A natural embodied space in the city

It was a hot afternoon and I was walking Oreo down the sidewalk somewhere in the East 40’s. Abruptly, he swerved to the right and decided he wanted to go into this open space between two skyscrapers. It is noteworthy that usually he prefers to walk the streets, sniffing the interesting microcosm of olfactory bouquet on offer. I scanned the sign and thankfully, dogs were allowed, so we walked in. We proceed into the deep end, past a young girl talking on the phone, decidedly not a happy conversation. After an internal sigh at the state of confusion of the young ones and stifling the urge to tap her on the shoulder to tell her that all will be well, eventually, I moved on. Oreo is guided by temperature and it was getting perceptibly cooler as we meandered into the landscape. Always trust the animal to get you to a comfortable space. There were trees and bushes, slightly wild and unkempt and built in sitting spaces around the edges. We sat down and he flopped with his customary loud grunt - he is a big dog. The plan was to sit for a bit before continuing with our walk but after five minutes, I realized that it was happening - the space was embodied. So we decided to dwell and inhabit for the next hour, to decode.

Sitting under the foliage of the trees, not too dense so that sunlight filtered through, was inviting on the hot day. This is the body’s reaction to the circadian rhythm - we like the sun, even in the summer. The heat was less oppressive as there was a breeze generated through the tunnel effect of the section of the plaza - long and narrow with a small opening at the end. The slightly warm breeze against the moist exposed skin cooled down the body via evaporation, only to be replaced with more moisture. Earth, fresh and fallen leaves, fertilizer and the Manhattan aroma - food + urine + garbage + river + expensive perfume + marijuana + fuel + something unknown - slowed down the body and the mind trying to figure out which is what. Meanwhile, the animal decided to walk around to explore and own the place by marking of territory. The scale, quality of enclosure depth from the street and laziness encouraged me to take off the leash and walk around with him. There were corners and crevices in the seating envelope, the plant beds were just at the correct height for him to smell the earth and poke his nose in the bushes, which, obviously, he loves to do. His ears were pulled back, a sign that he was happy and enjoying the experience and I realized, so was I, but instead of pulling back my ears, I was smiling and like Oreo sniffing. The smells of the forest were startling in the city.

Then the ears came alive. The sound of birds chirping over the white noise of sirens by FDNY and NYPD and other interesting acronyms became pronounced. I sat down to understand the process by which tiny bird noises can outshout the sounds of the city. There were two sparrows playing with each other, flying around the low branches, expertly swerving around leaf obstacles and hopping from one branch to the other. I felt a tinge of regret - we had exiled the sparrow from New Delhi but they were thriving in this oasis in Manhattan. Following the sparrows, I started to count the other species of birds whose names I did not know but there were five different species. The more I listened, the more I saw. I was getting lost in the forest - seeing the different colours of green, the brown and black earth with diverse and unknown objects including a tiny bottle of an obscure alcoholic drink and the city came back. I looked up to see if I could see the sky - a difficult sight on the streets of the City - and there it was , a composition. The buildings framed the vista, the trees dappling the electric blue of the sky with cotton clouds, swaying ever so slightly. I tried to imagine what this painting would look like if the buildings were absent, squinting to block them from view and realized that the composition would be missing a vital component - human innovation. Intuitively, Oreo looked up at me and we knew that we were thinking of the same place - our home in New Delhi, with the grass lawn, tropical plants, unmanicured sidewalks and the old bungalow full of intense character and personality. Memories and cultural conditioning kicked in - the raw and rough edges of the plaza struck the nostalgic chord. We sat down and rested. The wind rustled the leaves, the birds made gentle sounds, the smell from a nearby pizza store wafted in and then there was a hum - a persistent, grainy and glitchy sound of an old machine. As my ears discovered the buzz, it got louder and eventually, like a well tuned orchestra, became the bass tenor to the high pitched sirens and the melodious birds. This is what buildings sound like when the mechanical systems that sustain the modern lifeworld are firing away at full capacity - air conditioning, plumbing, ventilation, escalators, and a host of other technological inventions. We have now come full circle. The city has made its presence heard. Time to get back to reality - we have to finish the walk, get back to the apartment, feed Oreo, make dinner, plan for the next day and get enmeshed in the rhythm of the city.

The processes of embodiment in nature informs architecture by reinforcing the spatial field - the plaza, structural encoding - landscape and vegetation, kinetic sequencing - the birds navigating space as this is their territory, perceptual activation - our twitching of the nose, ears going back, tasting the wet soil and green leaves, feeling the rough stones under our feet, sitting on the hard and cold benches, remembering our last home in New Delhi and feeling nostalgic. It all comes together to embody the space where we feel, like only a living being does.

A natural embodied space in the city

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