Trauma and Tradition in Architecture

Abstract

We begin by considering the concept of reality as that which joins all creatures great and small and yet separates them in time and space. We have learnt to become linked in space by ideas and models that are more or less perfect and linked in time by the joined up writing that brings with it the inherent dangers of being both true and false. Unfortunately, we have not yet learnt enough about ourselves to understand apperception, as participation in more than reality keeps us alive so that we unwisely extend our understanding of apperception to keep alive the traditions built upon lies and partial truths, so that from time to time the lies become exposed and a traumatic change occurs to end or reshape a tradition. In a secular world, these traditions alter the appearance of rules and regulations that convert the mundane world into specific social domain of the identity to which the unambiguous and the unequivocal can belong. A global society allows the same transformations of the mundane to be played with a very much richer palette than any single tradition clinging on to one identity of some kind or another, however ancient, popular, and exclusive; the reality of space is that of a mundane existence and sharing is not part of tradition. This paper describes how the architectural project is probably the most spectacular example of the changes we need to make by thinking about tradition as a global desire for the development of comfort and the removal of suffering rather than as some misguided specification of ancient origins or popular opinion that forces us to convert the mundane into spectacular, instead of allowing ourselves, the very special creatures, to live mundane lives free of pain and discomfort.