Love, Architecturally

(The time is 01.50 A.M. The day is Sunday. And the place is archi studio.)

Oh well, the reason for this post is that I drank too much coffee this afternoon in preparation for an archi-project-chiong-all-the-way nite...turns out my group finished a bit faster than usual, and here I am, having nothing to do but can't sleep also....wretched glass of coffee....

And so I decide to analyse some more my relationship with Architecture.....

And I come to the conclusion that it is, if anything, a lot like "love"....

Archi gives me a lot of pleasure, turns me giddy with excitement, puts a smile on my face when I think that I'm studying it....This high feeling...it's better than chocolate-high... (Oh well my seniors told me it's the honeymoon phase, but even they wonder cuz mine seems to last pretty long....)

It occupies my mind day and night, when I'm eating, when I'm walking, when I'm daydreaming, and especially when I'm NOT sleeping, due to studio work....

Juz like a spoiled lover, Archi enslaves me, takes over my weekend (yesterday had studio and today had to skip church for whole day group project..darn...), demands almost all my energy, time and commitment..and yet I do not complain because this enslavement, if anything, is voluntary, and, like a sadomasochist, I thrive on this torture....

Also, it is a lot like a mother-child relationship, albeit in a much smaller scale and shorter time-span. Projects keep me awake at wee hours, make me frustrated, robs me of any notion of 'spare time', and make tons of demands...Yet, when it comes into fruition, when my designs are completed, done, finished, and it doesn't need me anymore...Looking back over the whole design process, from the birth of an idea, the growth of a concept and the final blooming, I feel some unmistakable hint of relief, pride and loss....

There are times when I hate it, thinking everyone else has a better lot, if not in terms of fun then in terms of shut-eye they've had...But I know that hate in this case is just love frustrated, and everything will be okay once Archi warms up to me again...

Well, there is, I guess, a trifle of lust...Archi can prove so seductive a mistress, that I would willingly spend on it the time meant for God, for church, for friends, for family, even for myself...guilt follows, and yet the pleasure of Archi always entices....

And I am not alone. The time is 2.16 A.M. The day is Sunday. Yet around me archimates are discussing projects animatedly, some are making what will be gorgeous study models, others scratching their heads for inspiration...life goes on in the studio, punctuated with whines and yawns, measured in terms of A1 panels and study models.....

While love is measured in the number of weekends spent staying overnight in the studio...