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XIII – How have the past fifteen weeks changed your outlook on architecture?

Q: Why didn’t I want this recap blog question to come to fruition?

A: Because I am not a haiku artist. 15 weeks of an experience like this explained in 150 words and an image is just not right. I will continue to bend the rules, hopefully you will continue to listen.

I’ve come to know a lot of things about myself over the years but these last 15 weeks have highlighted some of the things that get me jazzed. I’ve found myself in a lot of places and through chance encounters I’ve experienced a lot that I would never trade for anything. It has become apparent that it is the surprises of fate that I live to discover. Some times I fly by the seat of my pants through cities I have yet to know without a map or a friend other than my camera and my sketchbook. I trust that my friends will be there at our next meeting place. At the seat of a cathedral, the bar of a cafe, brushing my shoulder in the isle of the train, only waiting for me to encounter them and engage them.

This trend was synthesized Friday afternoon when I ran into Ross and an opportunity presented itself to see a soccer match live and in the flesh for the first time ever. At the game, I became immersed in an environment and a ritual. I sang chants that I couldn’t understand, made hand signals that i had not translated and found friends that I did not expect. The Italian man next to me shook my arm in celebration after the first goal scored in a Lazio upset. We exchanged cultural idiosyncrasies, he shaking his hands in the air moving only at the wrist and and me offering high fives that he learned to receive.      (Keep reading)

This is the way Rome is and why I love it. It is the ultimate urban environment, facilitating these chance encounters. Around every turn, on every surface, in every sound, something is waiting to open up as a story, to bring enhanced understanding. These stories might take time to come to light or they might surprise you after a peak through a key hole. Creation of wonder in my mind is the amazing thing that is repeated. I sometimes feel like a child looking through a kalidascope.

My understanding of how and why this is important is what is new from 15 weeks ago. What has changed is my understanding of how that can be important. Also, clarity for why it is I have wanted to become an architect. I want to digest these experiences and situations and make them probable possibilities in the places I create. It is my love of others that fuels me to open their lives to things they may not know. To tell a story, share and experience and know about a smile or give an embrace is my desire.

I have fallen in love again and it is now once again my driving force. I love this city called Roma and I will live in desire of it Eternaly.

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