Gaston Bachelard remarked the contradicting warmth we perceive from the mental image of a tiny shed enveloped by thick blankets of snow. Similarly, what Henry Plummer (see The Experience of Architecture) regards as narrow ‘elbow room’ grants us independence and freedom — emotional and psychological control over our entire surrounding, and therefore, safety.
Such is our subconscious experience of roundness, spatial enclosure and envelopment. On the right occasion, a tight nook can suddenly become an appropriate place for retreat; a sort of emotional shelter. And when our basic needs for safety are met, we may find that our imagination has some newfound room for engaging in the revery and play of diving into a book, for example.
The idea of public or civic ‘latibules’ (noun considered rare and obsolete by the Oxford English Dictionary), gains contemporary relevance in the hyperconnected metropolis, where upon reflection we realise that quiet oases or urban latibules are as rare as the word itself.
