Joanna Lalowska
Temenos. In the search of sacrum in external space
Summary
This research by practice attempts to investigate the connection between architecture and metaphysical understanding of sacred space within the urban and socio-anthropological context. It commences with the explanation of the ancient Greek term temenos, explained further in the introduction, and the practical pursuit of embodying it through performance and material studies in order to find the preconditioning for the relationship of sacrum and architecture in the public realm. This interdisciplinary work presents a new outlook at the sacred spheres of urban space in a historical and natural context, their material and metaphysical dimensions, as well as touching upon purely urban and architectural ones. It seeks to establish more transparent definition of this concept and help to define or find its equivalent in historic and contemporary urban space. Through practice it intends to explore various definitions of the phenomena of temenoi drawing from architecture, art, natural environment and human studies.
Additional info
Sacred space can be defined in various ways. In morphological terms, it is made up of spatially defined places to enhance one’s spiritual experience, in social terms it is an area in which rituals and gatherings take place, and in functional way it serves the following purposes: religious and social celebrations, spaces of worship, providing shelter, leisure and culture.
Within this inter-dimensional range and larger context we can observe a certain phenomena coined several centuries ago by ancient Greeks, named temenoi; - “A temenos (Greek: τέμενος; plural: τεμένη, temenē) is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctuary, holy grove or holy precinct. A piece of ground surrounding or adjacent to a temple; a sacred enclosure or precinct. A sacred circle where one can be oneself without fear.“
The theme of the presence of the sacred in the city combines the static (materiality and three-dimensionality) with the dynamic, the structural with the phenomenal. It merges physicality, bodily expression, natural environment, the urban ritual and blends it into a human comprehension of spirituality in architecture. Architecture is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings or other structures space designed and specially organised for human life within a larger, public space context.
The question of practicality, coordination and initial marking of the temenos throughout the ages presents a valid historic angle in the whole research process. Yet in order to fully understand the public realm, it is also necessary to ask questions about its “soft” tissue and its somatic external sphere: about the spirit of the city, something much more ephemeral than maps extruded into buildings and infrastructure, and - because of this transitory nature - not always easy to measure and recognise.
Conceptually, architecture is a form of human expression that portrays the collective or individual’s psyche. The author of these words, Carl Jung, follower of Sigmund’s Freud development of metapsychology with prominent work about the unconscious and relationship with the surrounding world, defines a building’s design as a human mind - a structural diagram conceiving and constructing it. Jung relates the temenos to the enchanting magic circle, which is observed as a liminal space where mental processing can occur. This temenos looks like wherein an experience with the unconscious can be had and where these unseen substance can securely be brought into the light of awareness. Marking it can become a collective transformative tool, as public spaces still aren’t identified as sustainable or even remedial for the society in a deeper understanding, yet are inevitably embedded in daily life. By pondering on the relation between the sacred and the public space, one can start asking whether the two can be interwoven in the urban environment and become a modality of deliberately enacting spiritual experiences and/or feeling of intangible connection within the dwellers.
It is an established fact that art and architecture provide a vessel for conveying human beings‘ deepest unconscious thoughts. Within contemporary urban societies all over the world, this project targets an investigation about the idea of ‘sacred space’, how to establish it through embodied spatial analysis and underline it’s connection to human science.
This research by practice consists of several participatory material studies, predominantly working with textiles, sound and ritualistic performance.
