<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi Doug,<div><br></div><div>Wonderful questions!</div><div><br></div><div>For me the shape of opened space is fluid, inviting, comfortable, flexible - and at the same time, exciting, edgy and playful. - the bounds of passion and responsibility hold these. Circle is important to the space because it furnishes us with equality and gives everyone a voice who wants one.</div><div><br></div><div>In the invitation our goal is to collect the building materials, the architects, the builders. Then we set them loose to talk with each other to form the building.</div><div><br></div><div>Do we have a role to remind them about designing Open Space into whatever they've come together to build, or is that too much infusion of ourselves into the process?</div><div><br></div><div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>with grace and love,</div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><b>Zelle</b></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div>Zelle Nelson</div><div>Know Place Like Home • Engaging the Soul@Work • State of Grace Document</div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#008000"><a href="http://www.knowplacelikehome.com">www.knowplacelikehome.com</a></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000080"><a href="http://www.engagingthesoulatwork.com">www.engagingthesoulatwork.com</a></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#004080"><a href="http://www.stateofgracedocument.com">www.stateofgracedocument.com</a></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#008000"><b><a href="mailto:zelle@knowplacelikehome.com">zelle@knowplacelikehome.com</a></b></font></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div>work/home: (001) 828.693.0802</div><div>mobile: (001) 847.951.7030</div><div>Isle of Skye</div><div>2021 Greenville Hwy</div><div>Flat Rock, NC 28731</div><div>USA</div></div></div></div></div></span></div></span></div></span> </div><br><div><div>On Sep 6, 2009, at 1:20 PM, douglas germann wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Hi--<br><br>Still reading Christopher Alexander and finding lots of parallels to OS:<br><br> Most important of all, it was the space (more than the building)<br> which was being formed. That flies against 20th-century<br> awareness, which places too much emphasis on buildings. What<br> mattered about the building is the contribution it makes to the<br> formation of shaped, coherent, public space. That was where the<br> inspiration came from, and it was that—later—which made it<br> possible to make the building beautiful. Christopher Alexander,<br> The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and The<br> Nature of the Universe, Book Three: A Vision of a Living World,<br> p 138<br><br>In another instance, he says that in designing a home, it is best to<br>design the garden first: when that is placed in the most health-giving,<br>nurturing spot, then the house is made that much better, that much more<br>wonderful. Garden first!<br><br>The question this raises for me for OS is: most often the communities in<br>which we are opening space want to accomplish some *thing*. This thing<br>is Alexander's building. But he does not look first at the building;<br>rather he tries to shape public space--give it volume, life. What are we<br>trying to shape when we open space?<br><br>It is easy for me to throw in a glib "we simply are there to open<br>space," but I think the inquiry needs to go deeper than that. What is<br>the shape of opened space? What makes it coherent? What are the factors<br>which give it shape?<br><br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>:- Doug.<br><br>*<br>*<br>==========================================================<br><a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a><br>------------------------------<br>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,<br>view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:<br>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html<br><br>To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:<br>http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist<br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>*
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