Shree: Environment and mindscape

 

120322: Shree: Environment and mindscape

Environment (awareness of climate) is about the perception of existence. The climate and its effects on us depends on the mindscape (मनोधारण) and what climate means to us in terms of behavior and response in action, activities, built, physical is a product of this relationship. So we have the primordial forces (vibrations or consciousness if you will) which are beyond space and time or beyond context and find expressions throughout history of mankind – if there is a temple now, then there was a temple before and there will be an idea of sacred place in the future too – since the sacred or the mythic or consciousness manifests in us (and is forever present) regardless of anything. Forms change, technology changes and we have different climates and cultures, but the primordial forces which make us human are intact and are not affected by any external changes but they form the basis of perception and manifestation. So we have this encoded in ideograms, cultural ideas, and such works as Charles Correa or books such as Timeless Ways of Building or A Pattern Language and House, Form and Culture to name a few. Culture in its basic expression takes into account generations’ wisdom and it seems to have geographical, historical and philosophical dimensions. Architecture as a cultural product should mean this.

If one wishes to know or feel architecture, then space and form should be read and conceived by taking into account above dimensions – not just the physical, but the triggers of mind and primordial forces that generate it. The study of architecture is therefore in other terms, the study of mindscape and nothing less. Tragically in current times, this association seems to have been neglected at a terrible cost – not only to the outside physical and natural environment but to the mindscape as well. The wounds within reveal the wounds outside.

AI, surveillance, individualism and the cold climate that one witnesses in the “Developed Nations” is a potent combination for inflicting deep wounds on the soul. To not see a human being anywhere in outside public place for years and being cocooned in a climatically sealed box for years with a complete virtual experience is, simply put – grossly stupid and dangerous and insane. It fundamentally alters the mindscape to a point of total disconnect with the self and hence anything projected by the mindscape “outside”.

Conversely, with warm climate that encourages different patterns of human behavior, the attitude of responding to climate, ideas of self + family + neigbourhood extend out to shared spaces, multiuse spaces and transitional spaces and changes that are visible “in between” outside and inside climates. Time is also perceived in different manner and probably climate may assume a sacred dimension? Sacredness again, is not an isolated product (such as an apply), but is realized through geographical, historical or cultural and philosophical dimensions (apple also means the branch, which also means the tree, its roots, the soil, the climate and how “we” respond to its nourishment). Thus, any change in any of these links of existences effectively means a change in our mindscape. Does the presence of sacred expressions of architecture in the Indian subcontinent hold a lesson for us about the meaning of environment and intended responses in the future?

Hari Om.