Dear Trivian, On interconnectedness
Our homes are a mirror of our perceived relationship with nature
Dear Trivian,
We have been working much and writing little haven't we? I still feel I'm counting down the seconds to midnight with ABBA in the background even though it's spring already. So today I sat down to write. To you. About architecture. So here it goes my dear, just the way you like them:
Our homes are a mirror of our perceived relationship with nature.
They are transitional elements between "us"' and "it". Of course, that means we first have to define what we understand by "it". What is nature to us? What is the priority scale for nature versus social well being and economy?
Who is more important? Us or it?
Us has been the answer for the past centuries of course. Maybe even before, especially in Western society.
The green movement posits the exact opposite: that we are insignificant and harmful. That nature needs to be preserved at all cost. That we should stop touching it for fear of breaking something.
I don't have the answer to which is which. But I know what other cultures, wiser than western ones, have done. And it's usually somewhere in between, a delicate balance of wants and needs that bases itself on the sacred interconnectedness of all beings.
They also call nature She.
I like to think that the answer lies in seeing nature as a friend to cherish, instead of a thing to harness, as Eisenstein puts it.
And so architecture. How do you make an architecture that acknowledges this interconnectedness and balances both our needs and nature's, helping life thrive?
As always,
Jo
sincere. Basically we are all servants. As the Creator cares for and serves the work of His creation, because perfection belongs to Him (the Creator of the Universe and its contents). And all the weaknesses are that we as human beings are one among all living creatures who are perfected (given reason to think) among other creatures of His creation (animals, plants, the universe and its contents), so it is our responsibility to take care of and take care of them.