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Cube
of
Life
By
Ziad
Aazam
This morning I was typing my thoughts to myself on Facebook, without any expectations from a friend or foe to comment on what I write, when suddenly an idea of a cube representing reality and dream became available to my mind. It is basically a model of reality and dream envisioned spatially as a nine-square grid house in plan, horizontally, and in section, vertically. Everyone speaks of left wing, right wing and middle or center when positioning people views along the continuum of extreme liberalism and conservatism, while addressing issues that relate to parties political orientation, intellectual, cultural and social worldviews. Well, to me this is not enough to model reality, because it is a one-dimensional representation of reality. One is either to the right or left or in between with some degree of variations. So I am proposing to use a three- dimensional cube with multiple left to right and middle relationships horizontally, vertically and diagonally, covering the traditional one-dimensional continuum, while adding two other sets of two-dimensional and three-dimensional relationship types.
The House
I am calling this nine-square grid cube a House, because it houses the range of our human extreme realities and values. And because I am an architect and I know there are nine- square grid houses in architecture. Just like a building has closed and open rooms, so is our cube house. So, liberalism and conservatism are accommodated in these rooms with or without partitioning walls depending on the design of the house. However, how can we understand the variable design of our own house without understanding the house design in its ideal type? Who are occupying the rooms of our current house and who should be occupying these rooms in the ideal type house? To make it easier to comprehend, I call them Reality House and Dream House, the former is the current messy house, and the latter is the ideal type house.
Dream House As an architect when designing a house, I start with sketching my spatial and formal interpretation of the requirements. This is just a sketch of the Dream House. In plan, or horizontal plane, the house is divided into front, middle and back sections. It is also divided into right, middle and left. In our nine-square grid, there is one room, or let us call it space, remains at the center of the house, located between front and back and right and left. That is where most people meet, right at the center of the house, as we conceive it in plan. Now, let us conceive it in section, which is a vertical plane. The house has bottom, middle (again) and top, in addition to right-middle-left typical divisions we have horizontally. The plans, or the floors, are repeated with the same arrangement I described above, front-middle-back. Each horizontal plane has nine-square grid. This leaves us with a central space cutting across bottom-middle-top grid spaces. This is where most peoples movement and occupation take place in the house. Now, what kinds of people live in the Dream House? At the bottom level, we find the workers, the grass roots, the masses and the followers; at the middle, we find the educated, the middle-class, the ones who provide links between the bottom and the top; and at the top, we find the elites, the leaders, the powerful, and the controllers. At each level, these types of people live in the right, middle or left
wings.
Those
on
the
outer
spaces
live
on
the
edge
of
the
house,
have
views
to
the
outside,
enjoy
wider
perceptional
horizon,
possess
extreme
attachment
to
reality
outside
the
house,
thriving
at
the
frontier,
or
submitting
to
life
at
the
back,
holding
on
their
traditions
on
the
right,
or
exploring
liberty
at
the
left.
Those
at
the
inner
spaces
live
at
the
center
in
a
comfort
zone,
mostly
pushed
and
pulled,
squeezed
and
stretched
by
everyone
else
left
and
right,
front
and
back,
top
and
bottom;
they
are
moderate
in
views,
not
at
the
frontier
nor
backwardly
placed.
While
the
nine-square
grid
cube
has
views
to
the
outside
at
four
sides
and
one
top,
the
lower
level
allows
for
an
underground
level
with
eternalized
views
since
external
views
are
not
possible.
This
level
of
the
house,
which
is
unaccounted
for,
provides
an
opportunity
for
a
foundational
structural
depth
or
a
threat
to
the
stability
of
the
house
because
of
the
lack
of
structural
depth
or
forces
to
transform
its
foundation.
Reality
House
Now,
in
this
quick
sketch
to
model
reality
on
a
three-dimensional
continuum,
horizontally,
vertically
and
diagonally,
all
I
ask
you
to
do
is
try
to
imagine
our/your
reality
house
using
the
description
of
the
Dream
House
above.
Remember
that
the
Dream
House
is
just
an
effort
to
categorize
an
ideal
type
house,
its
spaces,
levels
and
people
moving
or
occupying
these
spaces
and
levels.
Using
this
model,
reflect
on
your
Reality
House
and
imagine
what
you
like
your
Dream
House
to
be.
Ziad
Aazam
2013
http://spacewriting.wordpress.com/