Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects

by Glenn Adamson

As a culture we are in danger of falling out of touch, not only with objects, but with the intelligence they embody: the empathy that is bound up in tangible things.

If we divorce ourselves from the collective memory of a place, we alienate ourselves from our surroundings and from people alike, choosing isolation over group identity. The ancient Romans had a wonderful phrase to describe this: genius loci, the spirit of a place.