I Dwell You Dwell Let’s all Dwell!

1. Certainly our personal interactions affect buildings. We inhabit buildings, determine the uses, we care for, neglect act within the building and breath life into it. As designers we help shape how people will interact with in and how it will function and behave within its site and with its users.

2. I believe Heidegger was trying to justify or distinguish between the two  words, and his best way to do that was look to the past as many philosophers and thinkers do.
At times it can be valuable to search for authenticity in buildings, but maybe only in the really important and meaningful buildings. Such buildings like Steven Holl’s Church od St. Ignatious, or Corbu’s Ron Champ, have deep rooted truth in their design and construction… Some modern construction, does not always have as much care and thought put into it, and I’m afraid does not deserve as much attention.

3. Unfortunately, I’m afraid the cold hard facts of today’s work tell us that any new construction’s lifespan is on average 25 years.  It would be ideal to build in a world where we could hope that our creations would stand the test of time forever, but it seems as though we can’t be so optimistic (with natural disasters and rapid growth). HOWEVER, I think that we SHOULD be designing as if it would be there forever, so that we are always considering the environmental impacts of our design choices and allowing for permanence and meaning in our designs that can tell a story for future generations.

JAC-KAY