Weekly Review No. 19 | The Power of Spaces - Part 1

“How do spaces shape the human experience? In what ways do rooms, homes, and buildings give us meaning and purpose?”[1] This review will be broken down into several parts over the coming weeks.

This podcast is an insightful listen, particularly for an architect. From the spaces of a home, to hospitals, theatres and stages, sculptural structures, places of worship, and the space a country occupies. To “explore the power of the spaces we make and inhabit.”[2] And what reveals to us, the meaning of a space.

Home is where the heart is. | (Moore, n.d.)

The Power of Spaces by TED Radio Hour

Review

Home is where the heart is.

The beginning of the podcast begins with architect, Michael Murphy, talking about growing up seeing his father work on their old Victorian-style house designed by American architect, Horace Trumbauer. Explaining that repairing their house, piece by piece every Saturday, became his father’s ritual for years.

In several ways, spaces can save our lives. Whether it be the comfort or memories a home can bring back to us when we are the most vulnerable, to providing shelter during dangerous weather conditions. All within the dividing of space using walls; separating the exterior environment from ourselves. For some, the space of a home offers hope, and for most, something to do, something to care for and attend to everyday. Thus, our homes become a ritual. In the ways we live in it, and move around in synchronisation, retracing the steps we follow everyday. From the kitchen to the living room, from the bathroom to the bedroom, out the steps, and so on.

What I appreciate the most of the entirety of this podcast, which I do recommend you listening to, and the reason I rated it 5 stars: Is because it carries a quintessential human touch. “The connection we have to the places that we live in”, says Murphy, “is only made manifest in that daily ritual and practice of participating in creating the conditions for a family to live safely, is a part of the human condition.”

The human condition: “Four walls and a roof provide shelter, but they also comfort, inspire, and sustain us.”[3] We have realised that our physical presence is much, much more significant and integral to our lives until it wasn’t an option ever since the world was hit by the pandemic.

The need to build a space, started as a physical need for shelter. The need for a safe space to sleep, reproduce, rear young, and store food. Since then, architecture is reaching new heights, and even going to space. Architects make use of space in ingenious ways, designing the walls, roof, and ceiling we will eventually live in, work within, and visit on a day off. Our understanding as civilians in a built world is changing with the current circumstances. But, one thing that is for sure is that we seek a space for shelter, and thus a home.

“Spaces give us meaning and purpose.”[4] Influencing whether we’ll leisurely read a magazine or attend meetings with our colleagues online. The spaces we inhabit on a daily basis are highly influential. As Manoush Zomorodi concludes in the first part of The Power of Spaces, a series of personal experiences in the life of Murphy set him on a new path, into architecture; “to build structures that had the power to heal.”[5]

Pop in next week for Part 2 of The Power of Spaces where I’ll be continuing this review. Part 2 delves into the building of spaces in the medical field, such as hospitals, in the words of architect, Michael Murphy.

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Reference

[1] TED Radio Hour. 2020. “The Power Of Spaces.” National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/23/894580784/the-power-of-spaces.

[2] "Ibid." [1]

[3] "Ibid." [1]

[4] "Ibid." [1]

[5] "Ibid." [1]

Image

Moore, Jeremy. n.d. “I've Made My Heart a Home.” ArtPal. https://www.artpal.com/jeremymoore5699.