To dwell in the house of god: The self-production and self-consumption of space

Contemporary architectural discourse often prioritizes material permanence and formal completion, overlooking how spatial meaning dynamically emerges through lived events. Challenging this paradigm, this study employs a tripartite hermeneutic/phenomenological methodology–visual deconstruction, mythological-historical criticism, and ethnographic hermeneutics – to argue that architectural space materializes through event-based “dwelling” rather than static structures. Analyzing four cases, we demonstrate how spaces self-produce through curated incompleteness, while ideological completion destroys their capacity to be dwelt in. Behzad’s Beggar at the Mosque Gate (1489) redefines sacred space through insurgent dwelling–by ignoring ablution rites and prayer times, the beggar exposes architecture as an existential negotiation rather than a ritual container. Conversely, the Tower of Babel’s geometrically perfected ziggurat precluded dwelling by reducing human agency to mechanical execution, while Constant’s New Babylon became “undwellable” through its frictionless abstraction, erasing resistance essential to lived space. The Great Mosque of Djenné, however, sanctifies imperfection via annual “crepissage”–a communal plastering ritual where decay and renewal coalesce, embodying Heidegger’s “fourfold” (earth, sky, mortals, divinities) through cyclical labor. Our findings reveal that spaces thrive as “mnemonic ecosystems” when embracing the Zeigarnik Effect: Djenné’s unfinished walls and Behzad’s open-ended visual narrative compel engagement, whereas Babel and New Babylon’s ideological completeness fossilizes meaning. This duality challenges contemporary preservation–United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s “mummification” severs Djenné’s “chain of memory,” while its ritual adaptation sustains resilience through collective “dwelling-in-decay.” We conclude that spatial vitality depends on “architecture as event,” where meaning arises through harmony with transience (mud, cracks, erosion), epistemic humility (resisting ideological finality), and embodied acts (plastering, transgressing, storytelling). For contemporary spatial production, Djenné’s model–spaces that “breathe, bleed, and are reborn”–offers an antidote to Western permanence fetishes: To dwell is to participate in imperfection; to build is to surrender to time. Future practice must cultivate “dwellable” spaces through events, not monuments.