SECLUDED PORTALSThe Aperture Analyzed Location: Walden Pond, MA
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” (Thoreau).
In 1845 Henry David Thoreau built a modest dwelling for himself at Walden Pond, He lived there in relative isolation for two years as an experiment in simple living a reflection on the relationship between culture and nature. In secluded intimate wooded setting Thoreau is said to have taken long, contemplative walks, watching the sunrise and sunset, embracing solitude and communing with nature. He contemplated the meaning of withdrawal and of interaction with the outer world, living in a state of heightened sensitivity to his surroundings. While his dwelling no longer exists, we imagine that his aperture remains. The aperture stands as a single conduit between the most private condition of enclosure and the broad expense of the natural world. The aperture is a kind of ruin, a fragment or artifact that is a testament to the duality of his intense physical connection to and withdrawal from the exterior. It suggests a contemplative space, from which the material qualities emanate.
The aperture accentuates exploration about the moments of precision towards the original site of Thoreau’s cabin Identifying three key elements, the view towards the pond, the path, and the original cabin pillars. It acts as the portal that redirects the by passers in the trails in which one is suspended by the moment of transitioning in order to perceive the element of the aperture Expressing light shadow form and view and essentially sense the tension between enclosure and nature. The precision, the aperture becomes the converging point in which it either redirects the path or frames the view with light embodiment. Thus it serves the most pragmatic needs for illumination and ventilation. Simultaneously, its design compels us to search for deeper meaning about its intentions and spatial repercussions.