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A research about the senses in relation to architecture and their status of importance in current
architecture.
Architecture is the art of reconciliation between ourselves and the world, and this mediation takes
place through the senses
Juhani Pallasmaa1
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
Introduction
At first, the question of senses in architecture seems to be unnecessary. Buildings are rather functional
constructs that, if possible, should include an aesthetical component. Some architects try to fulfil the
function requirements and after that focus on the shape that will give the building their individual style
and by that its acknowledgment in society.
But it is not satisfying for the users to translate the program of demands into shape and assume their
content. Besides the functional demands the question for design should be how the people feel inside
the building and how they are going to experience the space. Not only in terms of how the space looks,
but also how it touches, how it smells, sounds and maybe even tastes.
Architecture is a multi-sensory experience.2 Architects should make use of this fact to create buildings
that are more intense, more exciting and profound than three dimensional objects that are waiting to be
photographed for the latest magazines and addressing the vision only.
In this essay an overview of the five main senses and their relation both to architecture and to each
other is given. A collection of examples will underline the difference between sensory architecture and
a visual understanding of architecture. A short excurse to interactive architecture will lead to the
conclusion of this essay.
The senses
Definition
Senses are
a : the faculty of perceiving by means of sense organs
b : a specialized function or mechanism (as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch) by which an animal
(or human) receives and responds to external or internal stimuli3
Overview
The five main senses are vision, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. But it is agreed that there are at least
seven senses for humans, and a minimum of two more in other species.
Further human senses or sense systems are thermoception the sense of heat which uses the skin
including internal skin passages, and nociception, the sense of pain.
2
3
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
Merriam Webster online dictionary: sense
Or, more important for architecture, Equilibrioception, the vestibular sense, that senses the balance of
the body over liquid in the inner ear, and Proprioception, the kinesthetic sense, that gives the body the
awareness of where its parts are located.4
Thought can also be regarded a sense. With it we understand, evaluate and process experinces.5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense
Hekkert, P. (2005/2006)
6
Plato (360 BC) in Jay, M. (1994)
7
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
8
Le Corbusier (1959)
5
Here the author writes only about the exterior but the same goes for the interior, lighting and different
materials.
Open spaces are a double edge sword for us. Open space gives us a sense of freedom and on the other
hand it can be too noisy for us. Sound is a primary source of our world.
Inside rock walls tend to muffle the sound which isnt a help for us.
Brick seems to be a little better
High ceilings make the rooms sound huge.
Wood panelling seems to hold the noise out. If I am in the laundry room which has a wood wall
around it I have a hard time hearing what is being said to me from the other room. And this is hard to
do because my loved ones say I can hear the grass grow.
My preferences are rooms that arent too small because I feel restricted and enclosed. Feeling trapped
is the best way I can describe it.
I like walls with some texture because then I can feel it and get a sense of what it looks like through
that sense.
Lighting is very important when designing for the visually impaired. It depends on the person too
much light can hurt and not enough makes it too dark. Fluorescent lights are glaring and annoying for
us.
In a utopia each building would have a plaque describing the building for us.12
Some of these descriptions are too detailed for non impaired people. But some of them are sensed in
the same way. Because of the visual dominance they tend to be suppressed by the visual impression,
but still they are supporting the experience of the space.
12
13
In the next step this desire can be used to give further impressions. By touch associations can be
inspired. Like a pebble polished by the sea is not only pleasurable to the hand, it expresses the process
of its formation. It is time turned into shape.
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
Hearing nothing
One of the most exciting auditory experiences in architecture is tranquillity. In the past the tool of
silence has been used to create great atmospheres. The silence in the Pantheon combined with the great
view to the roof is indescribable. The absence of sound is actually creating the atmosphere.
To name a more current design the Jewish museum by Daniel Libeskind is playing with the same
phenomenon. In the museum complex he designed special rooms called voids in which he installed
different installations. In one copper plates in the shape of faces are laying on the ground of a very
high room. The visitor has to walk over the faces and a noise echoed by the high walls will fill up the
room. The installation is also meant as a reminder to the holocaust and the sound should make aware
of all the individuals that had to suffer. This is a very dramatic usage but in other simple installations it
can still have a nice effect also if it is a birds song recording in an interior garden or a ground covered
with sand and it is possible to hear the sound of it while walking over it.
In the same way as every city has its own smell every building could have the same. It will end up as a
difficult task, since smell is so sensitive that for example a mixture of scents in one room is not
possible. But the effect could be as great as the effort.
To the subtopic of the smell I found another book in the library but couldnt borrow it yet.
16
17
www.wikipeida.com:scent
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
Conclusion
Using senses in architecture is not new. But the level of perfection is by far not reached. Architecture
reflects, materialises and eternalises ideas and images of ideal life.18 Today we aim at the
construction of intelligent buildings that help their users and communicate that. So the method of
communicating will always be an important issue. It is easier to communicate in the same language
and with the same method than responding only in one or two ways, where five a re possible.
The usage of some senses like smell and taste appears rather difficult, but architecture is developing
very quickly at the moment, so one can be confident that appropriate methods will develop to
incorporate also theses senses into architecture.
References
18
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
10
Pallasmaa, J. (1994), The eyes of the skin Architecture and the Senses; Great Britain, Academy
Editions
Plato (360 BC), Timaeus; in Jay, M. (1994), Downcast Eyes The Denigration of Vision in
Twentieth-Century French Thought, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press
American
Foundation
for
the
blind
(2006),
11