Tolkien on Holy Communion

"Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament… There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.

The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals.

Also I can recommend this as an exercise (alas! only too easy to find opportunity for): make your communion in circumstances that affront your taste. Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and vulgar friar; and a church full of the usual bourgeois crowd, ill-behaved children – from those who yell to those products of Catholic schools who the moment the tabernacle is opened sit back and yawn – open necked and dirty youths, women in trousers and often with hair both unkempt and uncovered. Go to communion with them (and pray for them). It will be just the same (or better than that) as a mass said beautifully by a visibly holy man, and shared by a few devout and decorous people. It could not be worse than the mess of the feeding of the Five Thousand – after which our Lord propounded the feeding that was to come."

- J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter to his son

Lake House

I've been enjoying developing a design for a lake house that I worked on intermittently during February and March. Previously, everything was done in my sketchbooks, but over the past two days, I've been translating my hand drawings into a SketchUp model. Here's the first design sketch I began with:

Design influences include the work of Brian Mackay Lyons in Nova Scotia, the firm of Olson Kundig in Seattle, and even the work of Richard Meier in his more poetic houses. I think some of the more laudable goals of the modernist movement in architecture can be achieved more readily in a more naturalistic setting. The ability to truly take advantage of a site's topographical proclivities, for instance, is much more easily accommodated in a rural setting.

This is the model in SketchUp so far. Naturally, some things had to give a little bit in order to be accommodated. Things tend to shift as soon as real-life dimensions are applied. In a sketch, one can "draw around" difficult moments in a plan, and simply make things proportional. It is difficult to do the same in a 3 dimensional computer-measured model. This dialog between digital and analog design greatly enhances the architectural process, in my opinion.

I imagined my future self as my client. The site is a vacant sloping lot on Lake Ogemaw, in northern Michigan, where my parents have built a cottage. The lifestyle of such a house is naturally informal, and almost playful. I have attempted to have the architecture reflect such a laid-back way of living.

First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

The plan includes four bedrooms and three bathrooms split between two main living levels (above an unfinished basement). The main living space includes a kitchen and dining area that open up into a two-story sitting area. A covered deck is off the dining area. The second floor includes a master suite that boasts a deck that views the lake. Two smaller bedrooms and a bathroom round out the floor.

This section through the main living room shows the high ceilings and the prominent fireplace. Stairs lead to the basement mud room, which is on the main route outside to the lake.

These perspectives show views through the main living spaces of the house. In the first, the kitchen, living room, and main stair to the sleeping quarters are shown. The second shows the panoramic views over the lake from the window-lined main floor.

The house is not completely modeled yet, but it's at a good phase at the moment. It's been fun to think through how the house would be used as I've enjoyed time at my parent's cottage the past few weekends. There are interesting programmatic requirements to consider in such a place: where will the wet bathing suits be hung out to dry? where will the euchre tournaments be played? where does the grill go?