on architecture
key insights
- it's a meta-framework, not a style: integral architecture is not a new aesthetic. it is an "operating system" for design that can include and organize previous approaches—the efficiency of modernism, the pluralism of post-modernism, and the ethics of sustainability—into a more comprehensive and inclusive whole.
architecture as a developmental practice: the paper reframes architecture from merely providing shelter or creating aesthetic objects to a practice that can actively support human development. an integral building can be a "sanctuary for their evolving self", suggesting architecture has a therapeutic and evolutionary potential.
the failure is in the invisible: the primary shortcoming of past architectural movements has been an over-emphasis on the visible, tangible, "right-hand quadrants" (form, function, systems) while ignoring the invisible "left-hand quadrants" (experience, culture, values, symbolism). integral architecture seeks to make these invisible domains a conscious part of the design process.
the architect's role is redefined: the architect is repositioned from a master of form to a "guardian of the process" . this requires a new skill set focused on empathy, systems thinking, and facilitation, for which current education does not prepare them.
change starts with the architect: the paper places the onus of change directly on the architect. to create better, more holistic buildings, the profession needs more "integrally informed architects" who are committed to expanding their own awareness and perspectives. the quality of the building is a direct result of the consciousness of the designer.
my philosophy (socials update)
a journey of aligning self to society for the long run. beacuse i don’t want to have to do it again. My “WHY”: concerned with “change” on the individual and collective level. in order to change.. you gotta understand your primary state- an honest assessment of where you are given current state.
understanding design was the key all along.
my art is all about thinking in different ways. different ways of shifting perspective, modes of thinking, and finding visual consistency through my own lens of a holographic world.
- the world was confusing. people was confusing.
- i couldn’t understand the world because i didn’t even understand myself. self esteem non-existent. i didn’t trust myself. i didn’t listen to the voice in my head, i always put other’s words above myself.
- what i learned from my years of working: i was adhd, neurodivergent, slow to change, was hard on myself. hardi was driven by what i didn’t know. i love to seek new things to learn.
back in 2017 i could not give it to ya.
i had a “death” of myself a few times. first with a the loss of a first love and then when i was fired from my job as a corp. designer, the outside world didn’t make sense. i found i had no control over emotions, codependent relationships, and distanced myself from an online persona.
what you need to know about me: the brutal truth about me is that i’m slow to change and unless i know exactly why.
get too the why is like getting to the core. the only way you get there is if you understand the reprical nature of external and internal situation, you can nullify it and go a layer deeper. know my internal patterers, and external factors, then i truly understand the tensions i have to address and how to orient/prime myself to flow through.
if one end is dominant, there’s an imbalance leading to an overflow eventually leading to my shadow aspect dominating. which comes in the form of total shock and ego death. then i was in this constant battle for self-esteem and i just didn’t understand why i had no confidence in myself.
secondly, as a slow mover implies limited energy so anything i would rather not waste the energy until i found out WHY it probably better to spend energy cautiously..
things got confusing when i started my UX journey.
my career in commercial architecture and interiors 2015-2021. a confusing time. torn between being a designer vs. architect. but it was a battle between accepting myself and always wanting to surpass that and learn what i didn’t know. the lines between these two roles got even more blurred when tech disrupted the industry with Building Information Models and changed the way the industry worked together.
my journey on instagram circa. 2021: (ig;@seeing.storm)
just trying to find clarity based on what i knew for sure. and to be honest, i had to understand what i didn’t know i didn’t know and accept that much of my work felt “ungrounded” or lofty.
i had to build my knowledge based on what i know to be true by everyone (the east, the west), what are the fundamental pieces of knowledge that didn’t change with perspective or time? since then its been a journey of learning and collecting knowledge and distilling it in a way so that i can realy understand its structure and play with how it can fit to other muddy knowledge areas.
mental health and well-being was my main concern. its one of those things that changes evrything because everything is made up of constructs in your mind.
my inner child explored midjourney (my instagram)
the philosopher in me went down the rabbit hole of symbols, language, form. (for example: the circle represents the divine or unity. the square represents earth or human.) and i tried to capture my process of collecting bits and pieces of wisdom, to distill and synthesize into theories about the world through a series of relational databases. it is made public in my notion site (sichen-ying.notion.site ; seeingstorm.notion.site)
and for a long time i was drawing diagrams. things really came ot a point when i started learning about lacan’s square, integral theory, etc.
at the same time i went more in depth about my astrological birth chart and the reoccuring grand cross. squares in aspects are recognized to be bad and hold alot of tension. but it allowed me to break down the tension i was experiencing from all angles and exactly in 4 directions. it also allowed me to define the extremes of poles. and its intersection with another axiom at 90 degrees. (one example: starts with i’m not fully chinese, i was just born in china; i’m not fully american because i came here when i was 5 and never really grew up in a western community). this line/axiom served as a bridge between EAST and WEST.
another one was trying to undertand where i fit in in society. everyday there’s more and more of us that feels like we don’t belong anywhere and not to any particular group. so turn that into an axiom/line: one end is the “individual/self” and the other end is “society/system”. *so in a way it was as if i could cheat having to commit to one or the other extreme.
these two lines/axioms cross at 90 degrees to form 4 quadrants, each one with unique lens to see through.
i realized that sometimes it felt like there were more tensions i needed to include. and that’s where i started listng our the double binds that we’re facing, each other is interlinked with another and when one is compromised, they all are. (for example: the generational bind). essentially each bind or axiom identifies extremes: two sides that clash and conflict and often end up in contradiction (like the east/west; or even in just in the west: the democrat vs. republican parties).
how many of these things are creating this tension that we’re caught in?
to find more ways of understanding the bigger picture, the wisdom i was collecting helped because they are frameworks. each a set of principles or pillars or in the case of the i ching keynote lines: 6 scales of social organization.
so 6 binds. and i learned you can map 2 as crossroads to eachother. but the form of a circle (and now i understand why its “divine) allows you to keep placing ore axiom/binds, each intersecting the centerpoint of the circle. and that would mean it rests at 90 degrees (hidden dimension) but true in representation on paper.
and that was the connection between shifting from square to circle. the circle was a way to resolve those tensions. exactly like the form of the pyramid: the square base and all sides coming to form its apex. (synchronistically, the tip is exactly what is missing in the great pyramid. its as if the gods were blatantly trying to tell us what we weren’t understanding..
the circle and the point eventually this lead me to my volvelle exploration. where i try to use a defined lense to bring things together in a way that help med me understand time. the outside or rim of the circle (rotates clockwise;appropriate to its temporal nature; represents what is seen) and it represents the things that is seen/visible to the world. everything inside the circle (rotates counter-clockwise; i’ve been calling it spatial as it connects macrocosm outer space to the inner space of our mind; represents what is felt), the contents of which lied 90 degrees perpendicular to its counterpart shown on the surface.
I tested this with first with the concept of TIME as temporal vs. spatial.
these two things were lenses of understanding what we see and what we don’t see are inextricably linked in its full experience.
later i layered back in the 4 quadrants so it now became a compass of sorts. in the esoteric philosophies, the west is power; east is wisdom; the directions represent seasons, or hours of the day, or a cyclical block of time; the hero’s journey) this help give more structure and grounding to understand what i was trying to bring together.
still wrestling that wicked problem:
bridging internal ⤑ external.
microcosm ⤑ macrocosm.
(*and for sanity’s sake, let's say ⤑ = ⇌ = 🔄 = we're all doing our best)
grand mission: coaxial existence (alignment) back towards some semblance of order and simplicity
my operating theory:
make sense of your mind 🔄
the unfolding* of internal patterns,
(and with significant effort or perhaps a miracle)
find a little orded enfolded* in the world..
- unfolding: outward flow, revealing
- enfolding: inward flow, containing
it’s the old "squaring of the circle”,
our double diamond at play:
- understand unified consciousness (◎ circle/fluidity) ⤑
- discern root forces behind tensions (Ⅹ square/structure)
from inner alignment of thoughts ⤑ outer, tangible actions.
in design: concept/strategy (◎) ⤑ reality/implementation (Ⅹ)
in life: internal alignment w/ purpose, truth (◎) ⤑ with external actions (Ⅹ)
in a pyramid: a square base born from messy crossroads (Ⅹ) ⤑ rising to a single apex of unity, of value (◎)
core insight:
for energy to actually flow ⇌
both sides of the cosmic equation need to give way to each other.
a reluctant handshake, at least
over and over..
🙏🏼
#firstprinciples #doublediamond #seeingstorm #inkaether #syntropy #chaosandorder #squaringthecircle #enfoldingUnfolding
shaman wisdom
- diligent study
- orientation: self ⤑ society/culture/system
- portal through time
co-axial (concentric)
coming back to this wicked problem:
bridging self ⤑ society
internal ⤑ external
microcosm ⤑ macrocosm
(*pls note: for simplicity, ⤑ = 🔄)
as a starting point for “counter-entropy-ing”..
aka. synchronization, syntropy
aka. return to ORDER and simplicity!
dwelling in between these (mirror) parallels :
make sense of your mind ⤑ thus find order in the world
I’m finally understanding the enfolded and unfolding (simplex) nature of reality.
- Enfolding: Surrounding or containing, inward movement/flow
- Unfolding: Revealing or exposing, outward movement/flow
the metaphor of “squaring of the circle” ⤑ the process of the doule diamond
in other words..
1. understanding the unified self/collective consciousness (circle/unity/fluidity)
⤑ 2. helps discern root forces behind tensions Ⅹ (square/structure/stability)
in design:
1: concept/strategy ⤑ 2: reality/implementation
in the long run: self ⤑ society
1: ALIGN internal thoughts with ⤑ 2. our external actions
in the model space of a pyramid:
- the square base (formed by crossroads/tensions; creating 4 quads and area) with intersection point in the middle
- the apex drawn up from the intersection point (single point/unity; forming volume of the pyramid/ie. magnitude or value)
INSIGHT: for energy to keep flow, we must satisfy the equation on both sides so 1. gives way to 2.; gives way to 🔄 vice versa)
#firstprinciples #doublediamond #seeingstorm
this is a schema integrating the double diamond and the phi brain.
i’ve taken a long a lot of folks been asking, what is my work about? good question. hard one that taking me a while to answer.. because we can only read this in a linear order. but how and why i can to this really happened all together. first in little pieces
1st diamond; red ink= implicate order, inner world, discovery/reflection, research/strategy, “in the mind”; self black ink, 2nd diamond = explicate order, external world, develop/deliver, implementation/prototyping, “in the world”; society
so i started in the 2nd diamond (as a fairly shallow, visual person, with a knack of buying nicely designed things) i had low self esteem especially when it came to talking about myself. for years i deemed my talent: “making shit look good”
i learned: i was missing the first diamond; the root “square”; ie. planting the seed my inquiry into ux and the whole of design became all about understanding self; clarity of mind and thinking
this helped my research, inquiry, and learning the process of reasoning (the why) that grounded the second diamond (designing the what and how)
it was as did i had to go backwards to see the scope of path.
also important: my method of learning comes from understanding what i didn’t know. so after tracing back to start, i abandoned that path. decided to pivot as an artist. (where my work looked more like logos and circles, not exactly visually creative) once again, it lead to a very long period of philosophy. simply because i had to back up my intuition so that i can explain why i got there. so that whatever i create cannot just be explained away in description but also transparent explanation of my why.
during a time when AI is uprooting jobs and transforming the way we consume and use information, i’m staring: tech is not an industry because it penetrates all. we have a problem of having to much choice, because tech helps us become a bit of everything.. a writer/artist/creator/designer/researcher, etc.
by defining these diamonds, we simplify the procsss to balance: knowledge in the mind (generalization) and knowledge (specialization) in the world.
this bifold, simplex duality (1+1) is the creation of anything (nature’s framework) integrated with the degrees of knowledge of the left and right brain (phi brain)
the specifics do not matter (dark energy; dark matter) for clarity we need contrast: the edge (light, relational info)define extremes on spectrum or separate contradictory opposite states. they all exist in our world at any given moment and so like the numbers of the clock, we can hold them as equals in the periphery.
double diamond process is more about dwelling in the unknown and filling in the gaps. and with ai/internet, we have access to learn requirements of different roles from abstract/high level to more specific/concrete skills.
when you don’t know what you want to be and feel overwhelmed by having so much choice yet feeling struck: when we map things into a circle, it lets us gain control by making the periphery and center distinct but inseparably woven. like a coin or glass lens, learn how they can be reoriented cardinally, rotated, mirrored like a flat lens or coin. a mental shortcut that allows us to move forward in alignment (by understanding the context) without focusing on what that center or end state will be. if this is a portal you’re walking through, you’re continuously closing in on that center (X) as it grows in resolution. what that center is.. IS VALUE. it is what endures and matters for a future we actually would enjoy living in.
during times of transition and paradigm shifts, this is my way of understanding change through what we can and cannot control.
when there’s so much information overwhelming us, what is it that we need? the square or diamond brings clarity to the countering forces/tensions and binds at different scales or organization. the squaring the circle allows us to transform how we digest this information, as it comes into focus and recedes.
Sichen Ying’s Story
let's start by updating the founder's story (my story):
i was born in china, shenzhen. as a city, its more like a clean slate where a large amount of development was made by america and so the culture was truly capitalist-esq. up until the age of 5, i had experienced a few key traumatic events that instilled "fear" in me, i remember so clearly and it changed how i saw "people" and operated in the world. so when i came to the states, i can honestly say its been a confusing, murky time where i couldn't piece my life together without a series of shocking events that made me reflect hard to re-understand the world around me, especially what i was i missed to begin with. up until i turned 30 years old, it was in this last stretch of time since 2020, where i filled in the last pieces that was buried. and for the longest time, I believed that it was a cultural difference. the difference between how my folks and I functioned as a family at home. and how the world outside (nyc) functioned as a culture and as a "game" (without the limits of "fear"). part of this period i had also learned about the gene keys, a western synthesis on an eastern framework on change and how it fundamentally ties back into our DNA codon rights. this made me realize that the problem created many gaps was cognitive, not cultural. and the larger unexplored parts of technology and how we use and consume information pragmatically revolved around the exploration of our minds. As someone who became largely an internal person, it is the mind is the ultimate space that i dwell in; it is home. the more i learned about the world, the more I seeked what i didn't know, i realized its just about seeking myself, as a functioning part of the world. this is a brief short version of my "why" in pursuing this path through Ink and Aether, providing service and purpose. especially during this time of confusion, fog, misinformation; it is my speciality since i've been doing it all along.