03/07/2024
This is what Notre-Dame meant to Quasimodo! Full disclosure; I haven’t read the Hunchback of Notre-Dame but I came across his words in an unusual book; The Poetics of Space, by Gaston Bachelard. In this, fourth chapter, he uses Quasimodo’s words to illustrate an analogy he's exploring, one that equates nests to places of human comfort and, in the broader book, the house, the home as a question of human being.
He was a discovery I'd made whilst working in real estate, remodelling buildings and houses in London for fresh uses. I became interested in the time that the team spent discussing how each space would be occupied, how we could encourage and discourage certain behaviours through our choices of layout and finishes. Bachelard explores spaces, the cellar, the garret, the nest and the shell as psychological arenas as well as physical structures - a home must meet certain physical priorities but it must meet so much more besides! To read the rest - or respond to this month's prompt follow the link in our bio.
