A New Technique for creating living environments generated by human movement, "CHOROTECTONIC"
by Donald Jasinski A.I.A

An Architects Manifesto : Down with the flat walled boxes that imprison us. Overthrow the tyranny of the rectangle. Overthrow all those arbitrary novelty shapes that have recently caught the eye of the architectural world. We must build for "We the People", not as space and circulation problems to be solved, but as soft vulnerable loving living animals, and not slaves to oppressive regimes of style and construction.

Taking a fresh start, let's look carefully at what "We the people" really are.

We are a species of mammals.
We have soft skin that covers our bones.
We have a well-developed brain.
(That's all we need for the moment)

Join me in a trip

First, set aside the entire history of formalized and traditional architecture, if we can. At this point in our evolutionary history, being bi-ped mammals and needing shelter, let's just take those two factors,
Human and Shelter, and see where they alone take us.

Being mammels, we move about doing the things we have to do everyday. In doing so, we demarcate three dimensional spaces that our bodies create naturally, simply and automatically.

These invisible shapes in space which we create while living and moving become the elemental "CHOREOTECHONIC" spacial elements or building blocks (did i say blocks? They are in no way shaped like blocks) when combined with all of the usual furnishings and storage etc., make the design for house or building. We humans only need as a bare economical enclosure for shelter, without the constraints of superfluous spaces of traditional architecture.

(A Tongue in Cheek aside)
Let us take a little side trip to look at "building blocks". Blocks are playthings that children use to build solid unlivable assemblages. They are not spaces, they are things, objects. They train the growing brain to deal creativiely with objects, but at the expense of becoming facile with spatial concepts. Are they on the way to becoming "blockheads"? Have we trained ourselves to think primarily in terms of solid objects and secondly in spatial terms? Yes, we have.

Back on track, going down our new road to a shelter specifically designed for the fact that we are what we are, let us examine these shapes that we make "CHOREOTECHONIC" and the fact that we have the need to build to shelter ourselves, our bodies.

Should we build rooms (spaces) of shapes and sizes that are dictated by the building industry and worn out traditions of all kinds, and expect those spaces to fit us a living, moving, feeling and thinking people? Would we expect a carpenter, with all due respect to all carpenters, to make us a pair of gloves or, better yet, some underwear, and force ourselves into the shapes he can only make with the materials and tools available to him or her? No, we want the gloves and underwear "to fit like a glove". Our rooms, our house, our buildings should be constructed to fit our bodies in order to be as comfortable as a good pair of gloves or undies. If our bodies are comfortable, then most likely our minds have a good chance of being at ease and comfortable.

Therefore, the design technique must use the very spaces generated by human movement, (CHOREOTECHONIC elements) and arrange those spaces as it benefits the requirements of the job at hand. The resulting design must not be abstracted into arbitrary shapes, whether they be rectangles, circles or any other EDS (Easily Determined Shape) but be faithful in staying with the shapes generated by we living and moving humans.

It really comes down to what comes first, what is more important: catering to the old worn out traditions of building with perhaps some latest stylistic variations, or a new respect in designing our environment for "We the People", the human mammal. If we do that, it means that we will be putting ourselves in spaces that are people friendly, cozy, easy to live with, not demanding, and restful, because the shapes will naturally express the perfections and probably more important, the imperfections we all have.