Reflective Essays

Reflective Essay

I never would have thought that my journey in the Boston Architectural College was going to be one of such growth and discovery. My understanding of design, once confined to structures, drawings, and aesthetics, became one of reflection on humans, social relations, and environment. Architecture became the instrument of connection among these disciplines. In particular I took a high interest in the relationship between people and the built environment. I have observed how difficult social interaction is in US cities and how that differs culturally from Italy. There, all you need is generate welcoming spaces in which eating and drinking coffee is a pretense. There, people make the activity, using public spaces, precisely one of hanging out and partying. In the US, instead, social interaction happens only through planned activity without ever it being simple, leisurely human connection. This brought me to reflect deeper on space and human interaction. I became curious and dived deeper into studying the Italian culture. As I went back to review and study the Greek and Latin classics, I incurred in the word Otium and its profound roots in Italian society. So much has been written regarding this practice. From Aristotle to Cicero. The antique Greek philosophers practicing otium, despised work and considered the worker as someone who had no time to ennoble the spirit through reflection. In order to be a committed and wise man, the Greeks believed you needed to reflect, think, and meditate. For the Roman philosopher Cicero, practicing otium is the main characteristic of the free man. It is only through practicing otium, as the fundamental instrument, that man can achieve high civil and political commitment, a sine qua non of philosophical work. Therefore, Italians are a population that celebrate idleness as a mean to achieve high rewards. It is only through contemplation, metaphysical exchanges, and human connection that man can understand and adapt to the world. These studies made me realize that, although well-conceived spaces can either create and facilitate human interaction or obstruct it, culture plays the most important factor. If the population is unused to socializing and interacting, if the culture dictates that otium translates into negative idleness then spaces will not be used for those practices and will remain empty. We as architects can influence and change culture with our efforts, we can create spaces that allow and encourage thinking, meditating, and having fun as a positive and proactive activity to reach a healthy and fulfilling life.