Religion as a model for sustainability

Im currently in Kockerill's Religion, Sustainability, and Spirituality class and so this idea is a spin off of some of the discourse going on in that class. Luckily for my particular concentration this class near perfectly condenses my course of study. So I was thinking about looking at Religion as a model for sustainability in particular regards and with specific consideration of Religious aspects which harness spirituality or utilize spirituality to institutionalize norms, religious memes, perceptions and understandings, and world-view or outlook.

Architecture as a medium

I have been thinking a lot more about this and since my main reasoning for changing majors was because I felt a severe lack of personalization for sustainable techniques in reference to spirituality. I believe that spirituality can provide the fundamental understanding of the world necessary for its ultimate praise, so I wanted to focus this piece more towards how architecture can be used to re-instill or instill personal, spiritual connections to the world. Im still having a little trouble really focusing what I am trying to say and unfortunately as the topic unfolds before me I keep discovering new avenues for new thoughts and ideas some better than I have previously found and inevitably I lose sight of my ultimate goal and original idea.

Influences on my concentration

I took some time to think about this before posting it so im sorry for the delay but I think the most relevant things I have read have been:

The Senses Still
The Social Construction of Reality
The Chaos of the Disciplines
The Blackwinged Night
Animism
Mycellium Running
Music
Chess
I have read a lot of anthropological studies particularly those regarding issues of praxis and epistemology by people like, Rabinow, Eagleton, Geertz, etc.

Project Ideas

When I first came to App I was attracted to the Sustainable Development department but after spending some time there I came to realize that it was lacking something. What I felt was that it was that it provided a great base understanding of the social and environmental aspect required for sustainable living but it adamantly disregarded culture, religion, and spiritual awareness which I believed key to getting anyone to adhere to any sustainable principle. So I went searching for something more, particularly something more fundamental. What was it about our lives that keeps us from admiring the wonder that is the natural world? What things could we do to restore that?

So I transfered to the IDS department. Much of my course work has focused on institutionalization and the social constructions of the world. One particular interest of study for me was medium and its influences in our lives. Mediums are all around us and discipline our bodies.

This led me to my first idea which is a discussion of architecture as a medium. I would be focusing on sustainable homes in contrast to modern/ conventional housing. I believe that one way to a sustainable future is to build sustainable homes which maintain a constant and reifying relationships with the natural world in their very design in the hopes that these lifestyle choices and behaviors would follow the owner into the world. We have all but weened the natural world from our homes. Vynal siding and linoleum flooring allow for the "cookie cutter" aesthetic we have all been looking for right? Design and flow of a house change the way in which it gets used. As well as its materials change personal perceptions. Natural materials require one to realize that the world outside is responsible for creating the world inside, which shelters us from the cold and the wet and provides us a space to live happily and harmoniously.

Concentration Explaination

I am a self designed IDS major focusing on Sustainable Development, Anthropology, and Religion in specific regards to spirituality. After being in the SD program for awhile I recognized a need for a return of those priciples to a humanitarian based application program rather than a focus on economic prosperity and growth. furthermore I realized that personal subjugations to social influences have created a distancing gap between our personage and nature. This gap which I believe is mostly a spiritual one, is not an outright discource in religion, sustainable development, or anthropology and so it was through the intersections of these subjects that I hoped to piece together where our spiritual connections with the world have gone and why in an attempt to bring them back to light and crate a civil space where such conversations about spirituality can blossom.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog everybody!

Hey everybody. Can't wait to see what we all come up with as topics for our capstone projects