This collection of articles and reports on the building of the Hall is compiled from contemporary issues of the Foundation’s publications Findhorn News, Open Letter and One Earth.

1. THE BEGINNING April 1974
2. THE NEW UNIVERSITY HALL Sept 1974
3. WORKING ON THE HALL April 1975
4. THE ROOF June 1975
5. A NEW AGE TEMPLE April 1976
6. THE HALL: A LIVING BEING June 1976
7. FROM THE GROUND UP June 1977
8. OUT OF THE ETHERIC August 1977
9. ATTUNEMENT: A CARPENTER’S VIEW May 1978
10. THE CRYSTAL / THE MURALS Nov 1980
11. LANDSCAPING Jan 1981
12. THE RECORDING STUDIO July 1981
13. LANDSCAPING 2 Nov 1981
14. THE HALL NEARS COMPLETION June/Aug 1983
15. A RACE AGAINST TIME Oct 1983
16. THE STAINED GLASS WINDOWS Oct 1983
17. THE FINAL PIECE Oct 1983
18. THE UNIVERSAL HALL Dec 1983

 

“I never heard the word ‘hall’ out loud before December 23, 1973. That night the Performing Arts group presented a ‘logos mass’ with 30 singers and dancers crowded in the dining room. At the end ROC said, ‘This is the future of performing arts in this community and these performances cannot go on like this in the dining room. We need a proper performing arts hall with proper lighting and a proper stage.’ “

Richard Valeriano, member of Hall building team

 

1. THE BEGINNING Peter Caddy
From Findhorn News, April 1974

Over Christmas it became very clear that with the present size of the community we needed more facilities for the performing arts. On Christmas Eve Elixir (Eileen) received in guidance:

You need that community hall before next season. It will be used for many creative activities, so it needs to be planned with great care and insight as well as inspiration. You will find that the plans for it evolve with great speed as everybody concerned with it gets together and finds unity. You need a building that
has plenty of room and gets erected quickly. You need space to allow all the creative activities of the community to grow and expand. They have only just begun. There is so much waiting to be called forth. Go ahead in complete faith.
As the energies were really flowing, I called a meeting for 10 o’clock that morning, for those who were interested in planning the community hall. We have in fact five architects in the community and George Ripley focalised this group. He said he wanted it to be a group effort and the community hall would design itself as each person made his contribution. Unity was achieved by the various departments and the plan were drawn up with record speed, with two architects working all night to produce the plans for the Planning committee. These have now been passed.

This new building is to be known as the University Hall. The new hall will be so designed that it will be capable of being used for many different purposes. With this end in view there will be no fixed seating in the auditorium. We hope to get building permission by the end of April and start operations on 17th May. Lyle Schnadt, who came over from the States to head the team who built the extension to the community centre, is planning to return to Findhorn to head the building team for the new hall.

 

2. THE NEW UNIVERSITY HALL Angus Marland
From Findhorn News September 1974. The Hall was renamed Universal Hall in 1978.

A project has been started that is the physical manifestation of a great change taking place in the community. Together we realise that we are entering a new spiral of growth and expression – the expression of a deeper wholeness, a greater attunement to God and his will, and of our growth into a University of Light.

Before we examine the actual course of events leading up to the start of the building, let us examine what a new age structure is. Findhorn is a centre for the demonstration of the new age, and it is indeed a wonderful challenge to be asked to create a brand new hall, with our own architects and with a free hand. There is a lot of recently published literature that deals with new concepts in building. Domes of all sizes using geodesic architecture and geometry and the tremendous potentiality of modern technology are featured in this. There is a rebirth of the ancient art of sacred geometry and architecture, producing forms that are harmonious with the Earth’s etheric web of life, and which are alive within themselves. All these are to a certain extent contained within the University Hall, but they alone do not make a new age structure.

A new consciousness is moving through humanity now. We hear of a new world; a world of clarity and order, of love and light, of joy and harmony being reflected and drawn out from the hearts of humanity. It is this wholeness and unity of humanity and all life that is the hallmark of the new age, and so, as we move to create new forms, the wholeness will be reflected through them.

Lyle Schnadt, one of the builders from America, who is working on the hall, expresses it this way:

“When you put love into what you are doing, the material gets transformed. You get energy. There’s something that just flows back and forth. I don’t know what it is, but I can describe it with an example. About three years ago I built a house in the State of Washington; the first house I had ever built myself. And when the house was done, and it was all painted and finished, I’d drive down the street past it, and the house would stand out. It just stood out from all the other houses. At first I thought, Lyle, you’re just on an ego trip, it’s just a cheap old house, nothing fancy about it, but each time I went past it, there it was, different from the rest. When I came here, I understood what it was; it was because of the love and the caring that I and another guy poured into that house. It embodied a new energy that just stood out beyond other work, and that’s part of the synergetic creative process. It’s the same with the walls we are building; you just look down them and there’s an aura of strength and straightness coming out of them. It’s more than just the materials.”

Another builder, Andy Thomas said, “Sherrill was here, and they were dumping the concrete blocks for the walls by the truck load and she was a bit upset. At Auroville (in India), she said, they take each block and carry it to its destiny by hand. And since they were dumping the blocks, you could feel that kind of ‘ugh’ feeling. And so when I came to lay those blocks I felt a responsibility to put additional love into them to make it right again.”

Everything is to a certain degree alive and has the ability to respond, whether it is a concrete block, a plant, or a human being. When one treats someone or something with love, love is drawn out in return, and that being begins to shine in a completely new way. So with a new age building while it’s being worked on and when it is completed. It generates a love feeling from its very foundations, and that feeling in turn draws out the love and unity from the people within it. It doesn’t really matter what shape or style a structure is; if it’s founded on love and harmony it will attract these to itself and draw them out, and it is this that makes it part of the new age.

Let us now look at how the actual building has evolved. From the time of its conception on Christmas Eve 1973, the hall became more defined, not only in form as a solid structure, but as a building that has tremendous influence on the people working with it.

George Ripley from London, Roger Mostyn from Australia and Richard Maxwell from America formed the core of the architects’ group. They had a great challenge placed in front of them when they were asked to design the structure. The first thing they had to do was to learn how to work as a group, how to blend and synthesise their energies to create a wholeness greater than that which they could bring about if they were working individually. They learned that synergetic group work is the fundamental building block of the New Age. There were great challenges to overcome and move through in order to fully understand and embody this.

Through the clarity and purity that the group developed, the actual structure of the building became clear. They began to blend the needs of the Performing Arts Department, the Audio-Visual Department and the community as a whole with the requirements of the county planning authorities, the sanitary regulations and the fire regulations. To describe that development takes only two sentences, but it represents months of hard work, of dedication to and acceptance of the divine plan as it works out the perfection of the new age. As usual the perfection that has been made manifest is greater than we could imagine; the beauty in design of the building is most wonderful. It is indeed a gift from the Beloved.

Eileen received on March 8:

Be steadfast and of good courage, let not your faith waver one iota. Have I not
told you that the hall is a real need ? Have I not made it very clear to you that
all your needs are being wonderfully met ? Therefore go ahead with the
building of the University Hall. I have told you that it is to be a utility hall, so
keep that in mind and let there be no extravagance, but at the same time, no
feelings of limitation. See your needs clearly, not your wants, then you will see
the whole in its right perspective. Allow nothing and no one to hold up the
building of the hall. Have absolute faith that this is all part of my divine plan,
and all has been blessed by Me. Without faith you can do nothing. With faith
you can do all things, for know you not that with Me nothing, nothing is impossible ?
Walk in my ways, and put Me first in everything, then everything will fall into
place in true perfection.

The hall is being built behind the new publishing building, next door to the Park Building. The hall is a two storey building in the shape of a pentagon with the addition of three wings. The front wing is a two-level entrance foyer; the room on its top level can be used for small meetings without blocking off access to the main auditorium. The right hand wing is a lounge with a refreshment bar and is separated from the main auditorium by a large window. Thus mothers with small children will be able to see activities taking place in the hall, without being heard. The left hand wing is a two level recording studio, so designed that the control room on the upper level has a view into the main auditorium and can record and monitor what happens there, as well as looking down into the sound recording studio itself. The whole of this wing is enclosed in a double wall of heavy blocks to give complete sound insulation, which is a vital need since we are situated close to the Royal Air Force station at Kinloss.
The main part of the auditorium has been designed for flexibility. It will seat over 300 people on tiered platforms with movable seating. If we plan to have a dance the seating can be lowered through a panel in the centre of the floor into a storage room below. The centre panel can also serve as an orchestra pit. At the back, between the auditorium and the entrance foyer, is the projection room. This will be used for film and audio-visual work and can handle up to six slide projectors working simultaneously, projecting on to three separate screens at the front.

The roof beams and main columns within the auditorium will be made from untreated Douglas fir. The walls too will be lined with wood which will provide good acoustics and a lovely environment. The ceiling is to be constructed in the form of a low-pitched five-sided pyramid at the peak of which is a glass skylight, again five-sided, coming up to its apex in the very centre of the hall. The ceiling will be made up of a network of exposed timber beams, with plywood panelling between, which will be lightly stained to give the effect of a mandala.

The basement will house music rooms, offices, the dance-drama workshop, the Photographic Department, and the dressing rooms, toilets and showers. And so we see that the wholeness of the building is a wonderful synthesis of ingenious practicality and aesthetic beauty blending to give us a perfect environment in which to share with a great number of people the perfection and joy of the new age.

On May 8, 1974 Eileen received:

Use great wisdom in all things and watch My divine plan unfold. You are to do
nothing to initiate the starting of the University Hall, but simply expect those
concerned to move forward at the right time and bring it about. This is to be a
group project and not the initiation of one individual. It matters not if this is a
slower way of doing it, know that this is a time of group consciousness, and see it
come about in all that is going on in the community now. All is working out
perfectly. Once this project is started the energy behind it will be tremendous
and will gather momentum, and will go ahead in leaps and bounds. All is in
readiness, all is blessed by Me. See it go forward.

And so it is a group project. Each individual within the group had a definite gift to blend with the whole and, without even one person, the group would in a very real way have been incomplete. There was no strong individual leading the way, and this is a great step forward for us. Entering into a project on this scale, and moving through its design and construction in a group, is indeed a new step in our growth. Peter at this time was on his American tour which gave the group even greater independence.

We were almost ready to start building, and yet for some reason we were held back. Plans had to be approved by the County Council for building permission and time gradually ticked by. There had been guidance that the building would be delayed and that the reason for this would become apparent. We waited expectantly.

In June we had a visit from Dr. Wayne Guthrie and Dr. Bella Karish, two sensitives from America, and long time friends of Findhorn. Peter was prompted to show them the plans of the hall. They were excited about the whole project – but one thing was not quite right. The axis of the building was a few degrees out of alignment with a cosmic power point on Cluny Hill, five miles from Findhorn. The alignment was measured out on the plan and corrections were made. Before we had been trying to mark out the actual perim-eter of the building and had found it difficult, since it almost fills the site. However when Bella had correctly aligned the building, we found it measured out the land in the most perfect way.

The next Sunday, June 9, we felt it was right to have a dedication ceremony on the site, and so morning sanctuary was held there. The Construction and Maintenance Department, along with the architects, made a circle round a table in the middle of the site. On the table were the symbols of the four elements, a piece of wood representing the materials we would use, and a plane representing the tools. Around this group, the community gathered.

We invoked the assistance of Apollo and the muses and gave thanks to God, Peter blessed the land, materials and tools, and we dedicated ourselves joyfully to the task of creating the building in the service of God. A simple ceremony but complete and whole within itself. We felt ready to build.

There were still a few delays with the plans, but on July 1 the bulldozer moved in and started to excavate the access road. On July 2. the day that Uranus, the planet ruling the sign of Aquarius, ceased its apparent retrograde motion to earth, thereby increasing the power and directness of its influence, the actual excavation of the building began.

During the first weeks of the excavation work, the Construction and Maintenance Dept found it had to establish a new working pattern. It became necessary for the construction group partially to detach itself from the rest of the department, thus creating two apparently separate groups, Construction and Maintenance. There is, however, a strong relationship between them, and the whole department works in a very dynamic way. A few jobs had to be finished off before we moved on to the site to start pouring concrete for the foundations. The new publishing building had its finishing touches and a new food-store was completed. These jobs ended in perfect timing.

The construction crew with six permanent members came together rapidly. Surprisingly the whole group is from America. They did not all arrive at the same time, but the group grew organically out of the community. Lyle Schnadt, an all-around builder who previously focalised the addition to the community centre, has returned from Koinonia, a community in Baltimore, Maryland. Jim Pat Griffiths, who has had twenty years’ engineering and construction experience, arrived in perfect timing to take his place in the group. Richard Valeriano, who has worked extensively with his father’s construction company, has been at Findhorn for ten months. And Ed Ansell and Andy Thomas, two other members of the construction team, have been here for six months. Richard Borden arrived in perfect timing from Hawaii, where he had been involved in the construction business.

The builders themselves can speak about the building and how they relate to it. First about the group itself, as it begins to grow and find its feet:

“I couldn’t say that the peak of the group consciousness is already manifest, because I feel that the building, along with us, will unfold a story that will be very clear to read when it’s over. I can definitely feel forces of synthesis, strongly related to the building, within all of us. Like folding egg-white into a pie, we’re being blended.”

“The situation here is so intense, so direct and concentrated, that there is no room for raggedness in our learning about relating to people within the group. You have to learn the whole lesson. In this first week of laying blocks, there were times when I resisted learning things in the group. I say ‘no’ to myself, ‘I can’t do that, I can’t resist it at this point. I have to learn it right now and do it’. And it’s that urgency that has really been going through me. I know that’s manifested on many levels, like just getting here on time. It’s always been a loose thing, but it’s really coming down now. If you’re two minutes late, you really feel it. Before, fifteen minutes was the tolerance level: now it’s really getting pinpointed.”

“If I’m getting impatient, just at that moment Andy will come along and be the most patient being I could imagine and I’d say, there it is, that’s all I have to do, that’s patience. If I feel that I’m losing the vision of the building and I don’t have the drive, along comes Lyle, and there it is! That’s what I have to do. It’s just constantly flowing with lessons – just incredible.”

This group works closely with Ian Ross, a local building contractor, who is able to supply a lot of the basic materials that we use and is a valuable contact with the local building and construction world. He is a skilled mason, and will be laying the stonework facing on the front and sides of the building. He also has made his own workmen available to us; bricklayers, a lorry driver and a digger driver. The flexibility, positivity and dedication with which he works is a true measure of his quality, and we are most fortunate to have such professional help.

Working in a definite space every day, the members of the group are naturally in very close contact. Communication is most important, so that everyone knows what’s going on and there are no blockages within the people whilst they work. What tends to happen in such an intense group experience is that the blocks just get blown away; one can either release them freely or they move away painfully. Whichever way they go, one thing is certain – the environment in which this takes place must be open, free and above all, loving.

It is in this context and environment that the work is carried out. As the building grows, so do the people. We move steadily towards an ever increasing sense and understanding of perfection as the divine plan is made manifest on earth.

One of the main topics of conversation at the site is the ‘energy’. This word has had the full Findhorn treatment and essentially refers to a subjective feeling of being in touch with the essence within each action or being. For example, if a group of people are dancing or singing and having a fine high time, they will probably come away from it saying that the ‘energy’ was really ‘far out’, which is another way of saying that they felt a deep sense of communion with themselves and each other. One can contact the energy of an orange, or a person, a piece of rock or a table, by being open and receptive to it.

The building site as well has its own energy. This comes from two sources, both blending in ever increasing beauty with each other. One is generated by the people themselves and is called the group or group consciousness. The other comes from the building and the site itself. The hall is built on a terrestrial power point, a place where the spiritual energy of the earth naturally accumulates. This, together with the energy or power that the structure gives off, is quite considerable. As one walks through it, there is a feeling of great peace, but a dynamic living peace. There is a deep joyful silence about the place, a quiet strength. The work is done in this environment.

“I’m really aware of the fact that the building itself gives the people who work on it energy in a different way than I’ve felt on other buildings in the past, while working in construction in the States. If you’re in tune with yourself and the group you work with and
with what you’re doing, the energy just comes from the work. You don’t feel worn out at the end of the day.”

“I can’t fathom out the whole plan of the structure. I don’t know how to read blue-prints in the way Lyle does, for instance. All I can do is be in the moment with this building. If it’s laying a block, that’s all I’m into.”

It is evident that the group is experiencing a new and more conscious level of attunement, of wholeness and dedication. It is also one of the most dynamic groups within the community at the present time. As they realise what it is they are working with, what this new and greater attunement is, it will be communicated through demonstration and embodiment to the rest of the community. It will cover the community in a living way, educating us all. When Peter was away, the whole community was given the opportunity to become much more responsible. Indeed. it was necessary that we did. In the same way we are being given the opportunity to increase our attunement, our energy and direction, and our embodiment of a living wholeness.

“We feel a responsibility not only to ourselves or the group but to the whole community. It’s not just our building, it’s the community’s building and that’s very important. We are performing a service to the community and I feel very privileged in that.”

“One thing I feel about the community’s response to our work is that when you’ve finished a day’s work, people come along and pump you so full of love, make you feel a real giving part of the community. I’m very aware of their support. I doubt very much that we could cope with the energies here if we didn’t live in the context of the comm-unity.”

“All the work that’s gone into Findhorn from the beginning has made it possible for us to build the building in this way. It took the evolution of the community to set the stage for us to build with consciousness and love. It has to be a protected environment, a loving whole environment. I really feel that it is, and I’m thankful for it.”

And so it goes on. With the development of a strong group at the very heart of the building, putting love and light into the very bricks, demonstrating an attunement with each other in a truly synergetic way, the building will grow most beautifully. More people will be attracted to work within it as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and so on. All are willing to serve God and man, creating a new world here on earth and Eileen’s vision will be made manifest:

I was shown a beautiful white horse with wings like Pegasus, and it was flying
round and round over the place where the University Hall is being built. Then I
saw the beautiful white building, filled with light with rays coming out of it like the
sun on that piece of land. And I saw that great rays of light were coming out of
the white horse as it flew round and round. And the rays from the horse and the
building came together and blended and became one, and I heard the words,
‘This is My creation.’

“I went down to the site early one morning about 5 o’clock. The sun was shining – it was a glorious morning. The night before there had been two cave-ins of the earth banks, and they had fallen into the foundation trenches. I arrived and started to dig them out, and while I was digging there was an awareness of the God within all life. ‘I’ ceased to exist as a person but was at once my body, the shovel, and the earth that was being dug. There was the most vital flow of the energy of God interacting with Himself. It was momentary but timeless. After that I became very aware that this is indeed God’s building, that it is His creation.”

The work continues day by day. The group continues to grow, learning to act together and to share together, becoming stronger, more open, more joyful. As we grow, so the hall grows, for it is the manifestation of the consciousness of each individual and of the community as a whole.

 

3. WORKING ON THE HALL Lyle Schnadt
From Open Letter 3, April 1975

Lyle Schnadt, from Iowa, USA, returned to Findhorn with his family after an absence of two years, to work as a carpenter on the University Hall. He was asked to comment on the difference he has experienced between doing the same job in the greater society and at Findhorn.

The University Hall is a being unto itself with a life all its own. The growth process for the people working on it is a gift from the Hall in return for the energy we give to its life. It draws to itself the people needed to lay the block and pour the foundations as well as the money to pay for the building materials, and at the same time it presents challenges in structure and consciousness for us all to overcome and learn from. It is not we who are building the University Hall, but the Beloved, and it is in our oneness with all life and not in our work that we can find our identity.

After ten months at Findhorn I’ve experienced a difference between being a professional and doing a job professionally. Professionalism is determined by an attitude towards a job, not necessarily by academic or practical training. Caring about your work and co-workers is the motivating force, not money.

How I relate to these qualities of professionalism is the key to their effect on my life. I can either become a slave to their demands for meticulous achievement or be freed to a further sense of fulfilment. “I am a carpenter” implies how my sense of worth was vitally dependent on how well I did my work. My obsession with perfection made it hard for me to give others responsibility and every mistake made by me or anyone was a threat to my security.

When we started building the University Hall, I identified with my work. I made or checked every measurement. For my sake everything had to be perfect. Now my love for the building won’t let me stop short of perfection. Six months ago, before all the foundations were poured, I spent many evenings building the roof in my mind. In the next couple of weeks we’ll start putting the roof up, which is probably the most challenging piece of carpentry I’ll ever do. I feel relaxed. I know if I keep a clear head and focus on the piece of timber in front of me, it’ll fit properly. Then I’ll be able to measure that timber to fit the next and step by step the roof will be built perfectly. In this way I can be in each moment, whether it’s at home reading a bedtime story to my daughter, in the sanctuary meditating, or cutting the first rafter for the roof.

The same professional approach is still present, but my sense of worth is coming from another aspect of my being. The care, love and attention I give to my work is an expression of who I am and no longer has to come from a need for approval.

 

4. THE ROOF Gair Hemphill
Published as Raising The Roof in Open Letter 4, published June 1975

In the past two months, work on the Hall has concentrated on perhaps the most challenging and exhilarating part of its construction; the measuring, cutting and fitting of the timbers for the roof. The Hall is a five-sided building, to be covered with a sloping roof consisting of wooden timbers forming a pattern of interlocking triangles. In the centre of the roof will be a pentagonal skylight.

Because the building is a pentagon, there are very few 90 degree angles. The roof is like a five-sided pyramid and consequently there is hardly a square cut anywhere. The roof design consists of a puzzle work pattern of Douglas Fir timbers, forming a surface of triangles.

The five supporting hip beams measure 7″x 14″ and are 28 feet long. These timbers span from the skylight to the five columns which support the roof. There are 15 timbers 8″x 16″ and 18 feet long, three of which make up the first main triangle in each of the five sections of the roof. The remaining 280 triangles on the roof are made up by 55 timbers 4″x 9″ and 8 feet long and 225 timbers 2″x 6″ and 4 feet long. Each of these beams must be measured and fitted with a cabinetmaker’s precision. In fact the measurements must be so exact that the joiners use a razor blade because a pencil would not be accurate enough!

The process of preparing the timbers is as follows: they are first measured and cut. This is a challenge in itself as timbers of this size are too large for the electric band saw at the mill to cut in a perfectly straight line. To reveal the grain of the wood, the timbers are then burned with a blow torch and brushed off with an electric wire brush. Then they are sealed with waterproofing, and fitted together.

Most of the timbers have been fitted together on the floor of the auditorium in the position that they will be in when they are erected overhead. Once assembled, they will be numbered and dismantled. In the centre of the auditorium floor, temporary props will be built to support the re-assembled roof in the place it is to sit at its completion. The roof structure will rest on these props while the beams are hoisted into place using a system of a pole and block and tackle. A 1″x 6″ steel band will surround the outside ends of the hips and keep them from pushing outward, like the band holding a drum skin taut. Once the steel band is installed and bolted, the roof will be held in perfect suspension pushing out against the steel band at the bottom and pushing in against the timber compression ring at the top. Then the temporary props will be removed and there will be an exciting moment when the whole structure creaks and groans and eases itself into the free-standing position in the air, supporting itself entirely !

“It’s a wonderful story of synergy,” says Lyle, construction focaliser. “All the parts of the roof work together; they all hold each other up. If one hip falls, the whole structure falls; but falling is impossible, because they all hold each other in place.”

5. A NEW AGE TEMPLE Eileen Caddy
Written in April 1976 and published in a later issue of One Earth

As I was walking into the University Hall early this morning I was welcomed with open arms, and I felt a great flow of love coming from its whole being. As I sat and poured out love to it I felt very much at one with the being. It was breathing very gently. I then sat to meditate and asked how the University Hall should be used, and I am not sure whether it was the Deva or the entity of the Hall who responded to my question but it was very clear:

I am not to be treated as a holy temple of old but as a new age temple,
filled with love, laughter, song, dance and joy. I need more Life within me.
I am to be used in many ways. Rid yourselves of all thought forms of a
holy temple and know I am something new, new, new and wonderful.

 

6. THE HALL: A LIVING BEING Andrew Murray
From Open Letter 10, June 1976

People often ask us when the Hall is going to be finished. But it’s like looking at the playgroup across the lawn there and asking when the baby’s going to be finished. “Excuse me, lady, when will your baby be done . . .?”

Like everything else in the universe and like this community of which it’s a part, the Hall is a living being. It’s a process, and it’s always finished. Its function changes from day to day – depending on we who build it, and we who use it and where we’re at and what we need.

For all of us who have worked on the construction over the past two years, it’s a learning process. Learning to tune into our materials, learning new disciplines, learning discipline, learning to work as a group. Most of all, it’s learning to listen to the Hall as an organism – letting us know where it’s at and what it needs.

The great challenge and ongoing experiment for everyone at Findhorn is learning to focus energy in a specific area while at the same time remaining aware of and in tune with the needs of the whole. Each of us deals with this in terms of our personal growth. Each department has to deal with it too.

Early in 1974 the foundations of the Hall were dug by the maintenance crew, who were responsible for many other projects within the community. Within two months, the Hall had become the particular responsibility of a newly formed construction group. We poured an enormous amount of energy and manpower into raising the basic structure of the building. In order to initiate the project, we had to focus very tightly on the job in hand, and those who were working on it sometimes experienced a sense of separation from the rest of the community. In the summer especially, catching the sunlight as early as possible, the construction crew had a special early morning sanctuary, ate lunch early to save time, and worked late into the evening, effectively cutting themselves off from many community activities. Now the shell of the building is complete and roofed in, and the situation is changing.

I returned to Findhorn in March, having been away for eight months. When I left, there were fifteen of us working on the Hall in one way or another. When I got back, there were three people – all feeling a little deserted. Since autumn, the community’s energies had been focused on preparing Cluny Hill Hotel for the spring (Cluny was renovated and reopened as a college by the Foundation in 1976), and it sometimes seemed as if the Hall had been left on the sidelines. The building felt different too; much quieter, as if it had spent the winter resting itself and easing its elements together during the long sleep. Like a child, the spirit growing into the body needs quiet times to consolidate itself. We
who are the agents manipulating the Hall’s form have had to recognise the building’s need for silence too. Like a child.

The next major step in the Hall’s growth will take place at the beginning of October when the conference World Crisis and the Wholeness of Life will be held there. Before this can happen, we have to install the lighting system, finish surfacing the roof, install the heating and ventilation system and complete the floor and interior of the main auditorium. The building is waking up again and calling its workers back into action – new faces, new challenges – and significantly enough, the maintenance group and construction crew have decided to come together as a single unit again.

We’re into a new cycle now, and one of the most important elements in it is the use that people are beginning to make of the building, welcoming it into the community on many levels. Maintenance is operating its tool store and workshop in the basement. People first began coming to play in the Hall when the scaffolding tower went up to erect the roof beams. Midsummer meditations and a dance were held on the floor there last year before the roof was even closed in, and since then it has been used regularly for community meditations, dances and festival celebrations. Putting the energy of the dance into the building, drawing it into the community, brings a whole new feeling to the Hall. It’s growing because people are using it, and as each new element of its structure is drawn into place, another dimension of life springs up there.

And it’s still not finished. In fact it never will be. But it is complete every day. It’s a stable point against which and with which we measure and experience our growth as individuals and a community, building and maintaining this particular piece of the spaceship.

 

7. FROM THE GROUND UP Joe Monteadora
From Open Letter 16, June 1977

Anyone coming from Kinloss on the road to Findhorn can detect that the caravan-trailer park up ahead is somewhat exceptional, for out of the mass of mobile home caravans and green foliage arises a shimmering pitched roof structure. There it is, standing high, pushing stone and timber above the everyday world.

The University Hall. What exactly is it ? Is it a temple of Light ? A creative arts centre ? What about the stories of its being a giant Wilhelm Reich orgone healing box ? What significance is found in its proportions and geometry ? And what of its links with Glastonbury and other ley line points ?

At present the full purpose of the Hall is still unclear, although many functions are envisioned, including performing arts, conferences, community sharings and meditations. We are building and working in faith, and knowing that the Hall is of importance to the planet and humanity. However, we can say that the University Hall is a reflection of Findhorn. Here in physical chunks of matter is expressed our oneness with God, our belief in intuition and our belief in the group process.

What is happening now, in concrete terms ? We are starting to build the terrace for the seating in the auditorium, building the projection room, working on the gallery stairs, plastering the ground floor block walls, and working on the fire routes. The place is humming with activity. On the drawing boards are the designs for the seating, gold covered bench-type seats, which together with the green carpet will echo the Findhorn and Cluny sanctuaries. The terraces are designed as removable so that large gatherings in the round can occur, and the floor space can be opened up for Sacred Dance. The architects are also working with the building inspectors submitting changes in plans. It has been a tremendous lesson in respect for existing laws and regulations compiled for conventional buildings, and the inspectors have been very cooperative.

And at the site questions have come up as well. After adhering the white chipboard on the auditorium walls, some of the crew questioned the nature of the material and the colour. The finished surface is still up in the air. We all seem to feel a dark surface would help to highlight the central interior space, creating a diffused surrounding. So wood panelling or a painted Turneresque mural is envisioned. However, it is a matter of completing first things first, and then the answer will be revealed to us in due time.

Working on the projection room overhang proved to be a demonstration in combining intuitions. Two carpenters and an architect spent several hours searching for the best solution for the slope and structure of the overhang, which projects into the main foyer. It meant spending time attuning to the nature of that space, together with a lot of discuss-ions and experimenting. It seemed to be a beautiful illustration of new age cooperative architecture with the architect and craftsmen working out design solutions together.

True beauty comes in paying attention to details. The gallery steps gleam with the love and care, the accuracy of measurement that went into them. Downstairs, the blockwork is to be touched up with a finished coat of plaster. Help has come from an experienced plasterer, bringing with him refinement and a sense of the whole.

And other things have been arising as well. An inspiration for the stained-glass rainbow window came in mid-April, when a professional glass-worker fired up our interests. The result was the formation of a small glass group, who, holding the vision of the stained glass, have gotten together for a workshop and a trip to a local glass factory. Detailed drawings are now being done, and the framework will commence soon.

We see ourselves evolving and growing together. We can see the Hall more and more every day as a collection of earthly matter aspiring upwards into a vessel, an ark, transporting all who embark into higher levels of wholeness. Although we at present are giving birth to it, the Hall is giving birth to our higher selves, our contact with the divine.

 

8. OUT OF THE ETHERIC Joe Monteadora
From Open Letter 17, August 1977

How do we ground ideas ? Where do they come from ? What happens when we are asked to come up with the best possible solutions ? And how do we know they are the best ? A good example of this process is the design of the Hall. The unfoldment of the building has been an attempt to do the very best and highest possible. In fact the building has virtually designed itself, stepping down out of the etheric, out of the divine plan.

The Hall was initially seen as a gathering place for performance and community sharings, and now seems to be evolving into a unique building with planetary significance. One of the keywords to the design of the building has been attunement. By going within, seeking solutions through intuitive faculties, the best has been obtained. The design has been a step-by-step process in manifestation, in a quite literal, tangible sense. It is an organic process resulting not only in a physical structure, but in a heightened awareness for anyone who comes in contact with the Hall. And its whole design and construction is demonstrating Findhorn’s approach to work – where the most highly valued ingredients are cooperation and love.

One of the initial impulses for a large gathering space came at Christmas 1973. R. Ogilvie Crombie (ROC) verbalised the need and soon an architects group focalised by George Ripley drew up tentative plans. George describes the initial design work as simply grounding what was obvious. The oddly shaped site virtually cried out for a five-sided building. After the thought-form of a conventional rectilinear building was broken, others vied for six or even more sides, but five seemed absolutely right. And the five sides have had repercussions ever since; unknown to George at the time, five represents the ‘perfected man’, the Godhead within all humanity, as pointed out by Colonel Henderson, a community friend in Edinburgh, who has done extensive research on the Hall. Interconnecting the points of a pentagon results in a five-pointed star or pentagram. This represents esoterically the descent of humanity into the world of matter, and the re-ascent into the mental world with its horizontal limitations. Finding no true fulfilment at this level, humanity descends into matter once again to learn of its true heritage, finally returning to its source at the apex. The pentagram itself occurs visibly in the lantern and inherently within the recesses of the floors and walls.

George Ripley states that “When I wanted to do the right thing . . . then I began to manifest the right situation.” Through the conscious will to do the highest possible and by becoming still, going within, the correct situation appears. Take for instance the relationship between the inner and outer columns; their diameters are in the same proportion as the moon’s diameter is to the Earth’s. The elevation from the base of the building to the central apex, where the lantern will be, corresponds, as it turns out, to the Pyramid of Giza. All this occurred through an alignment with the intuition, the higher self.

Other aspects of the building’s design came about during construction work. The sloping and in some parts curving roof was totally designed at the site. It resulted from the roof purlin positions. The roof is a lattice structure, an incredible mandala of triangles within triangles; lines interweaving from the large surrounding pentagon to the smaller central pentagon, which eventually will be the base of the lantern. The roof’s composition was also determined while it was being built; it is composed of organic and inorganic materials. It is said that the composition of the roof aids in channelling a healing energy. The decision to use local beach stones for the surface of the roof came after long and heated discussions, but in the end it felt right to everyone.

Although George has a basic overall vision for the Hall, he knows the need to create space for others to decide and work on various aspects of the building. The construction group as a whole usually make the final decision, which might be acceptance of an obviously good choice, or an emphatic ‘no’ from just one person. This was the case with the stone blockwork. Although an outside contracting firm was hired to erect one of the exterior walls, the construction group agreed to undertake the second wall. Richard Valeriano, who has seen the entire stonework through, tells how, again, it was through an attunement with the materials and tools that this integrated and beautiful element of the Hall evolved. This wall almost looks as if it was grown there. On the other hand, the first wall was finished in a month and the second took nineteen months to complete!

We can all become aware of the being of the Hall and attune to what it feels is most appropriate. It becomes apparent that the creative process becomes a receptive process – receptive from within as well as without.

Sometimes this process will take time. The being of the Hall has already indicated that the work and design of the building must be of the highest nature. Two years ago when the crew set a deadline for itself, several near-accidents occurred. The group realised the awareness must be of the highest and not distorted by the pressure of time. Each job must be well done and done beautifully. Even the floor joists which are hidden from view form a beautiful five-sided mandala, and the copper wirings set within the roof run like rivulets streaming into one another. This creates an inherent vibration of order and harmony.

9. ATTUNEMENT: A CARPENTER’S VIEW Lyle Schnadt
From Open Letter 21, May 1978

In construction we have now moved into the space of conscious creation with the being of the Hall as we give expression to its spirit in form. Whew! What a very lofty spiritual way for a person who has been a carpenter for 15 years to talk about building a performing arts centre !

Looking back on the four years I’ve spent at Findhorn working on the Hall, I can see the beautiful evolution of my relationship to this building. This same evolution has occurred in the construction group as well, even though its members have changed quite frequently over the years. Initially, guidance was received to build a pentagonal shaped performing arts building sandwiched in between the Park and Publications buildings. The architects knew the design existed on the etheric, and through meditation went about their job of bringing it down on to paper. As builders, our task was to translate these drawings with love and consciousness into a structure. As the building grew, the link between it and the overlighting being became stronger. Consequently, as that link became more tangible, our awareness and relationship with the being of the Hall began to emerge. For me it was as if I had started out making a very special doll and then gradually saw that what I had in fact created was a living child, complete with mind and soul.
Through this experience we have come to see that we have helped create a living conscious being. I’d like to share what we as co-creators with this being perceive to be our responsibilities in the area of attunement. manifestation and getting the job done.

The foundation for attunement in the Hall is our willingness to be guided by this being we are working with. In this area I have learned a great deal and have expanded my experience of being guided. During a meditation with the construction group recently it was suggested that we align ourselves with the will of the Hall. At first I was hesitant as I was reluctant to hand my will over to the being of the Hall. When I opened myself to that alignment, however, I understood that each of us is being used to give form to this being, and we are asked to build the form that is appropriate. This isn’t the place to exercise our own individual sense of design and decor. We have plenty of room to do that in the rest of our lives. It’s like the process of deciding to have a child. The baby will grow out of the blending of the physical and personal characteristics of the parents. In fact it has chosen those two people to “create” it. However it has its own life to live, its own life tasks to fulfil and its own unique qualities to express that transcend the parents. In a similar way the Hall has chosen us as its builders, just as we have chosen to build it. And we must be sensitive and clear to allow it to develop its own form and essence.

Finding a way to integrate the diverse perceptions of reality in the group has proved to be another hurdle. Generally I approach decisions about structure and design from a practical point of view. Others in the group are more concerned about the energy behind the form and base their considerations on what allows this energy to flow clearly.

For example, a decision needs to be made about the pattern of the hardwood floor in the auditorium. My considerations include a simple and secure fastening of the hardwood to the existing timber framework below and a pattern that complements the geometric patterns already present in the auditorium. Another point of view is to see the pattern reflecting and focussing the flow of energy in and through the building. In the past I would have seen that perspective as spiritual double talk and been inclined not to consider any suggestions arising from it. Through our experience and attunement together, however, we have learned to prevent a sense of polarisation from creeping in, by being open to synthesising these different levels of individual awareness. These awarenesses are in fact a contribution and help us build in a way that allows the Hall to express harmony and meaning on many levels.

The need for working space in the community has made getting the job done an important consideration. Often we have experienced that doing a job in the Hall seems to take longer than normal because it is done with love. The real cause of delays, I believe, comes from neglecting to attune to the will of the Hall properly or completely before starting. Then inevitably the “right” way of doing it is discovered half way through and the work already completed must be torn out and done over. Correcting this fallacy in our thinking has increased our efficiency.

10. THE CRYSTAL / THE MURALS David McNamara
From Journal of Co-operative Living, One Earth Vol 1 No. 2, Nov/Dec 1980.

Note. On 24 Dec 1977, a crystal-hanging ceremony was led in the Hall by Ron (Ra) Bonewitz, a visitor to Findhorn who claimed to channel ‘Limitless Love And Truth’, an entity which had comm-unicated some years previously through David Spangler (see Limitless Love & Truth Vol. 1-3). This ceremony split the community with many recoiling at its glamourful content and questioning the authenticity of the ‘transmission’. When the crystal fell and shattered three years later Eileen Caddy was quoted as saying “Thank God !” It was never replaced.

When the perfectly cut, precisely hung quartz crystal that was suspended in the middle of the Universal Hall by five gold strands fell and shattered last month, it brought a variety of responses from the community. Findhorn has always been a place where even the smallest incident in one’s own or the community’s life is filled with significance or symbolic import for direction and meaning – such being the overt form of mystery school lessons – and this incident evoked its share of speculative interpretations. They ranged from the relatively simple notion of shattering old thoughtforms to allow a new energy to flow into the community, to the more esoteric interpretation of the realignment of the energy bodies of the angel of Findhorn; from the more introverted response of raised eyebrows and a slow thoughtful nod, to the relieved delighted laughter that in itself shatters crystallised thoughtforms. In general the event seemed to be recognised as one of those coincidences with a significance greater than its physical occurrence.

The falling of the crystal came at a time when several members working in the Hall’s various areas found themselves wanting to re-energise and complete the building’s construction and furnishing. Planned as a multi-purpose centre with dance and drama practice areas, darkroom facilities, audio recording studio and an auditorium for several hundred people, the building has slowed in the completion of its final stages due to lack of funds. In that peculiar confluence of events which suggests the rightness of a project, a sizeable gift was received for the Hall’s completion just at the time the construction group made this goal their first priority. Moreover, a management group was also forming among the Hall’s ‘tenants’ – including the construction, audio and visuals departments and the auditorium group – to discuss the building’s completion and its appropriate uses.

Into this gathering momentum Haydn Stubbing, a renowned British artist and friend of the community, came for his annual summer visit to continue work on two murals he is painting for the auditorium. Haydn started the project three summers ago, and sees it as continuing for four more month-long summer visits.

Since his last visit the auditorium has been completed in line with the plan of a professional designer then living in the community. The colour scheme, selected through the designer’s own sense of the Hall’s esoteric properties, was a matter of some controversy in the community family. And yet, because he was commissioned to do so, the designer completed the work, which included covering in bright pink the main three foot wide support beam ringing the interior of the auditorium.

Haydn returned to Findhorn this summer to find his paintings framed in bright pink. Feeling the combination incompatible, the artist offered the community the choice of removing either the pink material or his murals. It was with a certain sense of relief on the part of some of the community that the pink material was removed and a community group formed to choose the final design of the Hall. There is a strong feeling for natural colours and materials stressing relationship to the earth, perhaps replacing the pink band with a wood veneer.

Within this growing impulse to complete the Hall the audio department is in the process of finishing its recording studio and equipping it with a professional quality six-teen track recording system. This group, which is also working to manifest its own funding for the project, foresees the creation of a business to draw professional musicians, aligned with Findhorn’s work and vision, to record in its studio.

11. LANDSCAPING Glenn Walters
From Journal of Co-operative Living, One Earth Vol 1 No. 3, Jan/Feb 1981

A major landscaping project is under way around the Universal Hall ! The potting shed – for many years one of the most familiar landmarks at Findhorn – has been dis-mantled and reassembled behind the Park building. The compost bins next to the shed have gone and a small hut in the area has also been moved. These changes are dramatically opening up the area around the Hall and greatly enhancing its visual impact.

A gravel path has been completed behind the Publications building, bordered by a rough stone wall on one side and an attractive split timber fence on the other. At the top of the path and immediately facing the Hall’s side entrance a large mound has been formed from which a small burn (stream) will flow down towards the main entrance. The mound is partially encircled by a thick granite wall about three feet high, and will be planted with heather and other indigenous shrubs. On the lower level immediately in front of the Publications building a six-sided pool has been built. It has a bubbling fountain at its centre and is fed from the well on top of the mound. Surrounding the pool will be a small park planted with maple and conifer, and fitted with simple wooden benches, and opposite the pool will be a trellis planted with climbing ivy and clematis.

 

12. THE RECORDING STUDIO Mary Inglis
From Journal of Co-operative Living, One Earth Vol 1 No. 6, July/Aug 1981

Another seed project putting down roots this year is the Recording Studio. This has been part of the long-term vision for the Hall as a centre of creative expression and with structural work on the studio almost complete, the Audio Department recently put forward a proposal to equip it with a 24-track professional recording system for £54,000 and to set it up as a business.

At their meeting in April the Trustees approved the project, subject to its receiving community support and to the two key staff members (both of whom are American) receiving appropriate visas. They also encouraged the project to attract funds from other than bank sources and requested that the Foundation’s bank debt not increase by more than 25% of the equipment’s capital cost.

The project group proposed having the equipment installed by midsummer and the studio operating as a business by the end of the year, with the aim of renting out about 75% of studio time each year to ‘outside’ groups and musicians. However, following a series of community meetings and feedback from a questionnaire to all members it looks as if the project will unfold a little more slowly. Although 90% of the community support the studio, half of these do so with qualifications – such as first completing the Hall, discretion about which artists are recorded here, and a variety of different suggestions about financing and marketing.

As so often, the issue seems not so much the rightness of the project as the rightness of its timing. With past experience of moving ahead at times before all the different aspects of a project are aligned, there is some concern that we don’t rush into this project before we can deal with all it involves in balance with the community’s other activities and commitments.

So the recording project group have decided to move step by step, and rather than starting as a business the studio is now seen as being, at least initially, a semi-private one, working with ‘outside’ people whose music is in harmony with Findhorn’s vision. No bank loans are planned at present, and as funding is obtained for the project the different pieces of equipment will be bought and installed. It will be of a type consistent with the 24-track system, and able to be put into use quickly. The main item required is the 24-track mixing console, to which units can be added as money and equipment become available.

13. LANDSCAPING 2 Liza Schnadt
From Journal of Co-operative Living, One Earth Vol 2 No. 2, Nov/Dec 1981

The area around the front of the Hall has undergone an extraordinary transformation. Paul Hice and a team of landscapers have been steadily working on the area and in what seemed like an instant (actually several weeks) a gracious garden appeared with a fresh green lawn threaded by paths and sloping up to a rocky pool on the hill in front of the Hall. The final excitement was when two cranes arrived to hoist 27 tons of massive boulders up to the area around the pool. The largest weighed eight tons, and all the children plus half the community gazed for hours as the huge boulders were swung into place, with enormous effort and patience on the part of the landscapers and the crane drivers.

14. THE HALL NEARS COMPLETION
a. by Jeremy Slocombe
Journal of Co-operative Living, One Earth Vol 3 No. 5, June/July 1983

The Scottish Tourist Board informed us of its decision to award a grant of £43,500 to assist in the construction of a refreshments lounge, main foyer, art gallery and other facilities in the Hall. With matching funds from the Foundation, it will enable the completion of the building in time for the 3rd World Wilderness Congress in October this year.

The STB grant did not come out of the blue – Caroline Shaw and others spent over a year preparing the application – but the amount of funding was what we had asked for. We held a special meditation of thanksgiving in the Hall.

When the Hall is finished, it will qualify for a certificate from the local building inspector which will enable its doors to be opened to the public. The Hall has been our major capital investment over the last ten years. Once complete, it will be a tremendous asset and the Trustees hope to see it returning the energy invested in it through an ongoing programme of performances, conferences and workshops which serve our own needs as well as those of outside groups whose aims fall within the Trust Deed of the Foundation.

b. by Jill Wolcott
From Journal of Co-operative Living, One Earth Vol 3 No. 6, Aug/Sept 1983

The recent grant from the Scottish Tourist Board has resulted in a flood of construction activity. Weatherwise Homes, our energy conservation business, is in charge of the work. With James Hill as foreman, they are employing both local people and members of the Foundation entitled to work in this country, and the group is working harder and more joyfully than any construction workers I have ever seen.

Finishing the Hall will mean the release of its potential as a centre for conferences and the performing arts, and already a group is beginning to explore possibilities for its use. While the official inauguration of the Hall will take place at next year’s Spring Festival of the Arts, momentum is rapidly growing for the Wilderness Congress this October.

 

15. A RACE AGAINST TIME Mary Inglis
From Journal of Co-operative Living, One Earth Vol 4 No. 1, Oct/Nov 1983

Since April the Hall has reverberated to the sound of hammers and electric saws as contractors and community members alike have made a concerted effort to complete the Hall in time for the 3rd World Wilderness Congress in October. The main structural work is on contract to Weatherwise Homes and includes two spiral staircases in the entrance foyer, shower rooms in the dance/drama studio, toilet facilities for the disabled, cloakrooms, the completion of the refreshment lounge and the reception area, carpeting, tiling, and the application of the necessary fireproofing to meet fire regulations.

With only a few weeks to go, activity in the Hall has reached a high intensity. Volunteers from the community are working around the contractors and in the evenings and at weekends doing the finishing and decorative work not covered by the contract. “It’s a race against time,” said Caroline Shaw, who is in charge of the whole project. “Although the main auditorium is ready, it’s touch and go whether we will have the foyer finished in time to hang the art exhibition for the Congress – it may have to be hung the night before it begins !”

As if all the activity currently filling the Hall wasn’t enough, work is also speeding ahead on the stained glass windows that will cover the whole front entrance. Work on the window was not originally planned for this year. But through a series of serendipitous events and generous donations, it became possible for it to be done now, and it too is planned to be completed by the Wilderness Congress.
The window was specially designed for the Hall last year by sculptor/builder James Hubbell, and he suggested that Mayme Kratz, his apprentice and protege, be commissioned for the work on it when time came for it to be done. Mayme had worked with James for three years and did all the glass work for the magnificent palace doors of Abu Dhabi, which James designed on commission from an Arabian Sheik.

When community member Roger Doudna visited the States this summer, he learnt that Mayme and her partner Otto Rigan had two months free in August and September, and were offering to donate their time and skill to do the window at that time if we wished. Otto, brother of former member Alice Rigan, is also a stained glass artist, as well as one of the leading US authorities on stained glass work. He has written several books on the subject, including two on James’ work: From the Earth Up and The Palace Doors of Abu Dhabi.

Roger felt this was too good an opportunity to be missed, so at the Findhorn Family Gathering at Phoenicia in July he spoke with former member Terry (Treya) Killam and between them they decided to offer to donate the money for the window if the community wished to go ahead with it now. Both their fathers were coincidentally celebrating their respective birthdays at that time, within one week of one another, and Roger and Terry offered the donation as a tribute of their appreciation and respect for them.

The community was delighted to accept these generous offers, so Roger returned to do the preliminary carpentry and facing work for the windows. Mayme and Otto arrived on August 20, to be joined by stained glass artist Janet Banks from Erraid, and work began immediately. Everything came together at once – glass was airfreighted from California; tools, lead and crystal jewels came from Germany; and all exactly on schedule.

It is a tight schedule, but the team seem to be meeting the challenge, and are currently producing panels at the rate of about one a day. Already several panels are up, and it is apparent that the completed window will be a magnificent work of art, with the crystal jewels that are scattered throughout the design spreading rainbows throughout the foyer whenever there is sun.

 

16. THE STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
An interview with Otto Rigan and Mayme Kratz, by Roger Doudna, published under the title The Art Of Glass in One Earth Vol 4 No. 2, Dec /Jan 1983-4

For seven weeks, from mid-August till early October, Mayme Kratz, Otto Rigan and Janet Banks joined the Findhorn Community in its effort to complete the Universal Hall. Their task was the creation of the magnificent stained glass window in the main foyer, designed for us the previous year by sculptor/builder James Hubbell. Having completed the whole window in exactly six weeks, Otto and Mayme remained for an extra week to design and superintend the building of the foyer doors with their bejewelled stained glass angelic wings. The doors were completed at midnight on October 9, and the Wilderness Congress commenced early the following morning. During that final week, Roger Doudna managed to catch them to conduct the following interview.

Q: You describe yourselves as ‘stained glass artists’ rather than stained glass crafts people. What does that mean ?

Otto: ‘Stained glass artist’ is perhaps a presumptuous title, but it is one that we align ourselves with because we don’t take the medium for granted. In taking James Hubbell’s design for this Hall window, for instance, we are more than just stained glass crafts people. We are facilitating his design, but hopefully we have put enough of ourselves into this project to transcend being just facilitators. Numerous creative decisions had to be made without James here, and those decisions affected the overall aesthetics of the window, the art in the window.

James, through his inspiration, did the design in response to his experience of being here, of seeing the Hall, and of talking with the people involved with it. He did a small water-colour of the design, which is his traditional approach. He likes to design rapidly and on a small scale, and to have it vague enough so that he is able, when it changes scale, to be sensitive to what is needed in that moment, to the exact glass, to the exact opening. Well, he wasn’t around for the second step. He was around for the gestation, which only he could have done, since this is his signature work.

His sketch for the window was about 12 by 14 inches. On that scale you simply cannot work out all the subtle linear, structural and colour challenges you will meet in the reality of building it. So, as on-site organiser and planner of the window, I took the small water-colour and redrew it into a full-scale working pattern with the 30 separate glass units. In many cases I changed it, in keeping with what I thought he might have done. So I couldn’t help but get mixed up in the design, and that is where the creative act came in as far as I was concerned.

For instance, James had no reference to where the crystals in the window would go: we had to decide that. We had a list of lead sizes, but no indication as to which lead went where; and different leads can change the character of a window tremendously, giving emphasis or de-emphasis to particular areas. I also added shapes and shadings of colour that were not in the original design but which were necessary because the window needed more of a transition between the colour sections and the absolute clarity of the sections around them. All these are creative rather than mechanical decisions, although they are based on the mechanical make-up of the window.

Mayme: Once Otto completed the drawings and the colour-coding, the work came to me and Janet, and during the stage of actually cutting the glass and building the window, it changed again. Although the window is Hubbell’s conceptual piece, it is not really totally his work anymore, because it has gone through many improvisations around his central theme. It’s like somebody giving you a piece of music they have written, and the way you play it is different from the way they would play it. For me to build a window I have to have a part of myself in it, to feel I am saying something that the designer hasn’t said at all. For me that comes in the use of the glass. In working with James, I have always had the freedom to use the glass in whatever way I please, and to change the line of it if that seems appropriate. I would say that that is where my own creativity comes in.

Otto: Every piece of glass has particular characteristics, flaws and fluctuations in tone, which give uniqueness to each part of that sheet. What gives the overall window a sense of cohesiveness and movement is a sensitivity to the characteristics of each piece of glass. If you were simply to stamp out coloured pieces according to the original design, the window would seem dismembered and give a non-cohesive feeling. You need to make the glass itself work, so the window isn’t just a bunch of coloured pieces.

Q: How would you describe the nature of Hubbell’s influence on the two of you?

Otto: He has had a monumental effect on me, and I am still trying to come to terms with exactly how to define it. His initial effect on me was more philosophical than aesthetic. It had to do with how he went about doing things, rather than what he did, even though what he did proved to me that whatever is behind him has a definite force. It wasn’t the specific shapes of his buildings or his architecture or stained glass that inspired me, but the fact that he had done it at all, and that he had done so much. And he had done it by drawing from a resource which is abstract, that comes from between his ears. It is a way of seeing and believing that has led him to do what he does in a highly individualistic way, at a time when everyone else is normally settled in particular schools of thought and expression. If I had been the designer of the Hall window, what I would have done would be immensely different. My colour palette, my architecture and my aesthetics are different, but what I respond to is his spirit and sense of freedom.

Mayme: James has been my teacher; working with him has felt the same as all six years of university. What he taught me wasn’t technical so much. The biggest thing I gained was the ability to do something spontaneously – if I had an idea, to make it happen and not be afraid. The most valuable thing has been his philosophy that nothing is really a mistake, that all is a learning process. Because of his being my teacher, I now have to decipher what is his and what is mine in my work, and I have been doing that for the past year and a half.

Q: Now that the window is complete, what is your feeling towards it?

Mayme: It feels like my grand graduation, because it has given me clarity about what is mine and what is his. I did the best I could in interpreting his design and I have a good feeling about it, but it is not what I would do: it is his.

Otto: I think it is one of Hubbell’s best windows. I have seen and photographed everything he has done, and as a critical observer I have to place it very high among his installations. It works as a counterpoint to the architecture of the building and, as a link to the ideas of the community, it is really right on. I have also really appreciated the whole working situation with this project. My feeling is that it has been like doing the windows of Chartres Cathedral in the 12th century. We got to do it on site, to be part of the whole building procedure and never to be separate from the building itself. To get from one studio to the next we would have to walk through the chips of Ian’s stonework and under his scaffolding; and we continually got support from others working in the Hall. There is something very exciting about that. And while in one sense the window is not ‘ours’, in another sense it is our window – just as it is Janet’s and James’s and yours and Terry’s and the whole community’s.

17. THE FINAL PIECE Mary Inglis
From Journal of Co-operative Living, One Earth Vol 4 No. 2, Dec /Jan 1983-4

October began with all systems go to get the Hall completed in time for the 3rd World Wilderness Congress. The Congress opened at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness over the weekend of October 8/9, after which the Foundation acted as the base for the next five days. The week leading up to the Congress saw several all-night working sessions in the Hall, as well as swarms of people during the day cleaning every nook and cranny to remove the dust of months of construction and to get the building sparkling.

The final piece of work – the hanging of the front doors – was completed at midnight on Sunday 9th, and eight hours later Congress delegates streamed in to be the first people to make use of the entrance foyer – while the construction crew took to their beds to catch up on some sleep.

 

18. THE UNIVERSAL HALL Robyn Gaston
From One Earth Vol 4 No. 2, Dec /Jan 1983-4

Sometimes as I walk up from the dunes towards the little cluster of caravans that is our home, I am astonished to see this strange glass cone arise through the trees, like an elfin cap on the unusual, undulating roof beneath it – a roof littered with stones like the sea shore. As I approach, I see that everything about the Universal Hall is unique and amazing, from the dry stone work in such pictorial forms as sunrise, a rushing stream and a mandala, to the stained glass work leaping across the glass frontage like curling, flowing waves. Inside, the foyer is like the prow of a boat with its magnificent curved stair-cases and glowing warm colours, inviting and welcoming. Then, in the heart of the Hall lies the auditorium, with its mysterious pentagonal shape and lights like coloured stars.

The Hall is our collective work of art, born out of a desire to bring inspiration from the
finer realms to take vibrant shape in matter. It has evolved as we have, moulding and
shaping itself to express our group body. It has been given form by literally thousands of people who have worked on it and woven their spirit into it. Now, like a jewel in the centre of the community, it rests quietly after the busy Congress, and there is an expectancy around as it stands open for its future to unfold.

 

© Findhorn Foundation