I.2.b. Emotional Architecture : When Emotions take over

I.2.b. Emotional Architecture : When Emotion takes over “

We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.22 WINSTON CHURCHILL

INTRODUCTION One of architecture’s primary role is to move and “shape us”, elicit various emotions, and recall memories. Indeed, it affects one’s emotional and spiritual well-being. Architecture plays a crucial role in helping us experience real-time circumstances with various design interventions, aiding us in surviving the chaos of daily life. In this subsection, we will examine what we mean by emotional architecture and what architects have to say about this notion of emotion and pinpoint the strategies, means and ideas they have used to create an emotional space experience.

A/ Emotional Architecture :

“Architecture is an art when one consciously or unconsciously creates aesthetic emotion in the atmosphere and when this environment produces well being. 23” Luis Barragán argues.

In fact, one of the principal roles of architecture is to trigger emotions, It is all about being moved, it is not about feeling good or bad. It is a feeling of a sense of passion, intensity, and involvement that goes very deep. An architect should be able to connect people not just with the physical environment but also with memories and trigger emotional responses with a place. One of architecture's main functions is to elicit emotions. It is all about being moved, it is not about feeling good or bad. It is a profoundly felt sensation of passion, intensity, and participation. An architect should be able to evoke memories and emotional responses in individuals in addition to connecting them to the physical surroundings.

Figure n°39: The Jewish Museum in Berlin( Source Experiencing Arch)

In this context Daniel Libeskind claims that "As an architect, it's my responsibility to make a personal connection, not just with the physical environment but how it triggers our memories and

emotional responses.24" So, emotional architecture is thus a sublime act of poetic imagination that engages the user's body and mind. Listening to a built form's unique conversations is as important as experiencing its spaces, form, and surfaces. A space enters the user as the user enters the space. The exchange and merger of the object and the subject is fundamental to the experience. Architecture interacts and enhances one's experience on two levels. One through cognition, where the user is active in the processing and assessment of perceived information, and the other through emotional reactions to perceived information, which both function through closely interconnected systems.

Retreating through Emotions

22.Winston Churchill , speech to the meeting in the House of Lord, 1943 Page 23. Luis Barragán , the Prizker prize-winning speech, 1981 52/238 CHAP 2 24. Daniel Libeskind , Article : “We mustn’t forget the emotional impact of the buildings around us”, 2017

B/ Architects Debating :

a/ Daniel Libeskind : Emotion is the Soul of Architecture : “

As an architect, it’s my responsibility to make a personal connection, not just with the physical environment but how “ it triggers our memories and emotional responses.24

DANIEL LIBESKIND “There is no story without emotion”, Daniel Libeskind states once. He claimed that architecture nowadays is the soul of architecture in an interview with Out of Sync (2016). In addition, emotion is also to him the lifeblood and the soul of architecture 25. .New architectural movements emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries. Form follows function became the standard, and the emotions of the previous years were forgotten. “Architecture was seen as an abstraction without meaning behind it” 20 , Libeskind explains. He says that in order to communicate a story , we should combine emotion with architecture. He hopes to foster a sense of optimism and redemption through his designs for the Jewish Museum and the World Trade Center. “To me, that is the emotion of architecture” he claims.

PS : In this part from each subsection we will be presenting the architect’s approach, listed as intents/ideas, to create an emotional immersive space experience by stimulating different emotions.

Figure n°40: National Holocaust Monument ( Source Edited photo from Deezen ) EMOTIONAL APPROACH

Multi-sensory Space

Figure n°41: Jewish Museum Berlin ( Source Archaidly )

Low-ceiling --> Refuge, Escape

Retreating through Emotions

Scale : The propotion between the human scale and a building --> Monumentality --> Speechless Multisensory spaces to elicit different emotions Loss of a sense to stimulate more the other senses

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b/ Luis Barragán : The quest of Emotional Architecture : “

I have worked with total freedom to “ make work whose function is to produce emotion.26 LUIS BARRAGÁN The theme of emotional architecture has become a real personal quest for the architect Luis Barragàn. In 1980, when he received the Pritzker prize in New York for his work La Casa Barragán, he declared that he “ believed in emotional architecture. It is very important that architecture can touch human beings with its beauty. If there are several possible technical solutions to a problem, the one that offers the user a message of beauty and emotions architecture.” He explains that the dream that carries all his work is to offer a refuge of enchantment,recollection, appeasement, and serenity that inspires man and allows him to discover himself in architecture.

Building with Colour

EMOTIONAL APPROACH

Inspiration from the vernacular

Figure n°42: Corridor of Casa Gilardi ( Source Deezen ) Figure n°43: Inspiration from the vernacular in the architecture of Luis Barragán ( Photo Edited by the Author )

Patios serve as a space time and let nature in Contrast between the exterior ( unnoticed, blind) and the interior (welcoming, colorful...)

element of surprise Play of light and shadow that blend into the material of the walls

Mystical Unkown

Importance to the intimacy of the spaces

Retaking the aesthetics of Mexican architecture Familiarity Memory Culture Influence from Mediterranean Culture --> Use of water and Gardening

Retreating through Emotions

Soothing Calm Comfortable

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I.2.b.

c/ Tadao Ando : Emotions in Shinai Architecture :

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The real importance of architecture is its ability to move people’s hearts deeply.27 “

TADAO ANDO Tadao Ando’s architecture aims to achieve a number of key goals, including physical experience, space exploration, and profound emotional impact. Tadao Ando found his way to create his unique emotional architecture by studying Japanese culture and utilizing many of its philosophy, he claims that he’s always trying to “embody spaces that comprehend Japanese sensitivities in modern architecture27”. “The natural light makes the entire space sacred, and the light varies depending on the time and seasons27”.

By incorporating asymmetrical geometric shapes onto exposed concrete and harmonizing the design with natural components like water, air, and sun as well as natural beauties like plants, mountains, sky, and other natural aspects, Tadao Ando found the balance between Japanese culture and modernity. The outcomes of this kind of design is the Shintai Architecture were emotion, nature and architecture meet. The Japanese Zen philosophy is one way that Ando’s intention to encourage people to think on their inner selves rather than concentrate on the outside appearance shows itself in his artwork. The architect serves as a guide, laying out thoughtful routes through his architecture so that visitors can focus solely and meditate on the shapes and forms. He argues that “ the emotional power in architecture comes from how we introduce natural elements into the architectural space. Therefore, rather than making elaborate forms, I choose simple geometries to draw delicate yet dramatic plays of light and shadow in space.26”

EMOTIONAL APPROACH

Figure n°44: Tadao Ando’s Sensitivity ( Source Author )

Natural light --> Play of light and shadow

changes through time Movement

Water --> symbolizes life + Healing

Inspiration from the Japanese Culture Use of raw material --> Textures

Simple Geometry --> Meditative, Sobriety