My Zen View

One of the chapters in Christpher Alexander’s “A Pattern Language” is “Zen View.” A simple explanation of it is, if you have a beautiful view available to you wall most of it off. Then leave a narrow window or cut-through so that as you walk by you catch a fleeting glance of it. The idea is, if you see it all the time it ceases to be special and becomes just part of the wallpaper. This is mine, as I pass through my music room on the way upstairs, and see the wisteria blooming out of two corner windows. mach-zehnder