in terry gilliam's 1985 science fiction dystopian black comedy "brazil", ducts play a large role. they are inexplicably everywhere, and stand for domination by an unseen system, bleak and impersonal. the film made quite an impression on me, so when i was presented with the prospect of half a dozen hvac pipes 30 cm (1 ft) in diameter running through the new studio/performance space, i balked. it added considerable cost, but they simply had to run outside the building. actually, the primary reason i didn't want them running through the room is that room height was hard-won. we had to raise the whole garden in order to gain an extra 30 cm of air; we weren't about to cede that to pipes running everywhere...particularly the three that were planned above the stage area.