IGLOO
Building Practice
Context: The First snow of 2012 in Beijing
Location: Basketball Court, Beijing Jiaotong University
Period:12/2012(18 hours)
Type: Academic practice/Three-person teamwork
Partner: Fei Wang, Fei Bai
Description: We three built an igloo after the First snow of 2012. Without thinking over the purpose, we just felt like doing it. The work began at about 2 pm and was finished at 7:30 am in the next morning, in the process of which we had a failure. The 18 hours’ work without sleeping made us three bitter guys. We went back to sleep after it was finished and when we came back to see the igloo in the evening, it melt into a pile snow, which was just like a dream, while the beauty of which had remained in our hearts.
The failure we made at the first time strives to create awareness, learn lessons from past failures, and help establish a rich source of information and inspiration for architects, planners and others with an interest in urban affairs. The goal is not to judge, but ask the straightforward question as to why some urban environments and buildings are perceived as failures, and for which reasons.
As Kant said, beauty is a kind of happiness without purpose. I know it fairly well. Too much rational thinking can make us more practical but less imaginative. A building standing there is to bring us beauty. During my undergraduate, I have done something like that, leaving my life with no regrets because I found the happiness of building.