Emotion in Architecture

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emotion in architecture the experience of the user

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preface

architectural atmospheres Due to the fact that we didn’t have the opportunity to explore our fascinations during our regular education, we started this reserach in Explorelab 4. We would like to thank this great collective of inspiring people of Explorelab 4, the other Explorelabs and our mentors: ir. Robert Nottrot, ir. Elise van Dooren, dr.ir. Machiel van Dorst, ir. Jan Engels, ir. Peter Mensinga and especially prof.dr. Paul Hekkert and dr.ir. Pieter Desmet of the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. Special thanks to Dus architecten and Inarchitecten for sharing their practical knowledge on this topic.

Finally, we like to thank P. Zumthor, J. Pallasmaa, G. Hildebrand, S.E. Rasmussen and J. Utzon, who inspired us through their works and writings.

Ofcourse we would like to thank our family and friends. Simon would also like to thank: WTC team M&C TU Delft Employees Schiphol Meditation Centre Ms. Ooijevaar (interior design Shell Headquaters) Volunteer from the church “de Papegaai” Anton Daanen (University of Tilburg) Paul would also like to thank: Families Heilker Meier, Berghuis, Jepma and the family of Ellen, Claudius, Zion and Gaius. Especially my love Sabina Tanovic.

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table of content

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Preface

2

Table of content

3

1. Introduction

4

2. What is emotion? 2.1 Affective states 2.2 Perspectives 2.3 Manifestations

6 6 7 10

3. Basic model of emotions 3.1 Examples

12 15

4. Concerns (Origins) 4.1 Prospect and Refuge 4.2 Exploration 4.3 Enticement 4.4 Thrill 4.5 Dramatizing a haven 4.6 Mont-Saint-Michel 4.7 Conclusions

16 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

5. Stimuli (Architectural means) 5.1 Senses 5.2 Form 5.3 Mass or void 5.4 Movement 5.5 Expression of form 5.6 Expression of material 5.7 Tension and pressure 5.8 Scale and proportion

26 27 28 29 30 31 32 34 35

5.9 Rhythm 5.9.1 Variations in rhythm 5.9.2 Complex order 5.10 Light in architecture 5.10.1 City hall, Gothenburg 5.10.2 Dutch canal houses 5.10.3 Church in Ronchamps 5.11 Colour in architecture 5.12 Associations and conceptions 5.13 Conclusions

36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

6. Important emotions in architecture

46

7. Examples from practice 7.1 V.i.P. method 7.2 INarchitecten 7.3 DUS architecten 7.4 Conclusions

48 48 49 50 51

8. Practical research 8.1 Meditation centres 8.2 Family homes

52 53 59

9. Two designs 9.1 Yoga centre 9.2 Family homes

72 73 76

10. Conclusions

80

11. References

84

12. Bibliography

88

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1. introduction 4 ”There was a time when I experienced

architecture without thinking about it. Sometimes I can almost feel a particular door handle in my hand, a piece of metal shaped like the back of a spoon. I used to take hold of it when into my aunt’s garden. That door handle still seems to me like a special sign of entry into a world of different moods and smells. I remember the sound of the gravel under my feet, the soft gleam of the waxed oak staircase, I can hear the heavy front door closing behind me as I walk along the dark corridor and enter the kitchen, the only really brightly lit room in the house. [...] Memories like these contain the deepest architectural experience that I know. They are the reservoirs of the architectural atmospheres and images which I explore in my work as an architect.” - ZUMTHOR, P. (2005) Thinking Architecture 1

Architecture moves us, it elicits different emotions. It can bring back memories, but it can also elicit direct emotions, like letting you feel small or big, or give us a save feeling or an unsafe one. Architecture is sometimes even able to bring us in a spiritual mood. But the same space can make someone feel calm and another person would maybe feel uncomfortable or even unsafe there, still most of the people feel small in a big gothic church and unsafe in a dark alley at night. Architectural

spaces have certain atmospheres which influence the emotional state of a person; the interaction between the environment and its occupant. Significance of investigation

At our faculty, the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft, there has hardly been any research in the area of emotion in architecture. At the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, there has been research in this area for almost a decade now. Prof. Paul Hekkert from the Department of Design Aesthetics at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering confirmed this during one of our regular meetings. In addition to the lack of research in this area, the faculty practices a very functional approach to architecture. It would be interesting for us to find out what the implications will be if one would adopt a less functional approach; an approach where the focus lies on architectural atmospheres attuned to the concerns of the user. Research question

How can architects design atmospheres attuned to the concerns of the user?

4 4

What are the concerns of the user? And what are the architectural means to create these atmospheres?

1. ZUMTHOR, P. (2005) Thinking Architecture (p. 7-8).

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To answer these questions we first need to know what emotions are and how they are elicited. This will be described in chapters 2 and 3, with the knowledge of psychology and the extended research done at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering about this topic. This research includes the ‘basic model of emotions’ by Pieter Desmet, which gives insight into the emotional process.2 To be able to use this model, information on architectural concerns and stimuli is needed. This will contribute to the understanding of how emotions are elicited in architecture.

practical research. Chapter 7: Examples from practice, discusses how our research topic ‘emotion in archicture’ is put into practice and if architects are able to use it as a good foundation of their design process. Chapter 8: Practical research includes our research on meditation centres and family homes and their relation with emotion, and the results of a small workshop about (sub) conscious experience of architecture. And finally we will conclude our research thesis with chapter 9, the overall conclusions.

In chapter 4: Concerns, we will describe the basic concerns. More specific concerns will be discussed in chapter 8: practical research. These chapters will answer our first research subquestion: What are the concerns of the user? In chapter 5: Stimuli, we will answer the last research sub-question: What are the architectural means to create [certain] atmospheres? We will describe these architectural means with illustrative examples from the built history. Chapters 4, 5 and 8 together will answer our main research question: How can architects design atmospheres attuned to the concerns of the user? In chapter 6: Emotions, we will discuss important emotions in architecture, which were used later on in questionaries for our

2. DESMET, P. (2002) Designing Emotions.

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2. what is emotion? This chapter is mainly based on chapters 1 and 6 from the book “Designing Emotions” by Pieter Desmet.2 These chapters were written for industrial designers and are rewritten for our architectural approach.

2.1 Affective states

4 “Almost everyone except the psychologist knows what an emotion is”

- YOUNG, P.T. (1973) Feeling and emotion 3

The word ‘emotion’ is often applied to a wide variety of phenomena, such as passions, sentiments, temperament, and moods. Although these words are regularly used interchangeably, they do in fact refer to specific and different experiential phenomena. Below we will describe four different affective states: emotions, moods, emotianal traits and sentiments. Emotions are intentional because they imply and involve a relation between the person experiencing them and a particular event, object or surrounding: one is afraid of something, proud of something, in love with something and so on. 4 In addition, people are usually able to identify the subject of their emotion.5 We know who we love, and we know with whom we are angry. Besides being objectrelated, emotions are acute, and exist only for a relatively short period of time. Usually, the

duration of an emotion is limited to seconds, or minutes at most.6 The cause that elicits an emotion (the stimulus) can be an event in the environment (e.g. someone calling our name, catching sight of a building), or some change within us, such as thoughts or memories. 6 Like Zumthor described in the quote of the preface. In some particular cases a person may be unaware of the cause of their emotion. They might be angry with their wife or husband without knowing the precise cause of the anger, or fascinated by a specific space without knowing the reason for its fascination. Moods tend to have a relatively long-term character. One can be sad or cheerful for several hours or even for several days. Nevertheless moods, like emotions, are acute states that are limited in time. The main difference between moods and emotions is that moods are essentially non-intentional (e.g. one is not sad or cheerful at something). Moods are not directed at a particular subject but rather at the surroundings in general or, in the words of Frijda 4, at “the world as a whole.” Whereas emotions are usually elicited by an explicit cause (e.g. some event), moods have combined causes (e.g. “It is raining”, “I didn’t sleep well”, “Someone has finished the coffee!”). Consequently, we are generally unable to specify the cause of a particular mood. 6 A person is sometimes not even aware of being

2. DESMET, P. (2002) Designing Emotions. 3. YOUNG, P.T. (1973) Feeling and emotion. 4. FRIJDA, N.H. (1994) Varieties of affect: emotions and episodes, moods, and sentiments. 5. EKMAN, P. & DAVIDSON, R.J. (1994) The Nature of Emotion, fundamental questions. 6. EKMAN, P. (1994) Moods, emotions and traits.

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in a certain mood (e.g. if we are grumpy in the morning we usually only realize it when someone else tells us). Emotional traits can be interpreted as moods that are characteristic for a certain person: one can have a cheerful or a gloomy character.7 Moods and emotional traits are distinguished by their duration: while everyone has a grumpy mood from time to time, not everyone has a grumpy character. Moods and emotional traits are sometimes confusing because the same words are often used to express traits as well as moods (e.g. ‘this is a cheerful person’ versus ‘this person is cheerful today’). Emotional traits are, like moods, non-intentional because they are not directed at a specific subject but at the world in general. Like emotional traits, sentiments are dispositional states that may persist throughout a lifetime. The main difference between sentiments and emotional traits is that, like emotions, sentiments involve a person-subject relationship. Our sentiments are our likes and dislikes, or our attitudes towards particular architecture or events.8 Some examples of sentiments are “I am afraid of dogs” or “I love ice-cream”. These examples illustrate that sentiments can easily be confused with emotions. Nevertheless, according to Frijda4, being afraid of dogs (sentiment) and being frightened by a dog (emotion), are essentially

different states. Naturally, we also have sentiments regarding architecture, such as a dispositional love for sustainable architecture, or a dispositional dislike for blob architecture. In this paper, the word emotional state (or affective state) is used to comprise all these phenomena. Atmospheres elicit certain emotions, mostly unconsciously, which will influence our emotional state. These emotions can be a mix of different emotions or even with contrasting emotions. 2.2 Perspectives

When surveying emotion research in the field of psychology, one finds various traditions that hold different views on how to go about defining, studying and explaining emotions. Most contemporary emotion research has its roots in one of three major theoretical traditions: the evolutionary, the bodilyfeedback or the cognitive tradition. In this section we comprehensively discuss the three major traditions and evaluates their possibilities for explaining how architecture elicit emotions. The evolutionary perspective The evolutionary perspective has its roots in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. In his famous work ‘The expression of the emotions

7. WATSON, D. & CLARCK, L.A. (1994) Emotions, moods, traits and temperaments: conceptual distinctions and empircal findings. 8. FRIJDA, N.H. (1986) The emotions.

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in man and animals’ 9, he described emotions in the context of natural selection. His major claim is that emotions are functional for the survival of the species and the individual. When an individual is engaged in some behavioural action, an emotion will overrule this action with another action if this action ensures the safety of this individual. Or, in the words of Plutchik10, the function of emotions is to help “organisms to deal with key survival issues posed by the environment.” An example of this process can be observed when the fire alarm is activated: everyone immediately stops whatever they’re doing and heads for the exit. In this case, fear initiates an impulse to flee in order to survive a threatening situation. Researchers in this tradition regard the adaptive behaviour (including facial expressions and states of readiness to respond) as central to what emotions are. Plutchik10, for example, proposed that each emotion represents a specific behaviour, which is related to one of our basic needs, such as protection (fear), reproduction (happiness), or exploration (surprise). The assumption that emotions are evolved phenomena implies that their accompanying manifestations should be universal. The theories developed by researchers working in the evolutionary tradition provide us with a basic understanding of how emotions are elicited. These theories clearly demonstrate

the role of external stimuli (such as events, objects or surroundings) in the eliciting conditions of emotions. But these theories about the basic survival emotions do not explain particular emotions, like the inspiration elicited by the design of a new museum. They also offer few clues to explain why two people may experience completely different emotions towards the same space or building. Nevertheless this theory of basic survival emotions will certainly be able to help us to find the origins of architecture in chapter 2. The bodily-feedback perspective Whereas the evolutionary perspective focuses on the function of emotions, the bodily feedback perspective is primarily concerned with the emotional experience. The pioneer of this tradition, the philosopher and psychologist William James, placed the body at the centre of the emotional experience. He was convinced that the involvement of the body is essential for having emotions. In his view, the experience of an emotion is a direct result of a ‘bodily change,’ and he argued that this change is the emotion.11, 12 From this perspective, emotions are not only the outcome of, but are also differentiated by, bodily changes. In the case of fear, for example, we first start to shiver and our pulse rises, and then we perceive these reactions as being afraid. For an explanation of how architecture elicits

9. DARWIN, C. (1872) The expression of the emotions in man and animals. 10. PLUTCHIK, R. (1980) Emotion: A psychoevolutionary synthesis. 11. JAMES, W. (1884) What is an emotion? 12. JAMES, W. (1894) The physical basis of emotions.

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emotions, the bodily-feedback tradition seems to offer only few possibilities. The reason for this lies in the fact that this theory does not explain the role of external stimuli in the elicitation of emotions. Moreover, many psychologists assert that the idea that emotions are based only on the awareness of a bodily change is too simple (e.g. Lazarus13; Frijda14). Feedback from physiological responses alone will never account for all the possible emotions humans can experience. The cognitive perspective In this currently popular view, elements can be found of both the evolutionary and the bodily-feedback perspectives. The essence of this perspective is that in order to understand emotions, one must understand how people make judgements about events in their environment, for emotions are generated by judgements about the world. Magda Arnold, the pioneering psychologist of the cognitive view of emotions, argued that an emotion always involves an assessment of how an object may harm or benefit a person.15 In the cognitive view, the process of emotions is explained by the process of appraisal. According to Arnold16, an appraisal, “the direct, immediate sense judgement of weal or woe,” is at the heart of every emotion. Without appraisal there can be no emotion, for all emotions are initiated by an individual’s

appraisal of his or her circumstances. An important aspect of this perspective is that it holds not the event, but the meaning the individual attaches to this event, responsible for the emotion. An example would be when a friend makes a derogatory remark about you. Depending on the meaning you attach to this remark you might experience anger (i.e. “I am being insulted”), or amusement (i.e. “This is a joke!”). Positive emotions are elicited by stimuli that are appraised as beneficial, and negative emotions are elicited by stimuli that are appraised as harmful. Most contemporary researchers in the cognitive tradition of emotion hold that each emotion is elicited by a distinctive appraisal.17 Of the three perspectives reviewed, the most promising for explaining architectural emotions is the cognitive. Like the evolutionary perspective, it considers emotions to be instrumental (i.e. emotions establish our position vis-à-vis our environment, pulling us toward certain people, objects, actions and ideas, and pushing us away from others). However, instead of using basic survival issues to explain how emotions are elicited, it uses a broader notion of possible benefits or harms. A limitation is that, because of the central role given to cognition in the process of emotion, researchers in this tradition find it more difficult to distinguish emotions from non-emotions, e.g. ideas, attitudes or evaluation. Nevertheless,

13. LAZARUS, R.S. (1991) Emotions and Adaptation. 14. FRIJDA, N.H. (1986) The emotions. 15. ARNOLD, M.B. (1960) Emotion and personality: Vol. 1. Psychological aspects. 16. Idem (p. 175) 17. ROSEMAN, I.J., SMITH, G.A. (2001) Appraisal theory: assumptions, varieties, controversies.

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its focus on appraised meaning allows us to explain why different people may have different emotions towards the same building. Probably the ‘Basic model of emotions’ made by Pieter Desmet explains best how emotions are elicited from this cognitive perspective, which we will explain in the next section. 2.3 Manifestations

In the previous paragraph we saw that in the last 100 years psychologists have offered a variety of definitions of emotion, each focusing on different manifestations or components of the emotion. There seems to be no empirical solution to the debate on which manifestation is sufficient or necessary to define emotions. At present, the psychologists most favoured solution is to say that emotions are best treated as a multifaceted phenomenon consisting of several components 18, 19. These components, i.e. behavioural reactions, expressive reactions, physiological reactions and subjective feelings, are discussed below. Behavioural reaction (e.g. running, or seeking contact) is the action or behaviour one engages in when experiencing an emotion. Emotions initiate behaviour in the form of

action tendencies such as approach, inaction, avoidance and attack.20 Fear makes one want to run; love makes one want to approach or caress, and so on. Frijda21 proposed that actions like “crying out, mama! when faced by danger, uttering insults when being slighted, or constantly thinking of the other person when seriously in love,” are also examples of emotional action tendencies. Expressive reaction (e.g. smiling or frowning) is the facial, vocal and postural expression that accompanies the emotion. Each emotion is associated with a particular pattern of expressions.22 For example, anger comes with a fixed stare, contracted eyebrows, compressed lips, vigorous and brisk movements and, usually, a raised voice, almost shouting. 23, 24 Physiological reaction (activation or arousal, e.g. increases in heart rate) is the change in activity in the autonomic nervous system which accompanies emotions. Emotions show a variety of physiological manifestations, such as pupil dilatation and sweat production. Subjective feeling (e.g. feeling happy or feeling inspired) is the conscious awareness of the emotional state one is in, i.e. the subjective

18. IZARD, C.E. (1977) Human Emotions. 19. LAZARUS, R.S., KANNER, A.D. & FOLKMAN, S. (1980) Emotions: A cognitive-phenomenological analysis. 20. ARNOLD, M.B. (1960) Emotion and personality: Vol. 1: Psychological aspects. 21. FRIJDA, N.H. (1986) The emotions (p. 70) 22. EKMAN, P. (1994b) Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions: a reply to Russells mistaken critique. 23. DARWIN, C. (1872) Expression of the emotions in man and animals. 24. EKMAN, P. & FRIESEN, W.V. (1975) Unmasking the face: a guide to recognizing emotions from facial cues.

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emotional experience. Each emotion involves a specific feeling which is a basic, irreducible kind of mental element (e.g. Titchener25). In his famous work, Frijda26 states that “feelings form the core characteristic that differentiates affective from nonaffective experience.� Note that also in daily life, feeling is commonly seen as the essence of emotion.27

25. TITCHENER, E.B. (1908) Lectures on the elementary psychology of feeling and attention. 26. FRIJDA, N.H. (1986) The emotions (p. 179) 27. DALKVIST, J. & ROLLENHAGEN, C. (1989) Three aspects of emotion awareness: feeling, perceived bodily reaction and cognition.

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3. basic model of emotions 4 People differ with respect to their

emotional responses towards a given building. Nevertheless, in spite of these interpersonal differences, the process of emotion, i.e. the way in which emotions are elicited, is universal. This section presents a basic process model of emotions. The model describes the eliciting conditions of emotions with the use of three underlying key variables: stimulus, concern and appraisal. Furthermore examples are given for the architectural practice. Pieter Desmet created a basic model of emotions for his research (Designing Emotions), which was drawn up on the basis of this definition and on the related appraisal models developed by psychologists such as Roseman1, Ortony et al.2, and Lazarus3. This model, which is shown in Figure 1, visualizes the eliciting process of emotions.

Fig. 1 Basic model of emotions

Three key variables are identified in the basic model: appraisal, concern and stimulus. These three variables, and their interplay, determine if a stimulus (which can be a product or any other stimulus) elicits an emotion, and if so, which particular emotion is experienced. The model and its key variables are explained with an architectural example: imagine Anne and Thomas searching for a house.

The second house they visited was what Anne was looking for. The house reminded Anne of the house of her favourite uncle. She immediately had the desire to buy it. Although it was not the favorite architectural style of Thomas they decided to go inside. To Anne’s (unpleasant) surprise there were holes in the wall. Thomas on the other hand, was inspired by these strange holes and thought that they could become very interesting windows. Anne already started to feel better about the idea of buying this house. When they bought the house Anne was very proud about the windows they made in the holes. Appraisal According to appraisal researchers, all emotions are preceded and elicited by an appraisal4. An appraisal is a non-intellectual, automatic evaluation of the significance of a stimulus for one’s personal well-being. It is this personal significance of a product, rather than the product itself, which causes the emotion. Because appraisals mediate between products and emotions, different individuals who appraise the same product in different ways will feel different emotions. Thus, the occurrence of Thomas’s inspiration versus Anne’s unpleasant surprise in response to the holes in the wall is the result of their different appraisals. Thomas, who felt inspiration, evaluated the holes as beneficial, whereas

1. ROSEMAN, I.J. (2001) A model of appraisal in the emotion system: integrating theory, research, and applications. 2. ORTONY, A., CLORE, G.L. & COLLINS, A. (1988) Cognitive structure of emotions. 3. LAZARUS, R.S. (1991) Emotion and adaptation. 4. ROSEMAN, I.J., SMITH, G.A. (2001) Appraisal theory: assumptions, varieties, controversies.

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Anne evaluated it as harmful. Similarly, a given individual who appraises the same building in different ways at different times will feel different emotions. At first, Anne felt unpleasantly surprised because she appraised the holes as harmful to her well-being, but later she felt proud because she appraised the same holes as beneficial. Furthermore, a person can also appraise a given building in different ways simultaneously, and thus experience ‘mixed emotions.’ Concern Every emotion hides a concern, that is, a more or less stable preference for certain states of the world5. According to Frijda, concerns can be regarded as points of reference in the appraisal process. Thus, the significance of a stimulus for our wellbeing is determined by an appraised concern match or mismatch: stimuli that match our concerns are appraised as beneficial, and those that mismatch our concerns as harmful. This principle also applies to architecture: a building elicits an emotion only if it is appraised as relevant to a person’s concern. Why was Anne proud of the windows in the holes? Because it matched with her concern for social acceptance. Why was Thomas inspired by the holes in the wall? Because it matched his concern for creative stimulation. The number and variety of human concerns is vast. Types of concerns reported in the research literature are,

for example, drives, needs, instincts, motives, goals and values6. Some of our concerns are universal, for example the concern for safety, for love and for self-esteem. Others are more personal, like Thomas’ concern that the house was not in his favorite architectural style. Some concerns, such as the concern for happiness and righteousness, are abstract. Others are more concrete, such as the concern for being home before dark or for owning a house. Stimulus According to Frijda5, any perceived change has the potential to elicit an emotion. This can be some event, e.g. someone saying something to us or encountering something in a space. Anne’s unpleasant surprise was evoked by the event of seeing the holes in the wall. Not only actual events but also remembered or imagined events have the potential to elicit emotions. We all know from experience that thinking of someone we love is sometimes enough to elicit strong emotions. Or merely fantasizing about a planned summer vacation can fill us with anticipatory excitement. Similarly, Anne’s concern that the house remembered her of the house of her favorite uncle.

5. FRIJDA, N.H. (1986) The emotions. 6. SCHERER, K.R. (2001) Appraisal considered as a process of multilevel sequential checking.

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Conclusion The basic model of emotions applies to all human emotions:

4a stimulus elicits an emotion when it is appraised as either harmful or beneficial for one of our concerns.

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3.1 Examples of using the basic model

Amusement

Boredom emotion

emotion

The vinex design is not stimulating

appraisal

stimulus

Unexpected combination of a building in the shape of flags

appraisal

concerns

stimulus

concerns

The need of sensations Vinex housing

Circus Zandvoort, Soeters

Unpleasant surprise

Fascination

emotion

emotion

I didn’t expect that a building could be so hideous

appraisal

stimulus

The need for unexpected and illogical events (cognitive mastery)

concerns

Circus Zandvoort, Soeters

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I’m not guided and free to explore the spaces

appraisal

stimulus

Attitude; I like elegant buildings

concerns

The need of exploration Thermal bath Vals, Peter Zumthor

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4. concerns

Origins - Primal concerns 4 Knowing how the basic model of emotions works, described in chapter 3, the question arises: what are the primal concerns for humans concerning architecture? Primal concerns The basic concerns of humans is probably best described by ‘the hierarchy of needs’ of Maslow.1 This theory is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as deficiency needs associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs.

4The base of the pyramid is formed by the

physiological needs, including the biological requirements for food, water, air, and sleep.

4The second level, the need for safety and Fig. 2 This diagram shows Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

security. Included here are the needs for structure, order, security, and predictability.

4The third level, the need for love and

belonging. Included here are the needs for friends and companions, a supportive family, identification with a group, and an intimate relationship.

4The fourth level, the esteem needs. This

group of needs requires both recognition from other people that results in feelings of prestige,

acceptance, and status, and self-esteem that results in feelings of adequacy, competence, and confidence. Lack of satisfaction of the esteem needs results in discouragement and feelings of inferiority.

4Finally, self-actualization sits at the apex of

the original pyramid. Self-actualization is the instinctual need of humans to make the most of their abilities and to strive to be the best they can. Although the pyramid maybe suggest that from level to level all the needs must be satisfied first to be able to concentrate on an other level, this however is not the case. For example, people who have to get by in life without enough food, water and safety can still be satisfied with needs from the higher levels, like family and morality. Some of the needs Maslow describes in his theory can be satisfied by architecture. But his theory describes the general basic needs of humans and does not describe the specific needs concerning architecture. The evolutionary perspective, as discussed in Chapter 3, decribes these basic architectural needs or concerns more profoundly.

1. MASLOW, A.H. (1970) Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Row.

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Architectural concerns The evolutionary perspective explains that humans are not that well equipped as animals, we don’t have a fur to protect us against climate changes. That is why we need a shelter against weather changes like rain, wind and cold. We also need a shelter to protect us from animals, because we don’t have claws or a shield to defend ourselves.

Fig. 3 Natural shelter in the woods

Refuge and prospect

We prefer to have this shelter on the border of a forest, because man could hunt in the open fields and woman could search for fruits and plants, in case of danger they could retreat to the shelter protected by the forest. Empirical studies by the psychologist Stephen Kaplan identify the “edge of the wood” as the place of innate human choice. “It becomes clear that neither being out in the open nor being in the woods is favoured. These opposing vectors would tend to place the individual tight at the forest edge. Ecologists point out that such an area is the richest in terms of life forms; it is likely to be the safest as well.” Jay Appleton calls in his book ‘The Experience of landscape’ the open field prospect and the shelter the refuge: “Where he has an unimpeded opportunity to see we can call it a prospect. Where he has an opportunity to hide, a refuge.” 2

Shelter: - protection against climate, e.g. cold, rain, snow, sun and wind - concealment from animals and other human beings 2. APPLETON, J. (1975) The Experience of landscape.

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4.1 Refuge and prospect

Refuge and prospect - refuge area + prospect area Fig. 4 House ‘Can Feliz’, Mallorca (Utzon)

- changes; time of day, year, and life - lightlevels - ceiling height - transitions; e.g. terrace - sexes: men: balance weighs to prospect, women: balance weighs to refuge - water complements refuge and prospect: provides drinking water, security and defence, and attraction of animals

Prospect

Fig. 5 sketch Refuge and Prospect

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Within the house there is also a degree from prospect to refuge. One of the best examples is the house ‘Can Feliz’ made by Jørn Utzon on the island Majorca. The house is build in rugged hills surrounded with unspoiled savage nature and with a beautiful view to the open sea below. Within the living room there is a great degree from prospect to refuge. On the left side of figure 4 we see the enormous window opening a wide view to the sea and bringing a lot of light in this part of the living room. At the right side of the picture we see a low darker area, achieved by raising the floor level and thick walls without windows. Grant Hildebrand says about this picture in his book ‘origins of architectural pleasure’: “Here, at right, an interior refuge has been developed by opaque walls, a lesser floor-to-ceiling dimension, and a low light level. Continuously at left a complementary zone of interior prospect has been created by a somewhat greater floor-to-ceiling dimension, walls with extensive transparent surfaces, and a much higher light level”. 3 So in the living room the differences in light level and in distance from the actual exterior view distinguish the two zones, with a high and bright zone on the left toward the view and a low and dark zone to the right.

Refuge 3. HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 30)

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4.2 Exploration

Another very important basic concern seen from the evolutionary perspective is the need to explore. We need to search for new sources of food and to secure ourselves for possible threats. A good example of this need to explore we can see in figure 6, made in the City Orvieto in the southwestern region Umbria in Italy, with a view from a side street toward the Gothic cathedral. Standing in this dark alley we see a bright space ahead, a promise of new information. We start fantasizing what kind of space it will be, will it be a big open square with trees or a square with a big fountain or will it be completely empty. We are curious of the new information which is waiting for us to discover.

The need to explore - promise of new information - curiosity - hypothesis of what is coming next - anticipate a variety of possibilities > fascination

Fig. 6 The view from a side street toward the cathedral, Orvieto.

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4.3 Enticement

Another aspect is that humans prefer to explore from dark to light. We move from the dark refuge to the bright prospect, so we can always retread back in our safe refuge. A very important aspect of this preference to explore from dark to light is that we see without being seen. So the opposite exploring from light to dark makes us feel unsafe. In horror movies they use this fact with for example the scary darkness on top of the stairs.

Fig. 8 Wells. The tracery at the top of the arc of stair, with the chapter house coming into the view.

Fig. 7 Well cathedral, Somerset. The Chain Gate Stair from the north transept, 1290 - 1460

A good architectural example of exploring from dark to light is the Chain Gate Stair from the north transept in the Wells cathedral of Somerset, built in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries in England. Standing at the start of this stairs we see one bright space, partly masked by columns and superstructure, at the end of the stairs. This partly masked bright space is the Chain Gate bridge crossing a major street to a housing project constructed circa 1460. The nearer part of the stairs, from about 1290, is lit from the windows at the left. These face west and late in the day they flood the space with directional light. Halfway this staircase one part of the stairs turns around a corner, where by accident or design each further ascending riser of the arcing portion of the stair receives the light more directly and therefore reflects it more brightly. We are drawn toward the light and the more we climb up this stair and turn around the corner the more will be revealed. We will discover

a chapter house at the end of the arcing stairs. Obscured by columns and the door opening of this space we see a new source of light coming through the windows of this chapter house, so again we have a view from refuge to prospect.

Enticement - explore from dark (refuge) to light (prospect) - partly revealed features in the distance - from enclosed space (refuge) to open space (prospect); we see without being

seen

Fig. 9 Wells. The chapter house grove seen through the tracery.

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4.4 Thrill

Fig. 10 Napes Needle, English lake district.

Fig. 11 Grand Canyon Skywalk, Arizona, United States of America.

Thrill = fear + pleasure - real dangers, seen or sensed, no question at all that they exist - but avoidance of them rests within our control

Another basic concern we will discribe is thrill, although on first thoughts it may not seem so basic. Grant Hildebrand explains the basic concern thrill with a postcard from the Napes Needle from the English lake district. This popular postcard shows two people perched atop the pinnacle Napes Needle. Hildebrand asks himself: “Why is the postcard so popular? Why are the people there? There is no reason to suppose any practical purpose to either the postcard or the perch, nor any reason to imagine that either postcard buyers or climbers have been coerced. So there must be something pleasurable in this for all parties. But [why] is that pleasurable? The prospect is extraordinary; no doubt of that. But the setting is obviously fraught with extreme danger; one slip and life is over. And we know that that is part of the point, that what the climbers, and the postcard buyers too, have sought and presumably are enjoying is the thrill of the place-and the word ‘thrill’ is the key. It is paradoxical word: it involves two emotions, fear and pleasure, that are normally mutually exclusive. In this setting and all voluntarily experienced settings that carry a similar component of danger, thrill is the emotion we seek and enjoy.” 4

emotion. Appleton provides the answer, he argues that survival requires sensitivity to danger signals: “If we were to be interested only in those features of our environment which are suggestive of safety, cosiness and comfort, and not at all concerned with those which suggest danger, what sort of recipe for survival would that be? Seeking the assurance that we can handle danger by actually experiencing it is therefore itself a source of pleasure.” 5 Humans need challenges to keep training their skills, or as Veenhoven explains it: “paradise is not liveable”. 6 The latest extreme example of a building made almost only for the thrill is the Grand Canyon Skywalk. This tourist attraction along the Colorado River is built on the edge of the Grand Canyon in the US state of Arizona. The horseshoe-shaped glass walkway protrudes 20 meters beyond the edge of the canyon and suspends 1.200 meter above the canyon floor, a height more than twice that of the world’s tallest skyscraper. 7 So if you dare to step out onto the Skywalk only a few sheets of glass will stand between you and a 15-second free-fall to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. 8

If we want to call thrill a basic concern, we need a deeper reason why we seek and enjoy this 4. HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 67-68) 5. APPLETON, J. (1994) How I made the world (p. 207) 6. VEENHOVEN, R. (2000) Leefbaarheid, betekenissen en meetmethoden. As quoted in DORST, M.J. van (2005) Een duurzaam leefbare omgeving (p. 86) 7. BRIGHT, A.M. (2006) Skywalk to offer thrilling Grand Canyon view. CNN.com. 8. BRIGHT, A.M., A Cliff-Hanger

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4.5 Dramatizing a haven

Also in our homes we enjoy this aspect of thrill, although of course less extreme, like being tucked save in bed with the rain pounding on the roof, or gathering around a fire with a storm raging outside. In each case the sense of security is dramatized by the nearness of discomfort and even danger. The value of the shelter is intensified by giving evidence of what it protects against.

4

“They intensify the value of the refuge by giving evidence of what it protects against; the haven becomes more dramatically a haven. “ - HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure 7

Safe Haven - dramatized by the nearness of discomfort and even danger

Fig. 12 Safe haven

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9. HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 69)

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4.6 Mont-Saint-Michel

A lot of the described basic concerns can be found on the Island Saint Michel in front of the normandian coast of France. The streets of Mont-Saint-Michel are very small and meanders through the dense city. These small canyon like streets function as the refuge of the city. But still from a lot of places in the small city people can enjoy the beautiful view over the sea, the prospect. These prospect spots are mostly on dangerous high points where a fall would be fatal. This gives the thrill together with the fact that the island is not reachable with high tide, the road is flooded and even a boat can’t reach the island of Mont-Saint-Michel. Fig. 14 Le Mont Saint Michel

Mont-Saint-Michel - Refuge - small streets - Prospect - view to the sea - Thrill - height > fall would be fatal. - not reachable with high tide (the road is flooded), even not with a boat.

Fig. 13 Mont-Saint-Michel

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4.7 Conclusions There are some basic concerns which all humans share. From the ‘evolutionary perspective’ (see Chapter 3, p. 7-8) we learned that humans have the need for prospect and refuge, the need to explore and the need for thrill in architecture. This is described with examples from built history, like the house ‘Can Feliz’ (fig. 4) made by Jørn Utzon on the island Majorca. This house is designed with a degree from prospect to refuge within the house. In this chapter we have discussed the basic concerns, but we need to remember that users also have specific concerns related to specific situations. However, we can state that these basic concerns are universal when talking about architecture in general. These basic concerns exist next to more specific concerns related to the person in question. So Chapter 4 - Origins; Primal concerns, gave us insight in the fundamental concerns related to architecture.

Origins/ primal concerns Humans have the need for prospect and refuge, the need to explore and the need for thrill in architecture.

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5. stimuli

Architectural means 4

After having discussed the basic concerns in the previous chapter, we now need to describe how we can make architecture attuned to the concerns of the users. Which architectural means do we have to achieve this? And how can we create specific atmospheres that can elicit specific emotions? First we will discuss the senses and the way humans perceive architecture. After this we will focus on the stimuli, or in other words the architectural atmospheres that influence our emotional state. Atmospheres are created with certain architectural means. These architectural means - like the use of materials, form and light will also be discussed in this chapter.

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5.1 Senses “The hands want to see, the eyes want to caress.” - GOETHE, J.W. von 1

Our experiences are the result of our perception with the senses. We experience by what we see, what we hear, smell, taste and touch. Without our senses there would be no experience. From our childhood on we learn from our experiences with the world around us. Rasmussen says about this: “By a variety of experiences (the child) quite instinctively learns to judge things according to weight, solidity, texture, heat-conducting ability.” 2 All this also holds true for architecture. The stimuli we perceive with our senses tell us all we need to know about a space.

Fig. 15 Stachelbeer by Diana M. Wyder

Senses Our experiences are the result of our perception with the senses. We experience by what we see, what we hear, smell, taste and touch. Without our senses there would be no experience.

In architecture all senses are important, but the sense of sight is very dominant. The other senses are underappreciated in architecture. We could pay more attention to the other senses, as the combined perception of all the senses gives us our total experience of a space. We leave so much of our spatial experience to chance if we leave the other senses untouched during the design process. Pallasmaa says about this: “[…] modern design at large has housed the intellect and the eye, but has left the body and the other senses, as well as our memories, imaginations and dreams, homeless.” 3

1. GOETHE, J. W. von, as quoted in PALLASMAA, J. (2005) The Eyes of the Skin; Architecture and the Senses (p. 14) 2. RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture (p. 18) 3. PALLASMAA, J. (2005) The Eyes of the Skin; Architecture and the Senses (p. 19)

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The other senses also have powerful influence on our experience of a space. Below are examples of hearing and smell to illustrate this influence. Hearing Sounds reflect in a space, and that way it gives us an impression of its form and material. Steven Holl wrote on the subject of sound: “The live reflections of echo and re-echo within a stone cathedral increases our awareness of the vastness, geometry and material of its space. Imagine the same space with carpet and acoustically softened… a spatial and experiential dimension of the architecture is lost. We could redefine space by shifting our attention from the visual to how it is shaped by resonant sounds, vibrations of materials and textures.” 4 “Human being still enjoys variety, including variety of sound.” - RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1962) Experiencing Architecture 5

Smell “A particular smell makes us unknowingly re-enter a space completely forgotten by the retinal memory; the nostrils awaken a forgotten image, and we are enticed to enter a vivid daydream. The nose makes the eyes remember.” 6

4. HOLL, S. Proportion, scale and perception. In HOLL, S., PALLASMAA, J. and PEREZ-GOMEZ, A. (1994) Questions of perception; Phenomenology of architecture (p. 87). 5. RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture (p. ?) 6. PALLASMAA, J. (2005) The Eyes of the Skin; Architecture and the Senses (p. 54)

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5.2 Form

Fig. 17 TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport New York, Eero Saarinen, exterior.

Fig. 16 Terminal Five at John F. Kennedy Airport

Fig. 18 TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport New York, Eero Saarinen, interior.

In the Trans World Airlines Terminal of the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York designed by Eero Saarinen the streams of people are directed by the organic forms, or you could say the opposite, the streams shape the building. The building’s undulating shape was meant to evoke the excitement of high speed flight. Sylvia Hart Wright wrote in her ‘Sourcebook of Contemporary North American Architecture: From Postwar to Postmodern’ about Saarinen’s design: “This is surely one of the world’s most dramatic airline terminals. Few straight lines here: approached head on, its curving contours uncannily suggest a bird in flight. Inside, the main lobby’s soaring, swooping walls, its carefully modeled staircases, seating areas, and many other features are a blend of graceful sculptural forms selected ‘to suggest the excitement of the trip.’ 7 Eero Saarinen himself says about his design: ‘...a building in which the architecture itself would express the drama and specialness and excitement of travel... a place of movement and transition... The shapes were deliberately chosen in order to emphasize an upwardsoaring quality of line. We wanted an uplift.’ 8 The building and all its spaces and elements make up a total environment where every detail belongs to the same family of forms. This is one

instance of Saarinen’s idea of the necessity of extending architecture to the smallest detail of the design. Thus, every object should relate to its neighbouring objects. Even the terminal’s smallest interior details, lounges, chairs, signs, and telephone booths were designed to harmonize with the curving shaped building. To quote Saarinen: “All the curves, all the spaces and elements right down to the shape of the signs, display boards, railings and check-in desks were to be of a matching nature. We wanted passengers passing through the building to experience a fully-designed environment, in which each part arises from another and everything belongs to the same formal world.” 9 The whole building with all its details feels like it is alive, the organic forms swell, stretch, press and push out. From a distance it looks like a bird that can fly away any time.

Form Architecture is interpreted as forms which swell, press, push out, etc.

7. WRIGHT, S.H. (1989) ‘Sourcebook of Contemporary North American Architecture: From Postwar to Postmodern’ . 8. SAARINEN, E. Notes 9. SAARINEN, E. (1959) as quoted in GOSSEL, P. and LEUTHAUSER, G. Architecture in the Twentieth Century (p.250)

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5.3 Mass or void Architects can work with convex or concave forms. “[...] markedly convex forms give an impression of mass while concave ones lead to an impression of space, “ 10 as stated by Rasmussen. Mass or void Architects can work with convex or concave forms. Markedly convex forms give an impression of mass while concave ones lead to an impression of space.

Fig. 19 Rubin vase

Rubin vase Also known as the face-vase. It represents two different shapes, but both shapes can never be seen at the same time. Rubin wrote on this: “One can then state as a fundamental principle: When two fields have a common border, and one is seen as figure and the other as ground, the immediate perceptual experience is characterized by a shaping effect which emerges from the common border of the fields and which operates only on one field or operates more strongly on one than on the other.” 11 Architects mostly work with structural forms - the solids, but they can also work with the empty space - the cavity - between the solids, and consider the forming of that space as the real meaning of architecture. An example of designing the cavity is the St. George church in Lalibela, Ethiopia (fig. 20), where they started with the solid and excavated the site, which resulted in a cavity - the church. “We do not perceive everything as either mass or void.” - RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture 12

Fig. 20 St. George church, Lalibela, Ethiopia

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10. RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture 11. RUBIN, E. (1915) Synsoplevede Figurer 12. RASMUSSEN, S. E. Idem

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5.4 Movement “The design of buildings, which must be stationary, should be based on the movement that will flow through them.” - RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture 13

Two good examples of buildings where the movement of people play an important role are the Glass shop by Frank Lloyd Wright and Therme Vals by Peter Zumthor. Both are designed with movement in mind, but the results are quite different. The organic staircase in the glass shop built for V.C. Morris guides you through the building. In the Therme Vals of Zumthor you are not guided and free to explore the different baths and sauna’s. There is not one defined route, like in the glass shop, but many. For example, from the central bath (see fig. 22) four staircases lead you out of the water to explore the rest of the bathhouse.

Fig. 21 Frank Lloyd Wright, Glass shop built for V.C. Morris, San Francisco, 1948

Fig. 22 Peter Zumthor, Therme Vals, Swiss

Movement Architecture can guide movement (Wright) or stimulate free movement (Zumthor)

13. RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture (p. ?)

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5.5 Expression of form Soft: It always has the impression of something that was kneaded and moulded Hard: In contrast to the sharp-edged and clearcut shape of the diamonds How a material is treated, placed, and which shape it is in, influences our experience of the material. On the left there are two figures; one of an english bridge made out of brick and the other Palazzo Punta di Diamanti in Rome made out of natural stone. So both materials are quite simular, but its expression is completely different, because of the way it is used. The organic shaped english bridge has the impression of something that was kneaded and moulded. It has a very soft expression. This in contrast to the sharp-edged and clearcut shape of the diamonds of the Palazzo Punta di Diamanti.

Fig. 23 An English bridge of the great canal-building period at the beginning of the 19th century. Example of a “soft” form made of brick

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Fig. 24 Palazzo Punta di Diamanti in Rome. A building with a typically “hard” form

Expression of form How a material is treated, placed, and which shape it is in, influences our experience of the material.

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5.6 Expression of material Impressions of hardness and softness, of heaviness and lightness, are connected with the surface character of materials. The horizontal balconies and terraces of Frank Lloyd Wright house “Falling Water� are in big contrast with the vertical elements. The light coloured smooth surfaces of the concrete balconies seem much lighter then the rough stone surfaces of the vertical elements.

Expression of material Impressions of hardness and softness, of heaviness and lightness, are connected with the surface character of materials. e.g. - rough stone (heavy) vs. smooth white concrete cantilevers (light) Fig. 25 and 26 Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright

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“Heavy granite column stands directly on the lighter paving material, shattering the pattern of the brick paving.� - RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1965) Experiencing Architecture 9

A building can be made to appear heavier than it actually is, and it can also be made to appear lighter than it is. The upper part of the Doge Palace in Venice, for example, appears light altough it is solid. This is achieved by the use of light colours in a checkered pattern. Another good example of material expression is a clinker paved colonnade in Copenhagen. The heavy granite column seems to sink into the softer clinkers, because of the expression of the material and it also chips of the pattern of the clinkers.

Fig. 27 Doge Palace, Venice, Italy

Fig. 28 Clinker paved colonnade in Copenhagen

Appearance A building can be made to appear heavier than it actually is, and it can also be made to appear lighter than it is. This can be achieved with material expression, patterns, form (more in chapter 5.5) and colour (more in chapter 5.11).

13. RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture (p. ?)

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5.7 Tension and pressure A famous quote by Goethe “The hands want to see, the eyes want to caress� 14 explains why young children want to touch everything they see, and often they even want to check if it is possible to eat. They learn by experience if something is eatable or not and how the textures of materials feel. Next to textures they also learn weight, solidity and heat-conducting ability of materials. Even when adults see a new material they feel the need to touch this. Fig. 29 Archer with bow and arrow

When children start to play with arrow and bow they feel what tension means and will see this tension in the future in bridges like the Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam. This bridge completed in 1996 and designed by Ben van Berkel is tensioned like a harp. For an example of pressure, see figure 47 on page 41 Caryatids; Acropolis, Athens. The caryatids hold the weight of the architrave. You can almost feel the pressure on their heads.

Tension and pressure We feel the tension in the Erasmus bridge, because we have experienced tension before.

Fig. 30 Erasmus Bridge by Ben van Berkel, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

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14. GOETHE, J.W. von, as quoted in The eyes of the skin : architecture and the senses (p.14), PALLASMAA, J. (2005)

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5.8 Scale and proportion

Fig. 31 Le Modulor, Le Corbusier

Fig. 33 Tatami room with shoji

Fig. 32 Kaare Klint’s proportion study of the rooms in Frederik’s Hospital, Copenhagen

Scale and proportion People have an affinity for (a certain level of ) order, but what kind of order does not really matter. The golden section, for example, is just one of the orders that can be used in architecture.

In history there have been many theories about order, scale and proportion in architecture. And as a result of this, there have been many attempts to incorporate mathematical and musical principles into the proportions of architecture. This is all the due to the fact that people have an affinity for order. Steven Holl wrote in an essay on proportion, scale and perception: “One of the intuitive powers of humans is the perception of subtle mathematical proportions in the physical world. Just as we can tune musical instruments with a minuteness of proportional adjustment to produce harmonies, so we have an analogous ability to appreciate visual and spatial proportional relations. In music, as in architecture and any of the visual arts, these sensibilities must be cultivated.” 15 One theory that attracted a lot of attention is the theory of the golden section. There have been people interested in this one proportion ever since the days of antiquity. Pythagoras and his disciples, theorists of the Renaissance and in more modern times Le Corbusier. He based his ideas of proportion, “Le Modulor”, on principles of the golden section. For Le Corbusier “Le Modulor” was an instrument that enabled him to relate everything he designed to the scale and proportions of a human being and by doing so create beauty and rationality in architecture.

But we do not experience the exact measurements of these proportions. We do feel that the spaces are related in size and are part of a greater whole, though. This means that people have an affinity for order, as mentioned before, but what kind of order does not really matter. The golden section, for example, is just one of the orders that can be used in architecture. Other examples of order Another example of order in architecture is Frederik’s Hospital in Copenhagen by Kaare Klint. In this building the dimensions were not determined by columns, or golden sections, or any other “beautiful” proportions, but by the beds which the hospital was built to hold. Or the order of the Japanese Tatami mat building tradition, were all proportions are based on the dimensions of the Tatami mat. Steven Holl explains: “Historically a culture’s particular building tradition often came with inherent balance. For example the Japanese Tatami mat building tradition sets the plan of rooms in a house two, three, four, eight, twelve, fourteen, etc. mat rooms, making up all proportional relations of room sizes according to the 3’x6’ human-scaled Tatami. Building was automatically scaled to the human in a proportional series.” 16 People have an affinity for a certain level of order. This can change over time, from place to place and from person to person.

15. HOLL, S. Proportion, scale and perception. In HOLL, S., PALLASMAA, J. and PEREZ-GOMEZ, A. (1994) Questions of perception; Phenomenology of architecture (p. 116). Tokyo, A and U. 16. HOLL, S. Idem

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5.9 Rhythm

Rhythm can be described as an alternation of elements or movements over time. Human beings enjoy rhythm in various ways, like in music, art, architecture and even in nature. Rhythm can be simple, complex or a combination of both - ordered complexity or complex order.

Fig. 34 Ordered complexity

The swallows in figure 34 create a very dynamic scene. The wires, however, bring some order to all this chaos. Together they are like a music bar, where the swallows are the notes and the wires the ledger lines. This is a good example of ordered complexity. An example of complex order is Italian broccoli. Grant Hildebrand writes: “Italian broccoli [see fig. 35], one of the most wonderful of natural fractal geometries, can produce in Homo sapiens that most honest evidence of pleasure, a smile or a laugh. Its infinite progression of hierachical order generates delight.� 17 Rhythm Rhythm = Alternation of elements or movements over time. - Ordered complexity: brings order to chaos

Fig. 35 Italian Broccoli; complex order

- Complex order: progression of (hierarchical) order generates delight 17. HILDEBRAND, G. Origins of Architectural Pleasure (p. 96)

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5.9.1 Variations in rhythm “In the world of architecture you can also experience delightful examples of subtle variations within strict regularity.” - RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1965) Experiencing Architecture 19

In Origins of Architectural Pleasure, Grant Hildebrand gives the example of Arlington Row in Bilbury, Gloucestershire (see fig. 36). A row of traditional houses of the same type that are built within the same overall plan. Although they are of the same type, etc. they all exhibit some small differences – “variations on a theme within a [...] pattern.” 20

Fig. 36 Arlington Row, Bibury, Gloucestershire, seventeenth century (?). Complex order in a footpathscape.

Variations in rhythm

Hildebrand himself writes: “Arlington Row in Bilbury, Gloucestershire, presents to the eye seemingly repeated elements and seemingly repeated intervals - doors, windows, dormers, gables, chimneys - whose multitudinous minor variations make each iterations as different from any other, and as alike, as individuals of the same species.“ 21

“[...] (We) take pleasure in seeing new patterns which are minor transformations of the original [...]” - HUMPHREY, N. (1980) Architecture for people : explorations in a new humane environment. 18

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18. HUMPHREY, N. (1980) Architecture for people: explorations in a new humane environment. 19. RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1965) Experiencing Architecture (p. 127) 20. RASMUSSEN, S.E. Idem 21. HILDEBRANT, G. Origins of Architectural Pleasure (p. ?)

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5.9.2 Complex order

Fig. 37 Laon Cathedral. The north tower of the west facade.

Fig. 38 Laon. Composite plan of the tower. Clockwise from lower right: buttress story; penultimate story; ultimate story (with oxen); roof.

The Laon cathedral in northern France is a very good example of a building with an intuitive appeal and with a level of sophistication. The enormous towers of the west facade of the cathedral are overwhelming and have an immediately appeal. The more we try to unravel the structure of the towers and its ornaments, the more we discover of its level of sophistication. It takes an amount of cognition, whether conscious or subconscious, to be able to understand this level of sophistication. At first sight the plan of each ascending story is plainly not that of the story below. Although each story repeats established themes they are of radically different sizes. There are also unexpected animals in the upper porches, oxen whose heads seem turned every which way. But if we take a closer look to the plan through the various sections we will discover its ordered complexity. Hildebrand explains the composite plan of the tower (fig. 38) as follows: ”The primary plan figure is the square formed by the imaginary centerlines of the buttresses. The plan of the story above the buttresses, the penultimate story, is determined by assigning one-third of the side of that buttress-centerline square as half the diagonal of smaller squares perched diagonally at the four corners; these are the empty porches at the corner of figure [38]. Above, the octagonal porches of the ultimate story result from nipping off the corners of the porch geometries below; the oxen look out from the resultant octagons.

And to bring everything to a nice closure, the centerlines of these oxen fall, as they must, on the buttress centerlines that started everything, while a closer look reveals that all the heads of the oxen are turned at forty-five degrees, the rotation that generated the porches at both levels. There are other such relationships in these towers, in elevation as well as plan: the height of the penultimate story, for example, is equal to the side of the original generating square. But perhaps enough has been cited to make the point that an understanding of some elements of these towers may depend on cognitive consideration. The enjoyment of the order and complexity remains innate — so much so that it is difficult to understand how it could be otherwise—but a full awareness that such order and complexity exist may depend on cognitive intervention.” 22 The Laon Cathedral has since its completion moved many people with its enormous appeal and its ordered complexity till the present day. So buildings with immediate appeal and a cognitive explication have the change of garnering many audiences and extended interest. Complex order intuitive appeal (immediately affective) + cognitive explication (sophisticated cognitive level) = building with extended interest

22. HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 133)

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5.10 Light in Architecture “Light is of decisive importance in experiencing architecture. The same room can be made to give very different spacial impressions by the simple expedient of changing the size and location of its openings.” - RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture 23

“In our time, light has turned into a mere quantitative matter and the window has lost its significance as a mediator between two worlds, between enclosed and open, interiority and exteriority, private and public, shadow and light. Having lost its ontological meaning, the window has turned into a mere absence of the wall.” - PALLASMAA, J. (2005) The Eyes of the Skin; Architecture and the Senses 24

Light

Fig. 39 Oculus, Pantheon, Rome

“Free influx of natural light give a shadowless interior; forms are not quite plastic and textural effects are generally poor.” - RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture 25

23. RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1962) Experiencing architecture (p. 187) 24. PALLASMAA, J. (2005) The Eyes of the Skin; Architecture and the Senses (p. 47) 25. Rasmussen, S.E. (1962) Experiencing architecture (p. 195)

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5.10.1 City hall in Gothenburg, Sweden

Fig. 40 Light from one side in City hall in Gothenburg, Sweden

The architect Asplund designed this city hall with a covered and an open court. These courts are visually connected through a glass wall. Daylight enters the covered court from the side through this glass wall. The covered court is too deep for the daylight to enter the whole space, thus Asplund decided to add a skylight. The skylight is not a normal skylight, but one in the shape of a single section of a saw-tooth roof (see fig. 40). This makes sure that the daylight still comes from only one direction, which results in a quality of light that is very satisfactory. The round columns (see fig. 41) in front of the glass wall have a soft contour to avoid harsh shadows and give them more plasticity. This adds to the quality of the light and the atmosphere of the space.

Light from one direction “A more or less concentrated light that is, light from one or more sources falling in the same direction is the best in which to see form and texture.� - RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture 26

Fig. 41 and 42 E.G. Asplund, City hall in Gothenburg, Sweden 26. RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1962) Experiencing Architecture (p. 208)

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5.10.2 Dutch canalside houses

Fig. 43 The Music Lesson (c. 1662-1665) Oil on canvas 74.6 x 64.1 cm, Royal Collection, St. James’ Palace, London

Fig. 45 16th century houses in Vere, the Fig. 44 Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1664) Netherlands Oil on canvas 40.3 x 35.6 cm (15 7/8 x 14 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington

Light in dutch canalside houses

Probably the most instructive examples of good lighted spaces are the Dutch canalside houses. These typically Dutch houses are deep, tall and narrow. All the light had to come from the windows in front and rear, because the deep side walls were usually shared with the neighbouring houses. As a result, there could be no openings in these side walls. This is why these houses had large window openings to provide enough light for the rooms. In the time they were build, glass was so expensive and difficult to procure that the larger lower parts of the windows were equipped with shutters only, while the upper parts had fixed leaded panes. In bad weather the light which came trough the small glass panes above had to suffice, because only during good summer days the shutters could be opened so that the inhabitants could look outside and let the light flow in. Later when glass was less scarce, the lower parts of the windows were also glazed, but the shutters were retained. Even the upper parts where sometimes equipped with shutters, in which case they opened into the room. This produced a four framed window with a shutter for each frame that could be opened or closed independently so the light could be regulated at will. Curtains and hangings perfected this four-shutter system. The rich merchants who lived in these well-lighted houses could enjoy the textural effects of their mostly expensive interiors with Orient porcelain and beautifully wooden carved furniture.

The famous Dutch painters of the seventeenth century took full advantage of the many lighting possibilities of these houses. The best documented paintings of the lighting of Dutch interiors are the works of Johannes Vermeer. He lived and worked his entire life in the city of Delft with its many canalside houses. In these houses he made his masterpieces, with almost always the light coming from the left. In the painting “The Music Lesson” (fig. 24) we can see how the room is lighted when all the shutters are open. The rearmost window is right up against the wall and the light coming through shows us even the texture of the white plastered wall. The shadows of the mirror and the virginal are softened by reflected light and especially by light coming from the other windows. Also the plasticity of the jug of wine produced by the light is beautifully painted by Vermeer. In the painting “Woman Holding a Balance” (Fig. 25) the light comes from the upper half of the rearmost window and it is further dimmed by curtains. This strong light from one direction creates big contrasts and shows the enormous plasticity of the clothes of the woman. In this way you can go through all of Vermeers works and determine just how he obtained the right light for each of his paintings.

Light from one direction > plasticity + texture

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5.10.3 Le Corbusier: Church in Ronchamps “Light and shadow reveal form.” 27 - LE CORBUSIER (1965) Textes et dessin pour Ronchamp

Fig. 47 Exterior

Fig. 46 Apse in the Chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut at Ronchamps, Le Corbusier 1954.

Fig. 48 Interior

Light “Light and shadow reveal form.” 8 - LE CORBUSIER (1965) Textes et dessin pour Ronchamp

Light alone can already create the effect of enclosed space.

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The Chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut, one of Le Corbusier’s later works, is in big contrast with his earlier buildings with daylight flooded rooms. He created a church interior which had “the emotional appeal that is based on the shadowed dimness of indirect lighting, in which form is only vaguely revealed.” 28 At the time of its completion in 1954, the Chapel at Ronchamp shocked the critics who went to see it. Pevsner complained of a retreat into “irrationality”, thus betraying his prejudice that Le Corbusier’s earlier works had been somehow “rational”. 29 Le Corbusier himself wrote to the client: “I have not experienced the miracle of faith but I have often known the miracle of inexpressible space, the apotheosis of plastic emotion”. 30 Later, he wrote that he was interested in “the effect of architectural forms and the spirit of architecture in the construction of a vessel of intense concentration and meditation” and in what he called “an acoustic component in the domain of form”. In other words, he sought to evoke spiritual emotions through the play of form, space and light, and without recourse to any obvious church typology. 31

From a distance you can see the white tower sticking out of the woods and the more you climb up the hill the more of the white walls of the church will be revealed. This route is probably influenced by the procession to the Parthenon. As you come nearer you discover that there is not one plane surface, the entire building curves and swells into an extraordinary composition. You need to walk around to grasp a bit of its complex form and to find the entrance. Entering the building the first thing that strikes you is that it is very dark. After your eyes have adjusted to the darkness, you will discover the beautiful mystic light. Light coming through deep piercings of unequal size in the thick right wall. From the outside these piercings seemed to be only tiny windows, but inside they open up into large white embrasures that cast a great deal of reflected light into the dim room. Some of the small windows are painted and bring some coloured light in the chapel. Between the white walls and the grey concrete ceiling is a very narrow opening which admits just the right amount of light to show texture of the casted concrete ceiling. The towers appear in the interior as apses, recessed enlargements of the room. These white painted apses are lighted with indirect light from above shed magic light over the curved walls. The light creates the effect of enclosed space, like a campfire does in the darkness.

27. PEVSNER, N. (1966) ‘Nikolaus Pevsner on the Anti-Pioneers’ 28. STIRLING, J. (1956) ‘Ronchamp; Le Corbusier’s Chapel and the Crisis of Rationalism’ 29. CURTIS, W.J.R. (1996) ‘Modern architecture since 1900’ (p. 419) 30. LE CORBUSIER (1954) The modulor (p. 32) 31. LE CORBUSIER (1953) OEuvre complete 1946-52 (p.88)

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5.11 Colour in Architecture

Fig. 49 Red shingles

Fig. 50 Red checkered tablecloth

Colour How we experience colour depends on the surrounding colours, the level of saturation, and/or what kind of light falls on it. Association - We associate colour with characteristics of certain materials, objects, and with nature (e.g. blue with water and red with fire) Symbolism - signal, warning, national, uniform colours, etc. Psychological & Physiological red > exciting; e.g. red tablecloth (digestion), green > soothing Visual effects - certain colours make object seem lighter or heavier; or large/small, near/distant, cool/ warm, and unity through colour

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Colour is a very powerful mean in architecture. Many books are written about the effect of colour, but they are not always telling us the same story. Contradictions can be easily found, because it is hard not to be subjective with such a topic. Another problem with making general conclusions is the fact that colours have different meanings in different cultures. For example, in most parts of Europe black is for mourning, though in northern parts of Portugal, and perhaps elsewhere in Europe as well, brides wear black gowns on their wedding day. In China and other parts of East Asia white is the colour of mourning and in most of Europe it is the colour of purity; worn by the bride at her wedding. 32 But it is still possible to make some general conclusions about the effects of colour. We saw in the example of Fallingwater in Chapter 5.6 that light painted materials seem lighter than dark coloured materials. Other visual effects of colour can make things look further away or more distant; larger or smaller; cooler or warmer. For example, a cool blue bathroom and warm red living room. Association plays a very important role with experiencing colours; we do not only associate blue with cold water and red with fire, but also red shingles with bricks. And why do most Scandinavian people paint their wooden houses red or yellow? The Swedish art historian

Erik Lundberg believes that the Scandinavian use of deep red paint on the exterior of houses is started as an imitation of the much grander red brick manor houses of the wealthy. 33 Later generations imitated stucco houses and their light colours, like the often used light yellow. Buildings are also painted to create a unity between different materials. Colour can also have a very symbolic meaning. You can think about signals, national colours or uniform colours. Another interesting aspect of colour is their psychological and physiological effect on people, like the red tablecloth in a restaurant giving you an exiting feeling and letting your digestion work more, or the soothing effect of green. 34 But how we experience colour depends on the surrounding colours, the level of saturation, and what kind of light falls on it. Rasmussen says about the light effect on colours: “Warm and cold colors play an important role in our lives and express very different moods and emotions. We experience them in the variations of daylight from morning to evening. It is true that the eye adjusts itself to the gradual change so that the local colors of details appear the same throughout the day. But if we observe the whole as a unit - a landscape or a street scene - we become aware of the changes in the color scheme. The entire mood changes with the changing light.� 35

32. KRESS, G. and VAN LEEUWEN, T; (2002) Colour as a semiotic mode: notes for a grammar of colour 33. LUNDBERG, E. in RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 216). 34. RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 218). 35. Idem (p. 221).

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5.12 Associations and conceptions “[...] we generally are not aware of what it is that we perceive but only of the conception created in our minds when we perceive it.” 36 And if we are not interested in knowing more we usually notice no more. It easier to perceive the known as the unknown, like blobs are hard to grasp because they do not refer to traditional architectural spaces. The new castles of the Haverleij project (see fig. 46) do refer to the traditional castles of the Middle Ages and they arouse a sensation by association. Fig. 51 Haverleij, castle Zwaenenstede; a castle with a moat by Adolfo Natalini, 2001

Fig. 52 Caryatids; Acropolis, Athens

Another example of association and conception is the caryatids of the Acropolis in Athens. We feel the load of the architrave on the caryatids, because we identify ourselves with these female shaped columns. “We tend to interpret a building as an analogue to our body, and vice versa.” 37 We also have a special affection with these caryatids because it has survived longer than our lifespan. Associations and conceptions - It easier to perceive the known as the unknown - Buildings and rooms are able to arouse a sensation by association. - Act of recreation; identifying ourselves with the object. - We have special affection with products and buildings which have and will survive our lifespan. 36. RASMUSSEN, S. E. (1962) Experiencing architecture 37. PALLASMAA, J. (2005) The Eyes of the Skin; Architecture and the Senses (p. 38)

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5.13 Conclusions In this chapter we described architectural means, like light, colour, sound, texture and smell. We have explained these architectural means by giving examples from the built history. These examples show how architects have created certain atmospheres that influence our emotional state. We have tried to give a broad overview of architectural means available to the architect. Our findings are mainly based on architectural means discussed in the two books, Experiencing Architecture and Origins of Architectural Pleasure. We believe that our overview gives a complete picture, however, we can never state that we described them all completely or precise enough.

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6. Important emotions In architecture Pleasant Love On top of the world Desire Aired Amazed Happy Trustful Peaceful Calm Serene Rich Respect Comfortable Satisfaction Proud Safe Curious Astonished Fig. 53 Brainstorm Explorelab 4

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Unpleasant Claustrophobic Exposed Dirty Confused Hate Anger Embarrassed Annoying Frustration Boredom Jealousy Fear Poor Irritated Uncomfortable Ignored Lost

Unspecified Overwhelming Stunned Small (humble?) Wide/Empty Nothing Clean Nostalgic Associated Surprise

Pieter Desmet defined in his dissertation the most important emotions concerning products. He used these emotions for his questionaries. We would like to know what the important emotions in architecture are and how this differs from or relates to the important emotions defined by Desmet. We would like to use the important emotions in architecture in questionaries for our practical research, in the same way as Pieter Desmet did. Brainstorm (2007.05.08) To help us find the important emotions in architecture, we asked the students of Explorelab 4 to tell us which emotions they had while experiencing architecture. We wrote them all on a whiteboard and ended the brainstorm when nobody could come up with any new emotions. After the brainstorm we ordered all the emotions in the categories pleasant, unpleasant and unspecified (see fig. 48).

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Pleasant - desire - fascination - admiration - satisfaction - pleasant surprise - inspiration - amusement

Unpleasant - contempt - boredom - disgust - dissatisfaction - unpleasant surprise - indignation - disappointment

- safe - proud

- unsafe - shame - guilt ?

Atmospheres

- calm, tranquil, serene, quiet and peaceful - warm - cosy - intimate - sociable - the need for social interaction/contact - gloomy - nostalgia

Fig. 54 Results of the brainstorm

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Results brainstorm We compared the emotions with the list of Pieter Desmet. Although each of the emotions collected in the brainstorm can be elicited by architecture, it is unclear to what extend they all represent unique emotions. Some of them differ more from each other (e.g. amazed and bored) than others (e.g. amazed versus astonished). Some emotions seem to be very similar, such as irritated and annoyed. We fine-tuned the emotions by identifying and eliminating duplicate emotions. Desire, for example, covers calm and peaceful.

We also made a list of emotions that say something about the atmosphere of an architectural space, e.g. a calm and tranquil space can make you feel calm. We think that describing what kind of atmosphere you want to create can be more effective for your design process than what kind of emotion the space should evoke.

Conclusion

Most of the emotions of the brainstorm are covered by the emotions Pieter Desmet defined, although, in our view, a few very important emotions are not. The emotions safe/unsafe and proud/shame and maybe even guilt are not covered. Especially safe/unsafe is a very important emotion concerning architecture. We need a shelter against weather changes and to protect us from animals treats (as explained in Chapter 4). We discussed our outcomes with Pieter Desmet and he agreed with us. In fact, he was also planning to add safe and unsafe to his list.

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7. Examples

From architectural practice In this chapter we discuss how our research topic ‘emotion in archicture’ is put into practice and if architects are able to use it as a good foundation of their design process. We will describe this by giving two examples of architecture firms that used the ‘ViP method’ for the project ‘Eenwoning.nu’. 7.1 ViP method

(Vision in Product design rewritten for Architecture. Source: Vision in Product Design (ViP) “The warm bath” 1)

ViP is a design approach with three starting points:

Project ‘Eenwoning.nu’ A project developer contacted Prof. Paul Hekkert with the idea to develop a housing project. The project was nicknamed ‘Eenwoning.nu’. The idea was to use the ViP method in a workshop to determine the concerns of the potential users. Two architectural firms, INarchitecten and DUS architecten, were invited to participate in the workshop. A group of potential users were also invited to participate. The goal of the workshop was to use the ViP method and to translate the results into an architectural design.

1. Design is about looking for possibilities, and possible futures, instead of solving present-day problems.

Fig. 55 the ViP framework (rewritten for Architecture)

2. Architecture is a means to facilitate actions, interactions, and relationships. Through interaction with people, architecture obtains its meaning. This is why ViP is interaction-centred. 3. The appropriateness of an interaction is determined by the context for which it is designed. The context can be the world of today, tomorrow, or may lie years ahead. Future contexts demand new and different behaviours. This makes ViP context-driven. Break through preconceptions and create a new context. 1. LLOYD, P., HEKKERT, P. and DIJK, M. van (2006) Vision in Product Design (ViP); The warm bath.

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7.2 INarchitecten, Amsterdam Smart- start, living for the young urban dweller Process During the workshop INarchitecten wrote a statement for the young urban dweller. This statement was then used to distill interaction terms. After that they continued by defining product terms related to those interaction terms. Finally, by using these product terms as guidelines, they made a design for a housing project. Fig. 56 Impression Smart- start

Statement We would like that our dwelling or living environment stimulates and inspires us to change and create possibilities. At the same time our dwelling should enable us to enjoy the present. Interaction terms - expectently of lightness - development of the now - everybody wants the same but different. - energy - flexibility, freedom of choice - simultaneousness - contradiction, contrast

Product terms - mobility, travel - continuity pattern - change of environment - lightness, concealed from ground level - transparency, universal, playfullness - exchange of space - expectancy; curves, ambiguity, no sightlines - configuration (unity in diversity) - untransparent

Fig. 57 Floorplans Smart- start

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7.3 DUS architecten, Den Haag My home is My city Process DUS architecten started the workshop by also defining interaction terms with the participants of the workshop.. This resulted in a product concept, which they used as guidelines for their design for a housing project. Interaction terms They had a huge list of interaction terms, which were used as a tool to unravel the personal concerns of the potential users. Fig. 58 Model My home is My city

Fig. 59 Exploded view My home is My city

Product concept - The project should evoke the feeling that you own the whole house - Infrastructure = living space; the most luxurious part of the house - Space demands to make simple choices; there sould always be two routes to get somewhere - Personal physical movement should be accompanied by a change of perception, like in the city - Sensorial contact with nature from different places in the house (e.g. drops in the pond, wind around the house, sunlight in the yard)

Fig. 60 Floorplan My home is My city

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7.4 Conclusions We made an analysis of the process and the final design of both architecture firms. Based on the reactions of the participants of the workshop (representing the potential users) and how they used the ViP method, we came to the following conclusions:

Fig. 61 Interaction My home is My city

INarchitecten INarchitecten put the ViP method to good use, especially in the deconstruction phase (see fig. ? on p. 44), but stayed too conceptual during the designing phase. This was probably the result of having too many translation steps in their design process. The participants of the workshop were not too happy with the final design in the end. They had a lot of practical questions about the final design, due to the conceptual nature of the design. DUS architecten DUS architecten had the benefit that they already were interested in the personal concerns of the potential users. They already had experience with this kind of approach. This made it easier for them to interact with the potential users during the workshop. This resulted in a design that everybody could grasp. DUS architecten developed several similar methods after this workshop that they use for their designs. One example is a toolbox for

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the renovation project Poptahof in Delft. They have also used statement cards with words like challenging, safe, hospitality, rest, natural, view, privacy, to find out the personal concerns of potential users. Or they organised a bus tour with possible clients to visit their homes to find out about their personal concerns and help establish a focus group for a new housing project. DUS architecten have a very hands on approach and strive for a lot of interaction between designer and potential user. This results in human designs. This in contrast with INarchitecten, who are more conceptual in their design approach. Trying to find out about the personal concerns of potential users can prove to be very useful for practicing architecture. The ViP method, in this case, is a way to find out these concerns and transform these into guidelines for a design.

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8. Practical research With practical research we unraveled architectural concerns and stimuli related to our design topics. Simon analysed several meditation centers for his design and Paul visited families in their own homes. The discovered insights should be able to help us with our design projects.

10. ?

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8.1 Meditation centres For the practical part of our research on emotion in architecture, we visited some meditation centres in The Netherlands. This is the result of one of our design projects. We want to put our research into practice during our graduation. Simon’s design project is a meditation centre, so we visited several meditation centres to get an idea of their pros and cons. We made appointments with several meditation centres, namely Schiphol Meditation Centre, the meditation centre at Shell Headquarters in The Hague, the meditation centre at the University of Tilburg and a lot of churches. One church in particular was very interesting, the ‘Papegaai’ in Amsterdam. The approach was to visit these meditation centres and ask visitors and staff questions and observe them to unravel their concerns – concerns related to the meditation centre, their wishes and desires. But also concerns related to problems with the meditation centres. We also took photos for documentation and further analysis afterwards. These meditation centres were not chosen because they were functioning so well or because they are so beautiful. They were just chosen for analysis – to find out about their good and not so good points. What works well or not and what can be improved, etc.

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Fig. 62 Entrance of meditation centre

Schiphol Meditation Centre The Schiphol Meditation Centre is hidden somewhere in the Schiphol complex, which makes it a bit hard to find, unless you are looking for it. But once you found it, there was good use of transitions from the outside to the inside. This was where meditation space itself is located. From the outside there were distinct borders we had to cross to be able to enter the meditation space. First you would enter a entrance area where you could sit before entering the meditation space. You could take off your shoes there and there was material you could read on the subject of meditation. There was also an office for the caretaker. This entrance area had a lower ceiling than the meditation space, which enhanced the transition to the meditation space. Although there were several transitions from the entrance to the meditation space, there still was a certain level of transparency. This transparency made it possible to have a glance of what is to come right from the start.

Visitors really like the fact that it is open for all religions. It shows a great deal of tolerance towards one another. But this also resulted in some level of disturbance. Christians, for example, had some difficulties with Muslims praying in the meditation space at the same time as them. This could be related to the fact that Muslims pray more exuberantly. The meditation space also had a focus point, which is very important for praying. But there were several focus points, which did not give the impression of unity – more of fracture. One final concern was the lack of difference in light levels. This could have added so much to the atmosphere of the space. It would enhance the transition from the entrance to the meditation space and create a much more suitable space for meditation.

After entering the actual meditation space, you would notice the lack of specific religious symbolism. The idea behind a meditation centre is that it should be adequate for all religions. This is visible in the minimalist style of the meditation space. This neutral atmosphere results in some conflicting concerns. There was some form of symbolism present in the space – some sort of universal symbolism – in the form of six pieces of artwork. Fig. 63 Meditation space

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Meditation centre at Shell Headquarters The meditation centre at Shell Headquarters was located in the back of the main entrance of the building. This makes it a bit harder to find, but does make it more reclusive and quiet, which works well for meditation centres. The meditation centre has good transitions. When you enter, you first arrive in an entrance area, much like the one at Schiphol. This room is provided with a couch and literature on meditation and light from outside. You can sit here when the meditation space is occupied or to prepare yourself for the actual meditation itself. After this room, you change direction and walk through a heavy wooden door into the meditation space.

Fig. 64 Meditation space

The meditation space has a totally different atmosphere. This is mostly the result of the lack of daylight. The lack of daylight is not disturbing at all, as this, in combination with the warm and quiet colours, adds to the serene feel of the space. The artificial light sources also function as the focus points of the space; one for Christians – the altar – and one for Muslims – the qibla. Again this causes some sort of fracture of the space. The change in light levels from the entrance space to the meditation space, again adds to the transition from the outside to the inside.

Fig. 65 Entrance to the meditation space

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Meditation centre at the University of Tilburg The meditation centre in Tilburg is located at the main square of the university. This makes it easy find. Most people, however, do not know that it is a meditation centre. From the outside it looks like a bunker and a lot of people think that it is some sort of technical building. But people, who do know where it is, use it quite frequently.

Fig. 66 Meditation space

As you approach the meditation centre, you see that it is lowered half a level into the ground. This adds to the sense of security. A sense of security is important for a meditation centre, as you need to feel safe to be able to meditate. When you enter the building, you first see the toilets. Here you can wash up before continuing to the meditation space. This is especially important for Muslims that come here to pray. After this you turn right and enter a small meeting space. This space can be used for assembly before entering the actual meditation space, but can also be used to wait for a while when the meditation space is occupied. Then you enter the meditation space and the transition from the meeting space to the meditation space is mostly experienced by the difference in height and openness. The meditation space is much higher and more introvert than the meeting space. The introvert

feeling is enhanced by the fact that daylight enters through slits in the roof. The downside to these slits is that it brings too much light into the space. This results in less distinct shadows, which in turn results in a less pleasant atmosphere for meditation. Frequent visitors also had some issues with the meditation space. We talked about lack of privacy. When someone flushes the toilet, the flushing is heard in the meditation space. In addition to this, visitors find it annoying that when new visitors arrive that there is immediate eye contact with them. This disturbs their concentration and therefore their meditation. Another point of irritation is that the meditation centre is not always very comfortable. There are some difficulties with the heating. This means that the meditation space is often too cold and that does not promote meditation very well. Visitors are also missing a real focus point in the meditation space. And finally, they mentioned that the meditation space was too big for a small group and too small for a big group. The level of intimacy is not right for a small group and there is not enough effective space for a big group. In the end, frequent visitors are content with the fact that there is a place for meditation in the first place. Therefore, they take some of the problems of the meditation space for granted.

Fig. 67 Place for meditation

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‘De Papegaai’, Amsterdam The H.H. Peter and Paul Church, better known as ‘De Papegaai’, is located in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam. The Kalverstraat is one of the busiest shopping streets in Amsterdam, so the contrast between the hordes of people shopping there and the calm atmosphere of the church is huge – contrasts like busy and calm, light and dim light, warm and cold, open and closed, etc. These contrasts provide a good transition from the outside world into the church. When you enter the church, you first walk through an entrance space, before enter the actual sanctuary. This transition is enhanced by a change of materials, change of direction and a difference in height - the sanctuary is much higher than the entrance space. This difference in height accounts for a lot of its allure.

Fig. 68 Entrance at the Kalverstraat

As this is a church, there is of course a real focus point – the altar. Although, during the day it can be difficult to focus, as the light on the altar is challenged by light from the side windows. During the night this is no longer a problem though.

Fig. 69 Church interior

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Findings Schiphol Hard to locate Reclusive and quiet Transitions Distinct borders Entrance area Lowered ceiling Transition to Transparency Glance of what is to come Conflicting concerns Focus point Lack of difference in light levels Atmosphere of the space Shell Hard to locate Reclusive and quiet Good transitions Lack of daylight Serene feel of the space Fracture of space - no unity Change in lightlevels Transition from outside to inside Trabsition from light to dark, instead of the other way around Tilburg Good location makes it an easy find if people would know that it is a meditation centre Sense of security Feel safe to be able to meditate

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Transition by difference in height en openess Much higher and introvert Fragmented daylight Too much light cause less distinct shadows which results in less pleasant atmosphere Lack of privacy (eye contact) Lack of comfort (heating) Lack of focus point Levels of intimacy ‘De Papegaai� Transitions through contrast: Busy - calm Day light - dim light Warm - cold (cool) Open - closed Change of materials Change of direction Height difference Focus point Similarities Location Transitions Conflicting concerns Focus point Daylight, light levels and shadows Atmosphere Fracture of space Sense of security Intimacy and privacy Comfort

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8.2 Family homes My practical research was focused on families living in cities. My goal of this practical research was to unravel the concerns of each family member. With the help of friends, my mentor Machiel van Dorst and Prof. Paul Hekkert, I found families who were willing to welcome me. I told these families that I would just come to visit the house and to ask some questions to each family member. I gave them just this information so that they wouldnt prepare themselves and happily they didnt, because of the often made the remark: “don’t look at the mess”.

family member a book with random pictures of houses the book “one hundred houses for one hundred european architects of the twentieth century“. And again with each picture of a house they liked ore didn’t like I thorough questioned to unravel the concerns. In the next paragraph I will briefly describe the visited families, their homes and how they use it and what they like or not like about it. In paragraph 8.2.1 I will describe some of my findings and in paragraph 8.2.2 the unravelled common concerns. These family concerns I will use in my design.

When I arrived at an familie I prefered to have first a tour through the house by the children of the family, if they were old enough to be able to. The children had mostly no idea why extacly they should show me there house, but they where mostly very proud to do it. So there information was very honnest. This had the advantage that I could use this honnest information sometimes to confront the parents. By everything they told me what they liked or didn’t liked I asked: why?. An excample: “I often sit on this window bank” why? ““Beacause I like it “, why do you like it? “because I have a great view from here and I can see people who don’t see me”. So with thorough questioning I unraveled the concerns of the family members. After the tours through the house I gave each

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Family Heilker Meier; Oud Verlaat (Rotterdam) Femke Heilker en Peter Meier have two girls of the age of three and six. They live at the border of the city of Rotterdam in Oud Verlaat (vlietkade 21). The Rotterdam metro stops very near their home so they are well connected with the city centre. Although the house was smaller then they wanted to have, they fell in love with it because of its beautiful location and it character. Their house is in many ways in big contrast with the standard monotone ‘vinex’ housing in the Netherlands, which they disgust. At the back of the house is a big garden with a beautiful view over a field and a lake in the far distance. The ground floor has a bath room, living room and kitchen. On the first floor are the bedrooms located, one for the parents and one for each of the two children. From the first floor you have a great view over the natural surroundings. In the big garden is a shed with a place for the farther to do odd jobs and a separate room for the mother to do the laundry and other stuff.

Fig. 70 Routenet.nl Fig. 71-78 Heilker Meier dwelling

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The house is small and noisy, this gives you not much privacy but on the other hand a great feeling of control. Especially the mother of the family was very pleased with this aspect, although she is afraid of noise nuisance in the future when the kids are older and want to play there own music in there rooms. The lack of storage space is the biggest problem in the house for the family.

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8 Family Berghuis; Delft. Family Berghuis moved in 2004 in a new built home in the old historical city centre of Delft (Raam 69). They have a twin of 2 years. They enjoy to live in this authentic city centre and that they are close to shops, children daycare and their work. They don’t like the city smell and to live so close to the neigbours. They describe the atmosphere as camping like, but happily they have good contact with the neighbours. The house has three flours, where the guests mostly only see the groundfloor. This floor has a kitchen and a big dining table and a small bench which they hardly use. The first floor has a sitting area and a working table and a sleepingroom for guests. The seccond floor exsits out of 2 sleepingrooms and a bathroom. The different levels function as stages of retreatment. In the evening they leave the busy occupations of the day, like cooking and playing with the children, by moving from ground floor to the first floor and then finally to the seccond floor. At the seccond floor the batroom is the last step before sleeping and both parents enjoy to read a bit on the toilet of this bathroom before sleeping.

Fig. 79 Routenet.nl Fig. 80-87 Berghuis dwelling

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Family Ellen, Claudius, Zion and Gaius; Delft. Claudius who grew up in the Caribbeans and Ellen from the Netherlands have twins of 2 years old.

Fig. 88 Routenet.nl Fig. 89-96 Claudius and Ellen dwelling

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This family has its own apartment within a student building. It is located in the historical city centre of Delft (baghijnhof 24). The apartment has one big bedroom, a kitchen, bathroom and a living room. Claudius would have liked to have a bigger bathroom with a view, so he could enjoy shaving much more. All the other rooms do have a view to the courtyard baghijnhof, especially the children like to sit in the window openings and watch what is happening outside. The family shares facilitieslike a roofgarden, patio, table tennis room, TV-room and bike garage - with the rest of the inhabitants of the apartment block. To escape from the daily family life they often go to one of these shared facilities. They enjoy living in the city because everything is near, like shops and children daycare. Claudius misses the way of living of the Caribbean, where people live outside and where everybody knows each other. Ellen on the other hand, does not know if she could live there because of the lack of privacy in this area and the little choice in shops. She would like to live in a building with more families, but also with shared facilities like they have now in this student building.

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Family Jepma Family Jepma live in an apartment block on the Java-island of Amsterdam (Javakade 118), which very near the city centre and the central station. Although the apartments were not designed for families but for couples, many families like to live on this island, like family Jepma. The dwelling exists on the south side out of a large living room, a large open kitchen and a balcony, all with a beautifull view over the water and to the city. On the north side the house has a sleeping room which is divided with a sliding door between the part of the children and the parents. So the two children of this family Ate (6 years old) and Mirte (8 years old) sleep together in one room. They feel save sleeping in the same room at night, although they lie as far as possible with their heads out of each other to have a bit of privacy. They divided the room with an imaginary line, so their belongings would not mix up. In the middle of the dwelling are a bathroom and toilet located. Mirte enjoys to be in the sleeping room and look out of the window to the courtyard were she can watch the boys playing soccer without beeing seen. The mother of the family is very pleased that she can hear her children in the bath room, when its door is open, from the kitchen.

Fig. 97 Routenet.nl Fig. 98-105 Jepma dwelling

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Although family Jepma enjoyed living in this apartment, they bought a bigger house on IJburg to have more rooms, so each child can have its own room. The children reached the age that they would need a room for there own.

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Family Nas, Hagenbeek. Wim Nas and Harriet Hagenbeek have two children Mara (7 years old) en Bob (5 years old). They live in the north of Rotterdam (Nobelstraat 85A), which is 5 minutes driving by bike from the city centre. They enjoy the peaceful neighbourhood and its close location to the city centre with its wide variety of shops and espresso bars. The house has the entrance at the ground floor, but the rest of the dwelling is located at the first, second and third floor. On the first floor are the living room and kitchen located together with a small room. On the second and third floor are the other rooms. When I visited the family the house was just combined out of two apartments, with many rooms. So each family member could claim its own room, which they were all really looking forward to, because they had the need to have their own space in the house where they could retreat to and do their own things. From the alcoves and balconies you have a very good view to the street below. Next to these features the family enjoys the nice stained glass windows. Harriet only misses a garden at their house, although she compensated this with a garden at her own practice. At the moment of my visit a friend of Mara was present and explained me that she enjoyed sitting on the small toilet, so she could be alone for a while.

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8.2.1 Findings The porch was the favorite place of father Peter Meier. He had a good view and even in winter he liked to sit there in his jacket.(see fig. 101) The bedroom was used by the mother, Femke Heilker, to retreat. She spent her time there with reading and just watching over the landscape. (see fig. 102 )

Fig. 107 Bedroom family Heilker Meier

The father of the family Berghuis was browsing trough the book, when he suddenly stopped and showed how his ideal house should look by half opening the book. The half opened book was the model of his ideal house, which should be placed on the boarder of the city. The cover would protect you from the city and the opening side would be made out of glass, so you would have a great view over natural fields. (see fig. 103)

Fig. 106 Porch family Heilker Meier Fig. 109 Kitchen family Jepma

Family Jepma enjoys their view from the kitchen and balcony over the water and to the city of Amsterdam. (see fig. 104) All the rooms of the apartment of family Claudius and Ellen except the bathroom have a view to the courtyard Baghijnhof, especially the children like to sit in the window openings and watch what is happening outside. Although the parents need to close the windows, to occur fatal accidents. (see fig. 105)

Fig. 108 One hundres houses

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Fig. 110 Windows family Claudius and Ellen

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The figures on the left were picked out of the book “one hundred houses for one hundred european architects of the twentieth century“ by most of the family members. They liked the wide views over the natural open landscapes and that the houses have a much more closed facade at the opposite side of the view.

Fig. 111

Fig. 112

These examples confirm the theory of the prospect and refuge theory explained in chapter 4. This theory explained that we prefer to have a shelter at the border of a forest (refuge) with a view over the fields (prospect). Also within the dwelling humans prefer to have a degree from prospect to refuge. In all the examples we can see this degree from prospect to refuge. Especially the example of the opened book has a degree from prospect to refuge within the house, where the border of the city can be seen as the border of the forest.

Fig. 54 Exploded view project ‘Eenwoning.nu’

Fig. 113-114

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Findings explained with the Basic model of emotions

satisfaction (feeling of power)

On the left two findings are explained with the help of the Basic model of emotions of Pieter Desmet (Chapter 3).

on the balcony I stand above everybody and have a good view ( I am in control)

The first finding is the reaction, after thorough questioning, of the father of family Berghuis on figure 110 in the book “one hundred houses for one hundred european architects of the twentieth century� .

emotion

appraisal

Fig. 115 stimulus

concerns

The need of control

The second finding is the emotion explained of Femke Heilker when seeing this open closet in their sleeping room. She would prefer that the closet can be closed, so she would not have the feeling anymore to make it more need. (see fig. 111)

dissatisfaction/restless emotion

the open closet let me think that I still have to make it more neat appraisal

stimulus

Fig. 116 Bedroom family Heilker Meier

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concerns

The need to rest

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These figures are liked by all the family members, because of the cosy and warm atmospheres. Although the parents all said that it would be a perfect atmosphere for a holiday home, it would be to extreme for their normal home (see fig. 112 and fig. 113)

Fig. 117

Fig. 118

The living room of family Jepma has an other configuration in wintertime then in summertime. In wintertime they spent more time on the sofa’s and put a warm carpet on the ground. In summertime this carpet is removed and they enjoy the warmth of the sun. (see fig. 114) Femke Heilker living room looks to busy in her eyes, because of all the intensive colors. Although they like the atmosphere in the evening with the different lighting because of the fire. She want to paint the room with more light colors.(see fig. 115)

Fig. 119 Livingroom family Jepma

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Fig. 120 Livingroom family Heilker Meier

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Children Children like to play in small huts and tents which are adjusted to their own size. The children of family Heilker Meier had three places to play in, where the smallest space, the hole in the bushes, was the most favoured.

Fig. 121-123 Garden famliy Heilker Meier

In the book “one hundred houses for one hundred european architects of the twentieth century“ most children liked the figures 124-128, because there was a lot to do (climing stairs) and a lot of nice colours and a nice warm fire.

Fig. 124

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Fig. 125

Fig. 126

Fig. 127

Fig. 128

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8.2.2 the unravelled common family concerns _Prospect -Refuge See Chapter 4.1 page 18.

Family concerns (quailities) _Prospect -Refuge _transition from city to dwelling _children’s realm expands over time _children house as playground _parents place to rest <> next to playing with children (different uses of the same space) _building with character (but not too much) _different atmospheres in the dwelling _control parents over children <> privacy _winter <> summer

_transition from city to dwelling

Best examples are the noisy house of family Heilker Meier (page 61) and the possibility to open the bathroom door at family Jepma, so the children in the bathroom can be heard in the kitchen (page 64)

_winter <> summer

Best example is the seasonal changing livingroom of family Jepma (page 69)

_children’s realm expands over time

A child’s realm starts in the womb of their mother and expands over time in several steps, like crib, bedroom, house, street, neighbourhood, city, and so on. It is more difficult for a child who grows up in a flat in a city centre to expant its realm gradually, then a child who grows up in a house in a village. Example is that Family Jepma will move to a bigger house, so that each child can have their own room.

_children house as playground See page 70.

_parents place to rest <> next to playing with children (different uses of the same space) See page 61.

_building with character (but not too much) See page 69.

_different atmospheres in the dwelling

Best example is the family Berghuis house with 3 different floors with 3 different atmospheres. Page 62.

_control parents over children <> privacy

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9. two designs The basic concerns gave us a good starting point for our two different designs. But the specific concerns for each design project were still unclear and needed to be unraveled. This was done by interviewing and analysis as seen in chapter 8. First, you will find the results of the meditation centre. Simon wanted to design a place for reflection in our fast and stressful society. The place of meditation took shape as a yoga centre. This was done with the assistance of his mentors - ir. Robert Nottrot, ir. Elise van Dooren, dr.ir. Machiel van Dorst and prof.dr. Paul Hekkert. Second, the results of the family homes. With the obtained knowledge Paul wanted to design a ‘good family living environment’ where there is not a ‘good family living environment’. This was done with the assistance of his mentors - ir. Robert Nottrot, ir. Jan Engels, ir. Peter Mensinga, dr.ir. Machiel van Dorst and prof.dr. Paul Hekkert.

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architectural perception

A place for yoga in the city centre of Delft Crowded city “Our lives are complex and chaotic. The overwhelming speed of society makes it almost impossible for us to stand still, to reflect.”

Place for reflection To offer a place for reflection in our fast and stressful society

Transition from the crowded city to a place of reflection Design a building that facilitates the transition from the crowded city to a place for reflection

Basic concerns Model of basic emotions shows that our concerns determine our emotional response

• • • •

Design concept Design concept based on these requirements:

• • • • •

emotion

Refuge and prospect Exploration Dramatizing a haven Proportions

Retreat from city Austere design Comfortable atmosphere Link with nature Contemporary design

appraisal

Prospect

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Refuge

stimulus

concerns

Dramatizing a haven

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Retreat Barrier from the city • Closed facades in brick • One distinct entrance in the centre • Guided route from city to retreat

Refuge Security • Heavy construction; thick walls • Horizontality; low ceiling and deep rooms • Prospect still possible - big openings

proportions

Contrast Transitions through contrast • Open and closed • Heavy and light • Inside and outside • Introvert and extrovert

• • • •

High and low Light and dark Warm and cold Crowded and peaceful

Link with nature • Connection with outside through courtyard and patios • Contact with elements outside

inside

Austere design • Materialization • Form (horzontality) • Honest detailing

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Patio (5+6)

Gallery (4)

Yoga entrance (7)

4 7 5+6

8 3

2

1 Yoga room (8)

Information desk + cafĂŠ (3)

Entrance (1)

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Courtyard (2)

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dwelling for people

family homes in Rotterdam city centre

Basic model of emotions emotion

open field

shelter

forest

appraisal

prospect

refuge

stimulus

concerns

figure 1

Location (roof “de Bijenkorf”) _“new groundfloor” with prospect! _possibility transition busy -> quiet _possibility to create phased living enviroment (-> children’s realm can expand over time) House ‘Can Feliz’ Jørn Utzon

prospect

refuge

Pospect and Refuge

This model made by Pieter Desmet shows that our concerns are decisive what kind of emotion will be elicited. The model describes the eliciting conditions of emotions with the use of three underlying key variables: stimulus, concern and appraisal. A stimulus elicits an emotion when it is appraised as either harmful or beneficial for one of our concerns. So the same building can elicit different emotions because of different concerns. So the concerns are dessive in how we experience architecture

Humans need a shelter against weather changes like rain, wind and cold. We also need a shelter to protect us from animals, because we don’t have claws or a shield to defend ourselves. We prefer to have this shelter on the border of a forest, because man could hunt in the open fields and woman could search for fruits and plants, in case of danger they could retreat to the shelter protected by the forest. Empirical studies by the psychologist Stephen Kaplan identify the “edge of the wood” as the place of innate human choice. “It becomes clear that neither being out in the open nor being in the woods is favoured. Jay Appleton calls in his book ‘The Experience of landscape’ the open field prospect and the shelter the refuge: “Where he has an unimpeded opportunity to see we can call it a prospect. Where he has an opportunity to hide, a refuge.” 1 Within the house ‘Can Feliz’ made by Jørn Utzon is a degree from prospect to refuge. Grant Hildebrand says about the picture on the left in his book ‘origins of architectural pleasure’: “Here, at right, an interior refuge has been developed by opaque walls, a lesser floor-to-ceiling dimension, and a low light level. Continuously at left a complementary zone of interior prospect has been created by a somewhat greater floor-to-ceiling dimension, walls with extensive transparent surfaces, and a much higher light level”. 2 1. APPLETON, J. (1975) The Experience of landscape. 2. HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure

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Basic concerns architecture _shelter _prospect - refuge _exploration

Design concept

Specific concerns families

_ many different outer spaces

_transition from city to dwelling _children’s realm expands over time _children house as playground _parents place to rest <> next to playing with children (different uses in same space) _building with character (but not too much) _different atmospheres in the dwelling _control parents over children <> privacy _social control

_a clear defined inner courtyard _facade suits the excisting building Family Jepma 1 of the 5 interviewed families

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prospect

different levels and places

refuge

transitions

Housing

department store “de Bijenkorf “

section

impression urban plan

view from coolsingel

“1st floor” housing

impression courtyard

impression courtyard

A

impression urban plan

impression urban plan connection Lijnbaan

impression urban plan from above

view from Beursplein

“groundfloor” housing

impression courtyard

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impressions patio in courtyard

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winter sun passes shades

summer sun is blocked

Transitional Elements, sketch by Bakema 1961 natural ventilation system

re-use of rain water

Situation in Rotterdam, now regular cooling system

long term heat storage

By using the roof of the department store “de Bijenkorf” as building ground spares land. Also the rest of the building is designed durable. The overproduction of heat (produced by the lights) of “de Bijenkorf” is used to heat all the dwellings (just 10 % of the heat of “de Bijenkorf” is needed). Also rain water can be re-used (all the dwellings plus half of the office toilets can use the collected rain water). Also sun is used to heat the dwelling in wintertime and wind for natural ventilation.

Proposed situation

construction principle

impression terras and livingarea of dwelling A

impression livingarea of dwelling A

How to design atmospheres attuned to the concerns of the user?

construction principle

impression of dwelling A

With the obtained knowledge I wanted to design a ’good family living enviroment’ on a place where there is not a ‘good family living enviroment’. I choose for Rotterdam centre, because the government of Rotterdam want more people to live in its city centre, but there is no diversity in dwellings. There are only dwelling towers, which are not suitable for families (children can’t expand their realm). The roof of department store “de Bijenkorf“ gives the possibility of a “new ground floor” with prospect, where people can retreat from the busy city centre and is big and strong enough to create a two story high, phased living environment.

view from 1st floor of dwelling A steel grid on excisting construction

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Together with Simon Droog I did a research with the topic: “emotion in architecture”. At our faculty, the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft, there has hardly been any research in the area of emotion in architecture. At the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, there has been research in this area for almost a decade now. This research includes the ‘basic model of emotions’ by Pieter Desmet (figure 1), which gives insight into the emotional process. This model shows that our concerns are decisive what kind of emotion will be elicited. In our research we described the basic concerns in architecture, like: the need for a shelter, the need for prospect and refuge and the need to explore. For my design I needed to unravel the specific concerns of the potential users. By visiting 5 family homes and interviewing its inhabitants I unraveled a list of concerns.

for questions or remarks please contact me -> PaulWdeVries@gmail.com

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10. overall conclusions One main question and two important subquestions were raised in the introduction (Chapter 1): How can architects design atmospheres attuned to the concerns of the user?

4 4

What are the concerns of the user? And what are the architectural means to create these atmospheres?

To answer these questions it was first needed to know what emotions are and how they are elicited. This was described in Chapter 2 and 3, with the knowledge of psychology and the extended research which had been done at Industrial Design Engineering (TU Delft) about this topic. This research includes the ‘basic model of emotions’ by Pieter Desmet, which gives insight into the emotional process.2 To be able to use this model, information on architectural concerns and stimuli is needed. This will contribute to the understanding of how emotions are elicited in architecture. The basic model of emotions of Pieter Desmet (fig.1, p. 8) shows that our concerns are decisive what kind of emotion will be elicited. The model describes the eliciting conditions of emotions with the use of three underlying

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key variables: stimulus, concern and appraisal. A stimulus elicits an emotion when it is appraised as either harmful or beneficial for one of our concerns. So the same building can elicit different emotions because of different concerns (Chapter 3). There are some basic concerns which all humans share. These basic concerns of humans are probably best described by “the hierarchy of needs” of Maslow (see Chapter 4, p. 14). But his theory describes the general basic needs of humans and does not describe the specific needs concerning architecture. The evolutionary perspective, as discussed in Chapter 3, describes these basic architectural needs or concerns more profound. The evolutionary perspective explains the need for prospect and refuge, the need to explore and the need for thrill in architecture (Chapter 4). Which is described with examples from the built history, like the house ‘Can Feliz’ (fig. 4) made by Jørn Utzon on the island Majorca with a degree from prospect to refuge within the house. So Chapter 4 gave insight in the fundamental concerns related to architecture. In chapter 8 we unraveled specific concerns related to our design projects. Thus, chapter 4 and 8 answer our first research sub-question: What are the concerns of the user?

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The described architectural means in Chapter 5, like light, form, colour, sound, movement, texture and smell, are examples of how architects have created certain atmospheres which influences our emotional state. So, chapter 5 with all its examples of the built history gave insight in how architectural means can be used to create a specific atmosphere. This atmosphere is the stimuli in the basic model of emotions of Pieter Desmet (fig.1, p. 11), which elicits an emotion when it is appraised as either harmful or beneficial for one of our concerns. So, chapter 5 answers our last research sub-question: What are the architectural means to create these atmospheres? With our practical research we unraveled the architectural concerns and stimuli related to our design topics. These unraveled concerns confirmed a lot of the theoretical findings. Like the need for refuge and prospect (chapter 8, p. 49-56). These insights have helped us and provided qualities for our design projects. Chapters 4, 5 and 8 together answer our main research question: How can architects design atmospheres attuned to the concerns of the user?

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To be able to design atmospheres attuned to the concerns of the user, a new kind of design process is needed. This design process consists of two main stages with one additional preliminary stage that only needs to be done once. First, the general knowledge of the basic concerns have to be obtained (see chapter 4, p. 14-22). This provides insight into the fundamental concerns related to architecture. Then, more specific concerns need to be unravelled. This can be done by interviewing potential users and observing how reference projects are used, like the practical research described in chapter 8 (p. 49-56). This step needs to be repeated for every project, because every project has different users with different concerns. For example, the users of a meditation centre have very different concerns than the users of a dwelling project. But even between two different dwelling projects there are users with different concerns. These concerns need to be satisfied by architectural atmospheres. With architectural means (see chapter 5, p. 23-42) these atmospheres can be created which satisfy the concerns of the user. This stage where the architectural atmospheres are created, is the actual design part of the process. Finally, the designed architectural atmospheres need to be checked with the basic and specific concerns of the user. This can be achieved by showing the design to the potential users and

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asking for their feedback. This feedback should then be implemented again into the design. This circular process can be repeated until both the architect and the potential user are satisfied. Being aware of the basic concerns and all the different architectural means described in this thesis, can help architects during their design process to produce architecture attuned to the concerns of the users. We would like to conclude our research with the notion that we feel that a different approach to architecture is needed (as already stated in the introduction of our thesis). This need was the result of the functional way of practising architecture at our faculty. Most projects at our faculty are based on a very conceptual way of designing, a design method that has often little to do with concerns of the users. For our design projects we have adopted a less functional approach; an approach where the focus lies on architectural atmospheres attuned to the concerns of the user. The results were received admirably. Although, we still need to finalize the design process. The final stage, where the potential users judge our designs and improvements are discussed, still has to be done.

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references Photos and illustrations

1. DESMET, P. (2002) Basic model of emotions. In Designing Emotions. Delft: Delft University Press 2. MASLOW, A.H. (1970) Motivation and personality. New York: Harper and Row. 3. NIEWIADOMSKI, G. (2006) Cave “Szachownica” ZPK Poland (http://www.sxc.hu, last visited: 15.10.2007) 4. KITE, S. (photographer) House ‘Can Feliz’. In PARDEY, J. (2004) Two houses on Majorca - Jørn Utzon Logbook, Vol. III. (p. 49) Denmark: Edition Bløndal 5. DROOG, S.R. and VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Sketch refuge and prospect 6. HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) The view from a side street toward the cathedral, Orvieto. In HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 52). California: University of California Press. 7. © WOODMANSTERNE. In HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 60). California: University of California Press. 8, 9. HILDEBRAND, G. In HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 60). California: University of California Press. 10. HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Napes Needle. In HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 68). California: University of California Press. 11. UNKNOWN, Grand Canyon Skywalk (http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com, last visited: 15.07.2007) 12. MILEW, S. (2006), Winter Window (http://www.sxc.hu, last visited: 22.10.2007) 13. HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Mont-Saint-Michel. In HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 76). California: University of California Press. 14. UNKNOWN, Le Mont Saint Michel (http://www.la-france-vue-du-ciel.fr/images/lieux/mont- saint-michel_1280x1024.jpg, last visited: 22.10.2007) 15. WYDER, D.M. (2005) Stachelbeer (http://www.sengers.ch/izueri/teddy-summer/teddy-summer. asp, last visited: 28.10.2007 16-18. ECKSTEIN, D. (2007) Terminal Five at John F. Kennedy Airport, New York City (http://look-closer. net/?cat=14, last visited: 28.10.2007) 19. SAVANT , M. vos (1999) Rubin vase (http://www.wiskit.com/marilyn/noanswer.html, last visited: 28.10.2007) 20. UNKNOWN, St. George church, Lalibela, Ethiopia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bete_Giyorgis, last visited: 14.06.2007) 21. RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Frank Lloyd Wright, Glass shop built for V.C. Morris, San Francisco, 1948. In RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 151). Massachusetts: MIT Press.

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22. UNKNOWN, Therme Vals, Swiss (http://www.myswiss.jp/spa/vals.htm, last visited: 28.10.2007) 23 MARÉ, E. de, An English bridge. In RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 22). Massachusetts: MIT Press. 24. ANDERSON, Palazzo Punta di Diamanti. In RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 23). Massachusetts: MIT Press. 25, 26. RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright. In RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 76-77). Massachusetts: MIT Press. 27. TERJE WEB TRAVELOGUE, Doge Palace, Venice, Italy (http://www.terjenet.com/2005- Tuscany&Venice/Tus-Ven2005.htm, last visited: 28.10.2007) 28. RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Clinker paved colonnade in Copenhagen. In RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 26). Massachusetts: MIT Press. 29. UNKNOWN Archer with bow and arrow 30. RAYM`S PHOTOSITE, Erasmusbrug-Bridge wallpaper (http://www.raym.deds.nl/erasmus.html, last visited: 28.10.2007) 31. CORBUSIER, Le. Le Modulor, Le Corbusier (http://www.khg.bamberg.de/comenius/gold/art/ gskunst.htm, last visited: 28.10.2007) 32. FLINT, K. (1888- 1954) Frederik’s Hospital, Copenhagen. In RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 123). Massachusetts: MIT Press. 33. UNKNOWN Tatami room with shoji 34. POLITIKENS PRESSE FOTO Copenhagen, Ordered complexity. In RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 127). Massachusetts: MIT Press. 35. BOLHUIS, J. (2007) Romanesco (http://www.sxc.hu, last visited: 22.10.2007) 36. NOSON, D., Arlington Row, Bibury, Gloucestershire. In HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 112). California: University of California Press. 37-38. HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Laon Cathedral. In HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of architectural pleasure (p. 132). California: University of California Press. 39. H. Tessa (2004) Oculus, Pantheon, Rome (http://www.sxc.hu, last visited: 28.10.2007) 40. DROOG, S.R. and VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Sketch light 41, 42. RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) City hall in Gothenburg, Sweden. In RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 196-197). Massachusetts: MIT Press. 43. VERMEER, J. (c. 1662-1665) The Music Lesson; Oil on canvas 74.6 x 64.1 cm, Royal Collection, St. James’ Palace, London (http://digilander.libero.it/debibliotheca/Arte/vermeer/lesson. jpg, last visited: 29.10.2007) 44. HOOCH, P. de (1658-1660) Interior with a mother delousing her child’s hair – A mother’s duty;

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Oil on canvas 52.5 x 61.0 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Pieter_de_Hooch, last visited 10.11.2007) 45. RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) 16th century houses in Vere, the Netherlands. In RASMUSSEN, S.E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture (p. 199). Massachusetts: MIT Press. 46-48. YUSHENG, L. (2004) Apse in the Chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut at Ronchamps, Le Corbusier 1954 (http://figure-ground.com/travel/image.php?ronchamp, last visited: 29.10.2007) 49. GIBBS, D. (2006) Red shingles (http://www.sxc.hu/photo/686179 last visited: 22.10.2007) 50. UNKNOWN, Red checkered tablecloth (http://image.orientaltrading.com/otcimg/26_1620. jpg?resize(350x350) last visited: 29.10.2007) 51. NATALINI, A. (2001) Haverleij; a castle with a moat (http://www.kasteleninnederland.com/

drupal/?q=node/9, last visited: 10.11.2007)

52. UNKNOWN, Caryatids; Acropolis, Athens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryatid, last visited: 10.11.2007) 53-54. DROOG, S.R. and VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Brainstorm Explorelab 4 (2007.05.08) 55. LLOYD, P., HEKKERT, P. and DIJK, M. van (2006) Vision in Product Design (ViP); The warm bath. 56-57. INARCHITECTEN, Project ‘Eenwoning.nu’ (supplied material by INarchitecten) 58-61. DUS ARCHITECTEN, Project ‘Eenwoning.nu’ (http://www.dusdus.nl, last visited: 14.06.2007) 62-63. DROOG, S.R. (2007) Meditation Centre, Schiphol 64-65 DROOG, S.R. (2007) Meditation Centre, Shell Headquarters, The Hague 66-67 DROOG, S.R. (2007) Medtiation Centre, University of Tilburg, Tilburg 68-69 DROOG, S.R. (2007) Church ‘De Papegaai’ , Amsterdam 70. Routenet.nl (http://www.routenet.nl, last visited: 29.10.2007) 71-78. VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Heilker Meier dwelling 79. Routenet.nl (http://www.routenet.nl, last visited: 29.10.2007) 80-87. VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Berghuis dwelling 88. Routenet.nl (http://www.routenet.nl, last visited: 29.10.2007) 89-96. VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Claudius and Ellen dwelling 97. Routenet.nl (http://www.routenet.nl, last visited: 29.10.2007) 98-105. VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Jepma dwelling 106-110. VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Various dwellings 111. LE FLANCHEC, R. (1969-80) Trébeurden, Côtes d’armor (F). In One hundred houses for one hundred european architects of the twentieth century (p. 231). Taschen 112. LIEBAUT, E. (1993-96) Guchterstraat, Sint-Antelinks (B). Idem (p. 242-243). Taschen

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113-114. SOUTO de MOURA, E. (1993) Rua Cartekas Vieira, Natosinhos (P). Idem (p. 368-369). Taschen 115. ROTH, A. (1960-61) Bergstrasse, Zurich (CH). Idem (p. 341). Taschen 116. VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Bedroom family Heilker Meier 117. KNUTSEN, K. (1946-49) Portør, Oslo (N). In One hundred houses for one hundred european architects of the twentieth century (p. 194-195). Taschen 118. GESELLIUS, LINDGREN and SAARINEN (1901-03) Museum Kirkkonummi (FIN). Idem (p. 142). Taschen 119-120. VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Various dwellings 121-123. VRIES, P.W. de (2007) Garden family Heilker Meier 124. ALVA AALTO ARCHIVES, Museum Alvar Aalto Foundation (FIN). In One hundred houses for one hundred european architects of the twentieth century (p. 18). Taschen 125. TAUT, B. (1926-27) Wiesenstrasse, Dahlewitz (D). Idem (p. 380). Taschen 126. LEDERER, RAGNARSDOTTIR and OEI (2001-02) Gunterstrasse, Stuttgart (D). Idem (p. 224). Taschen 127. HOUBEN, F. (1990-91) Kralingseplaslaan, Rotterdam (NL). Idem (p. 185). Taschen 128. ROTH, A. (1960-61) Bergstrasse, Zurich (CH). In One hundred houses for one hundred european architects of the twentieth century (p. 343). Taschen

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