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BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND CONCEPTS OF TIME AND PERMANENCE

A. Kosina

Abstract

In societies with permanent settlements i.e. built environment, ideas about time and permanence are deeply present in form of an abstract one-dimensional temporal path in both directions: through the concept of past time and making the world of memories, and also of future time through making the world of aspirations and assumptions. This paper aims to address the question: did the formulation of the concept of time and permanence along with some other concepts set the stage for human cultures to enter into the art of building and transformation of their environments. Different cultures and periods with their conceptions of time and permanence are analysed and compared with the character of their built spaces. Analysis suggests that there is an incidence between lack of concept of time and lack of materiality of the culture and permanent built spaces. Cultures with linear and cyclical concepts of time and permanence do not have significantly different built structures in terms of their durability and monumentalisation. The conclusion is that concepts of time and permanence in terms of individual, culture, and environment induce the emergence and transformations of built environments and vice versa. They form a system through the tendency of individual, group or whole community to find an existential foothold which will secure their permanence.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2017/52/S19.008

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