PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH TO ARCHITECTURE: A JOURNEY OF SELF DISCOVERY (PART 1)
Architecture is meant to explore the somatic commotion, even in the emptiness and the void of a space, it should make one tremble, sigh, or fall into a trance like state in order to perceive, contemplate, remember, and value. Thus, the research aims to explore emotionally powerful architecture as explicitly transcendental and phenomenal approach to design that redefines the psychological, emotional, spiritual and the physical relationship of architecture with the Self .
Looking around myself, I realized as urbanization explodes, desensitizing people and places, the rigid sterility in its spaces, leads to insipid, dead, cold designs, meant to accomplish the functional target.
Architecture is beyond the perception of the obvious; it is beyond the sum of the visual, tactile and the audible givens: it is much more. It is the feeling of anxiety, calm or home a space delivers; it is the moment of awe or bodily awareness of the self or the reflection through memory, emotion and the desire to feel. It is experiential, perceptive and beyond the physical; meant to be seen, heard, touched and felt. It is the basic acceptance that creating an ‘experience’ is the unique responsibility of the architect, in order to connect to the human on an intimate level that is beyond physical, transcendental, in fact, at its best.
We live with perception: Perceiving our surroundings with our senses, we learn the environment. Not only we form an image, we form memories with them. We sense dimensions with echoes, we feel the dampness with smell, we see light/shadow… In other words, we learn with memories, we recall them, we behave with them.
It is a a self-exploratory journey based on cognition and multi sensory effect on the human well being, founded on perceptual details and design features. Architecture has the ability to be both, artistic and humanistic.
Literally, phenomenology is the study of “phenomena”: the conscious experience from the subjective or first-person point of view explains David Woodruff’s book “Phenomenology, The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy” i.e implementing a phenomenological design goes beyond the tangible elements and focuses on integrating a sensory design, to create the experiential essence in it as a function of the built form that is abstract, yet observed and perceived. [1]
Therefore, in a nutshell, architecture is not just the physical structure that contains us, but rather the space of reconciliation between the world and ourselves, meant to move us and be experienced, and this mediation ideally takes place intelligently and intimately through richer and authentic multi sensory exploration.
Crafting an emotionally powerful architecture has the potential to be explicitly transcendental and phenomenal approach to design that redefines the emotional, spiritual, and physical relationship of the architecture with the self.
The idea is simple: a space is reflective of human ambitions and honours the human life. The rational idea of contemporary architecture neglects this notion, which results in sterility of space and generic forms, lacking empathy or an identity and essence.
“Anyone who has become entranced by the sound of water drops in the darkness of a ruin can attest to the extraordinary capacity of the ear to carve a volume into the void of darkness. The space traced by the ear becomes a cavity sculpted in the interior of the mind.” -The Eyes of the Skin, Juhani Pallasma.
Architectural essence should be able to communicate to the soul and should not be an exercise of the mere intellect or be banal to its core, but one that is deeply emotional, the spirit of which should remain one with you as a memory. In its elemental form, perhaps it could entrance in a point of euphoria, through sensorial rupture, mystery and shadow, or even shrewd visual seduction.
The purpose of my thesis was: Through the application of various conceptual studies and principles of phenomenology in the paradigm of architecture, essentially a self-exploratory space that is transcendental, intimate, and immersive space is expected.
Architecture should converse with us or perhaps even confront us, on an emotional and psychic level for a richer intellectual, therapeutic, and transcendental experience. A profound space would provide more than accommodation but also impression the mind and craft a memorable experience. This requires a deeper understanding of experiential qualities of a space.
Hi, My name is Hira Fatima, I am a PCATP Licnesed Architect, graduate of NEDUET in 2022. Please like and share my thesis. Thank you for your love!
Part 2 coming up...
