Season 1 Rewind, Part 2: Home and Memory

I would love to ask you if there's a space from your childhood that really impacted you, um, and brought you into the ...

Uh, you spoke about your grandfather's farm.

Perhaps that's it.

I would love to hear more about what impacted you and brought you to become the architect that you are today.

I lived, uh, at my grandfather's small farm during the war years, and, uh, at the wartime, the adults were always busy, and, uh, children were left by themselves.

And I'm very grateful for those almost five years that I was left alone to study the world without anyone, uh, uh, creating confusions to my developing understanding.

Uh, and, uh, I would, uh, say that my attitudes in my, all my writings and teaching, uh, come from those, uh, early, early years, uh, which, which is, uh, as, as, uh, you might know, uh, my background, uh, philosophical background in, uh, uh, writing about architecture is phenomenology.

And I have often said that I, I have been a phenomenologist since my childhood because I began to observe the world, particularly, uh, plants and ani- animals, uh, in my childhood, and it is this, uh, curiosity that, uh, still drives me.

I will soon be 90, but, uh, I'm still writing every day.

How do you go about teaching students who they are rather than novelty?

My, uh, uh, f- first exercises or exercises during the first year have always, uh, e- engaged in, uh, the students' memories, childhood memories.

Uh, I have myself, uh, as I mentioned, uh, earlier, uh, being rather, uh, interested in my own childhood and what I ins- uh, uh, experienced and what not.

And at the wartime in the, uh, in a small farmhouse, there was only one, one book, the Bible, but, uh, uh, I had a much larger book, and that was nature around the farm- farmhouse, and e- everything, uh, that happened there on every day, every moment, moment, something new.

So there are ways of learning, other lo- ways of learning than just reading or, or not to speak of, uh, being engaged in what is new.

I think that is a rather trivial question in relation to what is the continuum of life? What is the continuum of history? What is the continuum of human reality? So there are more significant questions than, than novelty.

What I mean is that a good architect- architecture- architectural place, uh, gives us a home in very many levels and senses at the same time, in physically to our senses, but also mentally to our memories, uh, imaginatively to our dreams.

Uh, a home is not a functional, practical thing.

It is a mental, mental thing.

Experience of home is recognizing a dialogue between the world and yourself and feeling comfortable about it.

You also mentioned the feeling of home being, uh, something you recall from your childhood, going back from a distance, coming back from skiing and seeing the light inside the house covered in snow.

That is an example of, uh, the immaterial qualities in, uh, homeness.

When I lived at m- uh, the countryside during the war years, I often, in the wintertime, returned back home, uh, late at night when it was already quite dark through the forest, and it was also getting cold.

And then when I saw, uh, uh, the light in the window of the house through the forest, maybe, uh, half a kilometer away, uh, I was already saved.

Uh, that image of, uh, of the light already warmed my entire being.

These are things that, that are emotionally and exper- experientially true.

I would love to ask you if there's a space from your childhood that really impacted you, um, and brought you into the ...

Uh, you spoke about your grandfather's farm.

Perhaps that's it.

I would love to hear more about what impacted you and brought you to become the architect that you are today.

I lived, uh, at my grandfather's small farm during the war years, and, uh, at the wartime, the adults were always busy, and, uh, children were left by themselves.

And I'm very grateful for those almost five years that I was left alone to study the world without anyone, uh, uh, creating confusions to my developing understanding.

Uh, and, uh, I would, uh, say that my attitudes in my, all my writings and teaching, uh, come from those, uh, early, early years, uh, which, which is, uh, as, as, uh, you might know, uh, my background, uh, philosophical background in, uh, uh, writing about architecture is phenomenology.

And I have often said that I, I have been a phenomenologist since my childhood because I began to observe the world, particularly, uh, plants and ani- animals, uh, in my childhood, and it is this, uh, curiosity that, uh, still drives me.

I will soon be 90, but, uh, I'm still writing every day.

How do you go about teaching students who they are rather than novelty?

My, uh, uh, f- first exercises or exercises during the first year have always, uh, e- engaged in, uh, the students' memories, childhood memories.

Uh, I have myself, uh, as I mentioned, uh, earlier, uh, being rather, uh, interested in my own childhood and what I ins- uh, uh, experienced and what not.

And at the wartime in the, uh, in a small farmhouse, there was only one, one book, the Bible, but, uh, uh, I had a much larger book, and that was nature around the farm- farmhouse, and e- everything, uh, that happened there on every day, every moment, moment, something new.

So there are ways of learning, other lo- ways of learning than just reading or, or not to speak of, uh, being engaged in what is new.

I think that is a rather trivial question in relation to what is the continuum of life? What is the continuum of history? What is the continuum of human reality? So there are more significant questions than, than novelty.

What I mean is that a good architect- architecture- architectural place, uh, gives us a home in very many levels and senses at the same time, in physically to our senses, but also mentally to our memories, uh, imaginatively to our dreams.

Uh, a home is not a functional, practical thing.

It is a mental, mental thing.

Experience of home is recognizing a dialogue between the world and yourself and feeling comfortable about it.

You also mentioned the feeling of home being, uh, something you recall from your childhood, going back from a distance, coming back from skiing and seeing the light inside the house covered in snow.

That is an example of, uh, the immaterial qualities in, uh, homeness.

When I lived at m- uh, the countryside during the war years, I often, in the wintertime, returned back home, uh, late at night when it was already quite dark through the forest, and it was also getting cold.

And then when I saw, uh, uh, the light in the window of the house through the forest, maybe, uh, half a kilometer away, uh, I was already saved.

Uh, that image of, uh, of the light already warmed my entire being.

These are things that, that are emotionally and exper- experientially true.