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Earthmother
Dwelling: Listening to the elements, exploring inner freedom
I
spent most of my impressionable years in Afghanistan and India,
where I was surrounded by indigenous architecture. It was
during this time, I suspect that I developed subconsciously
the passion for honesty, modesty and harmony in design.
When
I started architecture I explored how the city in its origin
embodied myths that connect it to the world, with everyone's
lives being grounded by this connection. I worked with the
premise that, notwithstanding progress and modern mobility,
significant aspects of our beings remains biological. In his
writings on the biological basis of psychoanalysis, Peter
Fuller shows how myths arise from the same substratum as dreams,
and that they play a significant role in how we engage with
the world. These myths are neither fiction nor flights of
fantacy, but the concrete manifestation of this mythopoetic
dimension of our being.
...Rejecting...
mechanical imagery as the basis for architecture, my work
has been an exploration of being, where it interrupts with
the structure and "feel" of the city. I have attempted
to show the city through its buildings, might, form, spatial
realms suffused with character and mood where lives could
be fruitfully enacted.
Throughout
my studies I had a passion for what I call "primitive"
architecture. By primitive I don't mean backward, but quite
the opposite to be primus means to be the first.
To be at the beginning. It is good for the mind to go back
to the beginning, because the start of any established human
activity is its most wonderful moment. This view can teach
us the fundamental principles of each invention, thereby showing
the possibility of taking another path.
Most
'primitive' anonymous buildings were constructed in response
to such conditions as climate, orientation, and the easy availability
of building materials. As the building material dictated the
form of the dwelling, the builders were sensitive to it. They
worked with their materials, not against them as in so much
of today's architecture.
During
the summer of 1996, I finally embarked on my long awaited
journey to discover indigenous materials and techniques. One
of my earliest and most exciting discoveries was the arch.
Here was a form that occurs all around us in nature. The arch
allows us to be free of the need to use wood, and materials
such as concrete and steel, which are high in embodied energy.
All naturally occurring structures use the arch form as their
structural element...
I
first learnt about Earth Architecture from the Iranian-born
visionary architect, Nadr Khalli, during an internship at
his school of Earth Art and Architecture, Cal-Earth. The islamic
influence wasn't new, due to my prior years spent in Afghanistan,
but the materials and techniques were. However my passion
for the arch had noting to do with dome or vault or any type
of symmetrical islamic architecture. It has to do with nature.
I didn't want to necessarily imitate nature. I wanted to feel
the freedom that nature appears to posses. I had experienced
so many constraints in the world I came from; I wanted to
escape it . I wanted to become free. I wanted to
explore my strength. To understand and celebrate the possibilities
of the earth in my hands.
As
I worked with this totally fluid materials, I felt its lack
of constraints, its freedom. I wanted it to lead me, to allow
the earth that freedom. I didn't want to make it do something
which imitated another material. I wanted to set it free,
to listen to it. I believe that all buildings should be designed
and built with sensitivity... designing and building are to
me like sculpting. When a sculptor carves in to the rock he
listens to the rock telling him what it should become. Creating
a dwellings the same to me; its about understanding the material,
the need of the inhabitant, the climate, being in harmony
with the environment and, most of all, feeling passion during
the process.
At
the moment, my ideal house is one which lives in such harmony
with its environment, a house that is difficult to notice,
like an animal that blends into its surroundings. So many
houses appear like warts on our landscape. When you drive
in the countryside, how much nicer it would be if you couldn't
see the houses, if they harmoniously blended in, like the
houses in Afghanistan that climb the hillsides and are made
of the same earth as the hillside. Only at night, when the
lights come on, do you see the extent of development.
In
my 'Earthmother Dwelling' that I built at Cal-Earth, these
are some of the things that I aimed to achieve. The 'Earthmother
Dwelling' was built in a close dialogue with the essence of
the site. Listening to the elements, letting the earth tell
me what it wanted to become. Being from the architectural
icons of traditional cultures. Listening openly to my inner
voices, letting them guide me to achieve coherence and happiness. |
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