Places, Spaces, Meaning – Experienced by Three Australian Walks

Abstract

In an often cited passage, the philosopher M. Merleau-Ponty expresses how, when gazing at the lawn outside a window, one can experience that exterior view as part of the experience of being surrounded by an architectural space. Phenomenology explains how separate spaces might appear one.

In this essay a series of sites will be explored, from the Australian desert, to the coastline of New South Wales, experienced during a journey through Australia, not only a country, but a whole continent. …….By analyzing the monumental volume experienced at Uluru, the desert Cathedral, the encompassing void of Kings Canyon and the flat openness of the coastline it is possible to analyze how humankind depends upon landscapes, inhabiting sites of specific environmental conditions.