«El Corbu»

After studying it extensively at university, we finally had the opportunity to take a full tour of Le Corbusier's works.

Ronchamp was the last on the tour, and also the crowning glory: It had been a long time since a work of architecture stirred in me such an overwhelming impulse of joy and beauty.

Last year we only had one week of holiday, at a nearby beach. One of those places that invite you to «dolce far niente», and which for me come down to swimming and reading.

Among the readings, I picked up a book I had noted down a long time ago. Fortunately it didn't disappoint me —and that's saying something, since satisfaction is often inversely proportional to expectations—

A kind of essay and fiction join hands and explore the links between creativity and madness which, starting from Rosa Montero's personal experience and supported by research in the fields of psychology and neuroscience, allow us to get a little closer to the process of literary creation.

Thank you, Rosa, for the interesting and enjoyable read, and because with it I discovered the name (one of the plausible ones) to baptise those moments of absolute fullness: «OCEANIC MOMENT» as defined by Romain Rolland.

Rolland baptised as «oceanic moment» those «instants of liquid and transcendent intensity, when your self is erased and the skin, the frontier of your being, vanishes, so that you seem to feel the cells of your body expanding and merging with the rest of the universe's particles. Then nothing separates your consciousness from the rest of the whole… These mystical instants, which can be more or less acute, which are often associated with the observation of nature, but which sometimes also arise from an impulse of overwhelming empathy with some living being, are a glowing kernel of joy and beauty. I don't know how long they can last, surely very little, ……. In any case, for a few seconds you feel on the verge of revelation, about to understand the secret of the world. And death beats a retreat, because while you are outside yourself you are eternal. …….Surely you have experienced it at some point»

And indeed I have experienced it. One of them, through the visit to Ronchamp.

And there is no stronger memory than internalising ideas that come from a strong emotion

The journey through Le Corbusier's work was short, but it made up for it with its oceanic intensity.

Everything comes to an end. We return to our daily routine, gather what we have learned and continue with our metier. To paraphrase Claire Legendre: «We know of only two ways to give meaning to our lives (or to make ourselves believe they have it): to love someone and to make small works of art to be inhabited»

So here we remain, designing to improve people's lives.

After the experience of Ronchamp, with the absolute certainty —and humility— that we will never reach our expectations.

Reading «El peligro de estar cuerdas» by Rosa Montero.