The village of Tiébélé lies in the south of Burkina Faso,
near Ghana. It’s a small village, with a land area of only 1.2 hectares, but
also an important one because the residents are the royal members of the
Kassena people, one of the oldest ethnic groups in Burkina Faso. It is a very
difficult place to get to because the Kassena people wish to remain isolated
from outside influences and preserve their own buildings and traditions. They
believe modernity is a threat to their culture, and so prefer to keep to
themselves as much as they can and limit their visitors. It takes a long
process of negotiations to be admitted into the village.
"Space has no room, time not a moment for man. He is
excluded.
In order to 'include' him — help his homecoming — he must be gathered
into their meaning (man is both the subject and object of architecture).
Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more.
For space in the image of man is place and time in the image
of man is occasion.
Today space and what it should coincide with in order to
become 'space' — man at home with himself — are lost.
Both search for the same
place, but cannot find it.
Provide that place."
"Is man able to penetrate the materials he organises into
hard shape between one man and another, between what is here and what is there,
between this and the following moment?
Is he able to find the right place for
the right occasion? is he permitted to tarry?
No. So start with this: make a welcome of each door, and a countenance of each window.
Make of each a place, a bunch of places of each house and each city, for a house is a tiny city, a city a huge house.
Get closer to the centre of human reality and build its counterform — for each man and all men (today the architect is the ally of everyman or no man).
Whoever attempts to solve the riddle of space in the abstract will construct the outline of emptiness and call it space.
Whoever attempts to meet man in the abstract will speak with his echo and call this a dialogue.
Man still breathes both in and out, when is architecture going to do the same?
When it does watch the thin lines — those narrow borderlines — loop into the places people need; watch how they are persuaded to loop generously into a tiny-huge.
Inbetween realm
It is with this in mind that i venture to call architecture
built homecoming"
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As soon as the equilibrating impact of the Inbetween Realm (extended so that it coincides with the bunch of places both house and city should be) manifests itself in a comprehensibly articulated configuration, the chances that the terrifying polarities which hitherto have harrassed man's right composure may still be reconciled will certainly be greater.
It is still a question of twin phenomena, a question of
providing the inbetween places where they can be encountered, readily
mitigating psychic strain."
"Tree is leaf and leaf is tree- house is city and city
is house - a tree is a tree but it is also a huge leaf - a leaf is leaf, but it
is also a tiny tree - a city is not a city unless it is also a huge house - a
house is a house only if it is also a tiny city"
All the qotes come from
by A. VAN EYCK
Visit also: The city as playground - A. Van Eyck
Many thanks to Laura Scarpa for making me descover this magical place and architecture
Beautiful images here
