What Happened?

What happened to the vernacular tradition of sheltermaking?

Wombspace

Is personal space like the womb? Is this what we seek when we craft spaces in which to be? This is an interesting idea which I have mused on before. The womb is the first space we know and expulsion from it signals the commencement of our lives which ultimately lead to a reconnection with the Mother. This life-death cycle is supported by architecture which shelters us when we are alive allowing us to consciously be. Erecting the HeadSpace has allowed me to touch on this mystery and to observe others succumb to its allure …

My Current HeadSpace

I’m in free fall. Once the shift began there was no going back. Embracing the change that this offered has opened up a whole new perspective. It is now clear the resistance to creating the Art Studio is rooted in me and that I really need to move on in my life embracing the future rather than being burdened by aspects of my past. This has allowed new love to flow into my life and given fresh direction to my ambitions. This is the core of the living architecture idea – living your architecture according to inner direction. I am still catching up with what this means for me, enjoying the sensation of the free fall and speculating on where it will lead.

Lughnasadh Sheltermaker

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I am at a most interesting place, literally living my own architecture. This is fascinating and a bit of a roller coaster. The EconoSpace Project has raised so many personal issues that I am stunned and fascinated at the same time. The resistance to progress has been so strong that it is demanding a complete reassessment of the original objective of creating an Art Studio to house Sharo’s paintings. This has left me poised at the intersection of past and future time, rooted in the now.

The EconoSpace Project Update, which you will see posted on the right of your screen, will bring you up to speed on recent developments. Basically the project has been refusing to move from the workshop onto the site! There were obvious physical reasons for this – the weather, difficult ground conditions, a hassle obtaining stone and so on. However underlying these rather obvious resistances something else was lurking. This, I now realise, is something in me and exploring this is has plunged me deeper into the mystery of sheltermaking. Essentially this has to do with living the future rather than living the past. This is the source of inspiration from which we gain emotional sustenance. We give this form when we make buildings in which to live our lives.

Living our lives to accord with inner direction carries us beyond rationale. The mind rails against such folly regularly issuing threats of impending catastrophe. When we bring such confusion to the building process we imprison ourselves in rigid structures blocking out the light of inspiration. This is why construction is such a macho activity and requires such immense firepower for its realisation. If we build sensitively we cannot but connect to inner direction.

This is exactly what is happening to me. It is becoming clear that putting energy into Sharo’s paintings is not part of my now. This is the source of the resistance to realising the Art Studio. If I accept this wholeheartedly – and I do – a whole new vista open up. This is where I am poised, a most interesting place to be. I cannot but laugh at the irony of all of this. I have been developing and teaching these ideas for almost 20 years in an itinerant sort of way. It is only now that I have ’settled’ that I am fully impacted by them! This is as fascinating as it is amusing.

My immediate attention is now focussed on the installation of the HeadSpace at the Dock Arts Centre in Carrick on Shannon in lovely Leitrim. This will be erected on Friday next August 17th. It will be up until the following Sunday. A new series of Courses in Sustainable House Design & Construction will begin on September 1st. which will keep me busy. I have also begun work on my Sheltermaking Theatre presentation which addresses the emotional issues surrounding the living architecture process. I will also be continuing work on the EconoSpace Project in its new guise as vehicle for my unfolding life.

So, stay tuned folks. I will be recording developments in the Architecture LIVE section of my website.

Next Sheltermaker – Autumn Equinox

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EconoSpace Project Update

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but ….

The Sheltermaking Theatre

 

 

Everything is shifting under my feet. Not in a bad way but nonetheless challenging. The EconoSpace Project clearly has a mind of its own. Despite our best efforts, the objective of getting it out of the ground is elusive. This has gotten me thinking, why is it so difficult?

There is no clear answer to this question. I can think of many reasons, including the ‘local wetting’ I wrote about previously. There is also the fact that Thomas has returned to Belfast to resume his amateur boxer training and contemplate his future. Liz has also gone on to do her own thing.

However, no matter which way I look at this all answers fail to satisfy. I’m beginning to consider that it is me that is holding things up, that somewhere in myself I’m putting a block on things. Another possibility is that I’m actually meant to be doing something else. I have been trundling from Design to Construction like an old dog on the hard road, not really thinking if this was the proper route to my objective – wherever that is! So, I decided to lay down by the roadside and reconsider everything. This was blissful – taking time to relax and dream. This led to an interesting place.

I’m calling the process ‘backtracking’. It’s not really about retracing my steps or about where I am going but seems to be more concerned with consciousness! This is familiar territory and brings to mind the comment of a student of an early Be Your Own Architect Course who said ‘I was teaching philosophy not architecture’. I am still catching up with that throwaway line.

Anyway, as fate or destiny would have it, as soon as I begin to dream everything appeared differently. I quickly put together a presentation which neatly fitted into an old idea – The Sheltermaking Theatre. This is a device to enable us to see the invisible – things like time, gravity, space and feelings. These are inexorably linked to architecture and to our selves as human beings. It is from this invisible matrix that we emerge.

Phew! This is not what teaching architecture is meant to be about! Yet, on some level, it is exactly what it is about. It is what living architecture actually means – that we can use buildings to connect to a a deeper reality, discovering in the process who we are. This I have known intuitively for quite some time but I could never explain it in a way that made sense in the context of how architecture is normally spoken of – in terms of passive solar energy, sheepwool insulation, hemplime, heat pumps, double glazing or whatever.

In many ways things that we know inside ourselves but which are repressed or remain unconscious are more shocking when we accept them than new information. That is how I feel at the moment. A mixture of impatience, excitement and trepidation. Add to that the fact that a film crew from TG4, the Irish language TV station, is coming to film the EconoSpace Project next week! I have appraised them of developments but I’m not certain they properly understood. Anyway I’ll adhere to my new mantra ‘it’s all theatre’ and things are bound to be all right on the day. Then there is the HeadSpace to get ready for display at The Dock, the local arts centre. This is pure theatre!

So there it is folks. My soul bared. My face presented to a new horizon. The wheels in motion. Destiny at play.

Global Warming, Local Wetting

Perhaps in this part of the world, the Irish nortwest, the effects of climate change should be referred to a ‘local wetting’ rather than global warming. Generally the ground is waterlogged and wellies and raingear are the height of fashion. The local farmers are already concerned about winter fodder for their animals. The normal harvest cycle has been thrown into disarray by regular downpours which are more like monsoon rains rather than our usual local showers. Also, there is a definite autumnal vibration in the air though when the sun does manage to break through it is fierce and insistent.

All of this is hampering progress on the EconoSpace Project. While the peter posts and floor beams lie waiting under cover the foundation strips are looking a little too low to the ground for comfort. Even with a good 350mm clearance to the underside of the suspended floor my instinct is to push the building higher by at least another 150mm. This means importing another load of stone to build up the foundation strips by that amount. As luck or providence would have it my stone supplier is on holidays and we will have to wait at least ten days to obtain the necessary supplies. This pause is providing a useful space which I am occupying with reflection and observation. The reflection is encouraging me to winterise – to prepare the EconoSpace Office/Workshop for the onslaught of wind and rain ahead. This is supported by observation of what is happening in the UK as I write – severe rainfall and consequent flooding.

My neighbour Tommy paid a visit the other day to examine my alternative energy system and pointed out, from his knowledge of this field, that the location of the art studio ‘floods’, something which he had mentioned to me in passing before. This was not as alarming as it might first appear – he simply meant that there was a tendency for rainwater to gather at that location and for it to pond because it could not soak away due to the deep substrate of clay which characterises this area. I had become aware of this independently and had constructed a pond to encourage drainage, siphoning the collected water to the nearby stream. My feeling now though is that was common in the past will be overshadowed by future events. This will probably come in the form of wind and rain which will fall in unseasonable amounts and quite possibly cause some flooding in this area.

So, I am going to take heed of this caution and build up my foundation strips by a good six to eight inches more. This will allow a clear 600mm or two feet to the underside of the suspended insulated floor. Having to wait for the stone delivery to put this plan in action and wrestling with the incessant rain is naturally slowing everything down. I am of a mind to put everything on hold until the spring and then push forward. This is hard where I have set myself a ‘goal’ even though this was arbitrary and probably a little ambitious in the first place. This is a good example of the changes being suggested by climate change reality. Should we just push on in the face of it or should we listen? Pushing on suggests that we will prevail, listening suggests that we must change.

Change is one of the hardest things for people to initiate. Usually some dire event or circumstance will set the mechanics of change in motion and we must resign ourselves to being changed rather than taking the initiative and changing ourselves. This is a cop out and consigns us to the back foot, labelling us as victims rather than as instigators. To position oneself as an instigator is to make a stand, to place oneself outside of the norm of delusion. This is no easy place to be if only because people oftentimes want to challenge such positioning in order to bolster their own denial levels.

The work being carried out in the United States in the areas of natural building, permaculture and the formation of community is currently being founded on clear efforts at raising consciousness. This approach considers that practical solutions for sustainable living are already in place and that now it is a matter of people shifting their consciousness in order to embrace this new way of life. This requires an emotional leap, a stepping outside of the norm. This is the greatest challenge facing those currently locked into ‘the system’.

My own instincts now are to focus to the ‘consciousness’ aspects of sheltermaking and to parallel this with continuing work on the EcooSpace Project. Rational thinking had me following the apparently obvious design-construction sequence. What is now becoming clear is the need to backtrack, to lay a foundation for practical/material action based on strong emotional/life dynamics. This is the inside/outside story articulated by architecture which I have referred to in earlier blog entries and in articles available on the website.

The Living Architecture HeadSpace, pictured above and below, will be the vehicle for these explorations. This is a 1:6 model of the Actual House which allows one to experience the inner/outer connections that are forged when we create architecture. This will be on public display at the Dock Arts Centre, Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim from Friday August 17th to Sunday August 19th.

The Sleepers

Getting out of the ground is something of a relief. The stone filled trenches, compacted and levelled, can now receive the sleepers which will support the weight of the building. The floor structure will rest on these sleepers and be fixed to them creating a sort of giant raft. This will ‘float’ around 450mm or 18″ above the surface of the field so, should I be inundated with water as a consequence of climate change, I can sit and contemplate the best course of action. As the floor itself will contain 300mm or 1 foot of insulation the water would have to rise a full 750mm or two and a half feet to get inside.

As I write, incessant rain is cascading down in unseasonal amounts. If it were not for the long days one would suspect that it was autumn. Perhaps the Irish obsession with talking about the weather will now awaken the national consciousness to what is actually happening!

For our part we now need a few weeks clear weather to get the structure up and the roof on. After that we can continue work relatively protected. We are currently completing the last of the Peter Posts under the lean-to. The jig is indeed proving its worth – we can turn out a post in around 20 minutes. Floor beams are also being made – these take around 15 minutes each. Our slow preparation time is now paying us back one hundred fold!

Grave Imaginings

Who would have imagined that digging foundation trenches would touch our sense of mortality so deeply? Is this because we usually bury our dead in the ground? Or because scrabbling in the earth brings us face to face with our own substance? I suppose it hardly matters what the reason is. What’s important is to plunge into the feeling and to extract some meaning from the encounter.

Building anything habitable will always stir deep emotions. These oftentimes mount a threat against our sense of security, leaving us howling at the moon or curled up in the full foetal. None of this is bad, merely an indication that ultimately we will die and return to the earth in the age old tradition of natural recycling. Why building work – particularly the laying of foundations – carries such philosophical weight is something of a mystery. Perhaps it is because habitable buildings offer such potentiality for living that the chemistry is activated to such an extent. This, I think, is where we come face to face with our own destinies and are challenged to live the lives we have been graced with. It’s not so much that we fear death but that we fear living.

That buildings can assist us in living our lives might be something of a truism but the truth is that most buildings, particularly the ones we inhabit, are rarely fashioned to accommodate our uniqueness. The ‘one size fits all’ approach to house design is as absurd as the idea that everyone might fit into a single size of glove or shoe. So, possibly, as the foundations of a building are laid we are confronted not so much by the shadow of death but by the bright light of our own potentiality dazzling us?

The Foundation Story

Things are moving on. Peter Post action is happening under the lean-to. Out in the field the art studio footprint has been oriented to solar south, foundation trenches have been dug and are now being filled with stone.

We’ve lit our midsummer fire and bathed in the dawn light before retiring exhausted. This seems to have provided the energy for us to push forward. A blue moon is also engorging itself in the sky, blurring the edge between day and night. We’re on the downhill run to the equinox now, a time to focus and set firm goals.

Nothing like foundations to get one focussed. When this happens repressed fears emerge from the dark like so much unwanted baggage. Will it sink? Will it fall? Will I die? No matter what level of denial you employ in answering these questions you are sure to err on the side of caution, just in case. This involves a lot of work and quite a bit of grief. It could also get extremely expensive. Friends and neighbours, not to speak of family, all of have firm opinions on the subject. Oftentimes it is the weight of their fears which pushes one over the edge. As you fall you hear them proclaiming ‘it’s all for your own good!’.

Wood is a very loving and forgiving material. Even if a foundation sinks a little a wooden building will simply bow gracefully like a ballerina or a good waiter. This has so much charm that one might even want to create a deliberately weak foundation in order to encourage a little bowing here and there. Stiff materials like concrete or even hemp-lime are another matter entirely. They are like biscuits or overbred mares which snap if you look at them sideways. No charm in that – only cracks in the walls and endless I-told-you-so’s.

So, we’ve stripped off the topsoil in this sodden Leitrim field, a mere four to six inches of peaty stuff bound together with roots and the occasional worm. Below that there is grey daub, limestone ground to dust by the retreating ice ten thousand years ago. This is impervious to water so the trenches filled up when it rained, necessitating the digging of a small pond to dry them out again. Next, the trenches were filled with stone and roughly levelled . These ‘footings’ will now be dressed with smaller stone and railway sleepers will be laid on top of them to receive the floor structure. This will ‘float’ over a foot above existing ground level, just in case that climate change gets out of hand and I get inundated with water…

On the video clips you can see the process of filling and roughly levelling the foundation trenches. More to come on the construction process shortly.