PSYCHOLOGICAL GROWTH IN BUILDINGS

Psychological growth is never part of a building program. Have you ever discussed with your clients the potential for emotional development or increasing personal freedom? I have yet to discuss with my clients the inevitable psychological growth that will occur within the structures that I design. The potential for psychological growth was never broached in school.

This thought occurred to me while reading The Poetics of Space. Bachelard discusses phenomenological growth. He speaks of the growth of a house in proportion to the growth those who inhabit the house. While he is specifically referring to the growth of the shell of a mollusk in proportion to the growth of the animal, the connection between the mollusk/shell and human/house was eye opening.  (Link to previous page which suggests that we should call what we dwell in shells.)

We typically consider physical growth in our structures. We typically address the number of humans who will inhabit a structure. When discussing a house, we might plan for the number of children. Or we might plan for the care of an elderly parent. Planning for any of these will make the house larger.

What about psychological growth? What about the psychological growth that will occur within our buildings, or shells? What about design growth? What about planning for a higher design maturity?

None of this is ever discussed. None of this is ever part of a building program. And because this is something that is not part of our cultural worldview, we don’t even know how to ask this question. We don’t know how to have this discussion.

We don’t have any idea about how to program for psychological growth. And I have no idea whether the modest potentials of transparent drawing will move us in this direction.

Like I said, this thought popped up as a result of reading Bachelard. And because it is such a new concept, I am going to have to think about this. I want to consider the structures that I have designed, which I continue to walk thru and around all the time. What sorts of psychological growth has occurred for the clients who inhabit the houses we designed? I don’t know.

And I want to consider what psychological growth, as a specific design input and variable, might have meant for those shells…er buildings.