ABSTRACT
This essay aims to develop an awareness and understanding of the structure of the ground so that its potential for making connection can become a part of any architecture that engages it. It uses the term ground in a literal sense, to describe the structure and processes of the earth, and also as metaphor, referring to the various patterns of physical, intellectual, poetic, and political structure that intersect, overlap, and weave together to become the context for human thought and action. The consequence of an indifference to the ground is an almost terminal insensitivity to the rich subtleties of the teeming wild, the variegated forms and materials of the landscape, the nuanced patterns of urban texture, and the rituals of the every day. The essay questions assumptions about the relationship of ground to human existence, such as those embedded within the figure ground drawing, to come to a better understanding of the value of the ground in human terms. By exploring imaginative means to represent what has been invisible for so long, it brings the ground to attention as something worthy of consideration. It argues that in being open to the ground, architecture can discover a wealth of means to deal with intractable problems of its own, and that the consequence of this intense engagement is the effective reattachment of humans to the many worlds that support them.
