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Words:
Eleanor Young

Primitive moments and our atavistic tendencies

Peter Salter's Walmer Yard
Peter Salter's Walmer Yard

‘It was like being back in the womb.’ These primitive moments from the cave and the yurt – and occasionally something more modern – bring the atavistic tendency in the modern mind to the fore. Their power is unrelated to conservation or historic value. There is no nostalgia but an imprinted urge. The world outside becomes just a blur of shapes. It is about an imagined – or possibly remembered – singular experience of space, of warmth, safety and refuge. Surely the best thing architects can give their fellow man in this transient and dangerous world.

 

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