As designers, artists, creative individuals we are poets at heart. How can we design without romanticizing about space? The fact is, that poetry doesn’t exist in the books in the library. Poetry is in the journey of reading the book. You change as a person in that journey. Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book. For the winter semester of 2020 we made the book ‘Poetics of Space’ by Gaston Bachelard our dharma Granth, Bible, or Quran or more like the constitution of India. Ten exercises in the semester responded to the ten chapters of the book. Each chapter of the book was read-reread-analyzed-torn apart-critiqued during each week. Text provided visual genesis for the design exercises throughout the semester. Students and faculty did periodic readings together to interpret and understand various meanings of the text. Students were given specific exercises to broaden their repertoire of elements of space which helped them to build and construct spaces. All exercises were done keeping the text of the book in mind. ‘The Poetics of Space’ by Gaston Bachelard places special emphasis on the interior domestic space and its component: the various rooms and the different types of furniture in it.
