Mindfulwalker.com interviewed Sweeney about what the architect sees as the interconnection of architecture and spirituality, her view that architecture is a calling and carries much responsibility, and how she is teaching the next generation of architects about sustainability and care for our planet.<\/p>\n
Mindful Walker:<\/em> You have written that \u201cthere is a spiritual link between the realm of built and natural environment,\u201d basically between what we build and nature. What do you see as the link?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney:<\/em><\/strong> This link is just something that\u2019s intrinsic. We as humans inhabit Earth and we build structures because that\u2019s our shelter, that\u2019s our places of work, that\u2019s our commerce. We need these structures to support our lives. We both live on Earth and we build these structures that inhabit Earth, and so in a way I feel that there\u2019s this triangle of human, structure, and Earth.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a link between all of that because what we build is an expression of us. It\u2019s an expression of us socially, it\u2019s an expression of us culturally, and it\u2019s an expression of who we are, how we feel, and how we view ourselves. That\u2019s what I\u2019m talking about overall. It\u2019s the link between humanity and the built and natural environment.<\/p>\n It\u2019s spiritual because I truly believe that, regardless of your religious leanings if you have that \u2013 religion is really just the way you choose to express spirituality. There are so many ways we can all express our spiritual selves. We are spiritual beings \u2013 the Earth is a very spiritual thing itself.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve done some looking into Celtic Christianity<\/a> and paganism<\/a>. Celtic Christianity is this melding of pagan traditions and Christian traditions. Pagan traditions were very much focused on Earth, that connection that we all fall into these rhythms of the Earth, and they define us \u2013 the sun, the moon, the growing seasons, the seasons in general. All of these things are linked together.<\/p>\n There is a lot in the Bible that links Earth and humans and structure. There are passages about building, about the growing season, and about the connection between these things. The spiritual link is because buildings are where we live, where we work \u2013 and you can see those as also spiritual expressions of ourselves. Then they sit on earth and are grounded in earth. They have foundations that are a part of Earth, and so they are very spiritually linked as well.<\/p>\n Every time we start to build a building, whether it\u2019s going into virgin ground or ground that\u2019s been built on before, to me building is a very profound thing because if you\u2019re going out there with a shovel or a backhoe, you are now digging into the Earth and putting that building into the Earth.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a very deep connection between humans, Earth, and buildings, but I don\u2019t think we connect that. I think we separate it: It\u2019s like there\u2019s humans and Earth, and then there are buildings. Buildings are just places we live in, or work at, but they don\u2019t really mean anything. There\u2019s something very strong that we\u2019re missing. Overall, we\u2019re missing that link.<\/p>\n Mindful Walker:<\/span><\/em><\/strong> In your schooling and training to become an architect, what had the biggest impact on you \u2013 became a turning point, if you will \u2013 in seeing architecture on a more spiritual level?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney:<\/em><\/strong> It was my senior year at Miami University in Ohio, from 1990 to 1991. Miami University of Ohio was part of a consortium with Virginia Tech, and it was a consortium of six schools. We could all send a few students from the class to study at Virginia Tech\u2019s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center<\/a> for a semester. The semester that I spent there I ended up designing a Buddhist monastery for my project. We actually were able to choose our project. We could do whatever we wanted so I decided to do a Buddhist monastery.<\/p>\n I chose this site out in Rock Creek Park, a huge site that was a couple of acres of land. It was in a ravine. I started to look at Japanese architecture. I studied Buddhism. I wasn\u2019t going to church at that point but I was still always very on to the ritual. There was something about the ritual, like how that connected you spiritually to God. I tried meditation and things like that. The project became this Buddhist monastery with a meditation path, and the monks lived in these cells that were off the meditation path.<\/p>\n The meditation path was very structured, where the monks\u2019 cells were, where the eating area was, the refectory, places like that. Then this path was a loop that went around on the site, and it looped around the ravine. And it changed: The walkway was all out of concrete but that sort of dissolved into the earth, and then you were walking on bare earth. Then as you came back, it started to reconfigure till you were back on a concrete walkway, more the formal part of the monastery.<\/p>\n That really impacted me. Near the end of the semester it was clear that I was really thriving there much more than I was when I was at Miami. I ended up staying for the entire year. The professor I was working with most on this project at the time, a Virginia Tech professor named Greg Hunt, was the one who really pushed me to start thinking about things in a different way.<\/p>\n Mindful Walker:<\/em> How did it become spiritual per se? <\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney:<\/em><\/strong> It became spiritual because I started to think differently about materials. How is it when you\u2019re walking on a material? How does it feel under your feet? <\/span>How does the experience feel of being on this path, and how it disintegrates into nothing and then reconfigures itself into something? But being \u201cnothing,\u201d it really isn\u2019t \u201cnothing\u201d because you are on earth and you are of earth. And with the structures: How did you filter light in so that you are connected with light, and how did you use the shadows and the light to create experience for the person?<\/p>\n As I learned more about (architect) Louis Kahn<\/a>, he talked about things like silence and light and materials \u2013 his whole thing about \u201cI ask the brick what you want to be. Do you want to be an arch? Well, you know, I could span this opening with a concrete lintel. What do you think about that?\u201d \u201cWell, I like an arch.\u201d It\u2019s the honesty of the materials and things like that. That was definitely the turning point.<\/p>\n Mindful Walker:<\/em> In your writings you\u2019ve said that being an architect is a calling. How do you see being an architect as a calling?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney:<\/em><\/strong> I say that but I don\u2019t know if I ever understood what a calling meant. I was listening to Krista Tippett\u2019s Speaking of Faith<\/a> <\/em>on the way to church about two months ago, and there was a man on the air who was talking about a calling and what a calling is. It was something to the effect of: A calling is something that basically you could not see yourself doing anything else, and at the same time the world could not be without what you are doing. That is what a calling is.<\/p>\n That is exactly what it is. I could not see doing anything else. I think I am still in this eternal struggle to find out what is the true meaning of this calling that I say being an architect is because being an architect can also be very mundane. You get into the cost issues. \u201cThis is over budget. This is too much money. I don\u2019t want to do this.\u201d And you end up going through the motions of just getting the building built. <\/span><\/p>\n But it\u2019s this deeper thing of the architect has a huge responsibility with respect to the creation of the built environment. We\u2019re the ones who are manifesting what we as a society and a culture \u2013 what we\u2019re feeling and thinking about architecture \u2013 into that final built form.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t feel that as a whole we\u2019re doing a very good job in terms of architecture. There is a lot of architecture that is absolute crap. There\u2019s a lot of architecture where I don\u2019t feel that [architects are] living up to their responsibility. I know that\u2019s probably a very arrogant thing to say but that\u2019s how I feel.<\/p>\n At the same time, it might be the same boat that I\u2019m in, so I don\u2019t want to pass judgment on any architect because I have to look at the body of my work, and it\u2019s not like I am out there doing all these amazing things either. So we might all be in this struggle.<\/p>\n Mindful Walker:<\/em> It\u2019s very much seeking a balance, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s that balance of ideal and reality. But if you look at the life of your work, hopefully you begin to see a theme emerging of having done that. Slowly, it\u2019s true, but it\u2019s lifelong.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney:<\/em><\/strong> That is part of what a calling is. It\u2019s not like, \u201cHere\u2019s your calling!\u201d And you\u2019re like, \u201cGot it.\u201d And you\u2019re 22 and you just go. <\/span>You might be 80 and finally you\u2019ve honed it.<\/p>\n Mindful Walker:<\/em> You center your life\u2019s work on sustainable building design and practices, and environmental stewardship, which is taking care of the Earth. Could you tell me about a particular day\u2019s work and how it relates to your spiritual commitment to the Earth and to the built and natural environments?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney:<\/em><\/strong> There\u2019s really no typical day, especially being a small-business owner. I\u2019ll give you the idea of a typical day, and I have those every once in a while, where you\u2019re meeting with a client or a potential client, and you give them the sustainable potential of their building. Yesterday, I was having lunch with somebody with respect to a project, working with this architecture firm. I brought in what are they doing about the storm management and what are they doing about light? It\u2019s a lot of these other attributes. It\u2019s not necessarily talking about the spiritual links directly. It\u2019s very indirect.<\/p>\n It\u2019s striving for that balance between understanding that there\u2019s this budget but also wanting to push people to think about things in a different way. Later in the day I was meeting with somebody about another project. It was actually a LEED consulting job, and we were focusing on the LEED checklist. (Note: The LEED program defines benchmarks to rate the level of environmental sustainability in the design and construction of a building. It encompasses five areas of environmental and human health: energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, materials and resources selection, sustainable site development, and water savings.) We were going through the checklist and looking at the credits. Where are you with this credit? What else could you possibly be doing?<\/p>\n LEED isn\u2019t the end-all, be-all of sustainability. It\u2019s a good guide for helping in the transition from building conventionally, which is much more focused on first costs and not really building, to building with more attention in mind, more commitment.<\/p>\n Also, I love to learn. I probably spend at least an hour a day just researching something. Something pops into my head that I want to learn more about. There\u2019s something building science-related, or something spiritual-related. I teach part-time, too, as an adjunct. I am always refining my lectures. I want to make them a little better and update them with new information.<\/p>\n Mindful Walker:<\/em> How does your teaching and learning relate to your spiritual commitment?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney:<\/em><\/strong> The teaching helps me to formulate these thoughts and ideas. It\u2019s allowing me to actually present it to a new generation of architects, that hopefully I can have them think mindfully about things. I\u2019m very clear about when I am saying certain things. [For example], sand, water, and aggregate go into concrete. I mean that\u2019s a fact. But when I talk about some of the other things I\u2019m very mindful that this is my opinion but I want you all to think about this, to keep yourself open, do your own research, and form your own opinion.<\/p>\n I teach one class at Philadelphia University<\/a>, a two-part required course, called Tech I and Tech 2. It\u2019s a building systems and materials class. We bring in sustainability in the second semester, in terms of materials and sustainable sites, and being more mindful.<\/p>\n I like to be very careful about how I teach all of that. I do want them to form their own opinions. I don\u2019t like to go in there and say \u201cYou guys have to do this because the climate is changing and we\u2019re all doomed.\u201d I can\u2019t stand that. I\u2019d rather go in there and say, \u201cSome people think the climate is changing and it\u2019s humans, and some people think it\u2019s not. I would encourage you to do your research and don\u2019t just listen to one person or one voice. Don\u2019t just listen to Al Gore. Do your homework. Do the research on both sides of the coin and come up with your own opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n But you should also figure out what does sustainability mean to you? What does it mean in terms of building?<\/p>\n Mindful Walker:<\/em> To my way of thinking and others \u2013 and this is an opinion \u2013 humans construct many buildings with the short term in mind, not for the long term. You\u2019ve written about longevity. Is this kind of building, with the thought of the short term in mind, part of the disconnection between buildings and the Earth? How does longevity matter with regard to the environment?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney:<\/em><\/strong> Definitely \u2013 because we\u2019re so focused on costs and pro formas that \u201cthis is what the building is going to cost. I know what the building is going to cost so I can\u2019t vary from this because this is what my bottom-line profit margin is going to be, and that\u2019s it.\u201d We\u2019re definitely building with the more short term in mind and not the long term. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re building [that way]. Energy efficiency, durability of materials, and mindfulness of the site we\u2019re building on \u2013 that\u2019s sustainable building.<\/p>\n You go in and you say here\u2019s this site. How can we be mindful? You don\u2019t have to do really crazy things. You just need to be mindful of how you site the building, where you site the building, and of how you handle the stormwater. Trees \u2013 trees are really good. People like trees. It\u2019s just simple things, like the materials that you choose.<\/p>\n It seems funny that we\u2019re so focused on cutting cost and building to a certain amount per square foot that we\u2019re building with crappy materials. Then the people who are constructing the buildings aren\u2019t getting paid enough. The craftsmanship is gone. It gives you a sense of it not being a very good building.<\/p>\n The maintenance isn\u2019t done on the building, and it just starts to deteriorate. Problems start to develop. Water leaks or air leaks start. All kinds of things happen that cause the building to be less efficient. Again, because we\u2019re building with less efficiency in mind, the mindset is \u201cwhy do I have to take the drywall to the other side of the deck? I\u2019ll just take the drywall to above the drop ceiling and I\u2019m done.\u201d Well, now you\u2019ve just decreased the efficiency of your building incredibly because you don\u2019t have an effective air barrier throughout the building. The mechanical system now has to work harder to heat and cool that building.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a threefold thing of mindfulness about the site, the materials, and the efficiency of the building. But you know we\u2019re not thinking about that \u2013 we\u2019re thinking about the bottom-line dollar.<\/p>\n Again, we\u2019re not thinking of these buildings as being expressions of ourselves in terms of humans. They\u2019re disconnected from us. It\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m a spiritual being, but that\u2019s just a building.\u201d Think about your house. The house is the best place to think about the connection of a person to a building. Most people have very, very strong connections to their homes. That\u2019s where you start to see that spiritual link.<\/p>\n Mindful Walker:<\/em> Do you have a favorite example or two of great architecture that is both beautiful and reflects this kind of care of the Earth\u2019s natural environment?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney: <\/em><\/strong>I can\u2019t pull one or two things out. It\u2019s more that it\u2019s this overarching idea about buildings. Some people might disagree with me, but I think that (Louis) Kahn was one of the architects who was getting to the core of that spiritual connection. The Salk Institute<\/a> in San Diego is beautiful.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t really been to Kahn\u2019s buildings in India [and Bangladesh but I would cite] his buildings there, especially because of the way he used materials. He really expressed the brick and how the brick was used as a material. They are these incredibly durable buildings, and I think they are very adaptable buildings. You talk to people who have been there, they really love the buildings. There\u2019s a feeling there, something about the place that\u2019s just wonderful.<\/p>\n Carlo Scarpa<\/a> is another architect. I can\u2019t think of any specific building, but just the way that he thought about the experience people were going to have and the experience that the architecture was going to give you and vice versa.<\/p>\n Another one \u2013 I\u2019m giving more architects that are hitting the experience \u2013 is Tadao Ando<\/a>. He built a lot in concrete. There\u2019s honesty in the materials. He used concrete and he just used concrete. It was \u201cthis is concrete, and I\u2019m going to make it beautiful. And I can do what I want with it.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s another, E. Fay Jones<\/a>, who worked a lot in wood. One of his projects is this chapel, Thorncrown Chapel<\/a>, built in the woods in Arkansas. It\u2019s just absolutely magnificent. I\u2019ve never seen it except in pictures, but it\u2019s all of wood frame. He really understood the materials. There\u2019s something to that \u2013 understanding of materials and this honesty of materials, and using them mindfully to create these beautiful spaces that impact us as humans.<\/p>\n
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