Nieto Sobejano

I was granted grace to attend DATUM:KL 2012. For those outside the realm of architectural design, it's an international conference-design forum, coupled with an industrial exhibition called Archidex. The event is a world class annual delegation held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, a two day conjugation that has brought many notable architects to our city. This year was no different, and I reveled in the monochromatic, textural tectonics and philosophies that was offered on plate.

What I extracted, as footnote, from the conference is summed up in a video shown during a talk by Nieto Sobejano Arquietecos, on the Contemporary Art Center, mid construction in Cordova, Spain.

A. I was overwhelmed with its concept of human interactions within spaces. How movement could be perceived as influenced by the kinetics of the building's scale, how actions could magnify the essence of its areas. It's modern abstraction in an almost skeletal, almost nonsensical form, but provided me a spark of interest nonetheless. Mid thought, I remarked out loud how sublime the filtration of light and shadow upon the raw facades were, and how organic it was that the building is free forming - no polished finishes, no completing furniture.

And then someone puffed, reminding, 'the building isn't even finished yet, that is a mid construction production.' And I was slack jawed, my ears ringing with naivety, my mouth forming a silent 'oh.' Right.

B. Despite the tug from gravity, the whole experience begged questions: How is something perceived as complete, how is it a whole? If I had soaked in the video with passionate acceptance, is that not already a state of accomplishment? Complete in the sense that it is in it's maximum potential for that moment - as a grand preview it is superb, as a completed habitable structure, not yet. And so that being the case, are we all, as humans, in our various states and stances, whole?

C. Despite the work-in-progress/change-regress notion, the answer is no, and yes. We are, as we are, for this very second, but if in this second, for this second, we could be better, then we are not complete. The fundamentals of this is a) acceptance towards a state of progress, then b) rising to full potential of that state, to reach c) completion/actualization, whether in micro moments, or macro being. This could branch out to various aspects and parts as a solitary process, but perhaps it amalgamates together, like in the golden proportion.