Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

Willamette Hosts the World

Last week our own Willamette River played host to The World, a floating condominium of profanity inducing proportions that just happens to be shaped like an ocean liner. Conceptualized by Norwegian cruise ship magnate Knut U. Kloster Jr., The World set sail from Oslo in 2002 and now roams the oceans of, well... the world with a cargo of presumably rich (2.3 million was the starting price for a studio at the time the ship first hit the water) seafarers. Having left Portland, where it spent three days crammed between the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges, World travelers will next visit Astoria before heading up the coast to Seattle, British Columbia and points further north. So if on a recent trip into downtown you didn't get chance to tap a friend on the shoulder, point and exclaim, "What in The World is that!?" I'm sorry. That ship has sailed.

Reflecting on what it might be like to live in a 290 sq ft studio-condo aboard The World reminded me of Stewart Brand's insightful and highly utilitarian How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built. Brand, best known as creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, discusses the virtues of efficient use of space and embraces the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi which, architecturally speaking, calls for some space in new buildings to be left unfinished so that the buildings can better "learn" the best way to suit its tenants. Brand calls on numerous examples including his own home (a tugboat in dry-dock!!!) and his work space/studio (an over-sized, retro-fitted shipping container). How Buildings Learn is chock full of theories and case studies that can be applied to the spaces around you and will really inspire you to rethink the way you see and use space.

If one was looking for further practical advice for developing space in a humane fashion it'd be hard to imagine a better resource than A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction which is full of maxims such as: "Arrange houses to form very rough, but identifiable clusters of 8 to 12 households around some common land and paths. Arrange the clusters so that anyone can walk through them, without feeling like a trespasser." Author Christopher Alexander, et al, reverse engineer the most livable and enduring structures and complexes from around the world and distill rules and guidelines that could give life to columnist Thomas Friedman's sense that we Americans may need to "Europeanize" our lifestyle to in order to maintain our quality of life.

But I've gotten a little off topic, traveling the oceans of earth in a buoyant borough is one way to see the world but Thor Heyerdahl experienced life on the water at a much more intimate and graphic level while testing his theory of Polynesian diaspora in raft made of, mostly, primitive materials. He documented the 101 day voyage in Kon-Tiki (the library also has a documentary by that same name with footage from the original undertaking). Heyerdahl's incredible courage made a strong impression on me as a 12 year-old when I first read his descriptions of setting sail on a raft of balsa logs lashed together with hemp ropes. The voyage of the Kon-Tiki only seems more impressive today with advances in technology that make me wonder if anyone will ever chose to do something this difficult again. Setting aside Heyerdahl's anthropological theories, Kon-Tiki is a compelling tale of adventure and careful observation that leaves one with a strong respect for the power of the ocean and the creatures that live there. Though Heyerdah's ideas have since been discredited no one can discount the experience that he had traveling the Southern Pacific at sea level. That's something that money simply can not buy.