references

Juhani Pallasma

“The Eyes of the skin”
“Hapticity and time”
"Questions of Perception"

Steven Holl
“Parallax”

Merleau Ponty
“The Phenomenology of perception”

Peter Zumthor
“Thinking Architecture”
“Atmospheres”

*Italicized works have yet to be read

What is it about phenomenology that interests me?
How do I see phenomenology in architecture or the built environment?
What arguments can I make?

The fundamental flaw/issue for me in contemporary architecture is its inability to connect to the human body. Questions of scale may be addressed however, things like the interaction between person and building never move beyond the simple turn of a door handle and even that is not usually premeditated by the architect. It’s most often simply a matter of cost and/or aesthetic. Little thought is given to function, touch and the action thereof.

I want to explore the possibility of an architecture that fully engages the body and mind. I find it ironic that LeCorbusier coined the term “a machine for living” when speaking about a home considering his early work was so sterile and gave little thought to the sensory experience of the body. This is when I believe it became apparent that his early work was not where he intended it to be allowing him to move on to true machines for living such as the monastery at La Tourette. The greatest difference between the two being that once he fully understood the spirituality of the human body, he was able to understand human beings as more than just a proportioning system. A true machine for living complements the human body and forces a reaction from it and in some cases reacts to it.

I hope to understand further the phenomenology of the body to be able to impart this knowledge and create a more humane, sensual architecture. One that fully complements our being; aurally, visually, haptically. I believe that architecture today is too concerned with the beautiful image, that which is framed by the photographer is much more important than that which is experienced by the user.

Neglect for the peripheral view and the other senses.

I would like to argue that people and the art of building are being truly deprived when architects neglect to understand fully the workings of the human being. Experiences can be enriched through this greater understanding.

“Architecture has its own realm it has a special physical relationship with life. I do not think of it as either message or symbol, but as an envelope and background for life which goes on in and around it. A sensitive container for the rhythm of footsteps on the floor, for the concentration of work, for the silence of sleep”

Peter Zumthor

What if architecture responded to the movement of the body? What if it enhanced your sense of being? Could it possibly force you to feel a certain way, to feel certain things?

Can architecture and nature act in tandem to augment our most basic feelings?

I would like to explore these possibilities on a beachfront site in Brazil. I believe that this sort of architecture can be further amplified by the sheer grandeur of the natural surrounding of Praia do Pulso. The proximity to the crashing waves, the tropical climate of the Mata Atlantica and the solitude of a very sparsely populated region coupled with an exploration of these ideas can create an architecture that brings one further into touch with nature and their own selves.

Architecture today: Sensory deprivation.

“I think it is appropriate to challenge the hegemony of vision in the ocularcentrism of our culture. And I think we need to examine very critically the character of vision that predominates today in our world. We urgently need a diagnosis of the psychosocial pathology of everyday seeing -- and a critical understanding of ourselves, as visionary beings”
David Michael Levin, Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 1993.

“Touch is the unconsciousness of vision, and this hidden tactile experience determines the sensuous quality of the perceived object, and mediates messages of invitation or rejection, courtesy or hostility.”
Juhani Pallasmaa

Musings

Cultural concepts of Space
Significance of movement [through space?]

Thesis Reasearch Meeting Notes

Thesis Meeting 11.06.2007

An architecture for contemplation.
An architecture that slows us down.
An architecture that induces a sensory experience.

How the architecture allows for contemplation, how it allows for oneself to remove themselves from everything, yet connect to nature.
To the many sights, sounds, and smells occurring around them.

Etymology of the word contemplation

Idea of the temple as a place to talk to God.
Significance of the temple as opposed to synagogue….

Sensory description of site
Think about sounds, weather, climate, geology, vegetation, views, and geography.

Typology.

What is the building doing?
How is the building doing it?

A retreat.

pedagogy?

So I've been thinking more and more about what it means to be a student. More specifically in my case, a graduate student. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the student?

Is that even the correct terminology to be used? Maybe therein lies the problem.

I decided to enroll in a graduate program. I'm paying thousands of dollars a year. Why can't we talk about what interests me? If there's one thing I've learned in the past 5 years of being in an academic environment is that there is not one way of doing something. When a professor imposes his pedagogy on a student and doesn't allow them to react, in accord or discord, what kind of intellectual growth is occurring?

Should a graduate program have an agenda? Or should it allow one to develop their own?

I don't claim to be a genius, or to know the answers but I read something the other day that really changed me.

"Young people go to university with the aim of becoming architects, of finding out if they have got what it takes. What is the first thing we should teach them?
First of all, we must explain that the person standing in front of them is not someone who asks questions whose answers he already knows. Practicing architecture is asking oneself questions, finding one's own answers with the help of the teacher, whittling it down, finding solutions.
Over and over again"

Peter Zumthor - Thinking Architecture

techno.thesis

I've reached a turning point. I am now dedicating this blog to all things thesis. More to come in this area but I'm hoping that by posting my thoughts and musings on my thesis topic. I'll be able to create dialogue and begin to concretize my thoughts into a real thesis.