DUNESIDE CLIMATE CENTRE
SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
J U H A N I P A L L A S M A A The Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa suggests the & his critical view on occularcentrism sentiment of a new vision and sensory balance in the and focus on tactility quest for architectural quality. He states, “I had become increasingly concerned about the bias towards vision, and the suppression of other senses, in the way architecture was conceived, taught and critiqued, and about the consequent disappearance of sensory and sensual qualities from the arts and architecture.” (Pallasmaa, 2012, p. 10). He indicates the narcissistic and nihilistic role of the eye and encourages attention on the interplay between the multi-sensory experience and architecture instead.
of one’s existence and self-perception (Havik and Tielens, 2013). He recognizes the tactile experience as the most important of our five Aristotelian senses as it is an integration of them all; “The skin reads the texture, weight, density and temperature of matter. (…) The tactile sense connects us with time and tradition” (Pallasmaa, 2012, p.62). Additionally, he considers that the architectural qualities of atmospheres emerge from the architect’s empathy, sensitivity and skills (Havik and Tielens, 2013). This understanding of how to experience the nature of our surroundings is, according to Pallasmaa, the most essential competence of the architect.
In relation to this and to Zumthor, Juhani Pallasmaa advocates atmosphere as a tactile encounter CASE
STUDY
OF
THE
JEWISH MUSEUM
The Jewish museum in Berlin by Polish American Daniel Libeskind is both a tribute celebrating the accomplishment of the Jews in Berlin, as well as a memorial relating to the tragic Jewish past with a future-oriArchitect: David Libeskind ented aesthetic asserting the vitality of Jewish life Year: 1999 (Libeskind and Binet, 1999). Creating an environment Location: Berlin to be interpreted and experienced, the building Area: 15500 m 2 zigzags with its titanium-zinc façade and features undergrounds axes, diagonal windows slashed into the façade, angled walls, and bare concrete ‘voids’ without heat or air-conditioning (Judisches Museum Berlin, n.d.). Considering the relationship between building and person, the phenomenological structure comprises a series of composed sequences that play with contrasts such as spatial compression and expansion, working with spaces to create different atmospheres. The space is cool in temperature, the lights are bright, and the walls are a sterile white, all providing an uncomfortable consciousness and unwelcome feeling. Phenomenologically, the museum provokes reactions of absence, desolation, and invisibility – interpretations of disappearance of the Jewish culture. Through the practice of architecture as a means of narrative and sentiment catering visitors with a deeper understanding of the effects of the aftermath of the Holocaust on the Jewish culture and the city of Berlin. Eventually a person enters a
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void, in which the space is sectionally extensive with bleak concrete walls ascending 60 feet above eye level. In sacred moments, at the peak a narrow-slit washes the void with soft light administering an expression of hope. “The emptiness that I witnessed at the cemetery actually confirmed my idea of the ‘void’ as an architectural device. The ‘voids’ of the museum provide a setting for nothing really to be displayed, because there is nothing really to be seen. It is just an emptiness which will never be eliminated from this city” (Libeskind and Binet, 1999, p.37). Like Pallasmaa, Libeskind considers the tactile aspect of architecture, however in a more kinaesthetic manner, stating, “I think architecture begins simultaneously with the head and with the feet. One must experience it seeing it from afar and by walking through it. Later, one might think about it, but I think one experiences it first with one’s ankles and shoes. In my opinion, that is where it begins: it begins at the ground.” (Libeskind and Binet, 1999, p.41). Libeskind provides a series of different spaces prompting an emotional journey of the individual by different means such as tilting floors and walls, descending into the ground, confined narrow spaces, etc., all different means of tactile involvement of the user in hopes of eliciting a deeper emotional awareness and connection, prompting an emotional recollection of the history (Libeskind and Binet, 1999).
FIG. 23- (BREDT, 1999)
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