Sensation Perception is a fundamental architectural tool, with the entirety of the profession of architecture being reliant on it. We perceive, and thus we sense; we sense and thus we feel. The sensations that can be stimulated in humans by the built environment are vast and at times complex. They do however, have an unequal intensity, or more specifically—they exist within a hierarchy. Le Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant argue that there are two orders of sensation, with an existing hierarchy between primary and secondary sensation. While primary sensations, they explain, are released from observations of form and primary colors, secondary sensations relate to the multitude of associations and feelings that can be experienced, which vary greatly depending on the individual and their corresponding cultural background. 32 This explanation can be expanded and elaborated further as levels of universality. Primary sensations relate to the basic human qualities we all possess and can thus be argued as being universal and Le Corbusier, and Amédée Ozenfant, “Purism [1920]” in Manifesto: A Century of Isms, ed. Mary Ann Caws (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 436-438. 32
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