Decoding the Poetics of Spaces

As designers, artists, creative individuals we are poets at heart. How can we design without romanticizing space? The fact is that poetry does not exist only in books in the library. Poetry is in the journey of reading the book. One changes as a person on that journey. Poetry is an encounter of the reader with a book; a discovery of the book. The book Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard was made as our dharma granth, Bible,Koran or similar to the constitution of India. 10 exercises in the semester responded to 10 chapters of the book. Each chapter of the book was read-reread-analyzed-torn apart-critiqued during each week. Text provided visual genesis for the design exercises throughout the semester. Students along with tutors, engaged in periodic readings together to interpret and understand various meanings of the text. Students were given specific exercises to broaden their repertoire of ‘elements of space’, helping them to build and construct spaces. All exercises were done keeping the text of the book in mind .