Connecting Past, Present, and Future: Living on the Construction Site. Drawing Inspiration from Heidegger.
Comparing the Photos from 2012 (see Part 1) with the Same Room in 2023. The Spirit Remains, Only the Renovation Status Has Changed.
Then and Now
These intersections of the past and future continue to shape the atmosphere of the place. Alongside the 'Wilhelminian' elements, we have explored the possibilities, embracing the proud belief in progress towards a new era and the desire for active, productive advancement.
The rooms, where endeavours for a better future have always been pursued, are rather mobile and functionally equipped. Where repairs and carpentry were done in the past, prototypes can now be crafted. Where the harvest was once brought in, there is now ample space for offsites.
In this place where progress was once thought and realised mechanically, it is now projected and implemented through digital means. In this sense, all of this has always been both an old-world estate and a laboratory for the future.
Top Row: Robin Day's Polypropylene chairs are still available (at affordable prices) today. They are an example of how a particular quality of time can manifest itself in the form of a chair. These chairs fit well with a style that dates back two hundred years due to the 'principle of resonance of congeniality'.
Bottom Row: The seminar room has 'two ends of contemporary history.' The rear end with the French door is stylistically and atmospherically anchored in the eighteenth century. The opposite wall with a whiteboard and canvas is, so to speak, modern.
Creative Paradox
The simultaneity of both temporal dimensions can create the strangely paradoxical and inspiring effect of 'mutual reinforcement.'
The further one can look into the past and feel its palpable presence, the further one can also look and think into the future
Vision Camp and Idea Competition by six European universities in the Projektraum Drahnsdorf, exploring how sustainability themes can be integrated into future film studies programs.
Therefore, the historical manor house and the future-oriented laboratory are connected for us - as an expression of this idea.
This paradox can also be explained with the metaphor of a tree, whose roots must delve deep into the earth to grow taller. Thus, delving into cultural heritage and substantive identity is essential for envisioning the future.
Especially when one was highly developed in a previous era, such as the "Ceremonial" in the Baroque period, the "Contemplative" in the Middle Ages, or "Connectedness to Nature and Creativity as a Constitutive Element of Freedom" in the early eighteenth century.
A difficulty in the subtle field.
In the perception of the subtle field, introspection and projection, fiction and truth often closely intertwine. What may be mere wishful thinking or subjective interpretation? Many decisions are also made intuitively, and not everything can be easily conveyed.
On the other hand, entirely different and often more subtle design possibilities emerge, which are not only logically deducible but rather resonant and open to interpretation.
Martin Heidegger in front of his "Building".
Outlook and Heidegger as Godfather
What has remained unmentioned, because it became so natural for us, is that we gradually began to inhabit the place during the renovation work.
Living in the place while it is being renovated is very helpful because it allows one to "be with this place". When we, as a "place of the future" of the network of the same name, talked about our experiences, we often discussed agile methods, co-creation, digital tools, or our political work.
In the process of reorientation, the stay and the associated intense inner encounter with the place, the building, the landscape, nature, and the earth were much more significant, often influencing, inspiring, and guiding us unnoticed.
In the city, we were distracted. Much of it is a matter of the mind. In encountering a place, much is a matter of the gut. The best decisions come from a holistic perception, arise from "being there" and from "being with things".
There is currently a lot of change happening, and that gives hope. The more subtle perception, which also resembles shamanic work, is a phenomenon that begins when we start to trust our intuition and our senses again.
In doing so, we come to decisions in the "resonant field" that are naturally also influenced by our own upbringing - just as some aesthetic-stylistic choices at this place are based on a very subjective perception.
Moreover, the subtle field, or rather the subtle world, extends much further, and we are just beginning to unlock it. More and more people are becoming "clairvoyant," and what they have to tell reminds me of the famous line from Hamlet:
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
We came across a very insightful text during the renovation, which describes how building and living were once integrated, both in practice and etymologically. In those times, it was natural to "build at one's construction site" and simultaneously "reside" there.
Building was not just an episode in life. Today, due to the usual practice of hiring construction companies, it is not really experienced as a productive and creative self-activity. According to Martin Heidegger, this activity was even considered part of the "habitual" in earlier times.
The text "Building Dwelling Thinking" vividly describes how thinking (including thinking related to building) is less likely to go astray when it remains connected to being or in a kind of subtle perception.