First off, I would like to thank the profound work of David Deida, and my partner at Conscious Design Build, Hristiyan Atanasov, for inspiring this three part series.
The built landscape all around us has come into being through the power of human beings’ most defining aspect: conscious self-awareness, the awareness of being aware that allows us all to conceive of an idea, to plan its execution, and to carry out those plans. Every house, every street, every doorknob, every solar panel, every faucet in every sink ultimately has its origins in the mind of some individual. It is therefore imperative that we look at the mind directly in order to understand the outlooks that produce the built landscape we experience all around us. In human beings, the mind, not merely the intellect, but the big mind with all its wildly fantastic abilities and unopened doorways into as yet unknown places, is the seat of creativity.
In this three part series, we’ll be exploring the mind behind the designs, as well as the mind coordinating the hands of those who bring those designs to fruition. In understanding these three stages, we will be afforded a powerful window into our own minds, a window that when looked through with appreciation and humility can greatly improve the value and reach of our creations. My examples will come from the world of architecture, design, and construction. But you can apply these three stages to all aspects of life and to all expressions of creativity.
Conscious self-awareness, the awareness of being aware that allows the human organism to plan and carry out those plans, in other words, the awareness that makes designing and building even possible, can be divided into three basic stages 1) unconsciousness 2) self-consciousness and 3) consciousness. Today, we’ll begin exploring stage one, unconsciousness, focusing on the effects such an outlook has on the built landscape we inhabit and our creative endeavors in general.
Unconsciousness, also known as self-centeredness, is the lowest of the three stages. It is marked by an individual’s desire to fulfill their own needs no matter what, often at the expense of others. Unconsciousness has a wide range of expressions, from basic lack of information and ignorance on the one hand to outright maliciousness on the other. Unconsciousness abuses hierarchy, cowering to those they perceive to have more power than they do, exploiting those who have less. In any case, the buildings that result from unconscious designers and builders tend to be materialistic in nature, poorly conceived and lacking in connection with the greater community, including the natural landscape. They can either be built as cheaply as possible, such as an eye-sore strip mall, or, in other cases, be visually stunning, yet over the top in either their scale or their desire for attention, totally ignoring or callously rejecting the style of other buildings and the qualities of the surroundings. An example of this would be a Moroccan style desert palace plopped down on the mountaintop of a lush tropic landscape.
Next time we’ll explore the tricky world of the self-conscious individual and their failed attempts to make the world a better place. Until then, notice how unconsciousness plays itself out in your own life. Don’t be ashamed, we all do it to some extent.