In this series Aditi Padhi explores the idea and phenomena of HOPE through the lens of Architecture, built- environment, cityscapes, cultural artifact and the individual.
3. Architecture of hope: The Spirit of spaces
In my personal journey I have been an architect far longer than a spiritualist. However, as with many of us ebbing into our second decade as professionals there are undeniable influences of the spiritual and internal journey reflecting in our design projects. Much beyond a love for ancient construction, vernacular materials and the study of mandalas I find myself now doing a personal curation of spaces for my spirit.
Author : Self
Its only unseen in spiritual spaces is one able to ‘drop the mind’ and surrender to a more emotional visceral experience of design and inspiration and the simple joys of discovery. It’s in these moments one meet one’s creative inspirations and I find myself wondering when did I adopt a clinical attitude towards design.
Is professional education and practice encouraging us to drop the emotional quotient in our development processes and is there really any advantage to repressing such a huge part of our beings?
Have we managed to unlearn a crucial part of aesthetics in all expressions of work related to the field ?
Timeless designs, by definition have been known to carry its emotional knowledge through space and time and yet we continue to deny it as an essential exploration of design philosophy.
Intangible, conventional non-quantifiable and perhaps untapped to our comprehensions but these secret algorithms have the greatest influence on the value of our connection to space and design.
In the future, Are the larger economic and environmental / sustainability goals of practice easier achieved with solutions that appeals to the emotional core in all of us? In the current economic environment, there is a disproportionate emphasis on the bottom line. Perhaps it’s time we encourage the bigger questions of purpose, legacy, sovereignty, agency and personal fulfillment over the very oversimplified profit driven model.
Are we trading courage for returns and creativity for mediocrity and conformity?
Can a simple integration of the ‘whole of us’ in each and every individual: the designers, the builders, the users and viewers be a plausible step towards deeper understanding and better ethics? Do we shy away from broad spectrum conversation on ethics becoz we deem it less or becoz we aren’t trained to express and explore bigger and more honest truths. Are we hiding our frustrations and the lack of philosophical evolution and potential growth by divorcing parts of ourselves.
Have we taken compartmentalization and breaking down the problem too far so much as to have lost crucial pieces to the puzzle.
Is it not a selfless act a duty even to share all our experiences and collective truths un-sanitized by corporate lingo and allow for a passionate lexicon to reflect what ideas hold our heart passionately and give our future hope. Isn’t it time amongst designers and architects we can honestly identify with our beliefs and admit the forces that determine our decisions aren’t resonating with us.
