Spirit & place : healing our environment, healing environment / Christopher Day, [forward by Susan Roaf].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Day, Christopher, 1942-

Contributor:

Roaf, Susan.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sustainable architecture.

Architecture--Environmental aspects.

Architecture.

Environmental psychology.

Physical Description:

xiv, 253 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Other Title:

Spirit and place.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; Boston, MA : Architectural Press, 2002.

Summary:

Built environment surrounds us for 90per cent of our lives but only now are we realizing its influence on the environment, our health, and how we think, feel and behave both individually and socially. Spirit & Place shows how to work towards a sustainable environment through socially inclusive processes of placemaking, and how to create places that are nourishing psychologically and physically, to soul and spirit as well as body. This book's unique arguments identify important, but often unrecognized, principles and illustrate their applicability in a wide range of situations, price-ranges and climates. It shows how to reconcile the apparently incompatible demands of environmental, economic and social sustainability; how to moderate climate to make places of delight, and realign social pressures so places both support society and maximize economic viability. Thought provoking and easy to understand, Christopher Day uses everyday examples to relate his theories to practice and our experience.

Contents:

Us and it 1

Part 1 Issues for the Twenty-First Century 3

1 Beneath the surface of today 5

Our world, our time, our opportunities 5

A new way for our time 5

The challenges of today 5

Problems and opportunities 7

Choice and consciousness 9

Beyond individualism: the journey from style to purpose 11

Human impact 15

Conscious reconnection 17

Elemental rebalancing 17

Process and life 19

From past to future 23

Old wisdom; new needs 23

Old limits; new consciousness 25

2 The elements of life 29

The nourishing elements 29

Rooting earth 33

Water for life 38

Fresh air 42

Nurturing warmth 51

3 Design in the context of life 77

Hidden costs 77

Costs beneath the surface 77

Freedom or environment or freedom and environment 85

Refinding visibility: re-establishing the circle 86

Sustainability versus affordability 88

Sustaining sustainability 89

Either-or or and-and-and 89

Ecological awareness 91

Climate-responsive design 93

Sustainability versus aesthetics 99

Part 2 People, Place and Process 109

4 Place and people 111

How environment works on us: unseen influences 111

Multi-level influence 111

Place and life, mood and individuality 113

Integrity: issues of truth 117

Objects or places: the form and space of our surroundings 120

Line, form, space and us 120

Polarities of life and consciousness 121

Place and territory: field and boundary 125

Form-giving principles 128

Outer forms: inner resonance 130

Living with traffic 134

Traffic and environment 134

Reducing traffic 136

At home in place: de-alienating environment 141

Connection with place-shaping processes 141

Scale: socially connecting or alienating 142

The substance of our surroundings 145

The speed of change 145

Anchoring roots in a global world 145

Reconnection with earth 146

Culturizing identity 147

5 Process-based design 151

Social inclusion: participatory design 151

Social process as a healing force 151

Design with, not for, people 151

Players, community and place 153

Consensus technique 153

What places say: subliminal messages 155

The subliminal language of place 155

Consensus design process 159

Organic development of place 162

Development: place-destroying or place-confirming? 162

Past and future 164

Organic design process 165

Growing places 167

Growth process 167

Growth nodes 167

Urban densification 172

Fitting in 174

Part 3 Building to Heal 179

6 Environment and health 181

Life, soul, spirit and place: multi-level health issues 181

Levels of being 181

The physical body 184

Life energy 186

Moods and feelings 186

Individuality 186

Wholeness and health 186

Building for health 187

Sick building avoidance 187

Precautionary practice 189

Material factors 190

Indoor air 190

Lighting 193

Electrical pollution 193

Ionizing radiation 197

Earth radiation 199

Healthy building 199

Daylight and health 200

Life-energizing surroundings 206

Soul, place and health 212

De-stressing 212

The senses: stimulus, stress and delight 214

Balance 218

Spirit nourishment 220

7 Healing by design 229

Healing environment: not just for the ill 229

Health, healing and our four levels of being 229

Illness and recovery: a journey 230

Physical surroundings 231

Enlivening surroundings 231

Surroundings to feed the soul 232

Places to nourish the spirit 234

Healing as process 235

Sanctifying the everyday 237

Refinding everyday sacredness 237

Design for the twenty-first century 238

Sacred and secular 239

A new beginning 243

It and us 243.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0750653590

OCLC:

49717290