written by MEDIA DESK,STHAPATIAPP

We discuss the very nature of architecture itself, how it relates to culture and topics ranging from the nature of cities, how buildings influence our lives and the future of architecture itself

Humanity leaves immortal echoes through its history using the media of language, art, knowledge and architecture. These echoes are not simply viewed in retrospect; they are primary to our time and define our civilisation at any given moment, justifying our very sense of being human. This justification is important. Humanity exists in a near-perpetual war for existence. We are mortal, but we wish to become eternal and culture is our success in this battle. Culture allows us to assert our existence to ourselves to the extent that we are not just ‘now’ but are- in essence- forever.

Branko Mitrovi? notes that, “…Plato reasoned that material or perishable things could not be called ‘real’ since what is real cannot be temporary…” He continued to describe a story where, “…Plato describes a group of people who have been chained inside a cave since childhood. Light comes from behind them, and they cannot see things directly. All they can see are shadows on the wall of a cave. They learn when various shadows coincide or follow each other, and they know what kinds of noises accompany certain shadows. They take these to be the noises of the shadows, and they take the shadows for reality.” Mitrovi? asserts that according to Plato, “…the ‘things’ of our world are reflections or shadows of eternal Forms or Ideas, which do not exist in space or time, but outside of it….”

Culture is experienced in the present time as the fluid gamut of structures that define our experience of living, but in truth (and paradoxically)… it exists in retrospect. We may use language to communicate and knowledge to exchange, but it is only when we look at the story of language, the body and origins of knowledge

that we can contextualise them, and understand their role as elements of culture.

Throughout time, architecture has persisted as one of the most profoundly important reflections of culture

we see each building reflecting the story of the time, and how that iteration of culture wished to project itself to the future. Architecture also persists through our infrastructure from bridges to public spaces and even the very layout of our cities themselves. In this sense, one could consider architects as being the arbiters of our future history. 

We discuss the very nature of architecture itself, how it relates to culture and topics ranging from the nature of cities, how buildings influence our lives and the future of architecture itself.