Genius Loci in the Space-Age

In Roman mythology a Genius loci was the protective spirit of a place. In contemporary usage, "genius loci" usually refers to a location's distinctive atmosphere, or a "spirit of place". The concept of "genius loci" has been discussed in modern architecture, but still is much underestimated. When it comes to extreme environment, the situation is even worse. The problem of sensory deprivation in extreme environments should even result in putting more emphasis on the concept of genius loci. An important part of the 'spirits' of a place are the environmental energies. In space habitats the 'Life Support System' becomes an intrinsic part of the 'atmosphere' of the habitat. On Earth, the use of these energies, not only to make buildings self-sufficient, should enhance the quality of the architecture and our built environment. Humans differently than the other entities of life on our planet are capable to force largescale devastative change on the environment. The need to save our environment for future generations is one of the greatest challenges that humankind must address today. Our buildings are essentially enclosures to protect us from the impact of weather and allow specific activities like residential, office, manufacturing, etc. to take place. Ecologically, a building is a high concentration of materials, manufactured often using non-renewable energy resources, from some distant place and transported to a particular location and assembled into a built form or an infrastructure whose subsequent operations create further environmental consequences. Environmental energies have actively or passively been used through all the building history. Technology today offers a range of energy converters such as solar collectors, photovoltaic cells, wind generators, biological recycling systems and more. Increasing ressource costs of the public infrastructure make the use of these decentralized systems more and more attractive for home owners. Our vision for future buildings is that they will 'live' on local ressources only, and even more help to improve the local environment in terms of air quality, water quality as well as aesthetical quality. The building should be one system within the natural environment, a “Genius Loci”. We believe that designs with limited ressources in extreme environments leads to a much higher respect of nature and the human being and thus is generating a strong drive to improve life on Earth. Genius Loci in the Space-Age Andreas Vogler/Arturo Vittori, www.architectureandvision.com 3