Modern Architecture - Essay Example

Lecturer: Modern Architecture Introduction In the 57th street of northern Wales in Britain, there lived a boy and his family in the storey building that was built in the early 1990s. His name was Harris. He grew from a humble beginning with his father working as a messenger in a hospital that was in the nearest town and the mother stayed at home, (Farrell, 33). Story Harris grew as a single child in the family with hope that one day he will get a brother or sister which never came to happen. Since the family used to live in a location that didn’t have a lot of neighbors, Harris didn’t have many playing mates unless during the holidays when his cousins would occasionally visit for a week or at times he would be taken to the cousins homes for a short stay. The building where they lived with the family was built by his late grandfather immediately he retired from the civil service as a structural engineer. The building was built in the shores of Lake Sebastian, which is great scenery to watch the sun set and the birds came to fish. During his early days, Harris developed interest in drawing since most of the time he used to stay alone sketching photos of cars and people, which led him to getting interested in architecture. Before the death of his grandfather, they used to sit together, and the grandfather would explain to him the meaning of every art that was in the house. The building had nineteen bedrooms in its first and second floor; three kitchens equipped with beautiful inbuilt cupboards and cookers, the common room was in the ground floor surrounded with two excellent dining rooms. This background of structures attracted Harris in drawing and he would keep sketching the maps of the building and the building itself, and he could hang them on his walls. In his education life, he became the best cartoonist both in elementary school and high school level; this earned him best grades in his last year in high school and saw him securing a place in the university. Story passed on that Harris could put into drawing anything that could be imaginable, and this went far and wind until it got the local authorities who also informed the local media and soon the news were going round like wildfire how Harris could sketch anything that happened in the environment. One day, as the head of the state, was passing by with his family, the mayor of the area who drew a lot of prides from Harris told him to sketch the an imaginary state house for the head of state so that he could attract him to investing in a building in the town where they lived so that he would show it to the president. Gladly, he took time and drew a very lovely Villa structured just like their house but on top of Lake Sebastian adjacent to the house where they lived. Little did he know that it could catch the attention of the president’s daughter. The president’s daughter asked his father to stop the motorcade and have her look that the portraits and photos that Harris was holding. As the cars stopped, Elizabeth the president’s daughter would not resist her attractiveness to this young boy and the feeling was mutual. On the return to their residence, she refused to eat or drink anything unless the young boy would be invited to have meals with her. Seeing the way Elizabeth was very attracted to Harris, the president instructed his guards to go and search for Harris and have him brought to him. Harris was quickly brought to him and as a test to pay him, he was asked to produce the portraits that attracted the president’s daughter and explain to the president what the building meant. Quickly Harris produced the sketches showing great and in-depth knowledge of the building he had sketched. This he had acquired from his grandfather, from the amazing foundation to the great mahogany doors at the entrance to the well fitted shelves in every room and wardrobes, to the master en suite bedroom for the president and the excellent wooden framed windows. A location which is at the middle of the lake with security bridges to the building and facing the street where Harris was brought up. (Hoffner, 9). In all this time, Harris was still troubled in his heart since as much as a lot of attention was in his life at that point, he still lacked one thing that he knew was important to him. He was very aware that property would come and go; fame would come and go but experience was something valuable that he would not attain with all this. Elizabeth did everything in her experience to win Harris’s love, but he was not talking much with her. She got so annoyed by the fact that she has done all she could attract this genius, but he didn’t show any effort. The president was also very uncomfortable because his daughter had started to lose weight and performing poorly in her studies. Despite the wonderful and out of these world ideas of the building he had sketched, Harris remained unhappy. Harris was summoned at the president’s office, and the president asked him to tell him what this that was disturbing him was. The president explained to Harris that his condition was affecting the decisions made in the whole nation since if Elizabeth is not happy, it meant that the father was not happy, if the father was not happy it meant that he would not make very sound decisions for the entire country. This expression of the president really affected Harris, and he told him that he would answer this question first thing in the morning. But before he could answer the question he asked the president for a favor to consult with his mother. Harris knew very well that his mother was not learned, but she was always right, and her decision was for the best interest of Harris. That evening he left to their Villa where he was met by elders and family happily, but he went straight to his mother’s bedroom and told her that in his dreams he always wanted to buy a car with his money so that he can drive his mother through the city. He asked her if it would be okay to ask for a car from the president so that he could drive her around as her hope and as per his dream. Tears started flowing freely down the cheeks of his mother as he narrated what the president had told him and how his fortunes had gone well with the drawing sketches and buildings. The mother told him that her dreams were not a car from his son but for him to be educated and equipped with the best thing that no one in the world would take it away from him as soon as he acquires it. To this point the mother stood up and boldly told him. “My son Harris, I had saved all my earnings from the farm to ensure that you get proper education and that you go to the highest level so that you can not only provide for yourself but also get enough for your future family and extra for us as we grow old”. She explained how important education is as opposed to property and that as much as all other things might go; experience will continue to live in his mind, (Hooper, Brad, 9). Harris with that information he went back to president’s home by night without saying by to the elders, schoolmates and age mates who had come to see him and as soon as he got there, he could not wait for the morning to talk to the president. The president had given authority to his guards that whenever the boy would like to talk to him, they should never refuse him entry. Harris entered the palace and told the president that his friendship with Elizabeth was not going to end in the near future, but one thing that was disturbing him was the fact that Elizabeth is learned, and she is still in school, but he didn’t make it to the university. He asked the president for just one wish which was to see him start and complete university education. To his amazement, the president granted him a scholarship as long as he wanted to learn, and with that he went on to the highest level of education that was there in the land, he also secured a big job of the government architect. This made him confident enough to date the president’s daughter, whereby he designed and built the statehouse that was on the Lake Sebastian and later came to be known as Villa Savoye. Even though Villa Savoye was later renovated and got to be known as one built by le Corbusior it was originally designed and built by Harris in the Mid 1990 and the prime minister of Wales came to live in it, and it made the entire street famous and became a pride for the family of Harris and the Mayor who would take pride of making him famous. Works Cited Farrell, Tish. Write Your Own Historical Fiction Story. Minneapolis, Minn: Compass Point Books, 2006. Print. Hoffner, Helen. A Look at Realistic Fiction. Westminster, CA: Teacher Created Materials, 2003. Print. Hooper, Brad. The Short Story Readers Advisory: A Guide to the Best. Chicago [u.a.: American Library Assoc, 2000. Print. Read More