Architect Hoeksema has plans to enlighten her audience
Author will also do a book signing at Dolly’s

(Tanzi Propst/Park Record)
The concept of singular architecture is architecture aligned with nature.
It cross connects sustainable growth with holistic human health, according to Heather Hoeksema, architect and author.
“Singular architecture is an effort to develop a common language about sustainable growth and generate a culture of knowledge within which we can propagate ideologies about the future and implement such ideologies into our fabricated architectural environments,”
Hoeksema writes on her website, singulararchitecture.com.
She will give a presentation about singular architecture at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19, at the Summit County Library Kimball Junction Branch, 1885 W. Ute Blvd. The presentation will include themes outlined in her book “Singular Butterfly,” enhanced by graphics and illustrations.
The idea for the book, which is the first of a 64-volume series, stems from Hoeksema’s desire to create her idea of what useful architecture would be in civilization.
“They will begin as small books,” she said. “Each publication is aligned with a verse within the singular matrix established on my virtual site (www.singulararchitecture.com) and then comprised into larger, illustrated compilations.”
In her opinion, the architecture would have to get back to natural science.
“Natural sciences has been subverted and substituted with some sexy artificial science that seems to be some kind of derivative of quantum physics that doesn’t make sense,” said Hoeksema, who considers herself an architect of ‘experience’ as well as an architectural theorist. “The idea is to establish a cultural architecture for sustainability.”
“Singular Butterfly” offers an umbrella view of the topics in the next 63 books.
“There is a story narrative threaded through the analytical text,” Hoeksema said. “The story is a children’s narrative so parents and kids can read the books together.”
Hoeksema plans to compile every four books into one bigger volume.
“Then I’ll compile and emboss the illustrations and diagrams I use with the talks into an art and science book, an architecture book,” she said. “The idea is to make this information accessible to anybody, to empower people, especially those who want to have a say in how the environment is shaped to align with nature. [Readers] will be able to access the slide shows from the talks online to supplement the books.”
Hoeksema’s interest in nature came early in her life.
“I was born in a Native American hospital and grew up for the first year in my life in Phoenix, Arizona, where everything in Native American culture seems very nature-based from a spiritual standpoint,” she said. “Ever since day one I interacted with natural environments, and I was babysat by Native American caregivers.
“I sometimes wonder if my cellular memory was spoiled by natural resonance from my Native American caregivers singing to me as a baby.”
Hoeksema also had family members who moved from Denver to the Rocky Mountains.
“I would also hike and camp in the Colorado tundra,” she said.
Her interest in architecture came while Hoeksema was studying to become a doctor.
“My father was a surgeon, and I studied to become the doctor of the family,” she said. “I loved organic chemistry, but I always explored the arts to some extent.”
After making honor roll with her pre-med course work at University of Michigan during the first semester, Hoeksema started taking art classes.
“I submitted a portfolio to the architecture school and got a scholarship,” she said.
Hoeksema’s blending of nature and science emerged from her first architecture project.
“My result was a diorama that was bisected,” she said. “On one side there were these natural shapes and on the other side were more rigid shapes.”
The diorama was balanced on a curvilinear piece of basswood ground plane, so it could tilt.
“Before I really knew anything about architecture, I was making objects that artistically represented balance between the natural and artificial,” she said.
Hoeksema found, as she continued her architectural studies that architecture was artificial and she needed to zero in on that idea if she was going to make money.
But she also knew there were ancient examples that were shaped to connect architecture with nature.
“When we start to connect things, we can see that science and art are kind of one and the same,” Hoeksema said. “When we study science, we are focusing on a certain degree of objectivity but also remembering that it’s subjective. When we look at art, we need to continue to extract what our subconscious is telling us, and the line we draw subconsciously makes the natural organization around us objective within this subjective art.”
The cross referencing of those processes is what Hoeksema’s presentation will be about.
“We can follow our instincts, and also follow the laws of nature at the same time, and one helps us do the other,” she said. “Natural science isn’t that complicated to understand. If people understand it, then they have the language to defend it and defend their environment and health.”
Heather Hoeksema will give a presentation about Singular Architecture at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19, at The Summit County Library Kimball Junction Branch, 1885 W. Ute Blvd. She will also do a book signing at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21, at Dolly’s Bookstore, 510 Main St. For information, visit http://singulararchitecture.com. For information about the book signing, visit http://www.dollysbookstore.com.
Scene Happenings: Sept. 23 – Sept. 28
Saturday morning nature walks are held at 8:30 a.m. every Saturday at the Swaner EcoCenter. The cost is $10 per person and $5 for local residents.

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