vermillion, Selena Gomez, Sopheton Ferrara, Stephanie Tejada, Terrance Barnes & Tiffany Boone

Veterans: Brandia del Guozo, Emilio Mauvio, Emily Blackville, Jipzi Kiyoko, Jubilee Enayam, Juliette Blackville, LaSwan Black, Millennios Turaun, Zelena Crocodile & Zorik Kiyoko

Super Veterans: Atrotus Meteor, Chester Gold, Dylan Bronze, Eziki Xiahou, Idola Volbez, Localu Sugimoto, Rhiegot Jons, Theodore Castle & Wolven Silver

From Iceland to Canada to Japan to Mexico to France to the Pacific Islands to Ireland to the United States of America to North Africa to Great Britain to Turkey & to China.  Culture, heritage, nativity, ethnicity & attitudes across the board of a lot of differentials.  The Full Guardian who hand picked the Mega Mallards goes by the name of Lucius Logan to this world; he looks like Chris Chalk but talks like a molten double chocolate cake, in human form. His voice is hypnotic because of the spells in place he puts on himself, he means no harm but his real voice is very demonic to the point it has three echoes.  It’s how all of the Haaldeirez sound, like triumphant beings of massive power; so he tones it down to sound more safe, comfortable & deluxe.  The teams that syphon through the footage of the documentaries took heed to all of the kids he liked out of the thousand. All of his choices were out of a mere forty four but he felt that the connections made during the summer camp had to stay connected; especially when it came to the twin sisters.  There’s a lot of back stories in between them individually but collectively, this team belongs together like the fifteen other special teams made during this epilogue.  Wondering how I’m going to turn it into an epilogue?  Well…

Full Guardians of the Universe will bestow fifteen super powers onto the kids of their teams, a boy & a girl with the same power each; down the line & connecting five of the powers for each gender with an animal. Making six animals in a group of five connected by the super powers for each gender, acting as the catalysts needed to make the spells work to give the kids super being qualities so they can harness super powers safely.  In order to bring that into effect, upon the night before the first day of school; the kids will have three pieces of chocolate connected by a spell called Decadence Projection Existence.  Making it so that something delicious will project their vessels across existence; even dimensions.  The kids will be transported to one of the space colonies over Planet Ozeva, in a circle of thirty rainbow lit incubation teleportation beds; so that the kids’ bodies will appear in two places at once, but eight days behind their time. Because for every hour they sleep, is a day in the Feiro Rotation.  Yup! Gotcha!  Didn’t think I was going to do that huh?  So the kids will be talked into having super powers, why they were chosen, where they are & the whole learning process of everything. Where they’ll be guided magically into their super powers, get some space travel in, learn how to space travel & break into the atmosphere of Planet Ozeva to be welcomed by a parade of people that have seen the Documentary Ending of the Milky Way. Into a grand palace for the kids to stay the eight days while their real bodies are sleep.  Their lives will forever be changed by this & when they wake up in real time; all of them will still be able to access their memories so that they can use their powers successfully.  The fifteen powers are: astronomy, dark, death, earth, electricity/lightning, explosion, fire, life light, mirror, psychic, rainbow, vegetation, water & wind.

If you’re wondering, the mother ship of the Full Guardians of the Universe is named Valdepozeiron.  They have it cloaked directly above our solar system, the same distance from the sun as Planet Earth is.  They have decided to stick around for four years to watch the kids grow through out high school as hockey players, in light of the Mighty Ducks.  After every graduation of a grade, the kids will endure a sixteen team tournament.  The outcomes will always be different but Full Guardians won’t tell them that the final tournament will depict which team will face their genetically made Mighty Ducks team that includes all of the characters from the movies who have been raised in an alternate dimension where everyone on the team went through a similar high school situation as the kids did.  So yes, this fanfic will be developed as a four season fanfic.  So yes, I realize how ridiculous my imagination is.  So yes, you can ask me questions.  Unless you have my Facebook; my Facebook is where all of their individual background stories reside but lastly; I will describe the relationships to be among the team.

Stephanie Tejada, Jaimee Wallace & Jazmyn Wallace are all of the BGC alumni; I love them so because they are mad hilarious & yes I’ve imagined them as characters who play hockey even with them starting off as rookies at the ages of fifteen.  Stephanie will eventually get into a budding relationship, separate ones with a few guys of the Moonfield Academy; where the entire team is stationed at.  Jaimee & Theodore will eventually become an item.  Jazmyn & Dylan will eventually become an item.

Chester Gold, Wolven Silver & Dylan Bronze are all friends who grew up together in the peewee leagues of hockey in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The three of them together have played so much, they are considered super veterans. They are destined to enter the big leagues professionally with all of them having the ability to be on an Olympic team.  The three of them even know LaSwan & have lost against his team on occasion.  Chester will find himself in many messed up situations with Emily & Juliette; because both of them like Chester & he likes the both of them in return.  Drama. Dylan & Jazmyn will eventually become an item.  Wolven & Terrance became an item during the summer camp then turned into pen pals when it was over; but became an item again once they both arrived at Moonfield Academy.

Zelena Crocodile & Brandia del Guozo will eventually become an item.

Jared Tarquini & Olton Vermillion will eventually become an item.

Sopheton Ferrara & Rhiegot Jons will eventually become an item.

Jipzi Kiyoko, Zorik Kiyoko & Localu Sugimoto all grew up together to be best friends in the matter of which their party-holic parents are best friends.  Even as neighbors.  Gulp. All three of them have tremendous intellect that makes everyone question why on earth are they into hockey.  Yet, their parents let them be who they want to be. During the summer camp, halfway; when the rookies were finally mixed to be with the vets in terms of room arrangements; that’s when Lucius discovered that majority of his team would form right before his eyes.  Jipzi, Jubilee, Jaimee, Jazmyn & Localu immediately become best friends way before they make it to the camp because the announcement of the scholarship listings. The five of them were already a nuisance hurricane in the summer camp because of their connections with Stephanie, Tiffany, Emily & Juliette.  Jipzi & Eziki will eventually become an item.  Zorik & Tiffany will eventually become an item.  Localu will keep the promise to her father about not dating anyone during high school.

Emilio Mauvio & Diane Guerrero will eventually become an item.

Jubilee Enayam & Atrotus Meteor will eventually become an item.

Idola Volbez & Millennios Turaun will eventually become an item.

LaSwan Black’s history with the Metalloids (Gold, Silver & Bronze) will unfold to make LaSwan more of a threat as a hockey player.  They have squared off on the ice before the summer camp but didn’t during the summer camp because they were deemed as two different classes.  Yet, before the hockey season begins, LaSwan will continue to be a threat to the three of them when it comes down to fighting for positions on the team.  Like the super veterans, LaSwan has definite leadership qualities that deem him as captain material.  When the coaches begin the deliberations for team positions; rivalries among the team will start to build because LaSwan will be the main person trying to set a standard for the team, in the same ways he did in the peewee leagues.

One big happy family, for the most part, during the summer camp; all of them got along.  Arriving at the airport in Minneapolis; the home guys even stayed there until everyone’s flights arrived.  The thirty of them reunited & shared group photos to be added to their social media sites.  Had a ball on the shuttle ride over to Moonfield Academy, then had a ball seeing the mansion they were all going to be staying in.  A beautiful spacious mansion with a huge cylinder in the middle that had fifteen individual girl rooms on the second floor & the same for the guys on the third floor.  They had everything they needed & more, because Lucius wasn’t shy with spoiling them at any chance; but they won’t figure that out until the hockey season actually starts then Jaimee & Jazmyn are going to joke about going on a shopping spree.  But if I ever make it as a writer, this will be one of my guaranteed fanfics.  Like the Streets of Rage, Spyro the Dragon & Zombies Ate My Neighbors fanfics…

PS there are sixteen members of the Full Guardians of the Universe; they have merrily sat around their round table for more than twenty million years.  And yes, every crew member of their mother ship are welcome to sit in on their round table meetings as well as watch the broadcasts of them.

[suzanneshannon]

Cross-Cultural Design

When I first traveled to Japan as an exchange student in 2001, I lived in northern Kyoto, a block from the Kitayama subway station.

My first time using the train to get to my university was almost a disaster, even though it was only two subway stops away. I thought I had everything I needed to successfully make the trip. I double- and triple-checked that I had the correct change in one pocket and a computer printout of where I was supposed to go in the other. I was able to make it down into the station, but then I just stood at a ticket machine, dumbfounded, looking at all the flashing lights, buttons, and maps above my head (Fig 5.1). Everything was so impenetrable. I was overwhelmed by the architecture, the sounds, the signs, and the language.

Fig 5.1: Kyoto subway ticket machines—with many line maps and bilingual station names—can seem complicated, especially to newcomers.

My eyes craved something familiar—and there it was. The ticket machine had a small button that said English! I pushed it but became even more lost: the instructions were poorly translated, and anyway, they explained a system that I couldn’t use in the first place.

Guess what saved me? Two little old Japanese ladies. As they bought tickets, I casually looked over their shoulders to see how they were using the machines. First, they looked up at the map to find their desired destination. Then, they noted the fare written next to the station. Finally, they put some money into the machine, pushed the button that lit up with their correct fare, and out popped the tickets! Wow! I tried it myself after they left. And after a few tense moments, I got my ticket and headed through the gates to the train platform.

I pride myself on being a third-culture kid, meaning I was raised in a culture other than the country named on my passport. But even with a cultural upbringing in both Nigeria and the US, it was one of the first times I ever had to guess my way through a task with no previous reference points. And I did it!

Unfortunately, the same guesswork happens online a million times a day. People visit sites that offer them no cultural mental models or visual framework to fall back on, and they end up stumbling through links and pages. Effective visual systems can help eliminate that guesswork and uncertainty by creating layered sets of cues in the design and interface. Let’s look at a few core parts of these design systems and tease out how we can make them more culturally responsive and multifaceted.

Typography

If you work on the web, you deal with typography all the time. This isn’t a book about typography—others have written far more eloquently and technically on the subject. What I would like to do, however, is examine some of the ways culture and identity influence our perception of type and what typographic choices designers can make to help create rich cross-cultural experiences.

Stereotypography

I came across the word stereotypography a few years ago. Being African, I’m well aware of the way my continent is portrayed in Western media—a dirt-poor, rural monoculture with little in the way of technology, education, or urbanization. In the West, one of the most recognizable graphic markers for things African, tribal, or uncivilized (and no, they are not the same thing) is the typeface Neuland. Rob Giampietro calls it “the New Black Face,” a clever play on words. In an essay, he asks an important question:

How did [Neuland and Lithos] come to signify Africans and African-Americans, regardless of how a designer uses them, and regardless of the purpose for which their creators originally intended them? (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-01/)

From its release in 1923 and continued use through the 1940s in African-American-focused advertising, Neuland has carried heavy connotations and stereotypes of cheapness, ugliness, tribalism, and roughness. You see this even today. Neuland is used in posters for movies like Tarzan, Jurassic Park, and Jumanji—movies that are about jungles, wildness, and scary beasts lurking in the bush, all Western symbolism for the continent of Africa. Even MyFonts’ download page for Neuland (Fig 5.2) includes tags for “Africa,” “jungle fever,” and “primitive”—tags unconnected to anything else in the product besides that racist history.

Fig 5.2: On MyFonts, the Neuland typeface is tagged with “Africa”, “jungle fever”, and “primitive”, perpetuating an old and irrelevant typographic stereotype (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-02/).

Don’t make, use, or sell fonts this way. Here are some tips on how to avoid stereotypography when defining your digital experiences:

Be immediately suspicious of any typeface that “looks like” a culture or country. For example, so-called “wonton” or “chop-suey” fonts, whose visual style is thought to express “Asianness” or to suggest Chinese calligraphy, have long appeared on food cartons, signs, campaign websites, and even Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts with racist caricatures of Asians (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-03/). Monotype’s website, where you can buy a version called Mandarin Regular (US$35), cringingly describes the typeface’s story as “an interpretation of artistically drawn Asian brush calligraphy” (Fig 5.3). Whether or not you immediately know its history, run away from any typeface that purports to represent an entire culture.

Fig 5.3: Fonts.com sells a typeface called Mandarin Regular with the following description: “The stylized Asian atmosphere is not created only by the forms of the figures but also by the very name of the typeface. A mandarin was a high official of the ancient Chinese empire” (https://ift.tt/2T4LppO).

Support type designers who are from the culture you are designing for. This might seem like it’s a difficult task, but the internet is a big place. I have found that, for clients who are sensitive to cultural issues, the inclusion of type designers’ names and backgrounds can be a powerful differentiator, even making its way into their branding packages as a point of pride.

The world wide webfont

Another common design tool you should consider is webfonts—fonts specifically designed for use on websites and apps. One of the main selling points of webfonts is that instead of putting text in images, clients can use live text on their sites, which is better for SEO and accessibility. They are simple to implement these days, a matter of adding a line of code or checking a box on a templating engine. The easiest way to get them on your site is by using a service like Google Fonts, Fontstand, or Adobe Fonts.

Or is it? That assumes those services are actually available to your users.

Google Fonts (and every other service using Google’s Developer API) is blocked in mainland China, which means that any of those nice free fonts you chose would simply not load (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-05/). You can work around this, but it also helps to have a fallback font—that’s what they’re for.

When you’re building your design system, why not take a few extra steps to define some webfonts that are visible in places with content blocks? Justfont is one of the first services focused on offering a wide range of Chinese webfonts (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-06/). They have both free and paid tiers of service, similar to Western font services. After setting up an account, you can grab whatever CSS and font-family information you need.

Multiple script systems

When your design work requires more than one script—for instance, a Korean typeface and a Latin typeface—your choices get much more difficult. Designs that incorporate more than one are called multiple script systems (multiscript systems for short). Combining them is an interesting design challenge, one that requires extra typographic sensitivity. Luckily, your multiscript choices will rarely appear on the same page together; you will usually be choosing fonts that work across the brand, not that work well next to one another visually.

Let’s take a look at an example of effective multiscript use. SurveyMonkey, an online survey and questionnaire tool, has their site localized into a variety of different languages (Fig 5.4). Take note of the headers, the structure of the text in the menu and buttons, and how both fonts feel like part of the same brand.

Fig 5.4: Compare the typographic choices in the Korean (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-07/) and US English (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-08/) versions of SurveyMonkey’s Take a Tour page. Do the header type and spacing retain the spirit of the brand while still accounting for typographic needs?

Some tips as you attempt to choose multiscript fonts for your project:

Inspect the overall weight and contrast level of the scripts. Take the time to examine how weight and contrast are used in the scripts you’re using. Find weights and sizes that give you a similar feel and give the page the right balance, regardless of the script.

Keep an eye on awkward script features. Character x-heights, descenders, ascenders, and spacing can throw off the overall brand effect. For instance, Japanese characters are always positioned within a grid with all characters designed to fit in squares of equal height and width. Standard Japanese typefaces also contain Latin characters, called romaji. Those Latin characters will, by default, be kerned according to that same grid pattern, often leaving their spacing awkward and ill-formed. Take the extra time to find a typeface that doesn’t have features that are awkward to work with.

Don’t automatically choose scripts based on superficial similarity. Initial impressions don’t always mean a typeface is the right one for your project. In an interview in the book Bi-Scriptual, Jeongmin Kwon, a typeface designer based in France, offers an example (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-09/). Nanum Myeongjo, a contemporary Hangul typeface, might at first glance look really similar to a seventeenth-century Latin old-style typeface—for instance, they both have angled serifs. However, Nanum Myeongjo was designed in 2008 with refined, modern strokes, whereas old-style typefaces were originally created centuries ago and echo handwritten letterforms (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-10/). Looking at the Google Fonts page for Nanum Myeongjo, though, none of that is clear (Fig 5.5). The page automatically generates a Latin Nn glyph in the top left of the page, instead of a more representative Hangul character sample. If I based my multiscript font choices on my initial reactions to that page, my pairings wouldn’t accurately capture the history and design of each typeface.

Fig 5.5: The Google Fonts page for Nanum Myeongjo shows a Latin character sample in the top left, rather than a more representative character sample.

Visual density

CSS can help you control visual density—how much text, image, and other content there is relative to the negative space on your page. As you read on, keep cultural variables in mind: different cultures value different levels of visual density.

Let’s compare what are commonly called CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) alphabets and Latin (English, French, Italian, etc.) alphabets. CJK alphabets have more complex characters, with shapes that are generally squarer than Latin letterforms. The glyphs also tend to be more detailed than Latin ones, resulting in a higher visual density.

Your instinct might be to create custom type sizes and line heights for each of your localized pages. That is a perfectly acceptable option, and if you are a typophile, it may drive you crazy not to do it. But I’m here to tell you that­ when adding CJK languages to a design system, you can update it to account for their visual density without ripping out a lot of your original CSS:

Choose a font size that is slightly larger for CJK characters, because of their density.

Choose a line height that gives you ample vertical space between each line of text (referred to as line-height in CSS).

Look at your Latin text in the same sizes and see if it still works.

Tweak them together to find a size that works well with both scripts.

The 2017 site for Typojanchi, the Korean Typography Biennale, follows this methodology (Fig 5.6). Both the English and Korean texts have a font-size of 1.25em, and a line-height of 1.5. The result? The English text takes up more space vertically, and the block of Korean text is visually denser, but both are readable and sit comfortably within the overall page design. It is useful to compare translated websites like this to see how CSS styling can be standardized across Latin and CJK pages.

Fig 5.6: The 2017 site for Typojanchi, the Korean Typography Biennale, shows differing visual density in action. It is useful to compare translated websites like this to see how CSS styling can be standardized across Latin and CJK pages (https://ift.tt/2T2Emhi).

Text expansion factors

Expansion factors calculate how long strings of text will be in different languages. They use either a decimal (1.8) or a percentage (180%) to calculate the length of a text string in English versus a different language. Of course, letter-spacing depends on the actual word or phrase, but think of them as a very rough way to anticipate space for text when it gets translated.

Using expansion factors is best when planning for microcopy, calls to action, and menus, rather than long-form content like articles or blog posts that can freely expand down the page. The Salesforce Lightning Design System offers a detailed expansion-factor table to help designers roughly calculate space requirements for other languages in a UI (Fig 5.7).

Fig 5.7: This expansion-factor table from Salesforce lets designers and developers estimate the amount of text that will exist in different languages. Though dependent on the actual words, such calculations can give you a benchmark to design with content in mind (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-12/).

But wait! Like everything in cross-cultural design, nothing is ever that simple. Japanese, for example, has three scripts: Kanji, for characters of Chinese origin, hiragana, for words and sounds that are not represented in kanji, and katakana, for words borrowed from other languages.

The follow button is a core part of the Twitter experience. It has six characters in English (“Follow”) and four in Japanese (フォロー), but the Japanese version is twenty percent longer because it is in katakana, and those characters take up more space than kanji (Fig 5.8). Expansion tables can struggle to accommodate the complex diversity of human scripts and languages, so don’t look to them as a one-stop or infallible solution.

Fig 5.8: On Twitter, expansion is clearly visible: the English “Follow” button text comes in at about 47 pixels wide, while the Japanese text comes in at 60 pixels wide.

Here are a few things you can do keep expansion factors in mind as you design:

Generate dummy text in different languages for your design comps. Of course, you should make sure your text doesn’t contain any unintentional swearwords or improper language, but tools like Foreign Ipsum are a good place to start getting your head around expansion factors (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-13/).

Leave extra space around buttons, menu items, and other microcopy. As well as being general good practice in responsive design, this allows you to account for how text in your target languages expands.

Make sure your components are expandable. Stay away from assigning a fixed width to your UI elements unless it’s unavoidable.

Let longer text strings wrap to a second line. Just ensure that text is aligned correctly and is easy to scan.

Cross-Cultural Design published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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The 25 Rooms That Influence the Way We Design

The 25 Rooms That Influence the Way We Design https://ift.tt/38uI6hs

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Credit...Video by Scott J. Ross

The 25 Rooms That Influence the Way We Design

Three designers, two journalists and an interiors photographer gathered at The New York Times to make a list of history’s most enduring and significant spaces. Here are the results.

On an October afternoon, our six-person jury — Tom Delavan, the design and interiors director of T Magazine; Gabriel Hendifar, the creative director of the Manhattan-based lighting and design studio Apparatus; the architect Toshiko Mori; the architect and designer Daniel Romualdez; the veteran design journalist Suzanne Slesin; and the interiors photographer Simon Watson — assembled in a featureless conference room at The New York Times to discuss the most influential rooms of all time. By that, we meant “influential” in its truest sense. We wanted the jury to identify the spaces that not only changed the way we live but also changed the way we see, places — whether pleasing, provocative or completely novel for their eras — that not only informed our panelists’ individual practices as designers and documenters but also challenged how we all, as humans, think about beauty, strangeness, originality, décor, proportion, furnishings, art and the multivalent connections therein that define memorable rooms: ones that, above all, offer a new kind of visual lexicon. These are rooms, in other words, that have influenced and inspired interior design throughout the decades, shaping how our mind identifies and assesses a space, any space.

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From left: Tom Delavan, Toshiko Mori, Daniel Romualdez, Suzanne Slesin, Gabriel Hendifar and Simon Watson, photographed at The New York Times on Oct. 14, 2019.Credit...Sean Donnola

No one was expecting unanimity; if taste is individual, then discord among this cohort was inevitable. And yet we had asked each of them to nominate their 10 to 15 favorite rooms ahead of time, which the group would whittle to a list of 25. The overlaps were obvious front-runners: Four people chose the soaring, glass-walled sitting area of Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre, built in Paris in 1932, while Cy Twombly’s objet-filled 1960s living room in his Roman apartment, Rem Koolhaas’s elevator-cum-office built in 1998 for a disabled client in Bordeaux and Yves Saint Laurent’s art-covered 1970s Parisian salon were also submitted by several panelists. A lively conversation ensued for nearly three hours: What’s more important, the architecture or the design? Are the best spaces dictated by the people who inhabit them? The designers who create them? The period they reflect? Or some magical alchemy of all those things? Should public areas like hotels and restaurants be given as much weight as private, residential ones? And, actually, what is a room?

That last question animated the conversation from beginning to end, as each of our experts made arguments both concrete and philosophical about the human need to gather and connect in enclosed space, sometimes with the intimacy-creating aid of walls and ceilings, but other times not. (We drew the line on gardens — even ones with hedge walls — which everyone decided didn’t qualify.) By the end, we had narrowed upon a mutually satisfying definition of what makes a room and a list of about three dozen worthy examples, the images of which we laid out on a massive conference table, assessing them for final inclusion: Do we have too many museums and, speaking of, is the spiraling rotunda of New York’s Guggenheim more of a room or a building unto itself? Is the living room of the Finnish furniture designer Alvar Aalto a better representation of midcentury Scandinavian Modernism than that of the Danish furniture designer Finn Juhl? Where are all the female-led projects? (“We have to remember that architecture, like many industries, was male-dominated for much of history,” Delavan said. “And the field of interior design — while originally led by women, though now more evenly split between genders — is only a century or so old.”)

Eventually, consensus was reached, though that doesn’t mean the list is necessarily finished or complete: The royal “we” in this story’s headline was, in many cases, applied by our panelists to their own work, the way that they think about design while largely practicing in North America and Europe, which unfortunately means that entire continents such as South America and Africa weren’t under consideration as much as they would have been with another group. There’s a heavy emphasis on contemporary projects, places that everyone had seen with their own eyes. (“Just blame it on the editors,” Romualdez joked, to which Slesin responded, “What’s amazing, if we had to do this tomorrow, is how different it would be.”) So the result that follows — which is ordered chronologically, from oldest to newest — is, at its very least, one history of design in the West on one day from one group of highly opinionated people, all of whom would probably have rather found themselves in any of the rooms below. — KURT SOLLER

This conversation has been edited and condensed. The room summaries are by Nancy Hass.

1. Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England (circa 1600 B.C., architects unknown)

It took Neolithic builders nearly 1,500 years to complete Stonehenge, the outdoor enclosure of nearly 100 enormous upright stones on Salisbury Plain in the south of England. The origin of the structure, which is thought to have been a burial ground or perhaps a place of pilgrimage — the stones are aligned to frame sunrise during summer solstice and sunset during winter solstice — defies logic: The iconic 30-foot-tall three-piece sandstone pillars that stand in the center can be traced to local quarries, but how did a civilization without the wheel transport the inner ring of bluestones, some weighing four tons, from their origin point 200 miles away in Wales? Thought to have been finished around 1600 B.C., over the eons Stonehenge has been attributed to the ancient Celtic high priests called druids and the Arthurian wizard Merlin. But modern historians and archaeologists largely agree that a series of indigenous British tribes worked on the site in stages, over hundreds of years, each culture gaining technological sophistication through the centuries, creating an open-air chamber that stands as an indelible template for enclosure, space and ambitious monumentality.

Tom Delavan: My colleague Kurt and I were discussing what qualifies as a room, and we thought, “Well, a room has walls, or something that could define a wall. But does it need to have a ceiling?”

Simon Watson: For me, a room is a place for people to inhabit together in solidarity, I suppose.

TD: So residential, you’re saying?

SW: Not necessarily. It’s a place where people can gather; it’s what we humans do. I tried to go back as far as I could, and Stonehenge seemed like an obvious choice. I’m not sure if we know much about it, but what we do know is that it was a space where people gathered: Whether they prayed or whether they had conversations about their day, it was a place where people came together. And, for me, that was the definition of a room. It doesn’t have a ceiling. And I don’t think the difference stands in the make of walls, but it creates a space.

Gabriel Hendifar: Or is it just about some spatial organization that communicates intention, whether that intention has a ceiling or not? A room is something that’s been organized to serve some function, whether that is spiritual or shelter, residential or commercial.

SW: And you can go forward in history from Stonehenge to the Pantheon, which is one of the greatest rooms in the world. I’m not suggesting that the Pantheon came from Stonehenge, but rather that the circle is a humanist form we understand. It is the shape that creates a togetherness, in a way. It’s instinctual.

Toshiko Mori: Well, also, Stonehenge has a reference to astronomy. It’s human enclosure, with references to the world outside earth. So, the ceiling in this case is a sky. I think that’s the beauty with it, that it actually exists between ground and sky.

2. The Pantheon in Rome (125 A.D.; architects unknown)

The Roman Pantheon is not only the world’s best-preserved Classical building — it was completed by the emperor Hadrian on the site of an earlier structure of the same name that was probably a sanctuary — but is also likely the first in which the interior, not the exterior, is the focus: It was a precursor to the elaborate decoration of public spaces in later centuries, as well as a model of perfect balance. While its portico, reached by wide steps of Numidian yellow marble, was made in classically Greek style (squared off, with granite columns) once you enter the circular part of the building, you find a shrine to the motifs and mathematical obsessions of the Roman Empire. The rotunda is 142 feet in both diameter and height — a perfect hemisphere — with a 27-foot-wide oculus at the top of the domed ceiling. The dome itself is made of a porous type of limestone, like pumice, mixed with concrete, and has five rings of 28 rectangular coffers. Altered over the eras by successive rulers, including Pope Urban VIII, who in 1626 removed the original bronze girders from the porch roof to make them into cannons, the Pantheon’s architectural and decorative influence cannot be overstated: Thomas Jefferson’s 1826 library at the University of Virginia is one of many obvious homages.

3. The Shokin-tei tea pavilion in Kyoto (circa early 17th century; architects unknown)

The Katsura Imperial Villa near Kyoto, built in the early 17th century, profoundly influenced architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, both of whom spent time in Japan. And with good reason: The 16-acre property, with many outbuildings and exquisite gardens, is a clear expression of how Zen Buddhism’s graceful influence is woven through Japanese culture and design — and is a vivid illustration of why those aesthetic codes still feel utterly contemporary. There are several free-standing tea pavilions on the property, all made to amplify a sense of pureness, reverence and isolation (each celebrates a different season and allows the gardens to be seen from various angles), but Shokin-tei, the tribute to winter, is the one that stands out for its unexpected modernity. With a thatched roof and three sides that face the property’s large pond, it’s notable for the blue-and-white checkered handmade paper that covers a central alcove and sliding doors. The loggia is held up by three oak logs, left natural with their bark intact. Rustic and bold, the teahouse is pleasingly geometric, a hallmark of traditional Japanese architecture.

Kurt Soller: How many of your choices were influenced by having seen these places in real life? Tom made this great point about how, for many people, most of these spaces only exist through pictures.

Suzanne Slesin: That’s why I included the Katsura teahouse, because I’d been there. I went on a tour, and I think we were the only Westerners. It was pouring rain. You’re wearing this translation earpiece, and you go around and the guide was talking, talking, talking in Japanese, and everybody was taking it very seriously, and then the translation was just: “teahouse.” So I just took the picture and I stood there and I thought, “It’s really beautiful, but I’d like to know more about it.”

TM: It’s incredibly influential. A literary reference. So that’s why the Japanese guide would go on and on and on to talk about —

SS: We understood nothing. But to me, this was extraordinary: Of course, Japanese interiors are influential, but this blue and white, I mean, anybody could do that today. And it would be amazing.

TM: The Bauhaus school [in early 20th-century Germany] had seen it. I have to be a little careful about this immediate link because it’s been an argument, a scholarly argument. But it’s very interesting to think about.

4. The parlors of Georgian homes in the United Kingdom (circa 1714-1830; various architects)

There is no perfect room, of course, but the parlor of the typical Georgian home — built throughout London and Edinburgh during the reigns of King George I through King George IV — may come close. The rooms are large, but not in the cavernous, ill-planned way of a McMansion or a billionaire’s high-rise penthouse on Central Park: They are, instead, models of proportion. Usually square, with ceilings around 16 feet high, the parlors’ symmetry was based on the Classical architecture of Rome and Greece, filtered through the lens of the Renaissance but scaled down to accommodate a single family. Unlike the neo-Gothic revival, which began as early as the mid-18th century, or the late Victorian period at the end of that century, both of which prized ornament, there was a spareness to Georgian style, which makes it feel modern today. Windows, placed with mathematical precision, were large and often shuttered — Georgian builders seemed to understand that in the late afternoon, taking tea, one might want to ease gently into the dusk.

SW: The Georgians started this idea of creating very livable proportions in rooms. When you go through them, the scale is huge, with vast windows, but you feel completely comfortable, because the proportions are so perfect. So these big spaces become calm, wonderful places to be in, to live in and socialize with your family or your friends.

KS: Has it influenced how people live now?

Daniel Romualdez: I think they bring the influence.

SW: I think people miss it. I’m looking around me [here in Midtown Manhattan] and I happen to see these vast skyscrapers going up and people living in these enormous spaces. I’ve been in them. You walk in and you think, “How could you live here?” The proportions are wrong. First of all, you need sunglasses all day long.

DR: All that glass!

5. Pierre-François-Henri Labrouste’s reading room at the Sainte-Geneviève Library in Paris (1851)

The Sainte-Geneviève Library, in the Fifth Arrondissement, has roots dating back to the sixth-century manuscript collection of the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, though its soaring reading room was built over 13 years, starting in 1838, by the Beaux-Arts architect Pierre-François-Henri Labrouste, who had spent his early career mastering the use of iron in grand railway stations and thus was a virtuoso at evoking grandeur. The nearly 20,000-square-foot, two-story structure is defined by exposed cast-iron arches, suspended over iron columns like parachutes billowing above a giant classical arena. The room, which is now part of Paris’s university system, stands as one of the finest neo-Classical interiors in Europe, influencing the Gothic Revival that swept late 19th-century France as well as the innovative spirit of the architect Louis Sullivan, who at the turn of the 20th century pioneered the use of iron and reinforced concrete in the American skyscraper.

TD: I bet it’s such a nice place to be, between the light and the space.

SW: But it’s also so delicately supported.

TM: Yes, because of the cast-iron work. So it’s a new technology, but within tradition. The motifs of all the cast-iron elements are plants, so it refers to nature, which softens the technological aspect: Otherwise they could have made it look like trusses, but they didn’t. There’s also a visual relationship to the books’ paper, which comes from plants. This influenced the Boston Public Library, the Butler Library at Columbia University, the Doe Library at U.C. Berkeley and others, so this whole idea of a collective reading room is an important example.

6. The Bloomsbury Group’s studio at Charleston in Sussex, England (circa early 20th century)

Inspired by the bright, fluid figuration and sharp abstraction of Post-Impressionists including Gauguin and Matisse, who led the way to High Modernism after World War I, the visual artists of the Bloomsbury Group ran wild at Charleston, the Sussex, England, farmhouse where the married painters Vanessa and Clive Bell and Vanessa’s lover Duncan Grant lived for decades. Virtually every surface in the house, a way station for intellectual bohemians including Vanessa Bell’s sister, the novelist Virginia Woolf, is covered in joyous drawings. In the living room, barely clad classical figures dance across the hearth, and books spill out from shelves. The house, preserved after Grant’s death in 1978, is the embodiment of the revolution that shook the art and design world, its handcrafted ethos driven by the class-driven conflict that took root in England between the wars.

SS: The Bloomsbury rooms combined all the arts together, and this was both unique and very influential. They also represent a coming together of all the arts in a place and time that, although it has passed, is very current in terms of how people engage with design.

KS: And the craft of it all, too, the idea that [the Bloomsbury-adjacent guild known as] the Omega Workshops seems so visually relevant now.

SS: Exactly. I think that’s something people are talking about now. [A few decades ago,] I remember knowing about this and thinking, “Oh, it doesn’t suit my Modernist sensibility. It’s cluttered.” But now I’m looking at it very differently, and I think it’s both charming and bohemian, which is very attractive.

DR: Why did that change?

SS: Well, things happen in life. Some of the things that you like 30 or 40 years ago, you’re less interested in, or you get bored with them. Even well-known designers, like you, Daniel, your style changes. It depends on your clients, but also the way you feel.

DR: Yeah. What persists for you?

SS: I still love Minimalism and Modernism.

DR: Do you think the Modernists’ influence is waning? You know, 30 years ago, when I was in architecture school, that’s all we talked about.

TD: Since I started working at magazines [in the early 2000s], Modernism has basically been watered down. It’s sort of softer; it’s not about an absence of decoration, or anything similarly social or political. It’s just about simplicity.

SW: It’s become more cushy and comfortable.

DR: But don’t you think it’s also, like, a status symbol? A buzzword?

SW: Yes, in every single place in the world.

DR: And you just think, “Oh, I know about Modernism. I’m going to do that even though everything about this room has nothing to do with it.”

7. Jean-Michel Frank’s living room for Marie-Laure de Noailles’s hôtel particulier in Paris (circa 1925)

The Jazz-era Parisian arts patron Marie-Laure de Noailles blithely disregarded convention. She and her husband, Charles, underwrote the Dada-inflected films of Luis Buñuel and Man Ray and bought arms for the anti-Franco forces. Their 16th Arrondissement apartment sparked the career of Jean-Michel Frank, an interior designer who stripped away the early-18th-century moldings from the vast rooms and squared off the giant opening between them. The walls of the apartment (which was returned to its ornate origins by the designer Philippe Starck in 2003 for the Musée Baccarat) were covered in parchment panels hung with paintings by Dalí, Picasso and Miró. And the severe living room furniture that Frank made for the couple continues to inspire contemporary design; created from lush materials including shagreen and mica, the pieces combine geometric discipline with the mark of the artisan’s hand.

8. Pierre Chareau’s salon for Jean Dalsace’s Maison de Verre in Paris (1932)

Bathed in sunlight during the day and lit at night with a phosphorescent lantern glow, the Maison de Verre may well be Paris’s most radical residence. Resembling a box made of glass blocks capped by a single traditional apartment, it was commissioned in the late 1920s by Jean Dalsace, a gynecologist who bought an 18th-century Left Bank hotel, determined to reinvent it as a Modernist mansion. Unable to evict the top-floor tenant, he built around her. The architect, Pierre Chareau, conceived the edifice as a series of interlocking forms, with the doctor’s office on the first floor and two private levels above. Simultaneously labyrinthine and airy, with several sets of stairs and a double-height salon behind the monumental glass wall, it has been compared in impact to Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret’s Villa Savoye (1931) on the outskirts of the city. But unlike that imposing International Style monolith of reinforced concrete, the Maison de Verre possesses a lyrical delicacy owing to the work of the iron artisan Louis Dalbet, who created such touches as perforated mechanical screens to separate spaces and a rolling steel-pipe library ladder with wood inlays. After remaining in the Dalsace family for more than 70 years, the house was bought in 2005 by the history-obsessed American collector Robert M. Rubin, who meticulously restored it.

KS: The Maison de Verre was the most submitted project among our panelists: Four of you chose it —

DR: If I remembered, I would have put it on my list.

GH: Me too.

SS: I mean, it has everything: It has a new structure, it looks to the future, it has furniture that is not just traditional but also modern. Everything about that house — the traffic patterns, the materials, the siding of it, the way it’s used — is really a 20th-century development. And it’s beautiful. I mean, I think it’s beautiful.

DR: It changed the way we designed, you know, these glass-wall houses. The coziness. The multilevel living room.

TD: It’s very comfortable, which isn’t always the case for things that are modern.

9. Finn Juhl’s living room at his home in Charlottenlund, Denmark (1942)

The Danish designer Finn Juhl, along with his countryman Hans Wegner, established the vanguard of Scandinavian furniture design in the 1950s and ’60s with pared-down yet softly contoured pieces made largely of oil-rubbed walnut, maple and teak, and seats and backs covered in nubby upholstery. They were a complete break from the fussy neo-Classical style that preceded them and, because of new manufacturing processes engineered at the same time, were instantly copied. Trained as an architect, Juhl used the ultramodern house he built for his family and lived in for close to 50 years in a suburb north of Copenhagen as a laboratory, tweaking the setting to accommodate new volumes and contours. The house had an open plan — radical for the time — and each ceiling of each room was painted a different color to create different moods. In the living room, where Juhl placed one of his Chieftain chairs and Poet sofas, the beige was intended to evoke the feeling of being under a canvas, especially when sunlight hit it.

SS: I first saw it published in the October 2012 issue of Marie Claire Maison, and I thought, “The art, the furniture, the space, everything is of one mind and very, very simple and modest, but extraordinary.”

TD: The proportions are so nice, even though it’s not grand.

SW: Typical Scandinavian mind-set.

SS: But really, I love the palette and the tile work. The hearth, it’s like a little carpet. I think this has a lot to do with the way people think today.

KS: How so?

SS: Well, I tried to think about the trends — I’m not talking about grandiose houses, like what’s happened to the Hamptons — that can influence the ways people want to live today. One of them is smaller, more modest spaces. But still quality, not cheap in any way.

10. Le Corbusier’s Le Cabanon in Côte d’Azur, France (1952)

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, the Swiss architect known as Le Corbusier, loved the Mediterranean, with its incomparable light, rough-hewn local architecture and rocky shoreline. In 1952, he built the one-room Le Cabanon for his wife, Yvonne, to use as a summer getaway. Merely 12 feet by 12 feet, it had no real bathroom, just a toilet near the bed, nor a kitchen; the couple took their meals at an adjoining cafe reached by an internal door. With an exterior that resembles a Canadian log cabin and interior plywood walls, it was constructed using Le Corbusier’s so-called Modulor principles — an anthropomorphic scale of proportions based on the movement of the human body — down to the built-in furniture, making it a diorama of the architect’s revolutionary worldview.

SS: I visited this about two years ago, and I could not believe how perfect it was and how it was really the most modern. I mean, it’s one room that allows for sleeping, eating, relaxing and more clever things, too: Guest rooms that pull out of a box, a bathroom mirror that slides open to become a window.

TD: Just that you could live in such a compact —

SS: One of the most important architects of the 20th century conceived of this in the most modest, most beautifully done way, and that was his choice. And one shouldn’t need anything else.

DR: Super functional. Do you know how he lived in it? I mean, was it meant to be a retreat?

SS: I think he spent every summer there.

SW: Yeah, and that’s where he ended up dying [in 1965]. He went to swim and never returned.

11. Nancy Lancaster’s living room at her flat in London (1958)

Among the great paradoxes of the influential style widely known as English Country — a dotty dishevelment characterized by cozy sun-bleached chintzes, antiques from various periods and brightly hued walls — is that it was brought to Britain from the American South in the 1920s, by the Virginia-born socialite Nancy Lancaster, who owned the Mayfair design firm Colefax and Fowler. Inspired by her romanticized memories of plantation houses (including her grandfather’s) that had fallen into disrepair after the Civil War, Lancaster, who lived in England virtually all her adult life, tapped into what her biographer Robert Becker called a corresponding “abstract nostalgia” for a British way of life that had been obliterated by the wars. While she lived largely at Ditchley Park, an estate in Oxfordshire, it was the lacquered egg-yolk yellow living room of her flat above the firm’s Avery Row showroom, completed in 1958 (she died in 1994 at the age of 96) that stood — until just a few years ago, in fact, when the firm moved — as a shrine to her aesthetic, with its barrel ceiling, faux-marble baseboards, braided swags, oversize chandelier and array of comfortable seating. The room has been a lodestar to a generation of American collectors and designers, among them Sister Parish, Mario Buatta and Mark Hampton.

DR: I think you all must think I’m nuts to have chosen the butter-yellow room. I just know that you all would have thought that was weird. But I honestly think design goes in waves, and clients are actually looking at chintz again, which is surprising.

TM: I’m not so sure about Nancy Lancaster. I don’t get it.

DR: I’m going to stand up for her. I just think we are living in a bubble. There’s a lot of stuff being done now that looks like this. Many things I see on Instagram are using similar materials and creating a similar atmosphere.

12. Philip Johnson’s Four Seasons dining room in New York City (1959)

When the Four Seasons restaurant — the epitome of the steel-and-glass International Style, created on the ground floor of the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed Seagram Building — opened in the late ’50s, it was a tourist trap. Not until the late ’70s, when, under new owners, its Grill Room (one of two dining areas connected by a corridor hung with a massive Picasso tapestry) was named the ultimate power lunch spot by Esquire, did Philip Johnson’s extraordinary feat get its due. But it is the Pool Room, now operated as a seafood restaurant called the Pool, that stands as the most vivid reminder of the architect’s commitment to tranquil austerity. Other fancy restaurants of the time were fussily French with cushy banquettes, but Johnson embraced a brash, unadorned rectangularity, with 20-foot ceilings and massive windows shaded only by curtains of rippling, undulating chains. Although the classic midcentury furnishings — not accorded historic status when the building was declared a landmark in 1989 — were auctioned off a few years ago, when the current owners took over, the room’s combination of hushed chicness and uncompromising discipline endures, a testament to the relationship between Mies van der Rohe and Johnson, master and student.

SW: I never ate there [in its original incarnation]. But the pool just struck me as something that functioned very well in the space. Also, it was outrageously chic, it was glistening. It just seemed so refined.

TM: And civilized.

SW: And civilized. Even though half the people in the room were probably crooks.

Everyone laughs.

SW: But it worked, it definitely worked.

13. Cy Twombly’s living room at his apartment in Rome (circa 1966)

The Virginia-born abstractionist Cy Twombly came to Rome in the late 1950s, and soon after, he married the Italian portraitist Tatiana Franchetti, sister of his patron Baron Giorgio Franchetti, with whom he bought an apartment in a 17th-century palazzo on the Via di Monserrato; it had been built for the Borgias. He immediately had the place stripped of generations of old paint to reveal whitewashed walls and pale blue doors with gold moldings; the large rooms and abundant light became a perfect setting for his enormous oil paintings, with their calligraphic graffiti on pale backgrounds, punctuated with phrases from classical allegory or from poets such as Stéphane Mallarmé and John Keats. Particularly in the main sitting room, the artist had an intuitive sense of how best to punctuate the works in his home: He offhandedly mixed them with slightly run-down gilded antiques upholstered in bleached shades, plaster busts that could be found in flea markets throughout the city and bits of silver. The effect is ethereal yet unpretentious, airy, elegant and livable.

DR: To me, Twombly created a whole new atmosphere. Think of all the rooms on Park Avenue today.

TD: It’s a certain “I didn’t try too hard,” which I feel is kind of its own design aesthetic. Even his art, which was super edgy, was not considered great art at that time.

GH: It’s like, “I just happened to be in this palazzo.”

TD: The antiquities were not expensive then. He was buying stuff at the equivalent of a flea market.

SW: I mean, those big busts aren’t antiquity. They’re 19th century. And no offense to Twombly, but they’re a dime a dozen in Rome, and everybody has them. You know?

TD: But to his credit —

SW: To his credit, it all works very well. I’m just trying to break it down. The room itself isn’t outstanding. It’s what’s in it.

DR: To me, it’s all about atmosphere. And you can have a perfect room with no atmosphere, and it doesn’t succeed. So where does the architecture of that room begin and where do the objects and the installation and the installation designer fit in? Which comes first?

TM: Because of those questions, I actually chose extreme examples. Like the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, which was designed as a completely universal space. It’s spectacular: It’s just a ceiling and then there’s continuity of interior and exterior. To me, this was the definition of the conceptual idea of a museum. In a sense, as a space, this is a room that is essentially universal and infinitely transformative. As a concept, it’s amazing.

14. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s main exhibition gallery at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin (1968)

As Mies van der Rohe’s last major building (he died a year after it was opened), the massive structure embodies the legendary architect’s preoccupation with open, flexible spaces with minimal enclosure — a radical notion for a museum hall at the time — and complex engineered solutions that seem virtually invisible. With a nearly six-foot-thick steel flat roof painted black (a grid ceiling inside holds lighting) and an architecturally austere presence, it comprises two distinct levels. Visitors climb three flights of stairs to the entrance and the main special exhibition gallery, a hangar-like space supported by cruciform columns on either end, where the art, mostly from the 20th century, is often hung on temporary walls and other innovative structures, revealing the space’s flexible nature. The building is currently undergoing a massive restoration by the British architect David Chipperfield.

15. Stanley Kubrick’s suite in “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968)

A room does not have to be realized to be seminal: The final, indelible scene of “2001: A Space Odyssey” is set in a huge suite meant to be a luxurious zoo environment for the film’s protagonist, the wayward astronaut Dr. Dave Bowman. Stanley Kubrick, a notorious perfectionist, said it was intended to look as though created by a master race that wanted to observe Bowman in a comfortable setting through the remainder of his life: He ages, dies and is reborn in the room in a few cinematic minutes. Kubrick resisted what might have been an obvious trope of the time — making the room a neon pop palace of blobby plastic furnishings — instead positing what an alien race might consider soothing and elegant to a 20th-century human. The result is a mixture of inaccurate replicas of Louis-era French furniture and neo-Baroque statuary set into alcoves, all gently illuminated by floor tiles lit eerily from below.

DR: Watching that movie, I didn’t remember the plot, because all I did was obsess about this room.

SS: It’s outer space. I mean that’s really a definition, to me, of Modernism, of originality. I mean, it’s terrifying.

GH: It’s sort of atemporal, it’s about the future and the past.

SW: It’s kind of Philippe Starck-y in a way.

TM: I think one can trace nearly everything he’s done to this movie.

16. Donald Judd’s master bedroom at his loft in New York City (1968)

In 1968, Donald Judd, then 40 and fresh off a Whitney Museum retrospective, bought a derelict five-story SoHo factory built in 1870 to use as his home and studio. Although by the late 1970s he was spending much of his time in Marfa, Texas, he lived and worked in New York off and on until his death in 1994, punctuating the loft’s vast rooms with art and objects, creating a template for late 20th-century American Minimalism. After a restoration by the Judd Foundation, run by his son and daughter, the building — which opened to the public in 2013 — remains intact, as pristine as one of the sculptor’s welded metal boxes. Works by Dan Flavin, Claes Oldenburg, Carl Andre, Marcel Duchamp and others remain in the exact positions that Judd placed them. But the top-floor master bedroom best encapsulates the residence’s style: On the wall hangs an early Judd piece in wood, Oldenburg’s “Soft Ceiling Lights at La Coupole” (1964-72) and a John Chamberlain crushed car fragment known as “Mr. Press” (1961). The bed, on a low plinth, is counterpoised with a 19th-century Italian settee, and the angles of a Flavin fluorescent work echo the cast-iron windows overlooking Mercer Street. The neighborhood may no longer be recognizable as the postindustrial wasteland that Judd found in the ’60s, but in the fifth-floor chamber, his vision of SoHo — raw, hand-forged, radical — lives on.

TM: When you talk about someone’s personality driving a space, it’s iconic.

SW: I went there with a friend of mine who is an architect in, I think, 1992, when Judd was still alive. He was still using it then, and what really struck me were these simple elements: the way the floor and the ceiling were the same, and how the objects were placed in this beautiful loft. It seemed so pure, so perfect.

TD: For some reason, I always thought it would be a difficult place to live.

KS: But specific to the person that lived there, right?

TM: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TD: Yeah, but then his children lived there.

TM: I have to say … I lived in the Maison de Verre, and it’s a horrible place to live.

KS: But should livability be a criteria here?

DR: To keep my business sustained — to have clients come back: yes.

SW: I agree.

DR: I mean, I’m not an artist. I went to architecture school. I ended up decorating, even though I wasn’t trained for that. But the only way my practice will continue is if my clients come back, and most of that is about livability and practicality. You don’t want things falling apart. The last thing you want to get is a phone call about how the air conditioning points at the shower.

17. Yves Saint Laurent’s salon at his apartment in Paris (1970)

The couturier Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, his partner in life and business, bought a nine-room, nearly 6,500-square-foot duplex at 55 Rue de Babylone in Paris’s Seventh Arrondissement in 1970 and spent the following decades perfecting it. The designer, who died in 2008 at age 71, layered it with Renaissance bronzes, paintings by Goya and Picasso, the severely modern furniture of Jean-Michel Frank and Eileen Gray and witty anthropomorphic sculptures by Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne. His eye for combining old with new — he took elements from the classically minded Rothschild clan and was inspired by the ultra-minimalist Paris hôtel particulier that Frank decorated in the 1920s for the family of the art patron Marie-Laure de Noailles (see above) — remains remarkable, especially in the before-and-after of the double-height salon, its paneled walls the color of burnt sugar. It’s a master class in creating a room that is beautiful from the start yet flexible enough to evolve over the years in tandem with one of the greatest collectors of all time.

KS: Daniel, when discussing Yves Saint Laurent’s apartment, you wanted us to consider it before and after his art was installed, right?

DR: Yes, when I work with clients, I know they’re going to collect art — but they don’t have that art yet — so we need to make the room beautiful for when they first move in. So I show them pictures from the YSL living room when it was empty, more or less, and when it was laden with works by Picasso and others decades later.

GH: What’s interesting to me about this is that it’s wildly chic, but it expresses a certain sort of internal psychology. This room to me is about addiction. It’s about being compelled to collect, to fill space with objects that say something to you about who you are — and about how that affects how we design the spaces we live in, how these spaces communicate something about our psychology.

SW: Or who we think we want to be?

TD: Right.

TM: This relationship of art and life and intimacy — the way the paintings are placed in strange ways, the proportions of the objects — is really interesting to me.

GH: It’s beautifully manic. There’s something about addiction here. I want to get into his head to understand.

18. David Hicks’s living room at his estate in South Oxfordshire, England (1973)

The courtly, charismatic British designer David Hicks grew up amid the chintz and antiques that characterized English interiors of the early 20th century, but at the dawn of the 1960s, he shocked the system with supersaturated clashing shades (red with violet, chartreuse with deep forest), octagonal patterned carpets and a daring mix of 19th-century furniture, Asian objects and Pop abstraction. His taste quickly became synonymous with upper-class cool, and it was he who coined the now-ubiquitous term “tablescape.” In his own red-and-pink living room on his South Oxfordshire estate — which has since become an enduring influence on contemporary designers including Miles Redd, Vicente Wolf and Steven Gambrel — black lacquer accents, layered patterns and oversize objects underscore his lasting aesthetic legacy.

TD: I was always impressed that Hicks could take these 18th-century antiques and bring them to the present.

SS: I don’t think he was afraid of mixing — you know, I wouldn’t talk so much about eclecticism, but that was really it. He was very sure of himself, and I think people may have questioned it, but he just did it. And it was bold.

DR: I mean, when we think about how long his influence has been, it’s been going for like —

SS: This is from the ’70s.

TM: I think his idea of pattern on pattern on pattern is super interesting.

GH: I think that’s the defining character. It’s the graphic nature — even the way he outlines the wall planes. That feels like a very Hicks thing.

19. Paul Rudolph’s living room for Halston’s townhouse in New York City (1974)

If there is one photograph that conveys the essence of the 1970s — at least its louche, glamorous side — it’s the Harry Benson shot of Halston in his 32-foot-tall living room on the Upper East Side. The fashion designer’s stylishly gaunt frame may be burned into the collective memory, but it’s arguably his house — that sharp-edged, almost extraterrestrial abode — that will forever haunt us. Designed in 1966 by Paul Rudolph, who was for years the dean of Yale’s architecture school, and remodeled once Halston bought it in 1974, the 7,500-square-foot townhome was famously a locus for celebrities, including Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger and Liza Minnelli. Rudolph, widely credited for bringing Brutalism to the United States, eschewed comfort, practicality, even safety in much of his work, opting instead for maximum minimalist drama. Although Gunter Sachs, the Swiss industrialist who was an owner of the house after Halston’s death in 1990, mitigated some of the Rudolphian details, including the ubiquitous gray industrial carpeting, the vertiginous floating staircase to the mezzanine still shocks, especially when imagining the partygoers who must have tried to descend it in stilettos: It has no handrail. That’s just one of the defining details that the designer Tom Ford, who bought the house earlier this year, is likely to leave alone.

DR: In some ways, it’s influenced all these glass-tower apartments. I can’t think of anything more glamorous since then.

SS: It is glamorous. And I think right now we’re in a glitzy period but not a glamorous period. And this was glamorous without being glitzy. It had this “wow” factor for its time, and yet it was pretty tame in a way.

GH: Everything comes up from the floor, with that wall-to-wall carpet drawing you down. I find it very earthy and sensual and grounding in a way.

DR: Your point is fantastic. I was feeling uncomfortable with these super tall rooms.

SS: Also, isn’t it really a portrait of Halston? It’s exactly him. I couldn’t separate that house from him: the way he looks, the way he was, what he represented, the clothing — everything.

20. Ricardo Bofill’s living room at La Fábrica in Sant Just Desvern, Spain (1975)

Architectural postmodernism, which became prominent in the 1980s, combined classical elements with Brutalist materials like cement and iron, often pumping up details to cartoonish proportions. But La Fábrica, a 32,000-square-foot former cement factory outside Barcelona that Ricardo Bofill, now 80, converted into a home and office in 1975, illustrates the style at its most inspiring. With over 30 concrete silos, cavernous machine rooms and nearly 2.5 miles of underground tunnels, this reimagining of a complex that had been built during Spain’s postwar boom was a mammoth undertaking that is, after nearly 50 years, still in process. By keeping many of the original details, including massive if narrow arched windows and exterior metal staircases, Bofill — whose firm Taller de Arquitectura is known for Barcelona Airport’s Terminal 1 — has transformed the space into vast public areas, expansive libraries and cozy bedrooms, some tucked into the formerly abandoned silos. The central living room, with two stories of arches, exposed pipes and oversize billowing white drapes, reflects the inherent dynamism of repurposed spaces.

GH: To me, this represents this idea of reclaiming industrial space and rejiggering it for habitation, putting a human-scale softness inside a space that is not meant to do that. I think this says so much about how we live now — how much of Manhattan and Brooklyn, for instance, are being developed.

SS: The outside of this is the scariest building you’ve ever seen. It’s all turbines.

GH: There’s this tension between the building’s past life, which was really industrial and felt anti-human, and its current use as a backdrop for domestic life.

21. Andrée Putman’s office for the French Minister of Culture at the Palais-Royal in Paris (1984)

Jack Lang, who became France’s Minister of Culture under François Mitterrand during the 1980s, brought with him not merely a stylishly shaggy haircut and custom-made jewel-toned shirts that he wore beneath a well-cut suit but a fierce passion for interior design. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he hired Andrée Putman — then the doyenne of Parisian design, who had conceptualized Morgans Hotel in New York and redone the interior of the Concorde — to reconceive the ministry’s ornate offices in the 17th-century Palais-Royal in the First Arrondissement. She paired the elaborately gilded boiserie walls and outsize chandelier with a pale-hued suite of geometric postmodern furniture, including barrel chairs and a half-moon desk so aesthetically significant that it was kept by at least five successive French presidents. Her fearless mixing of styles and periods — unheard-of at the time — led the way for designers to introduce modern, even minimalist, furnishings into historic structures, weaving a new, more layered narrative

GH: This room speaks specifically to what furniture does, and about how the intervention of nonnative pieces to a historical room completely changes what you see. I just think this is incredibly genius.

22. Vincent Van Duysen’s living room at his house in Antwerp (1993)

Sensual minimalism might seem oxymoronic, but if there is a signature style of our era, that may be its proper sobriquet. In the 1990s, the Belgian designer Vincent Van Duysen, now 57, pioneered such environments — unfashionable at the time — which are both under-decorated and gracefully patinated. They take from early 20th-century Modernism a sense of lofty proportion and a lack of color and embellishment but avoid the coldness of steel and tempered glass. Instead, with raw, textured fabric and wood to bring out the soul in sparingly arrayed and geometrically precise furniture, Van Duysen’s interiors evoke silence and calm. Nowhere is this truer than in his own Antwerp living room, where light illuminates elemental shapes and defiantly plain bleached linens in shades of oatmeal and pure white.

KS: Tom, you had chosen very pale rooms, very white rooms. How come?

TD: I saw Van Duysen’s early apartment when it was published in the early ’90s; it still feels like so much of what’s happening now is based off that sort of linen-and-oak-floor look. It’s not overly polished, but it has a sort of fanciness.

23. Philippe Starck’s lobby for Ian Schrager’s Delano Hotel in Miami Beach (1995)

The Delano, on Collins Avenue in South Beach, was not the first boutique hotel (that title likely belongs to Morgans, also an Ian Schrager brainchild, which debuted in New York City a decade earlier), but it remains simultaneously archetypal and original. Born of a collaboration between Schrager, the Brooklyn-bred impresario of Studio 54, and Starck, the Harley Davidson-riding Parisian designer, the interior renovation of the 1947 hotel, with its historically protected pink stucco facade, was intended to, in Starck’s words, reflect the “deep elegance of a poor people who have a very clean house.” His approach contrasted vividly with the neon-adorned Art Deco hotels that were then being modernized along the strip, and helped give birth to the contemporary Miami aesthetic. The 14-story hotel currently has 194 sparsely furnished, white-on-white rooms above a cathedral-ceilinged lobby corridor with gleaming dark floors and semi-sheer floor-to-ceiling white curtains that billow in the breeze. In niches along the way sit a Salvador Dalí chair and the iconic overscale banquette from which countless guests have started taking selfies.

SS: Starck’s whole philosophy was influential both in other hotel lobbies but also in the way people looked at their bedrooms, their entryways and particularly their bedrooms. I mean, this was one of the first all-white projects, with the whole idea of creating excitement of being in a hotel versus the fear of being in a space that you don’t know, that’s not comfortable. That whole dichotomy of thinking in terms of designing spaces — and in how that changes how people experience their own homes — was very interesting. Visiting the lobby of the Delano was like entering a classical temple.

SW: I remember walking in in the ’90s, and I had the same feeling as you have when walking into a gothic cathedral. It turned everything around.

TD: It was sort of breathtakingly beautiful, but the proportions are also very functional.

24. Rem Koolhaas’s elevator office at Villa Lemoine in Bordeaux (1998)

In the late 1990s, the French publisher Jean-François Lemoine and his wife, Hélène, were in the midst of planning a hyper-modernist family villa overlooking the city of Bordeaux when he was in a car crash that left him partially paralyzed. Undeterred, they hired the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, whose firm OMA built them an elaborately engineered house to enable Lemoine unparalleled mobility without sacrificing the couple’s desire to push beyond conventional volumes. Instead of keeping things on a single elevation with openings wide enough for a wheelchair, Koolhaas created three levels partly wedged into the hill, centered around a 10-foot-by-11-foot elevator platform set up as an office for Lemoine. Powered by a hydraulic lift, the platform moves freely between the floors. It can hover between, lending spectacular unobstructed views, or become flush to the kitchen at the base or disappear into the glassed-in center-level living area; at night, it rises to become a corner of the cantilevered top floor expanse that holds the bedrooms, which have porthole-like windows punched through weathered metal cladding. Lemoine died in 2001, and the house remains in the hands of Hélène. Their daughter, Alice, and her husband, Benjamin Paulin, son of the legendary furniture designer Pierre Paulin, have recently transformed the home into a temporary exhibition space showing Pierre Paulin’s furniture.

DR: Would you say the room that’s the most influential in the home is the office that goes up and down?

TM: That whole idea of a room itself. Since the entire study is an elevator, the owner could access his whole home, which makes the person who is disabled become the most empowered person. It’s an ongoing issue: How do you make a disabled person not a secondary citizen within their own environment?

25. Ryue Nishizawa’s Teshima Art Museum in Teshima, Japan (2010)

The Japanese island of Teshima, about an hour and a half south of Okayama in the Seto Inland Sea, is a place with chaste beauty, a population of barely 1,000 and, since 2010, a nonpareil one-artwork museum. Shaped like a flattened droplet of water straining to return to the sea, the Teshima, designed by the Pritzker-winning architect Nishizawa (co-founder of the Tokyo-based firm SANAA) is rendered in pale concrete, with no structural pillars, just curved walls that slope to meet the canopy of ceiling and two elliptical openings that allow in the elements. But as you stand in the vast space in your bare feet (shoes must be removed at the door), it’s the interaction of the structure with the subtle and strange environmental sculpture, “The Matrix” (2010), by the elusive artist Rei Naito, that makes the room seem so otherworldly. Water trickles down from a ribbon dangling from the rim of one of the apertures; at first, you think that this alone is creating the small pools on the floor. But as you look more closely, you realize that water is scooting across the roughly textured surface like a wriggling family of salamanders. The floor itself, it turns out, is the matrix, pocked by the artist with pin holes that allow groundwater to filter upward, animated by unexplained physical forces, creating a perpetually changing canvas.

TD: How high is the ceiling?

TM: About 15 feet. Not so high. It’s very intimate; only limited numbers are allowed in. It’s a very personal experience because you’re not allowed to speak and you’re kind of restricted.

SS: It’s also freezing.

KS: Is this a room to the rest of you? Just to play devil’s advocate.

SS: It is! I think it’s a room.

DR: I think it’s a sculpture.

SS: This is comparable, I think, to the “Space Odyssey” room.

TM: It’s got one oculus. So it seems influenced by the Pantheon.

TD: Going back to our original definition, a room is an enclosed place where people gather for a reason.

KS: This is contained in some way.

SW: Look, here’s what I think we’re learning today: There’s no one definition of a room.

https://ift.tt/2RKumsG via The New York Times December 10, 2019 at 02:22PM

[crimsonblackrose]

While on my walk through Otaru on my way to the ice cream shop I walked past a museum saying it was a stained glass museum. At first I thought, nah I don’t need to go to a museum today, but my curiosity was peaked and I realized I’d wonder what it was like if I didn’t go. I mean how does one even make a stained glass museum? It wasn’t like all the windows were stained glass from the outside. Did it have just a whole bunch of stained glass in cabinets and talk about the different styles and how it’s done? It’s something I’ve been forever curious about, especially since at one point or another my dad used to make stained glass pieces.

There’s actually a couple stained glass and glass museums on Otaru. A ton of art museums too. Which makes sense since it’s famous for glassblowing and glass arts. The one I went to was in the former Takahashi Warehouse and is part of the Otaru Art Base which includes 4 buildings that use to be former powerhouses of commerce in Otaru and Hokkaido, one of which is now a cafe and two are art museums, all with interesting architecture. You can even get a ticket that includes all of them at a discount if you’re curious and want to see them all. The other art museum is Nitori Museum of Art in a former bank with the Louis Tiffany stained glass gallery on the first floor, Japanese Modern paintings, Western paintings and sculptures, wood sculptures, and art nouveau and art deco glass and sculptures spread out on the other floors.

The one I went to was built in 1923 by Naoharu Takahashi and it stored soybeans and adzuki beans. Those are sweet red beans that are used as a filling in some pastries and desserts. Now it houses two stories of stained glass art, most of which look like they’d fit in at a church, which makes sense since they’re from the 19th/20th century England and came from churches. (They’re from the same time period as the building itself. Just from a very far away place.)

There are 140 stained glass pieces from England. It’s pretty impressive and a bit shocking when you go in and don’t know that before time. I was in a mind set of I’m in Japan, in a seaside town that is famous for glass, this must be all local art. Only to be like wow, this is a lot of religious art in European style, must all be one artist. But no, they’re all rescued from torn down churches.

It’s really cool to walk around and look at the stained glass. I don’t think I’ve ever seen some place focus solely on stained glass and with such attention to displaying it. Usually it’s art found in a building and is some sort of window so you have to usually look up and hope the light is coming through to enjoy the full effect. But all of these are in a dim museum and back lit so they always have ample light shining through. And you walk fairly close up to them. On the second floor (there is an elevator or you can take stairs) they go through the supplies and steps in which these were made. I thought it was very cool to see how an artist might go about planning a piece and then looking at the tools.

Another fun thing was that the roof and the walls are all wooden and when glancing up I saw a sign.

Apparently some sparrows had made a nest in the rafters and their eggs had just hatched. Rather than trying to shoo them out the museum instead was trying to coexist and warn people to not be concerned if the birds started chirping or if they heard noises. However, this also means, whether they know it or not, that this is going to be a new yearly problem depending on the sparrows. I grew up with sparrows that would live in our barn, and every year everyone returned to their nests, which meant all the kids piled into the same nest that they were babies in with their parents and you’d just see these crammed and cramped nests as everyone tried to share the same one before eventually making their new ones for their babies.

I had a lot of fun walking around the Stained Glass Museum. It’s really done in a way I’ve never seen a museum done before. The Stained Glass Museum tickets (for only this museum) are about 700 yen.  The museum is open from 9:30am until 5pm. They stop selling tickets at 4:30pm.

Otaru Art Base: Stained Glass Museum ステンドグラス美術館（旧高橋倉庫） While on my walk through Otaru on my way to the ice cream shop I walked past a museum saying it was a stained glass museum.

[doodledialogue]

Interview series - What after B.Arch? #17

Interviewee: Ar. Ajay K. Jacob Post-graduation: M. Arch in Theory and Design | CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India

What prompted you to take up this particular program? I came to know about the program ‘Theory and Design’ through a senior who studied at CEPT. What fascinated me was the kind of ‘open-endedness’ in the way the whole program was structured, which I thought left a lot of room for exploration and self-discovery. And I had also heard a lot about the informal learning atmosphere at CEPT campus in general.

When did you take up Master’s? After my Bachelor’s degree, I worked for two years, spending one year each with two conventional architectural practices.  I had never thought about joining a Masters course then. But after working for a while, I found myself doing very shallow work, mostly driven by numbers and lacking in meaning. And I also started realising the handicaps of my earlier education as an architect, especially in terms of my theoretical knowledge, my ability to articulate ideas, my writing, etc. That’s when I came across this course and decided to apply for it.

When did you start with the application process considering the time for application, scholarship deadlines etc.? I don’t remember the exact dates. I followed the updates on the CEPT website and applied accordingly.

What preparation did you do before starting Master’s? Along with the application, I had to send a portfolio and a very short statement of purpose. I remember spending a lot of time writing the SOP. Since I had updated my portfolio on a regular basis, it was almost ready to be sent. I got shortlisted for the final interview based on the portfolio and SOP. And the interview was an impromptu kind of conversation, more than being asked a set of questions.

Did you have to give any entrance tests? How did you plan for them? I had already qualified at the GATE exams and was eligible for the scholarship. The selection for the course itself was based entirely on the portfolio and interview. For the interview, apart from my general reading on architects and their philosophies, I studied in detail about a few master architects whose works I liked the most. That did help me during the conversation.

How long was your program? It was a two-year program. In each of the first three semesters, we had a core design studio addressing a specific concern, and theory supplementing that. In the fourth semester, we had a choice between either undertaking a design thesis or a research thesis.

Did you have post-masters plans in mind when you took up Masters? No, I didn’t have any specific post-master’s plan. But I eventually wanted to evolve an independent practice, where I am responsible for the design and supervision of the projects in their entirety. I also wanted to find time for my other interests including sculpting, farming, writing, reading etc. And most importantly to be able to always maintain a sense of curiosity and keep myself intellectually moving.  

How was the experience at the school? My overall experience at the school was very inspiring. The design of the school itself encouraged chance encounters between students from different departments. Since the studios were open and you could also walk freely through other studios, there was always a possibility of meeting new people. One could be friends with people from different disciplines and age groups. There was an atmosphere of interdisciplinary interaction and informal learning. I think that’s one of the key factors that makes CEPT different from any other conventional institution.

Fig. 1. Conceptual Sketches, Studio Project 1 – ATMA

Fig. 2. Perspective of the Courtyard, Studio Project 1 – ATMA

Fig. 3. Physical Model, Structure and Form Workshop – Pavilion for an Exposition

How was teaching at your school? Teaching at the school was more about discussions and interactions that encouraged students to take positions and express themselves confidently. It was never prescriptive. And there were no written exams. For design reviews, we had discussions on a regular basis. And for theory subjects, there were presentations and written assignments. In the schedule, more time was assigned to design studios. And since CEPT had a 24-hour studio culture, one naturally ended up spending more time on the campus itself, which facilitated peer learning through informal interactions to a great extent. There were also electives offered in every semester besides the core subjects, which allowed us to explore other areas of interest as well. And of course, the CEPT library is something remarkable. One could find almost any book one needed there. Overall, there was a lot of room and resources for learning on your own. 

Fig. 4. Design Development Sketches; from the initial thumbnail sketch to the final resolution, Studio Project 2 – Marwar Knowledge Centre, Jodhpur

Fig. 5. Physical Model, Studio Project 2 – Marwar Knowledge Centre, Jodhpur

Tell us more about the mentors. We had really inspiring teachers at CEPT. One could always approach them and even chance encounters on campus could lead to discussions. And in the design studio, I especially had a very memorable experience under Prof. Kulbhushan Jain, who was also our department head. During design discussions, he was a great listener and would give us brief, indirect but very insightful comments on our designs. His teaching method was so subtle that he could make you conscious of your talent or inclination with minimum direct input. 

I also had a great time doing my thesis under Prof. Meghal Arya’s guidance. We had discussions on a weekly basis, and she would set smaller deadlines for every meeting. She was very persistent in making me completely occupied with the study. And it really helped in structuring the whole study into a tangible form on time.

Fig. 6. Conceptual Sketches, Studio Project 3 – Institute for Nature, Bhopal

Fig. 7. Physical Model, Studio Project 3 – Institute for Nature, Bhopal

Could you tell us what your thesis was about? I was very interested in organically grown traditional building complexes. Such complexes developed incrementally over centuries, be it the Alhambra in Granada or Katsura Palace in Japan or Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur. Their plans, as we see them today, were never preconceived. They were allowed to unfold gradually with time. And that could be the reason for the ‘wholeness’ or ‘harmony’ that we feel in such complexes. So as an architect, I wanted to know how one can inform one’s design process by studying such complexes. I took Padmanabhapuram Palace in Kerala as my case study, and also decided to use only sketches and drawings throughout the study. I hoped that by sketching the whole thing one could also probably end up having some kind of a tacit understanding of the place. The study made me conscious about the role of organic growth processes in uniting buildings and surroundings.

Fig. 8. Padmanabhapuram Palace: Axonometric View, an illustration from the Research Thesis

Fig. 9. Padmanabhapuram Palace: Stages of growth of the complex, an illustration from the Research Thesis

How did you manage the finances? I had to take an educational loan of around 4 Lakh INR towards the tuition fee. And the living expenses were met by the 8000 INR monthly GATE scholarship I would get.

Did you volunteer/work part-time job/intern while studying? As part of the course, we had to either do a short internship or make a travelogue after the third semester. I chose to work with my previous employer on a competition project during that time. It qualified as an internship and also earned me some income.

How did you choose your accommodation? Did you have to commute to reach lecture halls? I stayed at the college hostel, which was very close to the campus and an economical option.

How did you manage the finances? I had to take an educational loan of around 4 Lakh INR towards the tuition fee. And the living expenses were met by the 8000 INR monthly GATE scholarship I would get.

Did you volunteer/work part-time job/intern while studying? As part of the course, we had to either do a short internship or make a travelogue after the third semester. I chose to work with my previous employer on a competition project during that time. It qualified as an internship and also earned me some income.

How did you choose your accommodation? Did you have to commute to reach lecture halls? I stayed at the college hostel, which was very close to the campus and an economical option.

Did you travel while/after studying? The sites allocated to us for studio projects were located in different cities. So as part of the design studios themselves we could travel to different parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. And it was a great exposure to work on design projects in different climatic and geographic settings. One realizes that regional architecture is nothing but a direct outcome of how people reacted to the climate and geography of their place. Especially the experience of Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur was really moving. It was something completely different from the kind of tropical buildings in Kerala I was familiar with.

Are there any notable anecdotes from post-grad studies that you wish to share? Prof. B. V. Doshi once came to our studio for a design review. It was a much anticipated review and we were all very keen to present our work before him. After the review, someone in the class asked him if he could make a sketch for the whole class and he agreed to do so. And we were all so excited to see Prof. Doshi sketch; such expressive lines drawn with a childlike playfulness!

I also have a vivid memory of the day Charles Correa came for a lecture at CEPT. The whole campus was fully packed even two hours before his lecture started. The atmosphere was exhilarating. For me, personally, it was an exciting thing to see him present his work, for I have been an ardent admirer of his work from my undergraduate days. The utmost clarity with which he could articulate his ideas and his sharp wit made my appreciation for his work even more pronounced.

How do you think doing a master’s degree helped you? I think the exposure really helped me build confidence and opened me up in many ways. Most importantly, the course made me conscious of different synthesising processes, than just approaching the design in a purely functional and problem-solving manner. One started to believe in the initial intuitive or gut responses; the immeasurable aspects of design process which begin much before conceptualisation.

Recently I got a chance to try out some of the themes I was pursuing during the master’s, when I was asked to associate with NMS Architects to participate in the invited competition for IIT Palakkad Campus. Even though we could only reach up to the financial bid stage of the competition, conceptualising a project of this scale and complexity in a very short time was a real test for my capacity for synthesis. The concept of the main academic complex was inspired from the organically grown Indian Palace Complexes, keeping in mind the incremental growth of the campus. Unlike the conventional campuses, the individual disciplines were grouped as a tightly packed building complex, ensuring mutual shading of the buildings and creating climate tempered in-between spaces for activities to spill over. And we hoped this network of shaded courtyards and pavilions connecting different disciplines will also encourage chance interaction between students and will create a milieu of interdisciplinary interaction and informal learning.

Fig. 10. Design Development Sketches, The main academic complex, Competition Entry for Indian Institute of Technology, Palakkad (Associated to NMS Architects)

Fig. 11. Bird’s Eye View of the overall Master Plan, Competition Entry for Indian Institute of Technology, Palakkad (Associated to NMS Architects)

Currently, I am really excited to be part of Prof. Kulbhushan Jain's new book on architectural education titled 'Learning Architecture'. The book is basically a collection of fifteen essays by young educators from different parts of India, edited and with an introductory essay by Prof. Jain. So, I think doing master’s degree opened up new avenues for me; organically leading to many opportunities, through the friends I made or through the goodwill of the very fine teachers I learned from.

Did the city/country you studied in play a major role during your postgraduate study? In Ahmedabad, the presence of works by many master architects and also the rich traditional architecture left a great impression on me. During my two years at CEPT, I visited the works of Claude Batley, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn’s IIM and works by B.V. Doshi and Charles Correa. I was also impressed by the simplicity of projects by Prof. Neelkanth Chhaya and architect Leo Pereira. And I was really moved by the profound simplicity of Gandhi’s home at Sabarmati Ashram.

Could you please tell us about your current work and future plans? Currently, I am operating as a one-man practice and also teach design part-time. I am equally interested in farming and am trying to incrementally develop our place in Calicut into a house, studio and garden, where I hope to equally divide my time between designing, reading, writing, sculpting and farming.

What message would you like to give to those planning to take up your program in your school? In Vitruvius’s ‘The Ten Books on Architecture’ the first chapter talks about ‘Education of the Architect’. When I came across that, I was fascinated by his opening passage on ‘Theory and Practice’. For me the course ‘Theory and Design’ almost resonated with Vitruvius’s advice, who wrote: “…It follows, therefore, that architects who have aimed at acquiring manual skill without scholarship have never been able to reach a position of authority to correspond to their pains, while those who relied only upon theories and scholarship were obviously hunting the shadow, not the substance. But those who have a thorough knowledge of both, like men armed at all points, have the sooner attained their object and carried authority with them…”

About the interviewee... Ajay graduated from College of Engineering Trivandrum and completed his post-graduation in Theory and Design with top honours from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. His practice Thinking Dwelling Studio revolves around a passionate desire to make architecture that unfolds in time in a manner that draws upon history. His master’s thesis on Padmanabhapuram Palace explored his interest in the nature of ‘unfolding’ and also won him a commendation at the Indian Institute of Architects’ National Awards. Ajay has a keen interest in the architecture of the past and considers research and pedagogy as a means to nourish his practice. Apart from architecture, his interests include literature, sculpting and farming. You can follow his work on Instagram and Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/ajayjacobk/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/Thinking-Dwelling-Studio-680062388788126/

[coolblog2stuff-blog]

The Cathedral in the Glen: What does it look like?

By Francis Neil G. Jalando-on

Situated in Central Philippine University, between the Henry Luce III Library and the Rose Memorial Auditorium, is the Hopevale Memorial. There stands a creative rendition of the Cathedral in the Glen, an open-air church designed and built by Dr. Francis Howard Rose in Tapaz, Capiz. A similar replica of the Cathedral in the Glen can be found in Green Lake Conference Center of the American Baptists Churches in Greenlake, Wisconsin.

Can you picture the Cathedral in the Glen or the Hopevale Memorial in your mind? What does it look like?

Four months before the 11 American Baptist missionaries were martyred because of their Christian faith in Tapaz, Capiz on August 16, 1943, Jeannie Claire Adams, a missionary nurse assigned in Capiz Emmanuel Hospital, described the Cathedral in the Glen through a poem she dedicated to Dr. Francis Howard Rose entitled “Woodland Cathedral.”

Here is the poem:

“Cathedral in the woodland wrapped in quietness

A sheltered haven in refreshing restfulness

Secluded spot within majestic clefted rock

Where hills in ages past have known a rending shock

The rugged rocks rise up to make a sheltering wall

The leafy dome above spreads out to cover all

The trees lift up their boughs toward unfathomed space

The birds in confidence have built a nesting place

The ferns and flowers fair profuse in erannies grow

Soft shadows fall and shift while breezes whisper low

The rugged cross is gently touched by sunshine clear

The heart in meditation feels that God is near

Beside the silent altar waiting there alone

The soul is lifted upward to the heavenly throne

The heart repentant finds a solace waiting there

Deep gratitude and praise pours forth in song and prayer

Cathedral in the woodland, sheltering resting place

Where one may meditate and seek the Father’s face

Cathedral in the woodland shaded calm and still

In quietude we wait to know the Father’s will.”

Louise Reid Spencer also described the Cathedral in the Glen in her book Guerrilla Wife. She and her husband, Cyril L. Spencer, a mining engineer, took refuge with the American Baptist missionaries in Hopevale. Unlike the 11 martyrs, they were able to escape and were subsequently rescued by the Allied Forces.

Here is what Louise Reid Spencer wrote in her book:

“The HOPEVALE CATHEDRAL was a gem of outdoor architecture… Dr. Rose built the cathedral himself every stone of it. It was open to the sky, and, in its contours, formed by nature herself. The gulley where we had first taken refuge was transformed, by the loving labor of Dr. Rose, into a vision of beauty and inspiration. Descending from the caingin down the slope to the level clearing between the two walls of rock. One entered the cathedral back the altar and walked the length of the church to be seated. Here, at the back, was a stone bench where about six people could sit. Straight up the center of the church from that bench ran the aisle, a stone walk wide enough for two persons to go abreast. It led to a small rectangular block of stone, where each Sunday Clifford built a fire. A few feet beyond this firebox there were three stone steps leading up to the stone altar. About three feet before the altar, one on each side, were two oval stone reading desks. Standing straight on the center of the altar was a rugged wooden cross.

At each side of the church was a stone bench where twelve people can sit. There were [sic] a hard-packed dirt terrace bordered with stone which ran in front of all three benches, the small one at the back and the two at the sides. This terrace spread out in a fan shape at the front of the church, and the organ could be placed on either side. The organ lofts were planted with wild forest bloom, so that the organist sat in a living bower of color. At the base of the altar and the reading desks Dr. Rose had also planted shrubs.

The floral decorations for the top of the altar were arranged each Sunday by Mrs. Covell, who had studied the art of flower arrangement when she lived in Japan.  It seemed ironic to me that while we hid from our brutal enemy, one of his ancient arts contributed to the decoration of our House of God.

Dr. Rose had spent months on this cathedral, his only tools his hands, a small shovel, and a chisel. He had created something so beautiful that we caught our breath when we came to it.  But he was never finished with the work of building it. He added and perfected its details constantly. The maintenance alone was quite care [sic], for there were always fallen leaves to be brushed away, and rocks and stones that crashed down from the precipitous walls on either side to be cleared and their damage repaired.

I went often to cathedral and sat there quietly for a while, watching the trees above wave gently in the breeze, watching the small, agile monkeys, high up, swinging in the vines that twined among the trees. It seemed an entirely different place the gulley we had come to as a hide-out on the 18th of April 1942.  The transformation was complete.  It truly seemed the house of God, and from it we drew confidence and faith.”

On December 17-20, 2018, the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches will spearhead the Hopevale Diamond Commemoration to be held in Central Philippine University, Filamer Christian University and in Hopevale, Tapaz, Capiz.

If you wish to attend, you will surely see the area where the Cathedral in the Glen was constructed in Hopevale, and also the replica in Central Philippine University.

[chanoyu-to-wa]

Nampō Roku, Book 3 (1):  the Origin of the 4.5-mat Room¹.

1) With respect to the 4.5-mat sitting room², it was created³ by Shukō.  Because this was the shin-no-zashiki [眞座敷]⁴, tori-no-ko paper⁵ was pasted [onto the walls] to lighten [the interior of the room], and cryptomeria boards without frames⁶ were used for the ceiling.  Small wooden shingles were used to cover the gablet-roof, and it had a one-ken [一間]⁷ toko.  His treasured bokuseki by Engo [圜悟]⁸ was hung up, and he honored [his guests] by using the daisu [when he served them tea]⁹.  Sometime later, [Shukō] cut a ro [in the floor], and the kyū-dai [弓臺] was arranged together with it.

    In general, though objects of the sort that were [customarily] arranged in the shoin were [also] placed out [in this setting], their total number was reduced:  [for example,] in the toko, a pair of pictorial scrolls¹¹ were hung -- or, naturally, just a single painted scroll could also be hung up.  In front of this a small table [was set up], on which was an incense burner and a [pair of] hanaire¹².  Or possibly a small flower-vase in which one variety of flower has been stood¹⁴.  Or else writing paper and an ink stone, or a tanzaku-bako [短冊箱]¹⁵, or a [small] reading desk¹⁶.  Or perhaps a bon-san [盆山]¹⁷, a ha-cha-tsubo [葉茶壺]¹⁸, or other things like that.  Only things of this sort were displayed [in Shukō's room].

    With the advent of Jōō, the yojō-han was modified here and there by removing the [wallpaper] to reveal the mud-plaster of the walls, while he also replaced the wooden pillars [that support the walls] with bamboo.  He removed the koshi-ita [腰板]¹⁹ from the shōji, and replaced the black-lacquered sill at the bottom of the toko with one painted either with thin-lacquer, or he left [the sill] unpainted²⁰.  This is said to be the sō-no-zashiki [草の座敷]²¹.

    [Jō]ō²²did not display the daisu in that kind of room.  When he felt like displaying the kyū-dai [弓臺], then the kakemono and the objects displayed [in the room] were similar to the things that Shukō had used.  [But] when he [used] the fukuro-dana, [he displayed] a bokuseki in the toko; and except for the hanaire, nothing else was placed there.

    Later [still], Sōeki²³ began to use a ko-yashiki that had a thatched roof²⁴ on every occasion²⁵.  This was a manifestation of his practice of wabi²⁶.

    Jōō's [yojō-han] zashiki, as a result [of this development], was [thenceforth] considered to exist somewhere between the shoin and the ko-zashiki.  For this reason, when using the fukuro-dana, a certain flexibility is permitted²⁷.

    In the above enumeration of the various objects displayed by Shukō, with respect to the piece of furniture [referred to as a] joku [卓], if something like a small flower-vase with a flower standing in it is excluded, any number of other things might be placed [on it]²⁸.

_________________________

¹This section, which is clearly spurious, does little more than reiterate details taken from Kanamori Sōwa's largely fictitious “history” of chanoyu*.  The language of the entry is typical of the Edo period.

    It is not really clear (from the surviving documents of his period) what Jōō and the chajin of his generation actually believed -- though the cha-kai [茶會], as it existed then (and now†), was a creation of Jōō (albeit based on the format of the Shino family's incense gatherings, which they referred to as kō-kai [香會]); and the intimate knowledge of this fact would surely have colored their perception of chanoyu’s earlier history.

    The details of the 4.5-mat room, as described in this entry, had already been fixed much earlier than Shukō's period, since a room of this size had been considered appropriate for a man's personal living space according to the tenets of buke-zukuri [武家造]‡, the style of architecture favored by the military class, from which the shoin-zukuri [書院造] style (featuring shoin rooms with details such as are described here) had been evolving since the late Kamakura period**. __________ *Sōwa, a daimyō with a scholarly bent and an interest in chanoyu (he had studied tea with Sen no Dōan), was commissioned to write this history by the Tokugawa bakufu, with the express purpose being to Japanize chanoyu, in order to create the precedent necessary to facilitate the bakufu’s sale of Hideyoshi’s collection of meibutsu tea utensils (and thereby raise the cash necessary to pay off the Tokugawa family’s war-debts).

    As long as chanoyu was generally perceived to be an imported foreign (Korean) taste, the market for tea utensils was distinctly limited to the (mostly ethnic Korean) curio collectors (whose ranks had been thinned considerably as a result of Hideyoshi’s decimation of Sakai and Hakata in 1595, as punishment for their opposition to his failed invasion of the continent).

†Today the equivalent of Jōō's cha-kai is known by the name of chaji [茶事].  The reader is cautioned to keep this fact in mind, and not confuse Jōō's and Rikyū's usage with the modern chakai [茶会].

‡According to the twelfth century Hōjō Ki [方丈記].  The so-called hōjō [方丈], which means a room one jō square (one jō is 10 shaku long:  rooms of this dimension predated the time when the floor came to be completely covered with tatami mats), was approximately the same size as a 4.5-mat room.

**While the word shoin [書院] is usually translated as “study,” its function was much more encompassing:  the nobleman used the shoin not only as his personal sitting room (making it rather like a den), but he also slept, ate, washed, and dressed there, as well as using the room for the reception of intimate guests.  The tokonoma in this room functioned as a jō-dan [上段] (the built-in equivalent of the mi-chōdai [御帳臺], or nobleman's “seat of estate”) on occasions when this sort of formality was needed when receiving persons of differing rank (the toko-gamachi allowed reed or gauze curtains to be suspended from it, to obscure the nobleman’s countenance from those whose rank did not permitted them to look directly at him).

²Yojō-han zashiki ha [四疊半座敷ハ].

    The word zashiki [座敷] means a “sitting room.”

³Sakuji [作事] means to build, construct.  According to this entry, Shukō was the first to build such a room (though this is patently false -- since, even in the context of chanoyu, Yoshimasa used a room of this sort for serving tea before Shukō even arrived in Japan from Korea).

⁴Shin-no-zashiki [眞座敷]:  perhaps the interpretation of this expression as meaning “most formal [style of] sitting room” is called for by the context.

⁵Tori-no-ko kami [鳥子紙] is a kind of paper with one side finished to a hard texture resembling the surface of a chicken egg.

⁶Fuchi-nashi tenjō [ふちなし天井].  In the earlier period, the ceiling was constructed in such a way that it appeared to consist of a series of small panels surrounded by frames (this is usually called a coffered ceiling in English, and a classical Japanese example with elaborate gilding and painting is shown below, on the left).

    The term fuchi-nashi tenjō [縁無し天井] means that the frames were eliminated:  the ceiling now consisted of a series of flat boards, laid side by side (this style of ceiling, sometimes called kagami-tenjō [鏡天井], is shown above, on the right).

    In the early days, the uniform surface invited the painting of clouds and dragons and other heavenly figures, usually in black ink; but by the Momoyama period, colors and gilding were also added.  The example shown above is found in the Sūtra Hall of the Kiyomizu temple in Kyōto.

⁷Ikken [一間] means six feet.  This was a tokonoma with what was essentially a full-sized tatami mat covering the floor.

⁸Engo no bokuseki [圓悟の墨跡].

  This refers to the bokuseki that is known as the Nagare Engo [流れ圜悟] today*.  This scroll is said to have been the first bokuseki ever used for chanoyu.

   The scroll was written by the Chinese Chán (Zen) monk Yuán-wù Kèqín [圜悟克勤; 1063 ~ 1135], the editor of the Bìyán Lù [碧 巖 錄] (Heki-gan Roku; the Blue-cliff Records).

   As has been mentioned before in this blog, this document was not intended to be used as a scroll, but was actually part of Yuán-wù’s lecture notes (he traveled around China giving lectures on the cases in the Bìyán Lù, and this is a fragment of the text of one of his lectures, which one of the attendees probably kept as a souvenir of the occasion. __________ *This is the scroll that tradition holds was given to Shukō by Ikkyū Sōjun.

⁹In fact, Shukō appears to have used a sort of o-chanoyu-dana (perhaps missing a suspended upper shelf) to hold the utensils, rather than a daisu, as shown on the left in the sketch (below).

    When his room, the Shukō-an [珠光庵] (in the Shōmyō-ji [稱名寺], in Nara), was reconstructed (the reconstruction is shown in the sketch on the right), this board-floored area was assumed to be the tokonoma (and so it was moved beyond the end of the guests’ mat, and enlarged to the size of the Sen families’ preferred toko for the small room, in keeping with the teaching of suki [数奇] -- which states that the guests must be provided with at least one full mat for their use), and an extra mat for making tea (featuring a daime-gamae situated at the end of an ordinary maru-jō, and so somewhat resembling the original version of the Tai-an) was added to what had originally been a two-mat residential cell.  This board seems to have become (quite mistakenly) the precedent for the ita-doko [板床].

¹⁰Kyū-dai [弓臺]:  this is an abbreviated reference to the kyū-dai daisu [及第臺子], shown below.

    This tana, which was originaly made for use as a writing desk on the continent, has a ten-ita that is the same size as that of the large shin-daisu (measuring 1-shaku 4-sun by 2-shaku 9-sun 5-bu); however, because the ji-ita is smaller (in fact, it is the same size as the small shin-daisu, and measures 1-shaku 3-sun by 2-shaku 7-sun 5-bu), it could not be used with the furo (since the legs would prevent the host from raising or lowering the kan on the kimen-buro when necessary*).

    Traditionally it is said that Jōō was the first person to use the ro, though the earliest documents seem to be rather confused on this point.  It is possible that a hole was cut in a square board that replaced part of the floor, into which an iron ro-dan† was lowered to hold the fire, and this practice may have predated the appearance of Jōō by several decades. __________ *In the early period, chanoyu was generally performed to serve tea to a single guest (who was technically taking the place of the Buddha, so that the tea would not be wasted).  When this person was a nobleman, the kan were raised (so they lean against the neck of the furo) when he was present in the room, but lowered (so that they depend below the kan-tsuki).

†Or, more likely, an old cooking pot with the sides above the flange broken off.  This seems to have already been in use on the continent by the more wabi of tea men, so it is possible that the practice arrived in Japan during the second half of the fifteenth century.

    If so, then it may be that Jōō, rather than introducing the use of a sunken fire, may have been the first to use a mud-plastered cooking hearth of the sort found in the farmhouse kitchen.

¹¹Ni-fuku-tsui [二幅對] refers to a pair of scrolls that were intended to be displayed together.  Sometimes they represented a larger work that had been cut in half (since narrower scrolls were much easier to preserve than excessively large ones), and sometimes separate works (sometimes by different artists) that came to be used together in order to evoke a scene*.  Scrolls intended for this purpose were prepared with identical mountings.

    In addition to pairs of paintings, the number of scrolls in a set sometimes exceeded five, or even eight.  It is in light of this that Shukō's restriction to a pair becomes important. __________ *Traditionally, one scroll should be a landscape, while the other should feature human subjects (generally representations of the Buddha, or esteemed monks) -- the idea being to figuratively locate the people in the landscape.

    The scene was originally supposed to suggest a vision of the Buddha Amitābha's Western Paradise.

¹²Mae ni ha joku ni kōro, hanaire [前にハ卓に香爐、花入].

    The incense burner was placed in the middle of the small table, with either a hanaire on each side, or (at night) a hanaire and a small candlestick.  The idea was to reinforce the idea of a vision of the Western Paradise, where the air is said to be perfumed.  The flower arrangements bring the scenery of the scroll paintings into the foreground.

¹³Arui ha ko-kabin ni isshoku-rikka [あるひハ小花瓶に一色立華].

    A ko-kabin [小花瓶] is the kind of flower container that Rikyū described (in his kaiki) as a hoso-guchi [細口].

    Isshoku-rikka [一色立華] means a single type of flower is stood upright in the hanaire.

¹⁴Ko-kabin ni isshoku rikka [小花瓶に一色立華].

    The meaning of this phrase, in this context, is unclear.

    Ko-kabin [小花瓶] would seem to refer to a small bronze hanaire, one that is large enough to hold just a single flower.  Rikyū's famous Tsuru-no-hito-koe [鶴ノ一聲] (shown below) is an example of the kind of vase referred to as a “ko-kabin” in classical works such as Nōami's Kun-dai Kan Sa-u Chō Ki [君臺観左右帳記].

    The expression isshoku [一色], which literally means “one color,” was also used to mean one variety or type (out of two, or more, possibilities*).

    However, while the name rikka [立華] usually refers to a highly stylized floral arrangement (intended to recreate a landscape in miniature), it would be physically impossible to arrange more than a single stem in a ko-kabin (at least if the word is being used in its classical sense); nor would it seem possible to create a rikka using only one variety of flower†.

    While this is not the sort of mistake that Jōō (or Rikyū) would likely have made, it appears that whomever was responsible for adding this section to Jōō’s text was not so well informed.  Thus, while I have interpreted the statement to mean that a single variety (isshoku [一色]) of flower (ka [華]) is stood (ritsu [立]) in the ko-kabin, this reading should be considered tentative. __________ *In Book One of the Nampō Roku, the expression is used, relative to flowers, to mean one of the two possibilities -- which were the flowers of herbaceous plants, and the flowers of woody plants.  Precisely how it is being used here -- and whether the usage is the same as previously or not -- is debatable.

†These highly mannered arrangements generally use some sort of long-lasting woody plant material to define the basic structure of the arrangement, which is then “filled in” with various other flowers.  In the shoin setting, where the arrangement was often kept in the tokonoma for a considerable period of time, the woody material remains, while the herbaceous flowers are changed when they begin to wilt.

¹⁵A tanzaku-bako [短冊箱] was a special lacquered box in which a collection of tanzaku [短冊] (elongated pieces of paper on which poems were written) was kept.  Some of the tanzaku may have already been used, while others were unused.

    The tanzaku featuring poems were generally selected because they were appropriate to the occasion, and intended to inspire the guests to use the unused tanzaku for their own compositions.

¹⁶A bundai [文臺] was a small table (about the height of ones lap when seated on the floor) on which a book (or open scroll) was rested while reading it.  A bundai could also be used when writing (in a situation where there was not a built-in writing desk available for this purpose).

¹⁷A bon-san [盆山] is a small stone naturally shaped like a mountain, arranged in a tray of rather fine white gravel, with the gravel shaped to resemble a beach and sand-dunes in front of the stone, and the waves of the distant ocean behind (according to a poem by Ashikaga Yoshimasa that is preserved in several of Rikyū's densho).

    The bon-san known as Zan-setsu [殘雪], which was one of Yoshimasa’s personal treasures.  The stone is shown resting on a Korean sawari [四分一] tray.  (Sawari is a variety of bronze containing a certain proportion of silver.  The purpose of the silver was to keep the bronze from oxidizing, so it would remain a pale golden color.)

¹⁸Ha-cha-tsubo [葉茶壺]:  a large jar in which the dried leaves that will (eventually) be ground into matcha are stored.

¹⁹Koshi-ita [腰板] refers to a wooden panel at the bottom of a shōji (anywhere between 6-sun and 1-shaku or more high), that prevents a person sitting beside it from accidentally damaging the paper with their feet.  By removing the koshi-ita, Jōō let more light into the room at floor level.

²⁰Toko no nuri-buchi wo, usu-nuri, mata ha shira-ki ni shi [床のぬりぶちを、うすぬり、又ハ白木にし].

    Originally the sill of the toko was lacquered with shin-nuri (since only the homes of important persons featured a tokonoma*).  Jōō modified this by either painting the sill with thin lacquer (usu-nuri [薄塗り]†), or by leaving the sill unpainted (shira-ki [白木]‡). __________ *The original purpose of the tokonoma was to serve as a sort of jō-dan [上段], a place where the man of rank could sit when receiving people of a lower station than himself.

†There are two possible meanings for this:

- the black lacquer itself is thin, meaning that the variations in height of the grain can be perceived after the lacquer flattens (this is referred to as kaki-awase nuri [掻き合わせ塗り] today);

- or, the amount of iron powder (which colors the lacquer black) is limited or eliminated (resulting in something resembling tame-nuri [溜め塗り], which is technically a mixture of shin-nuri and Shunkei-nuri; or the honey-colored Shunkei-nuri [春慶塗り] by itself) -- here the lacquer itself is thinly colored, so the grain of the underlying wood-grain can be perceived through the lacquer (as if under glass).

    In documents from the period, both the Hora-dana [洞棚] (on the left:  it is painted with black kaki-awase-nuri) and the Jōō-dana [紹鷗棚] (on the right:  this tana is painted with Shunkei-nuri) are described as being painted with usu-nuri.

‡Shira-ki specifically means wood with the bark removed.  The word does not deal with whether the wood was squared, had the four faces shaved, or left in the round.

²¹Sō-no-zashiki [草の座敷]:  in contrast to the shin-no-zashiki [眞座敷] (see footnote 4, above), the sō-no-zashiki would be an “informal” room.

²²Ō [鷗] is an abbreviation of Jōō's [紹鷗] name.

²³The name Sōeki [宗易], of course, refers to Rikyū.  Sōeki was his Buddhist name; which, according to the custom of the day, he used as his professional name.

²⁴Kusabuki no ko-yashiki [草茨の小屋敷].

    Kusabuki [草茨] seems to be cognate with the more commonly used (today) kusabuki [草葺], meaning a thatched roof.

    A ko-yashiki [小屋敷] is a detached tearoom erected (usually on the far side of the garden) as a free-standing building.

²⁵Sen ni shi [專にし].

    Sen ni shi [專にし] means exclusively, only.  In other words, the author of this essay is arguing that, from a certain point in time*, Rikyū used only rooms of this sort.

    The difficulty with this assertion is that Rikyū's surviving rooms -- and certainly the Jissō-an (which was Rikyū's “small room” for most of his life†) all appear to have been roofed with small wooden shingles (in the manner that this essay ascribes to Jōō) -- apparently to give the building a feeling of lightness and impermanence (such thin pieces of wood would begin to rot, and have to be replaced every few years).

    Furuta Sōshitsu (Oribe) is the one who preferred his small rooms to have deeply thatched roofs (in the manner of the farmhouses in the snowy provinces), and a delight for this style of ko-yashiki spread from him to the machi-shū who gathered around Imai Sōkyū, and so to Sen no Sōtan (whose father Shōan was at least a nominal member of Sōkyū’s group). 

    Rikyū, meanwhile, appears to have considered this kind of roof to look oppressive and suffocating (according to his writings). __________ *Presumably when he embarked on his public life as a teacher of chanoyu.  The oldest surviving (and apparently earliest) of his densho, the Nambō-ate no densho [南坊宛の傳書], suggests that this was around 1573.

†The two-mat rooms seem to have appeared around the time that Rikyū entered Hideyoshi's service -- perhaps because Hideyoshi objected to the daime rooms (the Jissō-an is a two-mat daime) because the sode-kabe (which was entire from floor to ceiling in Rikyū's room -- the fenestration at the bottom of the wall was introduced later, by Oribe) made it difficult for the guests to see clearly what the host was doing.

    It certainly could never be argued that Rikyū’s chanoyu became more wabi after he entered Hideyoshi’s employ than before.

²⁶Wabi wo itasareshi yue [わびを致されし故].

    Literally, “[because] he was doing wabi.”

²⁷Sukoshi-sukoshi yuru-shite [少〻ゆるして].

    That is, on the one hand, the feeling can be rather formal; while on the other, a temae where the fukuro-dana is used can also seem quite wabi -- depending on the utensils used, and the way they are arranged.

    It was for this reason that the fukuro-dana could be used in the 4.5-mat room (where its purpose was to display the utensils*), yet also tucked away into the kamae at the head of the daime in the small room† (where its purpose was to make things easier for the host‡). __________ *This is why, in the shoin, the guests are expected to open the ji-fukuro and also inspect whatever the host may have placed therein.  It is thus the complete opposite of the dōko (even though its purpose is similar) -- which exists purely for the host's convenience (the dōko must never be opened by the guests so that they may peek inside).

†The original small rooms (Jōō’s Yamazato-no-iori [山里ノ庵], shown below and on the left, and Rikyū’s Jissō-an [實相庵], below, right) were both 2-mat daime structures.

    These first two rooms were followed by the ichi-jō-han [一疊半] (where the ro was moved within the kamae, making the second of the “guests’ mats” no longer necessary:  this room is shown below) -- a setting with which Rikyū very quickly became disenchanted (though it remained popular with certain of the machi-shū into the early Edo period).

    This prompted him to remove the sode-kabe and restore the utensil mat to a maru-jō [丸疊] (a full-sized mat) -- resulting in the 2-mat room with mukō-ro that he used for the rest of his life.

    All of the other variants of the small room appeared later.

‡In other words, so that he did not have to make several trips back and forth between the temae-za and the katte.

    The original sode-kabe (the "sleeve-wall" that encloses the daime-gamae) was complete from floor to ceiling, thus anything within the kamae was, for all intents and purposes, invisible to the guests.  The things within the kamae were placed there simply so that the host did not have to bring them out one by one after the guests had taken their seats.

    The kamae was finally superseded by the dōko (in the case of Rikyū's small rooms, perhaps beginning during the second half of 1587).

²⁸It seems that the person responsible for inserting this entry into Jōō’s text (who does not seem to have been Tachibana Jitsuzan) neglected to copy it out in full, and came back later to add what had been missed.

    That is why I decided to separate this statement from the rest of the text of this section.