ABSTRACT
Our belief in architecture as permanent results from the legacy of Antiquity, and the treatise De architectura by the ancient Roman, Marcus Vitruvius, who established an architectural canon of strength, utility and beauty as key components of any built structure. Categorization by building materials and architectural form aside, architecture begins to crumble the moment it is fixed and "finished" being built on site; and the process of deterioration continues throughout the life of the building. The process of deterioration of architecture is part of a natural evolution of elements, natural or artificial, in the environment. Iris Häussler recreates He Named Her Amber, the life of Mary O'Shea, a seventeen year old Irish woman hired as a housemaid, employed ostensibly by the D'Arcy Boulton Jr. at The Grange, the home built for him in 1817. The difference between thinking about emotions and actually experiencing them is huge. Reality has an edge that imagination lacks.
