To be honest, I could not build a proper friendship with my book, because it contains around 500 pages. Of course, I dealt with the book and got to know it better during the various tasks, but I considered the tasks too superficial. Certain things have remained in my mind from my book, but I would not call it a real friendship. I am aware that students do not want to put too much effort into it, as we often have enough to do with the draft and reading the whole book would probably not be effective either.
But I learned how useful books are in architecture and how important they are for understanding architecture. Collecting and disseminating books for centuries means being able to apply and develop knowledge of construction and architecture, and to know and understand the history of architecture at the same time. For example, the column books that have spread knowledge throughout Europe.
It was a very exciting experience to be able to discover such an old book. It was the real highlight of this exercise. You could feel the age of the book and its meaning. The care with which the librarian treated the book reinforced this. Having this old book in front of me was a valuable experience for me to better understand the importance of books.
The task of “lineage” was a little difficult for me, because on the one hand it was difficult to find reprints and translations of such an old book, and on the other hand it was difficult to find the correct reprints and translations. The group work was difficult aswell, because 2 out of 5 students did not even answer in the group chat to discuss the task. However, in the other tasks I had less difficulties.
In conclusion it was an interesting task. The physical contact was the best thing about it, and I have learned some things over the year. The medium of book was brought closer to me in this way and realized how important books I still are today. Nothing can replace the experience of touching and reading an old and well-preserved book.