Deference to Context

Qi Zhu Qi_zhu@carleton.ca
Figuring the relationship between a building and its context is profoundly influenced by the construed concept of self and his or her roles and functions within a society. The modern concept of self in the western culture, as conferred in various writings of the English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, emphasized on the effort of each individual in his or her process of creating a different self therefore to attain the intensification of experience. In contrary, the classic Chinese Confucian and Taoist thinking is composed through the deferential relationships among individuals. One is responsible to find his or her position within a society by deferring to the other individuals through ritual practice and more dramatically through no-action, or no-creativity.

Such a conceptual shift in the two cultures: difference and deference, is used in this paper as the theoretical framework of applying a comparative analysis in how to think about context. The concept of difference more easily leads to out-of-context while the deference to in context. The traditional Chinese garden gates built during the Ming and Qing dynasties (14th 18th centuries), focusing on building deferential relationships with other architectural elements, engender an aesthetic coherence and intrinsic harmony.

By contrasting Eastern and Western cultural development of self and by analyzing each cultures corresponding architectural developments, the paper concludes with a proposition of combining the Western innovative approach of creating difference with the Eastern opposing gestures of creating deference. Thus the final architecture innovation could be a self-less piece and displays unique yet harmonious relationship with the others.

A Different Self
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The modern understanding of self in the western culture normally begins with Descartes (15961650)s mind and body separation. The body sensory organs represent the material aspect, or the physical nature of the self. In contrast, the mind is the non-physical substance. The mind, having the capacity of unifying reason and experience, gives us thoughts, intelligence and self-consciousness. In his study of optics, Descartes illustrated how the outside inputs are passed on by the sensory organs the eyes. Yet the image of the object is an upside-down copy on the retina. The misrepresented sensory information has to be corrected by the mind to internally make sense of the data. Similarly, self-understanding is achieved through reasoning. Francis Bacon (1521-1626), the English philosopher, supplements Descartes project. Self is taken as an assertive agent; reasoning is the path to attain the affirmation of the subjective proposition. Yet, David Hume (1711-1776), the Scottish philosopher and historian, made a stark contrast with Descartes and found that passions of pride and envy, love and hate are the source of self- awareness and meaning of individuality. Reason is just the slave of passions.1 Whether it is reasoning or feeling, those contemplations about self are aimed at answering, what is the ontological self that guides such self-reflections and actions? However at the level of lived experience, most selfreflections and actions always eschew from any singular designation about the ontological I, because the self sometimes is tormented by one desire and acts under one reason, yet at other times, by other

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume

passions and contradictory acts. The question of what am I? in everyday life is often shifted to the question of what do I become? 2 In such a shift, the idea of self-as-process emerges.

The concept of self-as-process was expounded in the philosophies influenced by Henri Bergson and Whitehead. There are no defining or permanent self rather the self is constituted by its becoming, both in the sense that individual selves come into being and pass away, and in the sense that the development of a person comprises the multiple momentary selves through time, and each momentary self is a process of becoming on its own. The concept of self-as-process turns away from the substance views of selfhood.

According to Whitehead, each temporary occasion along the life-process is a transitory drop of experience and forms a temporary self. The constituting pieces of transitory occasions are loosely tied together through the relevant experience of the previous occasions and prior self. On this reading of the self, there is no war of reason against the passions, but a complex set of interactions between competing sets of beliefs and desires. In such a way, the self is de-centered from the one static being into a number of potential ways of dynamic becoming.

Each drop of experience, as a process of becoming, is termed by Whitehead as concrescence of an occasion. The process of concrescence is constituted by three principle stages in the growth of an occasion of experience: initial datum, in-between process, and final aim of satisfaction.

In David Halls analysis of Whiteheadians theory on culture, these three stages are explained in detail. In a simplified way, the datum in the concrescence of an occasion provides the initial physical feeling of the occasion. Influenced by preceding experiences, the initial physical feeling is indeterminate in regard to this particular occasion of experience. The process of becoming is the growth of the
D Hall, D., Roger T. Ames (1998). Thinking from the Han Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western Culture. Albany, State University of New York. P. 14.
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experiences and is grounded on the reception and transformation of the initial datum. During the growth of experiences, the self conceptualizes the initial datum the vague physical feeling - towards a less ambiguous conceptual feeling. The physical and conceptual feelings interact to increase the definitions of the occasion and to clarify the inherited vagueness in accordance to the aim of satisfaction. Such a process resembles how the chaos is progressively transformed into an orderly pattern. The final determinate aim of an actual occasion is satisfaction: i.e., the intensification of the experience.3

Whitehead delved further and stressed that the real possibility of the attainment of the aim of satisfaction or the intensification of experience is hinged on what the circumstance provides and by how free a self could be. As stated above, the growth of experience involves the interaction of the physical feeling of the occasion (derived from the initial datum) and the conceptual feeling (derived during the process of reproducing the physical feeling). If at the final stage of the concrescence, the conceptual feeling is reverted from the initial one, and if the reverted feeling has experienced a heightened intensity through aversion, then the process becomes the focus of novelty in the occasion. A greater satisfaction is attained when the occasion is able to modify (reverse) its initial conceptual feeling from the final one through introducing novelty.

Whitehead also raised another important concept: creativity. As for Whitehead, the universe is a creative advance into novelty (Process and Reality).4 Whiteheads concept of creativity is a source of concrete intuition that leads the temporal passage into novelty. As an intuition, creativity adventures into making differences that derives from the observation of the intrinsic incompleteness or wanting of each occasion. In this way, each occasion not only is a self-forming process, also an aesthetic event

Hall, D. L. (1973). The Civilization of Experience A Whiteheadian Theory of Culture. New York, Pordham University Press., P. 37. 4 Ibid., P. 38.

within the process.5 The metaphysical assumption is that, self-creative aesthetic events are the primary realities of which the world is made. For whitehead, the self-as-process is an aesthetic, rather than a functional journey, advancing into novelty through creativity.

Under such a conceptual umbrella, self-as-process steers away from the static individual to the processive multiple becomings and possible selves. The potentials of individuals and their experiences are magnified by creativity, a novel aversion from the initial to the final concepts. The collective individuals form a cultural pattern that also adventures along the process of producing novel differences. Under such a theoretical framework where self-differences and cultural difference thrive, not only self is different from the others through creativity, the self in this temporal and spatial occasion is different from the self in previous occasions through the act of creating novelty.

Difference in Architecture

Probing the self as phenomenological becoming rather than ontological being has parallels in the theoretical development on architectural design and building practices. The searching of typology in architectural theories seems to have resonated with the hunting for the essential being of a building that muted from changes. Quartremere de Quincy defines an architectural type in his historical dictionary by contrasting it with the concept of model. Model as the word suggests, provides an image of something to be copied or imitated. All is exact and defined in the model. Yet, in contrast, type serves as a rule for the model. The instances being categorized within the same type might not resemble each other. Giulio Carlo Argan in his article Typology and Transformation tells us: type is never formulated a priori but always deduced from a series of instances. For example, the building type as circular temple is deduced from the result of the confrontation and fusion of all circular temples. Such
5

Ibid., P. 37.

a type directly depends on the existence of a series of circular temple buildings, having between them an obvious formal analogy (as circular form) and functional analogy (as temple). 6 Due to the industrial revolution in the second half of the 19th century, an emerging need of housing large-scale industrial productions requires a different type of buildings. Consequently, attempts were made to set up typologies based on the physical functions of the building alone, such as typical plans for industrial buildings, hospitals, hotels, schools, and banks etc. Typology is further dwindled from the coupled relationship of formal and functional analogies to a functional analogy alone. The functionalist concept of architectural type and the associated pragmatic program arises which seeks to fix relationships between spaces and their uses.7 In reverse of such deductions with the resurrection of the formal aspect of architectural typology, Giulio Carlo Argan stressed that in the western architecture history, typology is tied more to buildings formal configuration, than to its pragmatic functions. The ideological content of forms has a constant base. The formal configuration of the circular temple is not intended to satisfy contingent, practical requirements; rather it is meant to deal with more profound problems reflecting the ideology of the given society at a particular time.

Such formal typologies always fall into three main sub-categories: the first concerned with a complete configuration of buildings, the second with major structural elements, and the third with decorative elements. Examples of the first subcategory are centrally or longitudinally planned buildings, of the second, flat or domes roofs; and of the third, orders of columns, ornamental details, etc. Such subcategories follow the succession of the architects working process (plan, structural system and surface treatment) and that it is intended to provide a typological guide for the architect to follow in the

Argan, G. C. (1996). On the Typology of Architecture (1963). Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995. k. Nesbitt. Princeton, NJ, Princeton Architectural Press: Pp. 240 248, Pp. 243-244 7 Rahim, A. (2009). Uniformity and Variability in Architectural Practice. Research and Design the Architecture of Variation. L. Spuybroek. London, Thames and Hudson: Pp. 40 48, P. 42.

process of conceiving a building. So that the working out of every architectural project has this typological aspect; whether it is that the architect consciously follows the type or wants to depart from it.8

Whether a building is categorized either into a functional or/and formal typology, the conceived type is directly liasoned to an idealized form that is assumed to be constant. Type connotes the identity of a building its use and form to be read from its appearance.9 Even the design practice has an archetype as mentioned above. The theory of architectural typology investigates the static ontological being of buildings and design practices. Yet recently, contrary voices are heard regarding buildings and design practices as a process of becoming through the act of creative discoveries along the design and building process. It resonates with the theory on culture outlined in Whiteheadians writings. In architecture, there are neither formal nor functional constancies, rather change, variations and novelty in time persistently define then re-define both the building and the design practice.

Contemporary Architectural Practice, a leading architectural firm located in New York, pioneered in taking building design as a process and striving for creating variations. Ali Rahim in CAP gives some insightful comments on how his practice achieved the aim of creating varied forms in architecture. Ali Rahim explains: Architects who use analytical methods typically work from the top down: they formulate an overall design concept and then refine the design

Figure 1

Argan, G. C. (1996). On the Typology of Architecture (1963). Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995. k. Nesbitt. Princeton, NJ, Princeton Architectural Press: Pp. 240 248, P. 244. 9 Rahim, A. (2009). Uniformity and Variability in Architectural Practice. Research and Design the Architecture of Variation. L. Spuybroek. London, Thames and Hudson: Pp. 40 48, P. 42.

at successively more detailed levels (this resembles Argans comment on the typology of architectural practice mentioned above.). Contemporary Architectural Practice uses temporal techniques and begins with the individual parts of a system, linking these elements together for form larger components until a complete assemblage emerges. This approach is called the bottom-up approach. Each step in the process reshapes and redirects the next. Hence, new associations and outcomes may arise that were not anticipated. Designers then evaluate these bottom-up procedures analytically, to determine whether the aims of the project are fulfilled or to ensure its construction efficiency. Bottom-up methods supplement rather than supplant analysis. However, the emphasis shifts from trying to analyze or represent that which is already known the preconceived design concept- to discovering relationships and techniques that are not yet known and that may emerge through feedback.10

Thus the form and function of the whole building is not the outcome of adding together blocks of program. CAP especially challenges the formal typologies. Aided with digital technologies, CAP uses dynamic systems as means to generate form and to address the issue of functions.11 Dynamic systems are controlled using numerically controlled parameters. Ali Rahim states, The numerical controls shift the relationships virtually, and the virtual is what guides relationships and motion in a dynamical system. Once the numerical controls that determine the velocity, direction and motion range are determined, they are infiltrated with the knowledge of the project, program and type, as well as specific aesthetic

Rahim, A. (2009). Uniformity and Variability in Architectural Practice. Research and Design the Architecture of Variation. L. Spuybroek. London, Thames and Hudson: Pp. 40 48, P. 43. 11 The term dynamic system is borrowed from mathematical concept. In such a system, a trajectory is fixed by a rule which is only valid describes the time dependence of a point in geometrical space. The fixed rule describes the state of the system at a short interval in the future. Given an initial position or point, it is possible to determine all future points by repeating the algorithms, each iteration advancing time by a small step. The collection of the points yielded is known as a trajectory.

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range that we are interested in. The parameters of the system are guided by us, the designers, and as we shift them they change and respond dynamically, in much the same way as a campfire.12

Situating buildings and design practices in the process of change and becoming, the potentials infused along the process always abolish the fixed preconceived types. There are more and more representations of the buildings, not just an image of the building, rather a series of images intending to capture the becoming of the buildings.

Thus, the above is an analysis of the self-as-process and building (design)-as-process in the western culture. Under such a conceptual framework, the designer- the creative self - is the forceful agent imposing the assertive power over the process of becoming so as to create novel difference. Such an assertive self-aim at the intensities of experiencing, runs against the goal of the self-defined in the traditional Chinese culture. The subsequent sections, however, will examine the concept of culture and self in the Chinese tradition. Behind many of the similarities, there is a fundamental alteration from creating difference to creating deference. Deference involves a yielding grounded in the recognition of a particular circumstance. Deferential acts require that one put oneself in another ones place, and to forget his own creative power so as to repose himself to be harmonious with the others.

Wen hua and the Chinese concept of culture

In Chinese, the word for culture-wenhua() - juxtaposes two characters wen and hua . The original pictograph of wen represents an individual patterned with a criss-cross tattoo on his body.13

Rahim, A. (2009). Uniformity and Variability in Architectural Practice. Research and Design the Architecture of Variation. L. Spuybroek. London, Thames and Hudson: Pp. 40 48, P. 42. 13 Falkenhausen, L. v. (1996). "The Concept of Wen in the Ancient Chinese Ancestral Cult." Chinese Literature : Essays, Articles, Reviews 18(December): Pp. 1-22., P.1.

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Quoting Herrlee F. Creel, The character wen appears to have originally had the sense of 'striped' or 'adorned,' and it may be by extension from this that wen came to mean 'accomplished,' 'accomplishments,' and even 'civilization': all of those adornments of life that distinguish the civilized man from the untutored barbarian."14 This pattern wen, was formed through the interactions of myriad entities in the world.15 The celestial pattern is the wen of heaven (through the interactions of the celestial bodies, (tianwen ). The patterns constituted by the individual persons through their interactions are the pattern of human beings (). Yet wen is not a permanent pattern, just like the celestial pattern keeps evolving, so does the pattern of the human society. Wen constantly transforms, or in the process of hua (, change). Hua, whose original pictograph possibly represents an individual in two opposing postures, denotes the idea of metamorphosis from one form to becoming its antipode. This transformation process is different from another Chinese concept of change (bian )-an abrupt mutation. Hua denotes a gradual and continuous process of change yet with dramatic effects. The most famous story of such a gradual yet striking transformation was told in the fables of Zhuangzi of the grand Kun fish that transforms into the massive Peng bird in the chapter Xiaoyao you ( Easy and Free Wandering) in the book of Zhuangzi.16 Birds and fishes are totally different category of living creatures, yet there is a metamorphosed process that can transform the two diametrically opposed forms.

Falkenhausen, L. v. (1996). "The Concept of Wen in the Ancient Chinese Ancestral Cult." Chinese Literature : Essays, Articles, Reviews 18(December): Pp. 1-22., P.1. 15 ? 16 Here is Burton Watson's translation of this story: In the northern darkness there is a fish and his name is Kun. The Kun is so huge I don't know how many thousand li he measures. He changes and becomes a bird whose name is Peng. The back of the Peng measures I don't know how many thousand li across and, when he rises up and flies off, his wings are like clouds all over the sky. When the sea begins to move, the bird sets off for the southern darkness, which is the Lake of Heaven... When the Peng journeys to the southern darkness, the waters are roiled for three thousand li. He beats the whirlwind and rises.

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Wenhua, the two characters was first combined together in the Book of Change. 17 Its basic meaning is pattern (wen) can efficaciously transform (hua). Nowadays, wenhua generally means culture. The epistemology of the word wenhua reveals the idea that culture is first a process of forming pattern (wen); and secondly a transformation efficacy of the pattern. Similar to Whiteheadians theory, each individual forms a component of the cultural pattern. Yet, the relationship among the individuals and the principal aim of each occasion of experience pose a contrast to the Western theory. In the traditional Chinese society, as analyzed by David Hall, each individual attentively strives for being deferent, rather than different from each other.18

Each one attempts to achieve deferential relationship to the other. A persons virtue is hinged on him yielding his own needs or desires to achieve a certain harmony in a larger society. Contemporary commentary in this traditional value is termed as selflessness in the sense of self-abnegation is a traditional Chinese ideal. 19

Donald Munro in his book The Concept of Man in Early China argues that,

Selflessness is one of the oldest values in China, present in various forms in Taoism and Buddhism, but especially in Confucianism. The selfless person is always willing to subordinate his own interests, or that of some small group to which he belongs, to the interest of a larger social group.20

In such an understanding of self, self is contextual. In the Confucian model, self is not defined though the assertive agent I rather is the receptive agent me. The behavior or actions of me has to be deferential, appropriate according to others needs and rules that are required by the circumstances.

. 18 Hall, D., Roger T. Ames (1998). Thinking from the Han Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western Culture. Albany, State University of New York. P. 40. 19 Ibid., P. 40. 20 Ibid., P. 24.

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In Confucianism, deference operates within ritual patterns ( li), or correctly performing ones ritual duties. Appropriateness brought people to recognize and fulfill their responsibilities toward others. Rites, for the Confucians, were the most effective means of cultivating morality among its members. Confuciuss follower Xunzi of the 3rd century BC further underlines the effectiveness of the rites (li) in making the pattern of/for transformation (wenhua). For Xunzi the rites provide the rules or principles for the correct behaviors like that of the plumb line or a compass.21 Just as music shapes peoples emotions and creates feelings of solidarity, so ritual shapes peoples understandings of duty and leads to order.22 With the guidance of rites, ones emotions and behavior are all naturally appropriate to the circumstances. Xunzi states that the effects of performing rites go beyond an individual person to the larger community. Once people in a community are all behaving according to the rule of deference set up by the ancient rites, the community naturally is a well-ordered entity. Such a well-ordered society is reflected in the orderly pattern conducted in the communitys wine-drinking ceremonies. Thus for Confucians, peoples gestures, behavior and languages, as they relate each other through deference, the self is wen or patterned, then adorned and accomplished. The society formed in such a way would possess an aesthetic beauty or harmony.

By contrast, the Daoism expresses its deferential activity through a dramatic notion of noknowledge, no-action, and no-desire. If in the Confucianism, wen, the decorated pattern is praised, for Zhuangzi, the pattern of plainness, undecorated is advocated. The book, Zhuangzi, refuted the ability of Confucian rites in putting society into a harmonious order promoted by Xunzi, claiming that in reality,

the line is acme of straightness, the scale is the acme of fairness, the carpenters square and compass are the acme of squareness and roundness, and rites are the highest acme of the correct human behavior. This being so, those who do not model themselves after ritual and are not satisfied with ritual principles are called people who lack of method and standards. Those who model themselves after ritual and find satisfaction in ritual principles are said to be gentlemen who have methods and standards Watson translation of Xunzi, also refer to Xunzi (1999). Xunzi -Library of Chinese Classics, Hu Nan Chu Ban She. Vol 2, P. 614. 22 (Ebrey P. 28).

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although a wine-drinking ceremony normally starts with ritualistic and proper order, it always ends up in chaos. The ritually formed body is not in harmony with the natural tendency of the body; rather, the body needs to be liberated to allow it to be relieved from any social norms.

Freeing the body from the rules imposed by Confucian rites can be seen in the story about the eccentric scholar Liu Ling, one of the seven sages of the Bamboo Grove of the 3rd century. When Liu Ling sits naked in his hut, people see his weird action and laugh at him. Liu objects, saying, I used sky and earth as my house, my house is my clothes, why then do you enter here into my pants?23 Liu also seemingly acts defiantly against the rigorous behavior pattern set up by the Confucian rites, but his actions with his naked-body reveal the idea of letting the body be itself. Such an extreme deferential action through taking no-action thus grasps the true natural and harmonious state of the self with its surroundings.

The architecture for deference: using the traditional Chinese garden doors as an example

The deferential relationships of the individuals in forming the cultural pattern also are mirrored in the design and disposition of gates in traditional Chinese gardens. Those gates, as an architectural element, stands at the boundary between two scenes, simultaneously connecting and separating the the scenes. An interesting aspect of the traditional Chinese garden gate is that, as a deferential architectural element, its own presence is weakened to enhance the scenes that are essential to the gardens.
23

Yuan Jixi, Liu chao mei xue, (Beijing, 1989), P. 148.

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In the 17th century treatise, The Craft of Gardens, regarding the construction of garden doors, Ji Cheng advises,
Figure 2

The style of molding around the opening of a doorway should be chosen according to the current fashion. Not only can a doorway give a new look to a dwelling house, it can make a garden look more elegant too. The fine work has to be done by a mason specialist, but the general arrangement needs to be directed by a person of discrimination Absolutely avoid carvings on the door-jambs; the wall around a doorway should be polished smooth; everywhere the door should lead one to the open spaces and in all directions draw one close to the scenery. If these matters were not handed down to posterity I fear they might be lost forever so I have assembled the following design.
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An analysis of Ji Chengs account shows that the style of the garden doors needs to be simple and devoid of any extravagant or gaudy carvings (Figure 3). Special masons could only craft these seemingly simple and fine doors. The technique nowadays for building a variety of such garden doors uses a full-size wooden template called the yaba kuang (, literally the muted frame). First, the yaba kuang is made into the desired shape of the door opening. Then it is inserted into the pre-designated location within the wall. Afterwards, wall bricks are laid around it to firmly set the template in place. The next procedure mortars the facing brick tiles onto the outer surfaces of the yaba kuang. Some of the facing brick tiles are custom made to flawlessly wrap the edges of the yaba kuang so that the appearance of the door opening is clean and elegant (Figure 4).25 Because of the careful detailing, the gates can naturally immerge into the garden scenes. The minimal presence of the physical form of the garden doors is

Figure 3

24 25

Ji Cheng, The Craft of Gardens, P. 83. Tian Yongfu, Zhongguo yuan lin jian zhu shi gong ji shu, (Beijing, 2002), P. 186.

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analogous with the technique of weaken the creativity of the self in order to be deferential and harmonious with the others.

Many other similar examples exist in Ming and Qing dynasty gardens. The garden gates are built unpretentiously to artfully leverage their capacities of organizing scenes and directing movements. Figure 5 shows the moon gate in the Canglan ting garden in Suzhou. The masonry door jamb is built with the thin rim of finely crafted, curved brick blocks, which are joined seamlessly to form a partial circle. Near the bottom, the door jamb is

Figure 4

curved inward and smoothly enveloped into the masonry walls. To complete the shape of the circle, the piece of brick

block for the threshold is concave. The austere yet beautiful curvilinear door opening frames the view of an elaborately carved window on the opposite wall. The curves on the door and the opposite window opening disclose an internal harmony between the door and the approaching view.

For the garden doors in the next two examples (Figure 6), the door jambs are omitted all together, making them naked openings. By artfully varying the sizes and shapes of the door openings in accordance with the arrangement of the garden scenes beyond, the perception of space is expanded. The opening on the left-most image in Figure 6 uses its plain outlook and vase-like shape to strike a contrast with the rock formations behind which is filled with light, shadow, energy, and movement. The gourd-shape garden door opening on the right-most image in the figure artistically gives a glimpse of the

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approaching scene luring the person to venture into the opening by creating from afar an illusion of spatial and scenic depth. It instills a wondrous curiosity about the characteristics of the framed scene.26

Figure 6

The strategic door positions and variation in door shapes are attained through creative deference to the other elements and factors within the design and building circumstances.

Conclusion: the architecture of difference and deference

Thus, culture both in the Whiteheadian and the Chinese theory expresses a momentary pattern of a society which continuously transform. The pattern represents the organization of the thoughts and actions of the individuals within that society. For Whitehead, the momentary cultural pattern is constituted from the effort of each individual in his or her process of creating a different self. In contrary, the cultural pattern understood in Confucian and Taoist thinking represents the deferential

26

David Engel, Creating a Chinese Garden, (London, 1986), P. 8.

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relationships established among the individuals through ritual practice and more dramatically noaction, or no-creativity.

In parallel, the difference and deference in architecture are analyzed above. The building projects by CAP, aiming at creating variations and differences are full of expressive diversities and technological innovations. The Chinese garden gates, however, focusing on building deferential relationships with other architectural elements, engenders a aesthetic coherence and intrinsic harmony.

Nowadays, when comparing a different culture often gains more insight to the culture of ones own. Is it possible to do so architecturally? Can the designers mobilize their creativity in creating different yet deferent architecture? In Analects, The Master said, As for the person with virtue, in wanting to establish himself he establishes others; in wanting to succeed himself he helps others to succeed.27 Can the relationship among the architectural elements or among one building to the others be designed in such a way?

As for the designing building with virtue, in wanting to establish its own presence, the building establishes others (i.e., the environmental factors) through the creativity of the designer; in wanting to succeed its own erections, the building helps others to succeed through the creativity of the designer.

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Quoted from Hall, D., Roger T. Ames (1998). Thinking from the Han Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western Culture. Albany, State University of New York. P. 259.

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