Lorraine Biggs

Home by the sea

The regular sound of the waves rolling by, coming upon the rocks and beach below the house gives comfort. It is a rhythm that I miss when staying elsewhere in silent places. Peaceful sound.

Waking up to see the inverted image of waves rolling by on the ceiling is endlessly mesmerizing. I hear the wave come in from the East then as the lit image squeezes through the horizontal blinds, my camera obscura, I watch it traverse the ceiling to the West Peaceful vision.

This house we have built from stone on a cape facing North over the bay. The wide glass expanse opens the house to much sunlight and a passing parade of birds and animals. Sea eagles and hawks hover in front of us, riding the northern thermals, seals laze around while dolphins catch the waves, and the echidnas wander by after their long hibernation Peaceful nature.

We have drawn inspiration from the philosophical underpinning of Christopher Alexander’s books about architecture, A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building. Many of the patterns are archetypal. Considering sound, I compare learning about music with building, where you must master a language and then pass beyond the language. It must be part of your own being. You must start with nothing in your mind. Peaceful space.

Peaceful Space

(visual/sound presentation by Lorraine Biggs) Peacefulspace focuses on the location of the East coast of Tasmania where Lorraine & her partner built their home based on Christopher Alexander’s work principles from, The Pattern Language (1977) which he wrote along with fellow authors Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel over an eight year period. Many age old, patterns about living to create comfort zone or peaceful place are incorporated in their home by the sea.

Lorraine Biggs is a visual artist originally from Western Australia but moved to Tasmania to take up post graduate Fine Art studies at the University in Hobart and continues to live on the island. Her work is widely exhibited across Australia and internationally and is generally based on the natural environment in some way. She spoke at the first Creative Conservation forum about a collaborative work she created with composer Lila Melesiea based in the Blue Tier rainforests of North East Tasmania.