paperspace

Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath

Find us online at issuu.com/bathpaperspace

Colophon

Volume 2, Issue 2, May 2015

Students of the University of Bath receive paperspace twice a year

ISSN 2058-931X (online)

Editorial address

Paperspace Room 6E 4.4

Claverton Down

Bath, BA2 7AY

Editor in Chief

Harry Streuli

Staff Writers

Toby Lewis

Contributors

Benedict Hignell

Bobbie Emilova

Dan Innes

Diana Smiljkovic

Harry Streuli

Issy Spence

Jessica Booth

Joe Ridealgh

Kishan Mulji

Konstantinos Voulpiotis

Lilian Lam

Olly Ridgley

Paulina Konkina

Ross Ledsham

Sara Medas

Sonya Falkovskaia

Sung Lim

Tiffany Cheung

Cover

Harry Streuli

For this issue of paperspace, we have chosen to look at the theme ‘senses’. In architecture school, students often find themselves thinking about how to create spaces that are atmospheric, captivating, and otherwise interesting. Generally, feelings such as these are caused by the way we experience spaces - the way we occupy them, and the way we sense them. Whether this is through sight, sound, touch, or smell - different spaces create different experiences.

Yet, the more I think about it, the more aware I have become that it is not just these five senses - there is something more. The image on the cover is located on The University of Bath Campus, in 6 East, room 2.8. Otherwise known as the ‘Crit Room’.

Many of you will know it - but I imagine that for each of you there will be a different range of emotions remembered through the way you have interpreted the space. You will have seen columns and lintels that were designed to be ‘didactic’ - to teach occupants how the building works; you will have heard the rumble and whir of the workshop below; you may have smelt cheap coffee on the morning of a project review (or even worse, tasted it!). Yet, these sensory experiences will no doubt invoke a wide range of memories. Perhaps you remember the euphoric feeling only felt after finishing final year project presentations, or excitement at a society event.

What began as a brutal essay in conglomerate ordering in 1988 has grown into a rich and vibrant space that can be matched by no other. There is a patina of memories so clearly plastered over the walls of the crit room that it is almost impossible to ignore. What I find most exciting, is that this space has been experienced in so many different ways, that are so different from how the Smithson’s will have imagined it. As designers, we can’t be taught how to create atmospheric, captivating, and otherwise interesting spaces. We can only learn how to experience them, and by extension we can attempt to recreate those memories.

Some of these experiential conditions have been explored in the body of this issue. There are short forays into the interpretation of sight, sound, touch, or smell; punctuated with some slightly more abstract notions, which will hopefully make you think about how else we can experience place.

I hope you enjoy the read,.

Harry Streuli Editor in Chief of Paperspace