The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
—Maya Angelou
What you will learn
Shelter Protects us from Danger
The Types of Shelter
The Many Benefits of Shelter
Shelter is the Original #SafeSpace
Shelter keeps us safe. What do we need to shield ourselves from? The natural elements — Wind, Rain, Sun, Heat, & Cold — and predators — Lions, and Tigers, and Bears. ( oh my! )
Safety is a good thing. When we are safe, we can plan & save for the future. Shelter ensures our needs are met. When our needs are met, we develop and fulfill our wants.
Needs are, well, necessary; think survival. We need to eat. We need to breathe. We need to sleep. You get the point. Surviving is great. But, we are humans. We do so much more than surviving. We sing, we dance, we invent!!!
Safety is GOOD!
Our wants are what make us human. We want to socialize, we want families, we want grandchildren. We want culture, knowledge, sport, games, religion, etc. We cannot satisfy our wants if we are not safe; shelter is a prerequisite for human flourishing.
Home is a shelter from storms — all sorts of storms.
—William J. Bennett
Kinds of shelter
Let us define the types of shelter. Even though humans are pretty much the coolest species, many animals have their own shelter. Bears dwell in caves. Birds make nests. Bees build hives.
Humans make homes. Homes are distinct from shelter. ( that’s what the next post is really about, shh!! )
Okay, back to the types of shelter. There are TWO:
Found shelter
Built Shelter
Found Shelter
The best example of found shelter is: THE CAVE!
Cave Shelter
Bears live in caves. So do troglodytes, dwarves and cavemen. Caves function great as cover from the weather. No rain in the cave. Temperature in a cave is modulated — if it’s hot outside, it’s cooler in the cave; if it’s cold outside, it’s warmer in the cave. Why don’t we still live in caves? Well, because bears live there too.
Caves are great at sheltering us from the weather, but fall short in protecting us from predators. Bears, snakes, big cats, these things like caves as well and caves are naturally dark places. Not a great recipe.
Treetop Shelter
Our primate friends make nests in trees as a means of shelter. Technically, this shelter is both found & made. Each night an orangutan ( or other primate ) will quickly make his or her treetop nest with branches sourced nearby.
This is good shelter from animals. Not great for weather. Most predators will not want to climb up a tree to get their next meal. However, the cover of a tree does not protect us from the elements well.
This type of shelter is made fast, in about 10 minutes. So, each new day a new nest is made — handy if you’re on the go.
Built Shelter
This is where the magic is: building things!
Nomadic People
Groups of humans that do not settle in one place are nomads. Nomads require shelter. And the two kinds of shelter they utilize are: Deployable vs. In-Place
Deployable
A deployable structure is one that you can pack up, take with you, and then re-deploy in a new location — think TeePees.
A teepee consists of a frame and a cover. The frame is typically made with straight members of wood. The covering is commonly made from animal skins.
In-Place
A mud/stone hut is a great example of in-place shelter. In-place people stay put. And so, too, does their shelter.
The walls are either made of stones or mud. Stones would be sourced nearby and stacked. Earth or mud would be dug up, moisture added to it, and then formed into a wall.
The roof is most commonly made of thatch. Thatch consists of dry vegetation — reeds, sedges, straw — whatever’s nearby works.
The Benefits of Shelter
Shelter is the original #SafeSpace.
I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.
—Gaston Bachelard
Shelter gives us safety. Safety & security in the present moment frees up our attention, shifting our focus from surviving one day at a time toward planning for future survival. Anticipation, preparation, & ingenuity gave humans incredible adaptive potential — making survival easier and easier. Meeting our survival needs meant that we could desire, want, and dream. This is a great thing. In this way, Shelter is an incubator for technology. And technology is humanity’s saving grace.
Shelter is
A place for fire. A place to carve stone tools. A place to sing. A place to dance. A place to tell stories.
Shelter is an incubator for technology.
There’s the hardware side of technology, think Tools & Toolmaking.
Some of the highest-leverage material technologies are: Fire, the Wheel, stone tools, and metal tools.
Our shelters provided us a #SafeSpace to dream up new technologies. In fact, shelter is almost always centers upon the heart. Safety gave humankind a place to keep fires.
Fire meant survival. Cooking. Warding off predators. Lighting our way.
On the software side, once again fire plays a central role. The advancement of social culture took place across thousands of years around the fire. Dancing, cooking, singing, eating — celebration!
Would we have fire or the wheel without shelter?
What you learned
Shelter Protects us from Danger
The Types of Shelter
The Benefits of Shelter
What’s Next?!
Next month’s post is all about what distinguishes a Home from a Shelter.
Draw Something!
Saying something like, “I can’t draw.” is lame.
Shift that fixed mindset to: “I don’t practice drawing. Like any other skill, if I draw more, I will improve.”
Today, we are drawing: A GOTHIC ARCH
Refurbish Your Feed!
You become what you give your attention to. If you do not choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will.
Remember, you absorb anything within your field of attention. This is where we intentionally remove #FearPorn from our timelines. Replace the negativity ( limbic hijacking ) with positivity.
I implore you to add BEAUTY to your social media feeds.
My first recommended follow is: @WrathOfGnon
I encourage you to add @WrathOfGnon to your feed. You will learn how the building traditions of our past shaped the world we inhabit today.
Did you like this post? Share it to a friend of yours! If your mind is churning, drop a comment below.
I want to hear from you.
This is more than a newsletter, it is a dialogue. Tell your friends about GIMME SHELTER. Ask me questions about architecture. Send me feedback!
You can find me in many corners of the internet. But, please seek me out on the magnificent, digital plaza that we call, Twitter: @buckthundaz
Be curious,
Michael