Marsha van Buitenen Concept Developer
What does the built environment do for you? Do you notice it, or is it perhaps just there? For me the built environment facilitates ‘just being’. It does not impose on you, it does not direct you and it lets you be whoever you are. It facilitates your life and makes you feel comfortable. Far too often people feel out of place. My wish is to create places that have a positive impact on your everyday life. It helps you lead your life the way you want to and perhaps it even helps you make it that little bit better. Contradictions are what my international life has brought me. It has given me a better understanding of people and more respect for the differences we have. But it has also given much frustration. By mixing and taking something from different cultures you end up with an unusual mixture that doesn’t really fit anywhere. Being very Dutch and speaking your mind, sometimes bluntly, or being treated as a secondary person only because you are a woman, has made me want to prove myself so much more. Having a lack of respect for authority ‘because it is authority’, whilst still believing in a respectable distance in relationships. Contradictions keep on turning up. The feeling of not belonging, of not fitting, is sometimes difficult. I am not fully (culturally) Dutch, nor am I a foreigner. My building passion for creating spaces that will let you ‘just be’ is related to this, creating that sense of belonging.
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