A Minor Manifesto for Messy Architecture

I owe a lot to Neruda and Deleuze. In fall 2001, I made a pilgrimage to Chile, to experience the land of Pablo Neruda, and to speak at a conference. As I traversed Santiago, Valparaiso, and a host of other places, I sketched, read aloud Neruda’s poetry, scribbled, and wondered how I better could understand Neruda’s work and its relationship to his place and life. In a diaphanous and Deleuzean moment of conjunction, the word “messy” presented itself to me. It suddenly made sense to me in ways that it did not before. Not just Neruda’s work, but the works of other writers, thinkers, thinker-writers, artists, architects, dancers, physicists, and all kinds of creative leaders made sense to me when seen through the lens of messiness as I delineate here. That revelation led me to formulating my own approach to architecture and education. Thus, this manifesto was born, somewhere in the magical city of Valparaiso.