{"id":27232,"date":"2014-08-07T09:52:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T13:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=27232"},"modified":"2018-09-18T15:39:37","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T19:39:37","slug":"qotd-hobbit-architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/08\/07\/qotd-hobbit-architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: Hobbit architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before you read the rest of this post, go look at these pictures of a Hobbit Pub<\/a> and a Hobbit House<\/a>. And recall the lovely Bag End sets from Peter Jackson\u2019s LOTR<\/em> movies.<\/p>\n

I have a very powerful reaction to these buildings that, I believe, has nothing to do with having been a Tolkien fan for most of my life. In fact, some of the most Tolkien-specific details \u2013 the round doors, the dragon motifs in the pub \u2013 could be removed without attenuating that reaction a bit.<\/p>\n

To me, they feel right<\/em>. They feel like home<\/em>. And I\u2019m not entirely sure why, because I\u2019ve never lived in such antique architecture. But I think it may have something to do with Christopher Alexander\u2019s \u201cTimeless Way of Building\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alexander\u2019s ideas are not easy to summarize. He believes that there is a timeless set of generative ur-patterns which are continuously rediscovered in the world\u2019s most beautiful buildings \u2013 patterns which derive from an interplay among mathematical harmonies, the psychological\/social needs of human beings, and the properties of the materials we build in.<\/p>\n

Alexander celebrates folk architecture adapted to local needs and materials. He loves organic forms and buildings that merge naturally with their surroundings. He respects architectural tradition, finding harmony and beauty even in its accidents.<\/p>\n

When I look at these buildings, and the Tolkien sketches from which they derive, that\u2019s what I see. The timelessness, the organic quality, the rootedness in place. When I look inside them, I see a kind of humane warmth that is all too rare in any building I actually visit. […]<\/p>\n

I think it might be that Tolkien, an eccentric genius nostalgic for the English countryside of his pre-World-War-I youth, abstracted and distilled out of its vernacular architecture exactly those elements which are timeless in Christopher Alexander\u2019s sense. There is a pattern language, a harmony, here. These buildings make sense as wholes. They are restful and welcoming.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also rugged. You can tell by looking at the Hobbit House, or that inn in New Zealand, that you\u2019d have to work pretty hard to do more than superficial damage to either. They\u2019ll age well; scratches and scars will become patina. And a century from now or two, long after this year\u2019s version of \u201cmodern\u201d looks absurdly dated, they\u2019ll still look like they belong exactly where they are.<\/p>\n

Eric S. Raymond, “Tolkien and the Timeless Way of Building”, Armed and Dangerous<\/em><\/a>, 2014-08-02.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before you read the rest of this post, go look at these pictures of a Hobbit Pub and a Hobbit House. And recall the lovely Bag End sets from Peter Jackson\u2019s LOTR movies. I have a very powerful reaction to these buildings that, I believe, has nothing to do with having been a Tolkien fan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[356,41],"tags":[1235,426,868,420],"class_list":["post-27232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-quotations","tag-esr","tag-housing","tag-jrrtolkien","tag-thehobbit"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-75e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27233,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27232\/revisions\/27233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}