The Womb

T H E W O M B

“To look back to our past and the spaces of our collective beginnings as humans, is to look to the womb.”19

If we look back to our very beginnings, our genesis, we look to the space of the womb. An archetype to flourish, which all humans are with and within.

T H E W O M B

My previous research, Then, Now, Next: Rediscovering Future Design,20 explored the world and spaces in which we inhabit, design and coexist; spaces that are patriarchal, capitalist and consumer-centric, creating divisions and binaries amongst the local and global.

A space of inclusivity, the womb does not discriminate against sex, gender, race, religion, socio- economic or socio-political status. Rather, it provides a triadic space of function, coexistence and nourishment and at the core of their intersection relational experiences as depicted in the below image. As an archetype, the womb provides for the collective needs of all humanity and through reciprocity to individual needs of the fetus, as responsive engagement. In the initial collective nexus, the womb is a common spatial form that exists in between our conception and birth, despite and between our differences.

The significance, in light of the context of experiences of trauma (intergenerational and domestic violence) is that, “the womb must be acknowledged in order to reclaim its prominence in a metaphysical time, as the sphere of modernity, amongst the dis-ease of societal psychosis.”21 Placemaking, like the centric anchor of the womb, creates spaces to which we gravitate. Places which provide security and where our well being is optimised. Sources of truth. Places where we are accepted and what we know about ourselves forms part with and within our unconscious and conscious selves- a containment of knowing and unknowing. We are all formed and develop within a womb. We are born from a womb. The womb harnesses and preserves life.

As a conceptual persuasion for inclusive design, the womb focuses on experiences (over object) which nourish through reciprocal relationships and the purpose of space. Supported by the research of Kristen Myers and David Elad, in Biomechanics of the Human Uterus, 22 “the womb adapts to the demands of the developing human and is endogenous in nature. It provides an adaptable interior environment, responsive to the needs of the fetus, as well as providing protection through its biological and physiological forms.”23 It is an ecology that creates identity through sensory experiences, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA24), genomic imprinting25 and the socio-cultural lineage of parents- inherited experiences of memory, such as trauma and known as epigenetics.26

These fragments, relational experiences lived, inherited consciously and unconsciously, create our identities, yet in order to understand identity and flourish as an ecology, all must be anchored in relational experiences of knowledge and nourishment, known herein as, The Space In Between.

T H E S P A C E I N B E T W E E N

“To truly know ourselves, we must first know and celebrate each other, our humanity, our earth. To be with and within, we must focus on experiences of inclusion. Nourishment and coexistence, over the object, which defines and excludes. For, as we teeter together, on the edge of potentiality, as designers, from theory to practice, everything is possible, in The Space Between.”27

The Space In Between is one foregrounded in reciprocal relationships. It is the common or collective shared space of experience and engagement, between and with all matter. In architectural terms it establishes experiences of knowledge and nourishment, as opposed to the object, created through architectural responses to stakeholders (human and non human), as centric to responsible and sustainable design. Living systems make sense of the world through relationship and emotion and thus, as depicted by Mallgrave, “emotion becomes integral to perception and action,”28 a cognitive process which induces memory making and cognitive responses to place-making. In Indigenous cultures kinship and relationship to all, centres cultural traditions of story through songlines in the space in between now and then. In First Knowledges: Songlines, The Power and Promise, 29 Margo Neale states the significance of relational knowledge to Aboriginal identity. “Songlines are foundational to our being- to what we know, how we know it and when we know it.”30

The Space In Between reimagines opportunities for building a shared efficacy toward healing. It bridges the dis-ease, dis-stance and dis-connectedness between dualisms or binary oppositions, created through the western cannon of patriarchy, capitalism and marginalisation. It postulates the space between objects and moments in time and place, where experiences are created.

In this thesis design project, Women Healing Women, Healing Country draws on the convergence points of relationships in The Space In Between throughout the process. That is, the space of codesign with Mudgee Local Aboriginal Land Council (MLALC), between concept and program and the shared experiences of trauma experienced by women (Indigenous and non Indigenous). A space where understanding the commonalities of trauma and violence (scalable, e.g. domestic to national) allows for the development of connections in which individuals, families and communities are enveloped and can heal through relationships, Country and culture.

As living entities, we are relational beings. Creators of our stories, shared and personal. We are keepers of the moment, of moments and experiences which define us, which are with and within us. These experiences create knowledge which enable us to flourish. “We need to move from our insular defining spaces, to venture into our common space. To align the naturally mirrored and common ecologies of the womb and earth. To unite for the survival of life.”31

The Space In Between