Chainmaking

For the past twenty-five-odd years, I’ve investigated the mutual influences of thinking and making, and their impact on design and learning. This article reflects on the pedagogical practice of chainmaking and its historical relationship to learning spaces, and more generally on the traditional role of architectural ornament in equipping a mind with metaphors for wisdom and methods for learning. It then considers the reappearance of an ancient memory technique as an organizational metaphor in the design of a new, forward-looking university building, as foreshadowing to the companion article “Chainbuilding.”

“Chainmaking: a Note on Ornament, Intelligence and Building,” for the special issue of the International Journal of Politics Culture and Society, on “Media and Space,” Vol. 22.2 (Heidelberg: Springer, 2009) pp. 191-200

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