“A place owes its character to the experiences it affords to those who spend time there— to the sights, sounds and indeed smells that constitute its specific ambience. And these in turn, depend on the kinds of activities in which its inhabitants engage. It is from this relational context of people’s engagement with the world, in the business of dwelling, that each place draws its unique significance. Thus with space, meanings are attached to the world, with the landscape they are gathered from it.”  (Tim Ingold)


The active presence of our environmental surroundings is fortifying and, without doubt, there is a special kind of magic born of the combination of atmospheric qualities that linger here in the Lowcountry. There are already ample descriptions of the smells, sounds, and sights unique to this place. Suffice it to say that beauty lurks around every corner of this landscape. This is not an abstract idea, it is the magic of real things in the world.

Architecture often addresses these qualities through place-making. This means designing spaces in relation to the specific qualities of a place—its natural patterns (wind, sun, climate, topography), its special ecology (forests, rivers, estuaries, marshes), as well as the history and traditions of its built environment (buildings, gardens, infrastructure, etc.). These are understood as the minimum set of values for designing-in-place. Commonly, these values are more or less adhered to in the process of designing a building. The expected results are architecture which is generally understood as a building. Inside of the architecture is the interior design and outside is the garden or landscape. This understanding commonly leads from well-intentioned beginnings to limited results—competent interiors within buildings inscribed by walls within their respective context. Such buildings are not bad, they may even be good in so much as they provide for the necessities of use, but they are limited by the exclusion of the subtlety and specificity available in the specific context.

Adopting a perspective which brings the landscape’s unique capacities to bear within the realm of architecture—not at its periphery but at its formative center—privileges the everyday experience of people through their direct involvement in the world and this place. This means understanding the landscape not as the ground which surrounds a building, but as the space in which a building comes fully into existence—incorporating the conditions specific to our experience of a place.

This simple reframing allows the specificities of the environment and its particular qualities to engulf the ‘interior’ within its atmosphere. What’s more is that these qualities are universal, that is to say outside of fashion and taste. They are direct and immediate in the way they refocus our senses, making us more present in the world. They are at the same time powerful and understated, pervasive and full of nuance. And, best of all, they are free. It may be that all is needed is a new set of conditions that helps amplify or draws one’s attention to them. It could be that these new conditions compliment what is already there or counterpose them. Whatever the strategy, the intent is toward the warming up of what is present.