Rethinking on “Taking Shelter”
Following the basic physiological needs of human beings such as eating, drinking and breathing, comes the need for shelter in order to sustain their lives safely. Shelter is a closed place where humans, who are more vulnerable than other living things in nature, take refuge to protect themselves from the effects of nature (1). It involves both protection and spatial settlement. Therefore, in the absence of these two components, one cannot speak of true shelter.
In this period when the majority of our country is faced with the problem of shelter, perhaps we need to rethink and talk about the concept of shelter.
Shelter Example in Nomadic Communities
In Old Turkish, shelter is derived from the concepts of "arriving" and "departing" (2). In this sense, for the Central Asian Turks, a nomadic community, the place of shelter is always a place to "arrive". Nevertheless, it refers to the proper organization of the place of arrival, in other words, a settlement that is sheltered and has borders, albeit temporary. Architecture comes into play here. Architecture, which refers to the organization of space in line with human needs, is a new cosmos created by humans within the cosmos (order) of nature.
The created order changes form, even though it serves the same purpose historically, accompanied by technical developments. Materials such as adobe, wood, steel, concrete are different manifestations of the technical development that enables the creation of a building (construction). All these provide the necessary construction for human beings who need to protect themselves from nature. In this respect, "how it is realized" is more important than the concept of construction itself. In other words, while construction is sufficient for the "settlement" involved in shelter, how the act of construction is realized becomes important for "protection". This is where (1) planning and (2) structural construction techniques come into play.
“While a doctor’s mistake may cost one human life, an engineer’s mistake may cause thousands of people to lose their lives.”
Today's housing problems are caused by many reasons such as insufficient attention to the measures taken against natural disasters, non-compliance with standards, non-compliance with the application techniques of the materials, and insufficient inspections (4). This situation points to "how" the construction is implemented and to a situation where the phenomenon of "shelter" no longer includes protection in the full sense of the word.
One of the factors that has pushed protection and "how" construction is implemented into the background when it comes to housing is the language of housing marketing as a discourse of housing. In many parts of the world, the language of housing marketing includes slogans that redefine urban life and claim to open the door to an environmentally friendly and happy life (5). The repetition and normalisation of such slogans makes it seem as if having the conditions we call "the good life" is a blessing rather than something that "should already be". Such an approach emphasizes the concept of housing by separating it from the necessities it should already contain.
Another issue that leads to a distinction in housing is the perceptual difference between the concepts of "dwelling" and "home". A space that is a dwelling for the builder is considered a home for those who live in it (6). The semantic distance between these two concepts, and the gradual reduction of housing to numerical values and various slogans of good living, sets the home, which involves human experience, apart from the basic components of the concept of shelter - inhabitation and protection.
According to Heidegger, the act of architecture should serve the Oneness of things (7). When the separation deepens, the measurable becomes more and more distant from the experienced (8). In this case, a house that can truly fulfill our need for shelter remains a destination (2) for us.
Written by: İlayda Köroğlu
(Architect & Editor)
Sources
https://www.ted.com/talks/ahmet_turer_medeniyet_muhendisligi?language=tr
Engin, V. (2022). Türkiye’de Uygulanan Yapı Denetim Sisteminin Sorunları İle İlgili Yaklaşımlar. Kent Akademisi, 15(4), 1575-1590.
Özkazanç Dinçer, B. (2020). Modern bir barınma sorunsalı: Dünyada ve Türkiye’de ev-olmayanlar.
Usta, Gülay. (2020). Mekân ve Yer Kavramlarinin Anlamsal Açıdan İrdelenmesi. Turkish Online Journal of Design Art and Communication, 10(1), 25-30.
Schatzki, Theodore R. (2007). Martin Heidegger: Theorist of Space. Steiner.
Masiero, R., Mimaride Estetik, çeviren Fırat Genç, s. 80, Dost Kitabevi Yayınları, Ankara, 2006