Last week, I learned more about the development of Environmental Autobiography back in the 60s from its designer Clare Cooper Marcus. After removing the sweet cat shaped kettle warmer to pour us hot tea, Clare sat in her rocking chair and with a smile began to reflect on her teaching years. Her living room is still as bright and welcoming as it was four years ago when Susanne Cowan and I first visited to film her for the documentary Design as a Social Act. This time, Caitlin DeClercq and I interviewed her for the upcoming exhibit we are co-curating on Teaching Design with People in Mind. When we asked Clare about some student drawings we had found in her folder at the Environmental Design Archives, she began to tell us the story of crafting the environmental autobiography assignment. Through deep self-reflections, Clare had realized there are profound affective ties between physical environments we experience and our psychological development. For example, her childhood spatial experiences such as living in the countryside after they were evacuated from London during World War Two and the solace she found in nature during a time of national disruption had influenced her adult life, career choices and her design work. Conscious of how uncovering those personal environmental experiences could shape our spatial values, Clare developed environmental autobiography as a teaching tool to help students became aware of their values and biases influencing their design. Latter, she developed variations of this approach for research leading to great books such as House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home. Over the years, many professionals in various fields have adopted what Clare started here at Berkeley five decades ago!
Ayda Melika
Ayda Melika
