Autumn...being an American

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur

A HAVEN

 

 

How many of us have a HAVEN to go to? Is it a natural thing...to have a place that is safe and secure?  Do we MOVE ON as we get older and do we no longer need a HAVEN...or because our needs change our HAVENS change?

The other day I was in the patio and noticed that a bluejay was sitting on our gate. Not that this alone was any spectacular thing, but I noticed his (Pardon me, but I don't know if it is a he or a her, bluejays all look the same) real curiosity as to what I was doing and most interesting was his lack of response when I came closer, nearly close enough to touch. It was almost as if he was conformable with my presence and the activity that I was involved with. He has appeared several times doing the same thing.  I thought this bird was comfortable for one reason, he was visiting his HAVEN, a place of comfort, that was safe and secure. 

Every spring for the past, at least six years, we have had a pair of bluejays that rebuild their nest and raise little-ones to the point of their first flight. The nest is just below our master bedroom window, with in perfect eye sight of both my wife and I to check activity from egg to hatch to maturity. If you know bluejays, or what we have nicknamed them in the West, "camp robbers", they make a very large ruckus every morning...something that we have learned to look forward to every spring. Every year when the birds begin to test flight they are all over the patio. Mostly they hide in the large rhododendrons and only move if their parents push them. We don't know how many really make it and how many are captured by other critters, but we do know that some do. During their growing period we are very active in the patio preparing potted plants and cleaning from winter storms. The birds don't seem to be interrupted by our activity. In fact, sometimes, I find the young ones on the ground in areas that are very exposed, so I help them back into the bushes, all the time their parents are watching intently. They seem to be very comfortable with what we do for them. Our patio has become their HAVEN and  they return year after year, and now their offspring return, just to visit.

In my early days of architecture I was involved with residential custom homes. There is nothing like designing homes for families, creating comfortable, specialized  HAVENS.  One of the most memorable projects in my career will be our own family home in Port Angeles, Washington. Facing the Olympic Mountains, the two story, passive solar, 2/3 underground home was not only a HAVEN for my wife and me but our three kids. Today, after 34 years, the home continues to be a HAVEN for the new owners. Our family visits there every time they have a chance, and the new owners welcome them so graciously.

This Post is really important to me, as I truly believe that as an architect that I have a moral responsibility to design a comfortable HAVEN for my clients. This is not only true in residential architecture, but as well in places of business,  where we dine and shop and especially in our schools. As we approach another school year those new first time students are coming from a variety of neighborhoods. Some from family homes, where for the last 6-7 years, it has been theirHAVEN . Others from broken homes, single parents, foster parents, and perhaps places that some of us may consider a non-haven.  This is, in many cases, their first venture out of the nest. This first experience, I think, is absolutely a key to their survival in the education system.

Our National educational crisis in education will not be solved by great architecture. But with great, sustainable, creative design, that welcomes the student , the staff and the community, we can be part of building a HAVEN for learning. Great architecture does not necessarily mean award winning, but architecture that creates an environment that promotes learning, enables and allows for flexibility and change, and strengthens the desire to go to school on a daily basis. The national average freshman graduation rate (AFGR) in 2008-09 was 75.5 %. (According to the USA Department of Education, IES, National Center for Education Statistics), the lowest state number at 56.3% and the highest at 90.7%. Although this is up a percentage point from 2007-2008 it still means that nearly 25% of the freshman do not graduate.  There are many reasons that students don't stay in school, and again I don't think the facility will solve the issue, but I do think we can create spaces and buildings that enhance the learning environment and create HAVENS that help students move on with comfort.  Sustainable educational architecture can lesson life cycle costs of a campus, reducing the operational burden so that more money can be spent on great teachers and staff, and more comfortable environments.    

As humans we do things because we are comfortable and we feel secure and safe in doing them. I personally will shop and dine at a place of business where the first impression is good and I return if the experience was comfortable. The first time student to a school that has a poor first impression may only be setting the stage for an overall dislike of going to school and eventually dropping out.  New students, and for that matter all students, need to feel welcome, comfortable, safe and secure.  They are in their own way, Moving On with a new phase of life, leaving the nest, testing their wings and they need to know that there are no other critters that are going to harm them during this new experience. From the moment they walk through the front door of this new HAVEN they need to experience this comfort.

Yes we all have HAVEN's! They change as we MOVE ON, but they have characteristics that remain constant and as the bluejays in our patio, and my family, sometimes it is good to re-visit that initial place of comfort...Do you have a HAVEN!