Architecture LIVE 6
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| The internet signal, beamed from nearby Sheemore, arrives on the back of good weather. Suddenly we are reconnected with the outside world with enough speed to Skype across the globe. Outside, the fields are crammed with buttercups. Dreamy light bathes everything in timelesness. |
| The site receives a makeover ahead of the planned Eco Living Tour. It responds well, showing off its beauty in the glorious sunshine. Meanwhile the moon builds towards the full and we speculate as to likely attendance numbers. |
| This is impossible to determine, though scattered reports arrive by email or phone from all over the country indicating interest. Still without a vehicle, we direct operations from the cabin via the internet. |
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| The festival suddenly catches us in its embrace. Plans unfold and people arrive. Talks proceed and demonstrations begin. Before I know it a busload of participants are heading towards Siog with several cars in tow. People troop into the cabin and out onto the deck, circumnavigate the ponds and survey the compost heaps. |
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| Back at the Community Resource Centre the mood is positive and music enlivens proceedings. Connections are made and promises declared. Even the building seems to be enjoying itself. One speaker reveals a fascinating strategy to stimulate rural dvelopment – the restoration of natural woodlands. At first this seems naive until further examination reveals the power of the idea. |
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| Woodlands can provide for all our needs – fuel, food, employment, leisure and most important of all, a deep connection to nature. Woodlands are the natural landscape of Ireland and their elimination also led to the erosion of a clear sense of national identity. |
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| This insight is reinforced by the arrival of the timber for the roof. Suddenly the festival is behind and the completion of the EconoSpace is what lies ahead. This infects my dreams and my waking, exerting a constant weight on my thoughts and actions. |
| I organise my tools and supplies blessing the auspicious weather conditions and the hopes which are to be carried forward on this rising tide. The frame stands like a sentinel on the land which has taken on a new appearance from what it had on my first arrival. I see it all anew, as if I am seeing myself portrayed in its development. |
| Such thoughts provide a quite refrain to the physical work on the roof. The frame responds to this attention like a neglected lover rediscovered. Aloft on the gantry I have my head in the clouds. Purlins are lined up and secured, the small generator hums in the ground and my neighbour saves hay while the sun shines. |
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| The act of enclosing draws a quiet distinction between inside and outside, between dream and reality. We have to experience this in order to be enveloped in its magic. It is as if we are making ourselves, carving out of nothingness a place to be. |
| It is the nature of this being that puzzles so many. We have drifted from abstraction into the material world which clings to us like a rejected lover. We plant our feet firmly on the ground rather than drift aloft and enjoy the view from a new perspective, craft the future to imitate today’s reality. This can only end in tears and heartache. Life wants something more from us and we something more from it. This was evident from the weekend festivities with people revelling in our version of daily life. |
| So, what’s stopping this happening, why the hesitation, the wait and see? Fear is the key. Fear of failure. Fear of what other people think. Fear of survival. Fear of ridicule. Fear of rejection. Fear of being different. Fear for our childrens future. Fear of getting it wrong. Fear of being left out. |
| When fear sets the agenda the world freezes over and we go into suspended animation waiting for the thaw, waiting for better times, waiting for a lovers touch to draw us into it’s embrace. Meanwhile, life moves on and with it opportunity and freedom. |
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