AN ARCHITECTURE OF THE SEVEN SENSES
“Instead of experiencing our being in the world, we behold it from outside as spectators of images projected on the surface of the retina.” Juhani Pallasmaa.
Is architecture turning into a purely visual sport? Will it be just like video games, except that it won’t have all those crashing noises?
Some recent designs are terrific in their own way. But they’re scary in what they portend for the future of architecture. Of our five, six, or seven senses (depends how you count), they appeal to only one.
some examples of this type of architecture:-
A banner in the breeze
This is the work of Boston architects Elkus/Manfredi. It’s a huge, wordless billboard that wraps a new Neiman Marcus department store in the suburb of Natick. It’s 40 feet tall and as long as two football fields. It looks like an enormous banner whipping in the breeze. It’s made of stainless steel in three colors—“bronze, champagne, and silver”—that are supposed to remind you of the high-fashion women’s clothes inside. The thin steel plates are like the patches in a quilt. Their colors are distributed in such a manner as to make the whole thing look like a translucent, layered fabric that the wind is blowing through. Like Isadora Duncan, maybe, twirling in her sweeping robes.
This is the work of Boston architects Elkus/Manfredi. It’s a huge, wordless billboard that wraps a new Neiman Marcus department store in the suburb of Natick. It’s 40 feet tall and as long as two football fields. It looks like an enormous banner whipping in the breeze. It’s made of stainless steel in three colors—“bronze, champagne, and silver”—that are supposed to remind you of the high-fashion women’s clothes inside. The thin steel plates are like the patches in a quilt. Their colors are distributed in such a manner as to make the whole thing look like a translucent, layered fabric that the wind is blowing through. Like Isadora Duncan, maybe, twirling in her sweeping robes.
Purely as architecture, Neiman’s is a knockout. But it’s architecture reduced to two dimensions and one sense, the visual. As with the WGBH mural, this is architecture to look at, preferably from a car. It’s like an extra-wide screen at a drive-in, showing the flag while the national anthem plays.
Computers are part of the enemy here. They tend to make every building design look as if it’s made of translucent, colored, weightless plastic. It’s hard to remember, when you’re sitting at a screen, that there’s more to the world than the visual.
Maybe someday, architecture won’t be up to the architects at all. Driving along in our bean-sprout-fueled cars, we’ll simply flip a switch to create our own environment.
refernce:-
Architecture can be experienced and percieved in all 7 senses if people would know the true meaning behind architecture, before i started studying architecture, i was pretty much the same as any other person who only appreciates the visual aesthetics of an architectural master piece, but after becoming an architecture student i learnt how to feel a space, to sense the very soul of a space, to recognize or point out the distinct sounds , pleasant and unpleasant smells , the touch and feel of different materials and the meaning behind using such materials. that concludes many theories mentioned by Juhani Pallasma in his article about an architecture of the seven senses.
“The hands want to see, the eyes want to caress.”
- GOETHE, J.W. von (1)
In architecture all senses are important, but the sense of sight is very dominant. The other senses are underappreciated in architecture. We could pay more attention to the other senses, as the combined perception of all the senses gives us our total experience of a space. We leave so much of our spatial experience to chance if we leave the other senses untouched during the design process. Pallasmaa says about this: “[…] modern design at large has housed the intellect and the eye, but has left the body and the other senses, as well as our memories, imaginations and dreams, homeless.” (3)
The other senses also have powerful influence on our experience of a space. Below are examples of hearing and smell to illustrate this influence.
- GOETHE, J.W. von (1)
In architecture all senses are important, but the sense of sight is very dominant. The other senses are underappreciated in architecture. We could pay more attention to the other senses, as the combined perception of all the senses gives us our total experience of a space. We leave so much of our spatial experience to chance if we leave the other senses untouched during the design process. Pallasmaa says about this: “[…] modern design at large has housed the intellect and the eye, but has left the body and the other senses, as well as our memories, imaginations and dreams, homeless.” (3)
The other senses also have powerful influence on our experience of a space. Below are examples of hearing and smell to illustrate this influence.
Hearing
Sounds reflect in a space, and that way it gives us an impression of its form and material. Steven Holl wrote on the subject of sound: “The live reflections of echo and re-echo within a stone cathedral increases our awareness of the vastness, geometry and material of its space. Imagine the same space with carpet and acoustically softened… a spatial and experiential dimension of the architecture is lost. We could redefine space by shifting our attention from the visual to how it is shaped by resonant sounds, vibrations of materials and textures.” (4)“Human being still enjoys variety, including variety of sound.”
- RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1962) Experiencing Architecture (5)
Sounds reflect in a space, and that way it gives us an impression of its form and material. Steven Holl wrote on the subject of sound: “The live reflections of echo and re-echo within a stone cathedral increases our awareness of the vastness, geometry and material of its space. Imagine the same space with carpet and acoustically softened… a spatial and experiential dimension of the architecture is lost. We could redefine space by shifting our attention from the visual to how it is shaped by resonant sounds, vibrations of materials and textures.” (4)“Human being still enjoys variety, including variety of sound.”
- RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1962) Experiencing Architecture (5)
Smell
“A particular smell makes us unknowingly re-enter a space completely forgotten by the retinal memory; the nostrils awaken a forgotten image, and we are enticed to enter a vivid daydream. The nose makes the eyes remember.” (6)
“A particular smell makes us unknowingly re-enter a space completely forgotten by the retinal memory; the nostrils awaken a forgotten image, and we are enticed to enter a vivid daydream. The nose makes the eyes remember.” (6)
reference :-
http://experiencingarchitecture.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/architectural-means
I'll end with a few excerpts from
Juhani Pallasma eloquent essay.
How materials tell us not only about place but also time: “Natural material expresses its age and history as well as the tale of its birth and human use. The patina of wear adds the enriching experience of time; matter exists in the continuum of time.”
How silence is imaginary sound: “After the clutter of building has ceased and the shouting of workers has died away, the building becomes a museum of a waiting, patient silence. In Egyptian temples we encounter the silence of the pharaohs, in the silence of a Gothic cathedral we are reminded of the last dying note of a Gregorian chant, and the echo of Roman footsteps has just faded on the walls of the Pantheon.”
How we socialize with buildings, not just look at them: “A building is encountered—it is approached, confronted, encountered, related to one’s body, moved about, utilized as a condition for other things, etc. … We are in constant dialogue and interaction with the environment, to the degree that it is impossible to detach the image of the Self from its spatial and situational existence.”
Architecture affects the very soul of our senses, we just don't pay attention
