Relationship Between Architecture And The Human Body

“Architecture as space” by Peter Goldberger discusses the significance of the interior space within architecture as it is where the viewer has a true experience. The feeling when entering a building builds a foundation for the viewers’ expectations and is most influential to their judgement of the space. With a comparison of a person’s reaction to a building from the exterior to the interior, Goldberger explains that an exterior is viewed as a whole and seen in a context however the interior will mould the persons experience with choice of lighting, form and space. His discussion of how space can influence the users’ movement proves that the architect can directly ‘control’ the user or even through light determine the mood either with natural lighting or use artificial lighting for something that can be controlled .

-Is the role of architecture only limited to its physicality or does it take a step further to make you feel something? -Who would you consider the client of your architecture?

To further my understanding towards architecture, I attended an architecture workshop during high school. During the excursion, I was exposed to many basic knowledge of architecture and

Architecture matters, it is omnipresence; we use and encounter it on a daily basis, but most often one tends to focus on the building’s function and the way it looks. Architecture is more than mere buildings that serve its function to meet our own human needs; it has a lot more to offer. Architecture matters because it can become a symbol that represents something that has a deeper meaning as well as an “ultimate representation of a culture.” Architecture is a powerful icon because it symbolizes experience that we as a community share, which is far beyond what other forms art can offer.

As writer, interior designer, educator, and American architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization” (BrainyQuote). The purpose of this paper will deal with the description of...

The body has been a key focus in the design world across all history according to Ellen Lupton as people like to build and make things that look like them. It’s also prevalent as objects made come into contact with the skin and at times, act as extensions for the body allowing it to do things it cannot. In her essay Second Skin: new design organics (2006), Lupton discusses the surfaces of objects; from lights, to chairs, and to building materials, acting like skin which allow for a fluctuating understanding of the objects meaning and function. Representing the body in architecture has been a common practice for almost all of architectural history dating back to Vitruvius however Anthony Vidler believes that the practice of architecture is distancing itself further from the body. Sigmund Freud describes this a tradition of body projection which leads to the creation of object-surrogates where one thing represents the other. For example, the telescope as an eye, electrical circuits as a nervous system and a dwelling as the womb . This section of the paper will show how Vidler’s statement is untrue through an analysis of work from the likes of Le Corbusier and Filaret, then, see how it can be extended to FOA’s design of the terminal

Architecture is often mistaken as purely an art form, when in actually it is where art and engineering or art and practicality meet. For example, painting is an art, when preformed well it yields a beautiful picture that evokes a deep human reaction and brings pleasure to its viewer, however this painting provides no function, it cannot shield us from the rain or protect us from the wind or snow, it is purely form. An insulated aluminum shed provides shelter and protection from Mother Nature; however, it is a purely functional building, it was drawn by an engineer, not conceived by an artist to have form. The culmination of form and function is Architecture, the Greeks and Romans fathered this idea and Palladio’s study of roman architecture taught him his valuable truth.

Vitruvius also stresses on order, arrangement, eurhythmy, symmetry, propriety and economy and how architecture depends on these demands. This is not the case in today’s society. With advances in physics and construction sciences which allow buildings to be of asymmetrical shape and attain an abstract form directly places it in conflict with his stated ‘Eurhythmy’. To Vitruvius, all facets of architecture were to be in a state of complete harmony, as his views were so constrained towards the perfection of the human body. He described the various proportions of limbs and other body parts to be so accurately symmetrical and coordinated to meticulous detail. This perfection of the human body inspired architectural designs. In contemporary society, mainstream architecture has little to no correlation with the human body. It has been kept completely separate. Architectural inspiration today, more or less stems from everything outside the human, and looks towards a futuristic simplicity and sleek aesthetic that demands a different approach to the art of a building altogether. This commercial mindset has been influential since the engineering breakthroughs of the second millennium.

(Wickman, 2006) A study has shown that architectural experiences are reviewed as an aesthetic experience due to its layered complexity. The aesthetic experience is always multi-dimensional. Aesthetic experiences are important opportunities for understanding the complex and often ambiguous world in which we live. It can be examined as an embodied or encapsulated experience. Priori experiences color the perception of the aesthetic experience. It is observed that variables of "forms, scale, decor, ruins, music, sounds, scents, qualities of light, gestures, connections with history or literature known to the speaker" greatly affect the aesthetic experience. (Duke,

As suggested by the title, this piece of literature attempts to highlight the importance of sensory experience in architecture. It is indeed a response to what the author terms as ‘ocularcentrism’ of Modern Architecture. Ocularcentrism is the act of prioritizing visual stimuli to all other sensory stimuli available to a human perception. He quotes famous German poet, Goethe, in his defense, “the hands want to see, the

The book consists of twelve chapters that propose this idea that designers should explore the nature of our senses’ response to the spatial built forms that people invest their time in. It tries to cover a specific topic in each chapter that in order to deconstruct the book, it is necessary to cover each chapter individually.

If architecture, in the widest possible sense, aims to communicate the truth and only about the lives that we live, what do women have to say? For what is architecture; it might be a male monologue or a female scream. The question to be answered is; which one is louder?

“ Architecture organizes and structures space for us, and its interiors and the objects enclosing and inhabiting its rooms can facilitate or inhibit our activities by the way they use this language”(Lawson pg.6).

Architecture can be viewed with two different types of properties. Properties that can be seen like shapes, their composition, the spaces they create and, the colours and textures that make up their appearance. These properties are considered to be visual while other properties are considered to be abstract. These properties can only be described using words; the meanings behind the architecture and the stories that can be told about it. The context, its cultural background and its function also affects how we view architecture. The question is, what

The purpose of architecture itself is to improve human life. Due to its extreme environments, living in space or on