To paraphrase Hall, We as humans, are distinguished from other organisms in that we have this ability to extend ourselves. In doing so, we are in a position that enables us to create our own world. And in creating this world we are determining what kind of organism we will be. Moreover, in a very deep sense, our cities are creating different types of people in their slums, mental hospitals, prisons and suburbs. So then, human nature and our environment participate in molding each other. These subtle interactions make the problems of urban renewal and the integration of minorities into the dominant culture more difficult than is often anticipated. So as nature and culture are so deeply co-implicated man is increasingly challenged not to overextend himself and lose his sense of his nature. This nature is namely our body. And it is this return to the body, from the ambiguous realm of thoughts and emotions, that is at the core of my investigation.

In Time

The notion of self conscious memory is perhaps something common to all organisms but our ability for a memory as a collective, of our cultural past, reveals a tendency for an elaboration of our extensions. Historically, prior to Vitruvius, a strong desire to reach a transcendental dimension was achieved through a qualitative sense of space (Aristotilean matter) that composed the universe. And even in Platonic space one could relate to ones cosmos as it was composed by a particular geometrical order. The extension of culture developed as a great sensitivity to proportions and form. Architectural space was conceived of by man as his symmetry, like a mirror image of his thought which he projects in reality to recognise himself, to position himself in a world of which he new very little. The symbolic role of form and space, was no longer precedent with the advent of the Scientific Revolution. Phenomena were explained in rational, verifiable, measurable terms and the spiritual dimension was no longer paramount.

Today, we know well the crisis of this quantitative conception of our universe. Are lived bodies are further detached from any transcendental relationship with the space that composes our world. To paraphrase Hall once again, people from different cultures, not only speak different languages but, more importantly, inhabit different sensory worlds. In contemporary culture, we have been able to extend ourselves with technology. The computer is an extension of the brain, the telephone extends the voice, and the wheel extends the legs and feet. Anthropologist Weston La Barre has pointed out that man has shifted evolution from his body to his extensions and in doing so has tremendously accelerated the evolutionary process.

Approach

I do not intend to propose a remedy for the over extension that La Barre discusses, as I see it as a condition but not an illness. Rather I wish to explore the subtleties of how we experience space and effectively, encourage an awareness of the ambiguous realm that lies between our body and our extensions. I consider architecture as an extension in itself and the way in which we communicate with it and within it, is what is at stake.

Edward T. Hall points out that architectural and urban environments that people create are expressions of a filtering - screening process of the senses. In fact, from these man-altered environments, it is possible to learn how different people use their senses as each of us inhabit different sensory worlds. Experience, therefore, cannot be counted on as a stable point of reference, because it occurs in a setting that has been molded by man.