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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Burst of Thoughts from Vernacular Architecture to Democracy


‘As the desert nears, only irrigated land can be support agriculture. Homes are introverted, turning their backs on the harsh climate. They have to shade and cool and provide protection against sandstorms’. Source: Sol Power, The Evolution of Solar Architecture



The question is as dwellers of a land with harsh climate, have we become more and more introverted? As we, historically, oriented ourselves around our courtyards , did we close our hearts to others outside our family circles? Has change of our habitat from traditional to a modern form of dwelling made us more open and extrovert? How much do we influence from our form of livings?

Has harsh political atmosphere through out our land’s history made us even more introvert? How can a democracy be achieved in such an introverted atmosphere?

3 comments:

Amir Momeni said...

I think I agree with you on the hybrid solution. However I think that the conservationist approaches only buys us enough time so that we can devise a new methodology for sustaining life.

you see I believe that the essence of survival is in adoptability, the life adopts with the obstacles it faces, so I think that life will adopt to global warming and similar challenges that it faces, however the problem is that the rate of adoption is much slower than the rate of changes around us, we either need to adopt faster or slow the process of the changes around us.

although not quite relevant the great Asimov once said in an interview "there comes a time in human history when we need to emmigrate" the interviewer asks "emmigrate where?" and Asimov answers "emmigrate to new solutions, even new planets, the only way left is forward"

Amir Momeni said...

I don't know much about architecture, however I know a bit about psychology, so I think it is safe to say that the mindset of societies is gradually shaped by external factors affecting the lives of their inhabitants.

there are articles on the effects of harsh dry climates on social and cultural norms and also I have read an article (although a hypothesis loosely based on historical facts) in persian which states that some negative cultural aspects of today's Iran (like *ss kissing!) are rooted in Mongolian invasion of Iran. I know that this is debatable however we cannot ignore the effects of our past on what we are today.

and finally, it has been said and I as an egalitarian believe that "Democracy is the ultimate solution to governance", when given the chance to choose, the societies will grow to accomodate this power.

Bahareh said...

Don Julio Thanks for your input.