267 We don’t usually have to interpret our own habits in everyday life. But we need to understand the objects and traditions of other cultures in order to be able to accept others besides ourselves. By looking more closely at the differences between various civilisations, we can also come closer to a deeper understanding of ourselves. A building’s individual structural and formal logic is not a coincidence. It reflects an important essence of human culture. Because culture is nothing more than a method of preserving and accumulating practical knowledge acquired through time and space. Man is sensual by nature. Culture is a set of signs and reminders created by society to help retain, use and develop the knowledge that has already been acquired. It is a practice designed to improve the survival of the physical world and human communities of various sizes that inhabit it, by giving an impressive appearance to what is in fact a rational and pragmatic content. Content is not only a different form of knowledge of a given scale, but also something ever-expanding, not static or circumscribed in its appearance and extent. The “packaging” is mystical, yet transparent to those initiated, but can also become so to anyone seriously interested. This duality is expressed in the design of the building. The functional, and therefore rational in its complexity, internal spatial structure appears under a sensually organic external shell. Behind the symbolism is the necessary orderliness of human existence, but also the free-flowing emotional nature of the human being, receptive to beauty.
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