Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
TITLE:
Student:
Supervisor:
Aileen Sun
Aaron Sills
Topic Description
How can architecture express itself and give positive impacts on peoples minds, spirit,
emotion, thoughts, health and lifestyles through its connection with human senses and
perceptions?
Key References and Precedents
Mastery of Spaces
Between Silence and Light: Spirit in the Architecture of Louise l. Kahn
Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture
The Eyes of the Skin
Atmospheres
Experiencing Architecture
Bruder Klaus Field Chapel , Peter Zumthor
The Louvre Abu Dhabi, Jean Nouvel
Jewish Museum Berlin, Daniel Libeskind
Design project
There are a lot of people suffer from depression, unhealthy lifestyles, dark thoughts,
stress, feeling lost and miserable. The unhealthy inner being is the origin of all the
problems in society--eg. crims, wars, suicides, large gap between rich&poor... This
design project will help them walk out of the darkness and get their lives back onto a
healthy track, bring positivity into their lives.
The design project will be a structure f loating above the existing
buildings in the W ynyard Quarter. The f loating structure will
provide a living system which gives positive impacts on people's spirits,
minds, emotions, lifestyles and healthy well-being.
Site Description
The site is at the Wynyard Quarter in Auckland. By considering its future planning
which is happening in five years time, the project will be designed based on the new
planning of the Wynyard Quarter. Since the design purpose is more focused on the
people who live a complex and stressful urban life, the project will be set on top of the
urban section of the Wynyard Quarter. It is also close to the CBD, where has a high
concentration of population.
Major Architectural and Architectonic Ideas to be Investigated
I will be investigating the relationship between architecture and human senses, such as
phenomenology, semiotics, and architectural psychology. The investigation will be more
focused on architectural psychology, such as spatial perception, spatial thinking, orientation
behaviour, spatial experience, Living requirements & Satisfaction.
Week 8
(Hand in first draft thesis: this briefing document that will be distributed to midyear critics)
Reading, Design development
Reading, Design development
Reading Design development
Midyear design crit
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Literature Review
This book is an artistic literature which full of richness of humans perceptions and
imaginations of space. In Gaston Bachelards opinion, a house is not only a
geometrical object of planes and right angles, but a space that holds our thoughts,
memories and dreams. From the view point of phenomenology and psychology,
Bachelard analysis each part of the house such as drawers, wardrobes, doorknobs,
attics, nests, shells and corners with intimate immensity. Here, we can see a different
way to view our spaces, a poetic way that evokes our souls.
Same as my thesis topic, this book focuses on phenomenology and psychology. It
gives abundant knowledge of how the space relates to humans inner being. Even
though this book is not in an academic style, as it contains a lot of personal
perceptions and imaginations, it could give me inspirations and new understandings
about space.
3.
This book gives a broad knowledge of meditative spaces, from its theory to a wide
range of examples. It focuses how space could alter humans perception and thought,
how space could calm the mind and open it to the world through the methods of
simplicity, perceptual shift, focus and natural energy. Each method contains many
4.
space is an environment charged with meaning and reflects the characters of human
embodiment in moving, perceptual, emotional, expressive, developmental and social
capacities. By addressing the philosophies of Merleau Ponty and Bergson, as well as
the scientific psychology aspects, this book gives a comprehensive understanding of
spatial experience and what does the sense of space tell us about us.
This book helps me to learn the topic in a phenomenology approach which gives my
study more depth.
8. Encounters, Juhani Pallasmaa
Encounters is a book composes a series of architectural essays that relate to
sounding, sensing, inhabiting, observing, learning, reflecting and time. The essays
cover the standardized systems of construction to phenomenological approaches to
architecture with references to anthropology, psychology, sociology and philosophy.
Images are also provided alongside of the essays.
Some essays of this book are quite related to my topic, such as The place of Man,
The Geometry of Feeling, The rooms of Memory, etc.
9. Being and Time, Heidegger Martin
Being and Time is one of the most influential philosophical works of our time. It had
tremendous influence on philosophy, literature and psychology which changed the
intellectual map of the modern world.
This book would be helpful for seeking the meaning of human existence, and hence
the meaning of architecture and art.
10. Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau-Ponty
In this book, Merleau-Ponty presented a description of how human beings perceive
the world in which they live. He focuses on the human body as the locus of our being
in the world and produced this major work of phenomenology.
This book would be helpful to derive the theoretical base of my thesis.
Precedent Studies
Bruder Klaus Field Chapel , Peter Zumthor
Bruder Klaus Field Chapel was built to honor the patron saint, Bruder Klaus. Bruder Klaus
lived as hermit for the last 20 years of his life. In 1947, he was declared a saint who is also a
favorite of Peter Zumthors mother. Therefore Zumthor created this chapel as a gift to his
mother.
The chapel has a irregular five-sided form, inside this simple exterior is a spiritual evoking
interior that fully connect with human senses. The inspiration of the interior comes from
Bruder Klaus visions. As a teenager, Bruder Klaus said that he had the vision of inhabiting a
tower in the service of God, he also had a vision of seeing a star that lit up the world while he
was in his mothers womb. These visions resulted in the form of the interior. The interior was
built in a special way. The tree trunks were arranged in the shape of a tepee, and then the
tree trunks were burnt after the concrete was poured and firmed, left with the dark interior
surface with the smell of the burnt tree trunks. The holes left in the construction of the
concrete shell were filled with mouth-blown glass which sparkles as the light passing through
them. As people walk through the interior, they experience a gradual change from the
darkness into the brightness. The hole left at the top drops down a sudden beam of light
thats like the hand of god reaching down into the miserable human life. The dripping of rain
water from the hole at the top, creates a peaceful music in a silent space.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is a planned museum in Abu Dhabi to be built in 2015. It is designed
as a seemingly floating dome structure above a series of rectangular structures. The dome
is web-patterned allowing sunlight to filter through. The effect of the dome is to represent the
rays of sunlight passing through the date palm fronds in an oasis.
The design of the dome and the interaction with the water enriched the experience of the
interior. Although the interior surface is pure white, the moving light beams filtered through the
dome and the light dots dropped onto the floor and the walls enriched the visual experiences.
The light beams also add a holy feeling of the space. The rippling sound of the water, the
moving water waves and the reflections of the sparkling light dots all give a rich and sensory
experience. In general, the museum creates a silent and peaceful atmosphere and enjoyable
at the same time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvOuD_GmJ9U
Jewish Museum Berlin, Daniel Libeskind
Jewish Museum Berlin was built as a memorial for the Jews. In my personal opinion, Daniel
Libeskind achieved this purposed very well by working with the human senses. The materials
used are cold materials such as zinc and concrete to create a strong sense of sadness. The
narrow and dark pathways, the concrete beams falling down randomly above the head, the
sudden and acute turning corner that you cannot predict whats going to happen for the next
step, all give a feeling of danger and pressure that what the Jews have been experienced. As
the visitors experience through this building, the sad and dangerous design draws them
back to the crucial period of the history, make them experience what the Jews have been
experienced. In this building, the presence merges with the past, hence the memorial purpose
has been successfully achieved.
Bibliography
1. Bachelard, Gaston, The Poetics of Space, New York: Orion Press, 1964.
2. Dickson, John D., The Mastery of Space, The University of Auckland School of Architecture,
1982
3. Freeman, Michael, Meditative Spaces, United States: Universe Publishing, 2005
4. Heidegger, Martin, Being and Time, Camelot Press Ltd, 1962
5. Malnar, Joy Monice and Vodvarka, Frank, Sensory Design, University of Minnesota Press,
2004
6. Lobell, John, Between Silence and Light Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn,
Shambhala Publications, Inc.1979.
7. Morris, David, The Sense of Space, United States: State University of New York Press, 2004.
8. Pallasmaa, Juhani, Encounters, Rakennustieto Oy (Building Information Ltd.), 2005.
9. Ponty, Merleau, Phenomenology of Perception, New York: The Humanities Press, 1962.
10. Rasmussen, Steen Eiler, Experiencing Architecture, Denmark: Krohns Bogtrykkeri, 1959.
Assessment Criteria
x
The design should clearly relate to scholarly literature and architectural precedents
There should be a clear plan and programme of integrated design and research
The design-based investigation should be relevant and contributing to this plan of inquiry
The design should demonstrate a competent mastery of the media of architectural production
The design should impart information and understanding of the research topic to others new to
architectural scholarship.
________
Critic to Sign
__________________
Date
__________________