Endemic Light

<p>This thesis explores endemic light and atmosphere through the shifting scales of three architectural interventions. These interventions are guided by site and theoretical research, providing justification for the notion of endemic light. This notion develops upon the concept of site specific architecture and place. It is the synthesis of site context – combining both ephemeral and phenomenological qualities to create engaging and evocative architectural experiences. Analysis of the Mackenzie Basin site established an overarching understanding of the atmospheric, physical, social and historical contexts of the area. Peter Zumthor, Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa and Christian Norberg-Schulz provide key justifications for the theoretical investigation of light, atmosphere, and place; as well as ongoing precedence for the research through design process. This process explores three interventions, moving up in scale from an installation, to a domestic dwelling, and finally a public building. The installation operates at an interactive scale, exploring abstract concepts of condensing light within a space, through manipulation of light, colour and texture. The domestic scale expands on this research, developing condensed light and atmosphere at a habitable scale. Through designing for light and atmosphere the dwelling becomes a device for endemic atmospheric experiences in a domestic context. The final scale explores a public building in the form of a town centre for Twizel. This intervention adapts the notion of condensing light within interior spaces, instead exploring at an urban scale, intensifying them externally through courtyards and exterior building form. The thesis concludes, that successful and immersive architectural experiences are generated through strong ephemeral and phenomenological connections and engagement with site and endemic light.</p>

Endemic Light

<p>This thesis explores endemic light and atmosphere through the shifting scales of three architectural interventions. These interventions are guided by site and theoretical research, providing justification for the notion of endemic light. This notion develops upon the concept of site specific architecture and place. It is the synthesis of site context – combining both ephemeral and phenomenological qualities to create engaging and evocative architectural experiences. Analysis of the Mackenzie Basin site established an overarching understanding of the atmospheric, physical, social and historical contexts of the area. Peter Zumthor, Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa and Christian Norberg-Schulz provide key justifications for the theoretical investigation of light, atmosphere, and place; as well as ongoing precedence for the research through design process. This process explores three interventions, moving up in scale from an installation, to a domestic dwelling, and finally a public building. The installation operates at an interactive scale, exploring abstract concepts of condensing light within a space, through manipulation of light, colour and texture. The domestic scale expands on this research, developing condensed light and atmosphere at a habitable scale. Through designing for light and atmosphere the dwelling becomes a device for endemic atmospheric experiences in a domestic context. The final scale explores a public building in the form of a town centre for Twizel. This intervention adapts the notion of condensing light within interior spaces, instead exploring at an urban scale, intensifying them externally through courtyards and exterior building form. The thesis concludes, that successful and immersive architectural experiences are generated through strong ephemeral and phenomenological connections and engagement with site and endemic light.</p>

Sartre in Space: Rethinking Architecture & Rebuilding Philosophy

<p>This thesis considers spatial and architectural language used in philosophical text to determine the value of a cross-disciplinary relationship between architecture and philosophy. It approaches architectural figure as more than just metaphor for philosophy, and proposes that philosophy relies on the spatial nature of architectural language to constitute itself. The case studies provided elucidate a realm where architecture and philosophy have been explored simultaneously; where architecture is used as a tool to develop philosophical propositions and where philosophical text generates architectural design. Ludwig Wittgenstein and Adolf Loos worked in this way, rethinking how architecture is done while rebuilding philosophical propositions. Wittgenstein’s work as an architect was not a break from philosophy but an exploration in architectural space that developed his philosophical perspective. The house he designed is considered here as an extension of the ‘visual room’, an aphorism about image forming in The Philosophical Investigations. Loos’s writing on an ethics of style is philosophy bound to a body of architectural work. His architecture, in particular the House for Josephine Baker, and its conflicts of modernity and the relationship between interior and exterior, is inextricably linked to his normative theories of how we should live. Maurice Merleau-Ponty defined phenomenology in spatial terms that depend heavily on the experience of architectural space. His description of the ‘phenomenal body’ and its ability to understand the ‘spatiality of a situation’ is evidence for an epistemological link between phenomenology and architecture. The architecture of Steven Holl is analysed for its reconstruction of Merleau-Pontian spatiality in the Residence for the Swiss Ambassador, a commission that offered Holl a generous affordance of space with which to explore this influence. The main philosophical text used in the thesis is the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre due to the largely ignored latent spatial nature of it. It is significant that the text relies on spatial relationships to convey its meaning. Sartre’s concepts have been defined, developed and implemented by architecture in the resulting design, ‘A House for Sartre’. The design builds on Sartrean concepts of the self, other people, objects in the world and consciousness. It does this by rethinking and rebuilding on this philosophy, while at the same time rethinking and rebuilding the architecture of the house, a domestic space. The programme of a ‘house’ offers concepts of domesticity as context for the design project, and this adds another dimension to the philosophy. The project pushes the limits of Sartre’s descriptions and tests his examples in the tangible realm of architecture. Through inhabitation of such an architecture, one can better gain an understanding of this philosophy. As Sartre so often appeals to his readers to inspect the state of their own consciousness, then perhaps most significantly, the architecture provides not only a conscious experience of the house, but an experience where inhabitants are conscious of their own consciousness in ‘A House for Sartre’.</p>

Sartre in Space: Rethinking Architecture & Rebuilding Philosophy

<p>This thesis considers spatial and architectural language used in philosophical text to determine the value of a cross-disciplinary relationship between architecture and philosophy. It approaches architectural figure as more than just metaphor for philosophy, and proposes that philosophy relies on the spatial nature of architectural language to constitute itself. The case studies provided elucidate a realm where architecture and philosophy have been explored simultaneously; where architecture is used as a tool to develop philosophical propositions and where philosophical text generates architectural design. Ludwig Wittgenstein and Adolf Loos worked in this way, rethinking how architecture is done while rebuilding philosophical propositions. Wittgenstein’s work as an architect was not a break from philosophy but an exploration in architectural space that developed his philosophical perspective. The house he designed is considered here as an extension of the ‘visual room’, an aphorism about image forming in The Philosophical Investigations. Loos’s writing on an ethics of style is philosophy bound to a body of architectural work. His architecture, in particular the House for Josephine Baker, and its conflicts of modernity and the relationship between interior and exterior, is inextricably linked to his normative theories of how we should live. Maurice Merleau-Ponty defined phenomenology in spatial terms that depend heavily on the experience of architectural space. His description of the ‘phenomenal body’ and its ability to understand the ‘spatiality of a situation’ is evidence for an epistemological link between phenomenology and architecture. The architecture of Steven Holl is analysed for its reconstruction of Merleau-Pontian spatiality in the Residence for the Swiss Ambassador, a commission that offered Holl a generous affordance of space with which to explore this influence. The main philosophical text used in the thesis is the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre due to the largely ignored latent spatial nature of it. It is significant that the text relies on spatial relationships to convey its meaning. Sartre’s concepts have been defined, developed and implemented by architecture in the resulting design, ‘A House for Sartre’. The design builds on Sartrean concepts of the self, other people, objects in the world and consciousness. It does this by rethinking and rebuilding on this philosophy, while at the same time rethinking and rebuilding the architecture of the house, a domestic space. The programme of a ‘house’ offers concepts of domesticity as context for the design project, and this adds another dimension to the philosophy. The project pushes the limits of Sartre’s descriptions and tests his examples in the tangible realm of architecture. Through inhabitation of such an architecture, one can better gain an understanding of this philosophy. As Sartre so often appeals to his readers to inspect the state of their own consciousness, then perhaps most significantly, the architecture provides not only a conscious experience of the house, but an experience where inhabitants are conscious of their own consciousness in ‘A House for Sartre’.</p>

LA FENOMENOLOGÍA COMO VISIÓN PARA COMPRENDER EL ESPACIO ARQUITECTÓNICO; UN VÍNCULO A TRAVÉS DE LA PERCEPCIÓN Y LA OBRA DE STEVEN HOLL

ResumenEste artículo tiene como objetivo mostrar la evolución del concepto de espacio arquitectónico y su importancia para leer la arquitectura, así como dotar al lector de una manera de entender al propio espacio a través de la fenomenología como un procedimiento que aboga por las emociones y percepciones, ya que permite al habitante experimentar el significado de la arquitectura. La comprensión de la fenomenología en arquitectura es ayudado por la obra de Steven Holl, arquitecto norteamericano que presenta, a través de principios Filosóficos, la manera de entrelazar los fenómenos en la arquitectura y que toma como ayuda al material para articular emociones en el habitante a través de un espacio emocionante que se percibe mediante los sentidos y lo vuelve el protagonista de propia arquitectura. Palabras clave : Espacio arquitectónico, fenomenología, percepción, Steven Holl. AbstractThis article aimed to show the evolution of the concept of architectural space and its importance for reading architecture, as well as to provide the reader with a way of understanding the space itself through phenomenology as a procedure that advocates emotions and perceptions within of space and that allows the inhabitant to experience the meaning of architecture. The understanding of phenomenology in architecture is aided by the Steven Holl’s work, an American architect who presents, through philosophical principles, the way of intertwining phenomena in architecture and who takes material as an aid to articulate emotions in the inhabitant through an exciting space that is perceived through the senses and makes it the protagonist of architecture itself. Keywords: Architectural space, phenomenology, perception, Steven Holl.

NARASI GERBANG RUMAH PERANAKAN DI PECINAN, LASEM, JAWA TENGAH: PENDEKATAN FENOMENOLOGI

The gate is an important component of Peranakan houses in Lasem. They are included in the cultural heritage of Indonesia, and most of them are more than a hundred years old, but still stand firm and lined up neatly adorning the Pecinan area. The purpose of this paper is to provide a different perspective on the existence of the Peranakan houses’ gates that interpreted through the author’s experiences during the fieldwork. The gate embodiment gives a different atmosphere and experience which is not found elsewhere because they are unique and irreplaceable. Unfortunately, preserving these gates become a serious challenge in the modern era. The finding comes from the phenomenon which found after the field research and analyzed using the phenomenology approach of Merleau Ponty, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Steven Holl. Phenomenology allows people to express their existence through architecture and let its value appear to people as they experience it. The result showed that experiences would give the people have an attachment to the place unconsciously.

Fenomenologia de arquitetura. Discursos de Christian Norberg-Schulz e Juhani Pallasmaa

Na teoria arquitetónica, a fenomenologia entende-se como um movimento que investiga a arquitetura enquanto experiência humana. Dentro desse movimento, este artigo destaca dois discursos: o de Christian Norberg-Schulz e de Juhani Pallasmaa por apresentarem, respetivamente, uma “fenomenologia do exterior” e uma “fenomenologia do interior”– domínios pertencentes e interdependentes da arquitetura. Estes arquitetos-fenomenólogos problematizaram sobre arquitetura-lugar e arquitetura-corpo para marcar as suas posições críticas ao movimento moderno e pós-moderno. O objetivo deste artigo é compreender e confrontar esses discursos por representarem uma sequencialidade de pensamentos que (conclui-se) “abrem a porta” a uma (nova) fenomenologia contemporânea na arquitetura. O desenvolvimento do tema passa pela abordagem das problemáticas da arquitetura enquanto imageme arquitetura de presença corporal; esta última essencial para a fenomenologia contemporânea. Metodologicamente, apresenta-se esse seguimento lógico seguido de uma contraposição das ideias abordadas. Conclui-se, destacando os pensamentos de Norberg-Schulz e Pallasmaa que desenvolvem a análise da noção do corpo na fenomenologia de arquitetura. Esta ampliação encaminha e introduz a fenomenologia contemporânea (fenomenologia de atmosfera como qualidade arquitetónica), aplicação efetiva na prática atual para arquitetos proeminentes como Daniel Libeskind, Steven Holl e Peter Zumthor.