A sense of place - Dwelling - "Genius Loci"

Using Heidegger's definition of 'dwelling' that is, you can inhabit a building but not 'dwell' in it. You can occupy a building daily but not feel at home in it. In order to dwell in a building, you need to have a connection to the 'building' of that space - 'building' not in the sense of construction necessarily but refering to the nuturing and cultivation meaning of the word. Engaging somehow with the building. In Heidegger's terms, dwelling requires building - adapting/changing/reorganising the space to meet changing need over time.

Following on from this idea, it's important to me that the general community has a role in building this centre. For example:

• the meeting house/whare nui/fale tele should be simple in design to allow engagement of the local unskilled community in the building process. It should also allow addition of carvings and internal decoration relevant to them, perhaps created by them or commissioned by them, created on site in the workshop
• likewise for the other buildings such as the workshop/carving studio, the creche/playcentre/homework centre

"Man dwells when he can orientate himself wthin and identify himself with an environment, or, in short, when he experiences the environment as meaningful...This implies that the spaces where life occurs are places, in the true sense of the word. A place is a space which has a distinct character."
- Norberg-Schulz.
Norberg-Schulz developed the notion of 'genius loci' or the spirit of the place.

Modern life in general is starting to disengage place and a fixed home. The essence of dwelling - garnering memories, recollecting one's own personal histories - may not necessarily be bound to a specific place. A large number of things we used to identify ourselves with that were located 'at home' can now be carried with us - personal archives, images, favourite books and music.

Heidegger himself hinted at the possibility of dwelling without place, without a building - when dwelling in the sense is has in "Building Dwelling Thinking" will be abolished in favour of a 'feeling at home' achievable anywhere.
The possibility of of man's appropriating things made by others instead of building them by himself, and still being able to dwell, had been hinted at by Heidegger in "Poetically Man Dwells..." where he elaborates on the notion of buidling as the 'poetic taking of meaure' (by which human beings are made aware of their position in their world) and not of construction and care for things. Appropriation of things will thus be the key to man's assimilation and integration into his environment - his 'feeling at home'.

- taken from 'Dwelling and Architecture. From Heidegger to Koolhaas' - Pavlos Lefas. Jovis Verlag GmbH 2009