Dualism: Compress and Expand
“Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
- Frank Lloyd Wright
I grew up in Mason City, Iowa. A small town in North Central Iowa. Its claims to fame are: Meridith Wilson, who wrote the musical The Music Man. Wilson used Mason City as the backdrop for the fictional River City in the musical. Second, the 1978 4A High School State Football Champions. Last, but not least, two structures designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
I like the musical. I played on the 1978 football team. I stayed in the Park Hotel, which Wright designed.
I could write about all three in length, but today I want to focus on the third of the three.
Specifically, Frank Lloyd Wright and his architectural philosophy of the duality of compression and expansion. Wright would design a building or a house with low ceilings that would open up to high cathedral type ceilings. I really like this concept. It is what made the building interesting.
This concept, Compression and Expansion, when taken off the draftsman table and applied to life is what makes life exciting.
Compression and Expansion: Examples
In the culinary world it is using a pressure cooker to compress the flavors into a piece of meat and then having a complimentary part of the meal bring intense flavors that expand the pallet.
In football it is a zone running play where you try to expand the play side to stretch the defense. At the same time the backside of the play is being compressed by cutting the defenders legs from under them. This results in a seam being opened up, between the expansion and compression. A running back will run through this fissure to gain yardage.
In business it is the expansion in finding new markets, while compressing the time it will take to make sure each market is supplied with what it needs.
In art it is the expansion of creativity as one plans their work. The compression comes when the artist uses the perfect number of colors, notes or voided spaces to bring structure to the painting, the song or the sculpted piece.
In our lives we live for the expansion of exploring new places and developing new memories while funding these excursions with the compression of your day during your work time.
It’s all around us. The Dualism of Compression and Expansion. When we take time to wrap our minds around this, we can see the GET TO moments only happen when we complete the GOT TO tasks. When we see the benefits of the expansion moments, we gladly will go back to doing the work that we compress in our days. The form follows the function to obtain “a spiritual union”.
It’s all about blending the compression of the GOT TO’s with the expansion of the GET TO’s so that our lives are vibrant, rich and memorable!
Have an amazing day!
