EXPERIENCE BEYOND THE VISUAL
an exploration of haptic design
Regan Eiland
PART 01
04
PART 02
BLINDNESS
10
PART 03
16
OCULARCENTRISM
HAPTICS PART 04
MARKET STREET NATATORIUM AND SAUNA BIBLIOGRAPHY AND IMAGE INDEX
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TERMINOLOGY haptic (adj.)
perception (n.)
relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception
the state of being or process of becoming aware of something through the senses
intrigue (n.) arouse the curiosity or interest of; fascinate
relating to the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being
kinesthetic (adj.)
reciprocity (n.)
relating to a person’s awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs (proprioceptors) in the muscles and joints.
responding to an action with similar and equal action
manual (adj.) relating to or done with the hands
mobility (n.)
phenomenological (adj.)
support (v.) bear all or part of the weight of; hold up
tactile (adj.) of or connected with the sense of touch
the ability to move or be moved freely and easily
user interface (UI) design (n.)
ocularcentrism (n.)
the process of making interfaces in software or computerized devices with a focus on looks or style
perceptual and epistemological bias ranking vision over other senses in Western cultures
wayfinding (n.)
operation (n.)
the process or activity of ascertaining one’s position and planning and following a route
the act of controlling the functioning of (a machine, process, or system)
*All definitions retrieved from Oxford Dictionary online
OCULARCENTRISM The Smoking Fire (1761), Plate VI of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons series of prints, which experimented with and pushed the boundaries of perspective drawing
Fig. 1.1
PART
01
What defines the experience of space? Architects often define experience as a holistic combination of observations via several senses (sight, touch, sound, even smell), but in practice the design of these experiences rarely moves very far past sight. The design world, and the western world in general, is heavily ocularcentric. Ocularcentrism can be defined as perceptual and epistemological bias ranking vision over other senses in Western cultures.1 However, in design, this fixation on the visual is hardly contained to the Western world. Architectural design and representation have become almost exclusively visual. Modeling software has taken the hand out of much of the design process. Building Information Modeling (BIM) software has made almost the entire design process possible within a single program. Vision has become the motive with which we design, as well as the foundation on which we are able to design. Catering to sight has created a built environment that too often excludes those who
cannot see it. While the visual world tends to be designed with a certain complexity, the world of the other senses is often left largely unconsidered. Where does this heavy bias towards sight come from? Juhani Pallasmaa discusses this in his book, Eyes of the Skin. Classical Greek philosophers like Heraclitus, Aristotle and Plato equated vision to knowledge and light to truth.2 He also argues that the very nature of sight suggests its dominance over the other senses. Sight is confined to one organ (the eyes) whereas sound is perceived by one organ (the ears) and projected by another (the mouth). The sense of touch is not as dominant because it is one that applies to the whole body with minimal specialization in the hands. It does not have the spatial range that sight and sound have. Lupton and Lipps categorize the senses based on this concept of range. The category of “distant stimuli” includes vision and hearing, while “contact stimuli” includes haptic, sense of air, and olfactory.3 Peter Sloterdijk calls the eyes “the organic prototype of philosophy,” explaining that “their enigma is that they not only can see but are also able to see themselves seeing.”4 This is perhaps the reason that philosophers have drawn such strong connections between seeing and knowing. Heraclitus stated that “the eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears.” Countless metaphors can be identified as connecting vision to knowledge: he saw the light, seeing eye to eye, I see what you mean, shed some light on the matter, etc. John
Lupton, Ellen, Lipps, Andrea. “Why Sensory Design?” In The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, edited by Ellen Lupton & Andrea Lipps, 8-9. Hudson, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2018. 4 Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. 15. 3
Oxford Dictionary, s.v. “ocularcentrism,” accessed November 9, 2019. 2 Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2005, 15. 1
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M. Hull was an Australian-British Professor of Religious Education at the University of Birmingham who lost his sight in 1980. In his book, Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness, he comments on the implications of these common metaphorical phrases which equate vision and light to knowledge: In expressions like these, attitudes, intentions, demands and references to knowledge and understanding are all suggested by the use of visual metaphors. There is an intimate connection between seeing and knowing. Blindness leads to ignorance.5
Fig. 1.2 The Delivery of the Keys, (1481–1482) early perspective by Pietro Perugino
Fig. 1.3 Prisoners on a Projecting Platform (1761) from Imaginary Prisons by Piranesi
The history of architectural representation has also played a large part in solidifying this dominance of sight. In the Renaissance, the development of drawing put even more emphasis on the centrality of visual perception.6 The first known linear perspective was painted in 1415 by Florentine architect, Filippo Brunelleschi. It depicted the Baptistery he designed in Florence. In 1435, Leon Battista Alberti documented Brunelleschi’s early perspectives and created a reliable methodology for constructing linear perspective. His methods were utilized by artists and architects for the duration of the Renaissance. Perspective drawings allowed the eye to describe its experience of a space in a way orthographic drawings had not. This is an interesting point, because perspectives also seem to be the drawings that can most easily lie to us. Brunelleschi’s first linear perspective was painted in 1415 and was considered one of the biggest art developments of the Renaissance. This breakthrough paved
Hull, John M. Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness. London, UK. SPCK, 1990, 25. 6 Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. 16. 5
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the way for artists and architects to explore spatial representation. Piranesi’s drawings from the 18th century are a clear example of this. The drawings are believable until one tries to understand the space and finds that the drawing doesn’t describe a real, constructible space. Another example is Francesco Borromini’s 1632 design at Palazzo Spada in Rome, where the perspective implies a long corridor with level ground but is actually a rather short corridor that ramps up and compresses. Other examples of perspective optical illusions can be found in Santa Maria presso San Satiro in Milan, with a false apse attributed to Donato Bramante, and the false dome of Sant’Ignazio in Rome, painted by Andrea Pozzo. The optical illusion, when applied to architecture, allowed for the visual extension of space beyond the natural physical confines. This form of representation gave even more power to the eye, reinforcing an already ocularcentric mindset in the design community. This use of perspective to trick the eye has not stopped in contemporary art and architecture. French artist and photographer Georges Rousse creates geometric paintings in warehouses that are meant to be viewed from specific points to generate a forced perspective. When viewed from any other point, the painting is an amorphous abstraction. Architecture like that of Daniel Libeskind deconstructs the idea of a perspective relationship by denying the user any right angles. This produces real visual experiences which seem to break the rules of perspective, with no right angles to provide
Fig. 1.4 Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan (1482) false apse extends the space.
Fig. 1.5 Éloge des Lieux (In Praise of Spaces) painted exhibit by Georges Rousse
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references. Contemporary architecture continues to place such emphasis on visual experiences, that it raises questions about the implications of doing so. Pallasmaa goes on to critique the effects of this consistent ocular bias on the practice of architecture: The inhumanity of contemporary architecture and cities can be understood as the consequence of the negligence of the body and the senses, and an imbalance in our sensory system. The growing experiences of alienation, detachment and solitude in the technological world today, for instance, may be related with a certain pathology of the senses.7
Fig. 1.6 Augment mobile app is an example of both augmented reality and UI design
Fig. 1.7 Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas (2010) Digital Kitchen’s lobby design.
His assessment of the state of architecture and the built environment is not an exaggeration. A growing trend in the contemporary world is highly focused on digital visual experiences. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have changed design and construction significantly. Whole markets have emerged in user interface (UI) design that deals with things like social media and app development. Architecture is by no means immune to this. The Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas is a clear example of this aggressive use of technology and visual media in architecture. The lobby space designed by Digital Kitchen creates an out-of-body experience for the visitor and disorients ideas of scale and relationship to the human body. It offers almost nothing beyond a visual experience. While many designers see these innovations as exciting and hopeful, it seems that more concern should be had for
Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. 17-18.
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what we may be losing. As we watch more and more videos of food being made online, will we stop being intrigued by the aromas coming from our local bakery? As we continue to increase our use of software to draw, will we forget the feeling of drawing with pens in our hands? This is not to demonize technology, but rather to question what human experiences we may be unintentionally replacing. Pallasmaa points out that technology has also weakened the materiality of modern building. He argues that natural materials like stone, brick, and wood create surfaces that are understandable to our senses.8 Modern materials that are mass produced in factories leave the user with much less to observe. Texture becomes unidentifiable and inconsistent with the textures generally associated with that material. Vast sheets eliminate the scale of the hand that is understood through the size of a brick. The machine is still not capable of truly mimicking the gestural textures created by the hand. Hull describes an experience he had when encountering a massive rock:
than a manufactured plastic one. If vision is primary, what becomes of the other senses? Are they resultants of the designs which produce the most interesting or provocative imagery? Should they be resigned to this secondary status? How valuable is an architecture that limits itself to the visual?
Here was the work of people, grinding this thing, smoothing it to an almost greasy, slightly dusty finish‌ Here were these abrasions, something more primitive, the naked heart of the rock.9
The marks of the hand make people to feel more connected to an object. They indicate care and skill, which people tend to cherish more than objects made by lifeless machines. A hand written letter holds more sentiment than an email. A hand-crafted chair is more valued
Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. 31-32. Hull, John M. Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness. 190. 8 9
OCULARCENTRISM
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BLINDNESS Chris Downey, an architect who lost his sight as a result of a brain tumor, reading an embossed print of architectural plan through touch
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Fig. 2.1
extend your hand. I smile, I expect you to return my smile. So it is with sight. I see you, I expect that you see me. 10
PART
02 When spaces are created with visual experiences delicately crafted, is something still missing? What happens when the visitor cannot see? Where does this ocularcentric world leave the blind? When a blind guest stays at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, is there anything at all for them to experience? The floor and walls are all the same sleek, smooth texture, but a vast field of one texture does nothing for a visitor who cannot see it. It seems that in glorifying sight as the dominant sense, we have marginalized an entire sect of the population, not out of malice, but ignorance and assumed reciprocity. Architects tend to design under the assumption that because we can experience spaces visually, everyone else can too. John M. Hull sums this sociological phenomenon up well in Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness: In all of our human relationships, there is a natural assumption of reciprocity. I speak and I expect you to speak. I extend my hand and expect you to
Hull, John M. Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness. 36. 11 “Fast Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 25, 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/basics/ ced/fastfacts.htm.
According to the CDC, approximately 3% of people in the United States are either legally blind or visually impaired, meaning that unlike the rest of the population, they must navigate and experience the world without sight as their primary tool for perception.11 That number is projected to rise with an aging population in the United States and increasing rates of diabetes. Studies indicate that the number of blind and visually impaired people will double by 2050.12 The majority of the built environment that does accommodate for people without sight does so in an additive way that usually seems like an afterthought or a quick fix. Metal plates with bumps warn a blind person about a street or flight of stairs. Metal tracks guide them through labyrinthine subway stations. Sina Bahram, an accessibility consultant and founder of Prime Access Consulting, puts it in clear terms in his article The Inclusive Museum: There seems to be a collective failure to recognize that the job is not complete just because those with disabilities can enter the building… Disabled visitors often find that the level of effort, resources, consideration, and study dedicated to providing equal access for all visitors is disappointingly low.13
We can begin to address this issue by looking into aspects of other sensory perception, not to replace the visual, but to compliment it. The two sensory realms that seem most capable of this in an architectural context are the aural
10
“Fast Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bahram, Sina. “The Inclusive Museum.” In The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, edited by Ellen Lupton & Andrea Lipps, 24-25. 12
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(sound) and the haptic (touch). Hull describes the experience of sound from the context of blindness: The acoustic world is one in which things pass in and out of existence. This happens with such surprising rapidity. There seems to be no intermediate zone of approach. There is a sudden cry from the lake, ‘Hello, Daddy!’; My children are there in their paddle boat. Previously, a moment ago, they were not there.14 Fig. 2.2 Notes on Blindness (2016) VR experience based on John Hull’s notes
Fig. 2.3 Braille, first developed by a young, blind frenchman, Loius Braille
Sight and sound are the two most valuable distance stimuli senses of the human body, at least in terms of spatial understanding. They increase our territory beyond our physical contact with the world. Once sight is gone, hearing becomes all the more important for this territorial extension. However, Hull concedes that sound is no replacement for sight in this sense. He also notes that, “only the area which can be touched with the body or tapped with the stick becomes a space in which one can live; the rest is unknown.”15 Architecture has begun to address the capabilities of the haptic sense with tactile wayfinding systems that create a language that describes conditions of the built environment to blind people. Indicators are put on street corners to notify a blind pedestrian of an intersection. In 1821, Braille typeface was developed by Louis Braille, a twelve-year-old boy who lost his sight as a young child.16 Now, Braille signage helps the blind navigate buildings, although often the signage is sparser than it should be. The legal requirements for these types of navigational
Hull, John M. Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness, 73. 15 Hull, John M. Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness, 47. 16 Lupton, Ellen. “Tactile Graphics.” In The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, edited by Ellen Lupton & Andrea Lipps, 166-167. 14
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aides were initially set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990). They have since been edited but are still considered to be only a baseline for inclusive design. It is worth noting that, according to the CDC, only about 10% of the blind population can read Braille.17 This means that Braille signage, while helpful, does not mean that the building is now entirely accessible and navigable to the blind. Additional studies have been conducted on what other indicators could prove effective. Tactile City is an experimental wayfinding system that was conceived of by a group of Cooper Union students. It is a system which would add to existing tactile paving system in New York City. The proposal adds indicators for building entrances, street furniture, transit stops, and information panels as well as one to break blocks into segments so that the user has a better gauge of distance.18 On a much smaller scale, Casa Mac is a home designed by So & So Studio specially for a blind woman in Thiene, Italy. The design implements an elegant system of indicators on the floor of the home which denote conditions of movement through the space. The home is also organized along a singular spine, which limits the labyrinthine effect.19 These are good examples of ways to incorporate means of navigation for blind users, but it seems that the sense of touch can be much more than a tool to guide a person through spaces. Haptic interaction with the built environment is not limited to wayfinding. The art world has also begun to transform into a more accessible
Fig. 2.4 Tactile City (2015-18) proposal for additional street indicators to aid the blind
Fig. 2.5 Casa Mac (2015-18) plan showing layout of various indicators on the floor
“Fast Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lupton, Ellen. “Sensory Environments.” In The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, edited by Ellen Lupton & Andrea Lipps, 134-135. 19 “Casa Mac.” So & So Studio UG. Accessed November 10, 2019. https://www.soandsostudio.com/casa-mac. 17
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Fig. 2.6 George Wurtzel, touching the portrait of himself by Andrew Myers
Fig. 2.7 Michael Naranjo, invited to touch Michelangelo’s David in 1986
media. Sculpture seems like the most logical means for engaging the sense of touch. In the last few decades, museums around the world have curated galleries for this exact purpose. The Mashburn/Marshall Tactile Gallery at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center has displayed exhibits meant to be explored by hands since 1981. However, inclusive art does not have to stop at sculpture. Artist Andrew Myers creates tactile paintings, using screws at varying heights to give depth. He created a portrait of George Wurtzel, a blind woodworker and craftsman who serves as the construction manager at Enchanted Hills Camp in Napa Valley, CA.20 This is a great opportunity for contemporary art. Historic paintings are heavily guarded and forbidden from being touched. If art were created for the present and intended to be touched, it would open the world of art to patrons who had previously been largely unable to participate. An interesting exception to this general safeguarding of art was made for American sculptor, Michael Naranjo. In 1968, while serving in Vietnam, Naranjo was severely injured by a grenade blast which resulted in the loss of his sight and major function of his right hand.21 After returning home, he began pursuing sculpture and soon became an internationally recognized in the art world. In 1986, Naranjo was invited by the Vatican to “see” Michelangelo’s David. Special scaffolding was erected to allow him to touch the face of David. Other such accommodations have been made for Naranjo over the years to touch collections at the Louvre
Lopez, Henry M. “Blinded in the Vietnam War, Sculptor Naranjo to Be Honored as Santa Fe Living Treasure.” Santa Fe New Mexican, May 14, 2016. https://www. santafenewmexican.com/life/features/blinded-in-thevietnam-war-sculptor-naranjo-to-be-honored/. 21
Nalewicki, Jennifer. “Please Touch the Art.” Smithsonian.com, July 19, 2016. https:// www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/ artist-making-tactile-art-blind-using-screws-180959716/. 20
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in Paris, the White House in Washington D.C., and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.22 Great strides have been made in terms of inclusivity in architecture, beyond wayfinding and inclusive artwork. Sina Bahram’s article outlines the seven principles of inclusive design, formulated in 1997 by the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. These principles are goals to be achieved by design projects including buildings, outdoor environments, and products.23 The seven principles are: equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and size and space for approachable use. Together, these are considerations which make architecture more accessible to a wider variety of people. Not only do they allow people with disabilities to enjoy their experience, these considerations actually make spaces which can benefit the general population as well. Haptic Architects, a firm based in London and Oslo, designs with haptic experience as a primary motivation for design decisions. This is their manifesto:
While the firm does not cite accessibility or inclusivity as their motivation for this kind of design, they do create spaces which are haptically interesting to sighted visitors and would presumably be of interest to the blind as well. Their designs focus on craftsmanship and details which enhance the overall experience by engaging the hand. This is the goal for an architect concerned with the experience of the blind: to create a space that is equitable to users both blind and sighted and which pursues a high-resolution haptic experience. The goal is not to create an architecture exclusively for the blind, but to reestablish equal effort and care toward the design of visual and haptic sensory experiences. Through utilizing an understanding of the different modes of tactile exploration brought to the conversation by Hatwell, arises an architecture that engages the user through touch. This interaction can offer more than a navigation system. Touching has the potential to evoke emotion the same way seeing does.
Haptic’s ethos is to design buildings and spaces that are rigorous in their pragmatism, elegantly composed and above all, have a focus on quality and craftsmanship. Haptic, referring to the sense of touch, is a guiding force for our design work; we strive to determine the haptical qualities for each project and how they benefit the users of our buildings. This translates in materiality, spatial relationships, light and the building’s relationship with the site.24
Lopez, Henry M. “Blinded in the Vietnam War, Sculptor Naranjo to Be Honored as Santa Fe Living Treasure.” 23 Bahram, Sina. “The Inclusive Museum.” In The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, edited by Ellen Lupton & Andrea Lipps, 26-33. 24 “Practice.” Haptic Architects. Accessed February 20, 2020. https://hapticarchitects.com/practice/. 22
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HAPTICS Mitsui Garden Hotel Kyoto Station, a hotel in Kyoto, Japan with a three dimensional brick design covering parts of the ground floor entrance. Photograph taken by Regan Eiland, January 2020.
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of the eternal cycle of nature. One senses the slow breathing of the earth.25
PART
03 The haptic realm is one that remains constantly accessible to a blind individual and interaction with it can be active, rather than just passive (as with sound). This realm is quantifiable to some extent, because it is contained to the scale of the human body, unlike sight and sound. The origin of the term “haptic” comes from the Greek haptethai, which means “to touch.” While touch immediately leads us to think of the hand, the haptic refers to physical contact of the whole body. It describes the sensation of feeling the shape of a chair when sitting down. It includes the feeling of cobblestone under one’s feet. It is an all-encompassing term for our physical interaction with the world. Pallasmaa describes the experience of one’s feet:
Despite this, Pallasmaa points out that in the hierarchy of the senses according to Renaissance thinkers, touch was the least important.26 Rene Descartes considered sight “the noblest” of the senses but admitted that touch is “more certain and less vulnerable to error than vision.”27 Hull however, describes touch for a blind person as “the art of gazing with [one’s] hands” that gives “illumination and a sense of real knowledge.”28 It is also curious that touch would be so disregarded despite being one of the first senses to begin development in infancy. While infants can see and hear from birth, their initial and primary mode of learning about the world around them is touch, which Hatwell defines as spatial and sequential.29 Babies crawl around and learn about their environment by grabbing things and putting things in their mouths. This sequential nature is controlled by the user, unlike sound. Haptic perception gives the opportunity to the user to create their own path of discovery. Touch also tells much more than simply the current state of an object. It can reveal the history embodied in the object and give hints about its creation. Pallasmaa explains the powerful experience of touch:
Gravity is measured by the bottom of the foot; we trace the density and texture of the ground through our soles. Standing barefoot on a smooth glacial rock by the sea at sunset, and sensing the warmth of the sun-heated stone through one’s soles, is an extraordinary healing experience, making one part
Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. 58. Pallasmaa, Juhani. “An Architecture of the Seven Senses” In Questions of Perception, edited by Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Perez-Gomez, 29. San Francisco, CA: William Stout Publishers, 2007. 27 Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. 19. 25
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The tactile sense connects us with time and tradition: through impressions of touch we shake the hands of countless generations. A pebble polished by waves is pleasurable to the hand, not only because of its soothing shape, but because it expresses the slow
Hull, John M. Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness, 156. 29 Hatwell, Yvette. Touching for Knowing: Cognitive Psychology of Haptic Manual Perception, Philadelphia, PA. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2003, 3. 30 Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. 56-58. 28
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process of its formation; a perfect pebble on the palm materializes duration, it is time turned into shape.30 LATERAL MOTION TEXTURE
UNSUPPORTED HOLDING WEIGHT
PRESSURE HARDNESS
ENCLOSURE
GLOBAL SHAPE, VOLUME
STATIC CONTACT TEMPERATURE
CONTOUR FOLLOWING
GLOBAL SHAPE, EXACT SHAPE
Fig. 3.1 Modes of Manual Perception, from Touching for Knowing by Yvette Hatwell
Fig. 3.2 Ranges of the Senses, by Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka
Touch can evoke emotional and even visceral reactions. The hug of a friend can bring comfort. The lick from a beloved pet can bring joy. The touch of a cold hand can startle. When people talk in general about emotions, they tend to use language related to the haptic. We say something is “touching” when it causes intense emotions. We even term those emotions as “feelings.” Emotional anguish is likened to pain. It seems that while vision has some deep philosophical connection to knowledge, touch has a connection to emotion. Specific to our hands, psychologists have tried to quantify and describe the range our sense of touch allows. Yvette Hatwell explains several of these in her book Touching for Knowing: Cognitive Psychology of Haptic Manual Perception. There are various manual exploratory procedures in the haptic realm that collect different information. Texture can be perceived by lateral motion. Applying pressure indicates the hardness of a material. Static contact allows for sensing temperature. Unsupported holding gives a concept of weight. Enclosure gives and understanding of overall volume. Contour following collects information about the exact shape of the object.31 Using a combination of these methods, one can construct a clear understanding of most objects. Lupton expands on these capabilities of touch by discussing the specialization of different
Hatwell, Yvette. Touching for Knowing: Cognitive Psychology of Haptic Manual Perception, 69. 32 Lupton, Ellen. “Notes on Touch.” In The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, edited by Ellen Lupton & Andrea Lipps, 38. 31
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areas of the body. One’s fingertips can extract much more information than one’s elbow. If a fingertip touches a coin, it can probably tell if it touched heads or tails. An elbow cannot as easily make this distinction.32 The haptic can be broken down into three categories of touch: active, passive, and kinesthetic. Active touch is primarily initiated by the fingers/hands, the mouth, or the feet. These are the parts of the body which tend to actively explore the world around them. This would include things like pushing an elevator button, bringing lips to a cup, or wiggling toes in the sand at the beach. Passive touch is experienced by the whole body, though the hands, feet and face are the most sensitive to it. This includes experiences like feeling the rain fall on the face or sitting in a chair and feeling its contours. The kinesthetic involves carrying out physical activities like walking or writing. Together, these subsets of haptic experience form understanding of an object’s spatial, textural, and thermal qualities. Hull explains that his face and skin became “more sensitive to changes of pressure and temperature, to wind and sun.”33 Touch is also able to confirm much of what we can assume through sight. One can infer that an object is wet based on its appearance but cannot be absolutely sure of its wetness until they reach out to touch it. Hatwell considers this “largely redundant with vision for the acquisition of spatial knowledge.”34 However, this sentiment diminishes the power of the sense of touch.
Fig. 3.3
Fig. 3.4
Fig. 3.5
Fig. 3.6
Motives to Touch, operation, mobility, support, intrigue
Hull, John M. Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness, 173. 34 Hatwell, Yvette. Touching for Knowing: Cognitive Psychology of Haptic Manual Perception, 1. 33
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There are a variety of reasons someone might touch something. Almost all of our haptic interactions with the natural and built environments can be categorized into four different motives: operation, mobility, support, and intrigue. One of the most obvious motives to touch (in the built environment particularly) is operation. This includes activities like opening a door or window, flicking on a light, or turning on a faucet. Mobility includes our interactions with the ground as we walk, but also in certain contexts can involve climbing or swimming. Support would include holding on to a railing (arguably related to mobility as well), sitting in a chair, and leaning against a wall. Perhaps the least obviously definable motive is intrigue. After all, no true consensus could ever be reached about what is intriguing. Intrigue is an inherently vague term. What is intriguing to one person may seem boring or uninteresting to another. As a way of beginning to catalogue this notion of “haptic intrigue,� I conducted a photography study. While in Japan, I made a point to notice when people around me touched the surface of a building or otherwise man-made structure. This collection of photos has begun to describe this idea. It is in this inexplicable motive of intrigue that the notion of redundancy between vision and touch fails. If the two were truly redundant, no one would ever touch something just because it looked interesting. It could be argued that in this relationship between the senses, sight simply invokes the desire to know the touch of something. Johann Wolfgang von Textures of Japan, photo series from Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Naoshima
Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. 14.
35
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Goethe said, “the hands want to see, the eyes want to caress.”35 Even if we can tell that a fluffy dog will be soft based on sight, we are still compelled to pet it. A glossy stone wall could be guessed to feel cool and smooth, but one only knows it to be so after touching it. Recognizing this connection allows us to think about a haptic encounter as similar — rather than diametrically opposite — to a visual one. To begin understanding the nature of haptic experiences, various studies can be conducted to discover theoretical connections and disconnections between sight and touch. Each study was conducted among 5th year architecture students. The goal of these studies is to discover specific concepts generally applied to vision, which can be interpreted as a haptic concept. One study (A) considers translation of a haptic perception into a visual representation. To do this, a person holds an object without ever having seen it. The object is roughly hand-sized so as to be perceived almost entirely at once. They are then tasked with drawing the object based solely on what they could perceive through touch. This includes characteristics like volume, shape, texture, etc. It becomes clear that certain characteristics like color and transparency are incapable of being understood through touch. Additionally though, certain characteristics that are capable of being perceived through touch prove difficult to an untrained hand. Perhaps someone who more frequently uses their hands to “see” would be more able to perceive accurate proportions, Study A, drawings based only on touching the objects
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angular relationships, and textures. All three of these prove somewhat difficult to someone who generally relies on sight. In the study, proportions were inaccurate, odd angles were assumed parallel, and some texture’s directionality were mistaken. A similar study (B) asked participants to sketch a chipboard model that they could touch, but not see. In this study, the model was larger than the hand, which tasked the participant with making connections with geometries that they had to perceive separately. The geometry of this particular model consisted of only parallelograms, but most people perceived them as triangles. This is perhaps a function of the mind perceiving an acute angle and subconsciously completing it as a triangle. In any case, it is curious that every participant made the same misconception. This finding brings to light a significant disconnection/connection between sight and touch. Gestalt theory is a set of ideas regarding the greater concept of wholeness. It includes the notion that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Humans tend to see things as a whole before seeing them as a set of parts. While this tends to be possible with sight, the conditions of this study were such that the participant could never perceive the whole. The gestalt principle of closure postulates that we automatically fill in gaps between elements to perceive a complete image. This could explain why each participant incorrectly perceived triangles. Because they could feel two sides of equal length with about a 60° angle Study B, drawings by Canyon Boyd, Will Hall, and Dana McFarland
Smith, Barry. Gestalt Theory: An Essay in Philosophy. Gestalt Theory: An Essay in Philosophy, 1988. 36
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relating them, the brain tended to complete the equilateral triangle via the gestalt principle of closure. Other gestalt principles could also be re-thought as haptic concepts. The basic gestalten described in Gestalt Theory: An Essay in Philosophy are an example of this.36 The concept of ending can be seen when a line is drawn and has an abrupt stop. The same could be felt by the hand. The main difference here is direction. Cultures around the world have differences when it comes to the direction of reading, but any given person will tend to have an ingrained directionality for seeing, instilled in them by language. English-speakers will probably tend to see a horizontal line as beginning on the left. People who speak Arabic will probably read the same line right to left. While this is true of vision, touch may not be affected as much by this. If directionality is not obvious in touch, the beginning and end of a line could be the same. Another study (C) works in the opposite direction, by translating a visual perception into a haptic creation. Based on a photograph, a sculpture is created without looking at the clay. The hands are the only tool available to create the sculpture. It produced models which were fairly accurate in proportion and general volume but lacked detail. It was more difficult to construct an object based on an interior/ enclosed space than one based on an object in a field. It was also noted that with unfamiliar buildings, guessing at the parts not pictured was a nearly impossible challenge.
Fig. 3.7 Crown Hall, by Mies Van der Rohe
Fig. 3.8 Chapel at Ronchamp, by Le Corbusier
Fig. 3.9 Heydar Aliyev Center, by Zaha Hadid
Study C, blind sculptures of each project shown above
Kepes, GyoĚˆrgy, Sigfried, Giedion, and S.I Hayakawa. Language of Vision. Chicago: Theobald, 1951. 77. 37
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Another such concept that can be studied in this capacity is transparency. Study A brings into question the concept of transparency in the context of haptic perception. Is there a way to perceive transparency through touch? In Language of Vision, Gyorgy Kepes refers transparency as a “contradiction of spatial dimensions” that occurs when “one sees two or more figures overlapping one another, and each of them claims for itself the common overlapped part.”37 In Transparency by Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, the concept transparency is described as either literal or phenomenal. The literal refers to the “inherent quality of substance,” whereas the phenomenal refers to the “inherent quality of organization.”38 With these definitions of transparency, one can begin to think of materials that could be deemed “transparent” in a haptic sense that are not so in the visual sense. One of the main materials that comes to mind is fabric. While fabrics have their own textural qualities, one can feel through the fabric and understand something about the material underneath it. Another such material is water, which allows us to reach through it and make contact with another material. In certain cases, the water may not be transparent visually, but in its liquid form will always be transparent in the haptic realm. It is hard to say whether this concept of transparency would fall under the literal or phenomenological. It almost seems to fit in both and neither simultaneously. Perhaps there is a third transparency not considered by Rowe and Slutzky — a haptic transparency. Study D, plaster models exploring ideas about “haptic transparency”
Rowe, Colin, Robert Slutzky, Werner Oechslin, and Bernhard Hoesli. Transparency. Basel: Birkhäuser, 1997. 23. 38
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For the purposes of this study (D), “haptic transparency” will be defined as the quality of a material which allows one to perceive characteristics of a surface or object beyond that which is being directly touched. In more concise terms, it can be described as layered haptic perception. Multiple models were made as a way to explore the two examples of haptic transparency previously identified. The ability of fabric to allow perception through it seems to justify the definition of haptic transparency. The three-dimensional qualities of the plaster were able to be understood through the layer of felt. In the other models, a plaster design was made to hold water. While water is really just a fluid, much like air, it is perhaps more likely to call for the haptic senses in two cases: when light is severely refracted through it and distorts the visual, or when the water is unclear, like in a murky lake. This exploratory process has led to small personal discoveries that — in the grand scheme of things — are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. These studies only uncover a few of the numerous visual theories, principles, and concepts that designers and psychologists have cultivated for centuries. Surely there are still thousands of discoveries to be made in understanding our capacity for haptic perception. These discussions presented — about concepts like transparency and gestalt principles — are only the beginning of a conversation about the breadth of terminology and understanding that is possible with regard to our understanding of the haptic. If our depth
of understanding of vision is any indicator, there are thousands of concepts and ideas about the haptic that have been left undiscussed and undiscovered by the brief exploration presented in this paper. The better this is understood, the more carefully architects can begin to design spaces which engage the hand. The result of this thoughtful design will be buildings and spaces which are richer experiences to anyone who can touch them.
HAPTICS
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MARKET STREET NATATORIUM AND SAUNA Street View, from Market Street entrance, showing neighboring Strand Theater and Federal Building.
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PART
04 The site selection process stemmed from the goal of creating a project which would be inclusive of, but not exclusive to a blind community. It seemed that a good way to ensure the presence of such a community was to juxtapose the project with an established community center for the blind. Sites were considered in cities of various urban density and cultural context across the United States. These locations included Pittsburg, Pa; Savannah, GA; Pensacola, FL; Baton Rogue, LA; Seattle, WA; and San Francisco, CA. Based on the urban context, scale of site, success of community center, etc., the site in San Francisco, CA was chosen. This site is fixed on the edges of the Tenderloin and SoMa neighborhoods. The area includes civic buildings, like City Hall and the San Francisco Federal Building. It is also at the Civic Center BART station. The area is also known as the theater district, with several historic theaters nearby, including the Strand Theater next door.
Most importantly, the site is four doors down from LightHouse for the Blind, a nonprofit organization which provides occupational and skills training. It serves as a community center for blind people in the Bay Area. The LightHouse is led by board President, Chris Downey, who is a blind architect. Downey was practicing architecture when he lost his sight to a brain tumor. Since then he has dedicated his time and expertise to the LightHouse and to consulting on numerous architectural projects. The site itself is a 76’6”x159’ rectangle with frontage on Market Street and back-of-house access via Stevenson Street, which acts mostly as a an alley for deliveries.
Tenderloin SoMa
Site location, Tenderloin and SoMa neighborhoods, San Francisco, CA
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LightHouse for the Blind The Strand Alonzo King Lines Ballet
San Francisco Federal Building
Market SE Elevation, showing adjacent programs
Area Plan, showing adjacent programs
Market Street
United Nations Plaza
Theatres & Performing Arts
City Hall & Plaza
Other Public Buildings
LightHouse for the Blind
Site (1125 Market Street)
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Market Street has been a vital part of San Francisco’s urban fabric from the beginning, and this area around City Hall has been a cultural hub within the city for more than a century. The site at 1125 Market Street was once home to the Embassy Theatre, built in 1905. The Embassy was once dubbed the “safest playhouse in San Francisco” because it was the only theatre left standing after the 1906 earthquake, which destroyed most of the city. Ironically, the Embassy was severely damaged in another earthquake in 1989, leaving it uninhabitable. While the owners of the property tried for years to find a way to repair it, squatters settled in. In 1995, 6 years after the earthquake, the building was torn down, being seen as a public safety concern. The property has remained vacant ever since, with plans for an apartment building being discussed in 2012, but no materialization.
Fig. 4.1 The American Theatre (c.1907), before being named the Embassy in 1927
Fig. 4.2 The Embassy Theatre (1983), during its time as a movie theatre
Fig. 4.3 The Embassy Theatre (1995), during demolition
1125 Market Street, as it is today, vacant with a low mural wall
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Haptic Interaction in Water, diagram showing various scenarios that could occur in water
When considering programs, it was important to consider current programs of adjacent sites, inclusivity of the blind, and capacity for exploring haptic experiences. Activities that are common for blind people to easily engage in include music, art (sculpting), knitting, and swimming, among many others. These kinds of acivities were also under consideration due to being of interest to people whether sighted or not. The idea of a public swimming center seemed a valid one because the nearest public pool is about 2 miles away. A community asset like a public pool would also suit the Civic Center that already includes theatres, a farmer’s market, and the library.
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Recalling the previous discussion of water as playing an interesting role in haptic experiences, it seemed fitting to catalogue the range of opportunities that water-related programs could produce. In this investigation, sketching was used to quickly describe possible scenarios that may present themselves in water. These included entering the water, submerging in it, floating in it, walking through it, and sitting in it. Through this sequence a person would engage the hands, feet, and whole body in a variety of capacities and combinations. It seemed that a water-based program would allow for a very rich exploration of the haptic as a design consideration for both the spatial organization, as well as detailed surfaces that would be engaged throughout the project.
Program was decided based on activities that would be inclusive to the blind demographic previously established. In combination with the studies involving haptic transparency and water (see pages 24-25), sketches were produced to begin showing the possibilities for haptic engagement within water-related programs. These programs include saunas, a lap pool, a hot tub, a fountain, and a leisure pool. The sketches show the way a person would engage with and move through the various programs. Each of these activity spaces presents the user with different oportunities to engage with the space haptically. It is from these that the design proposal for the Market Street Natatorium and Sauna developed. The procession shown in the sauna sketch is based on the Nordic tradition of a sauna. It is traditional to begin with a shower, then move to the sauna room, and finally end with a dip in a cold pool. This is the ceremony chosen for the saunas in this project.
Sauna
Lap Pool
Hot Tub
Fountain
Leisure Pool
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Site Plan, showing context and relationship to Market Street
1st Floor Plan, garden entry, lobby space, locker and shower rooms, and lap pool
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3rd Floor Plan, showing saunas, rooftop garden, fountain and leisure pool
2nd Floor Plan, showing mezzanine level that looks out over lap pool and rooftop garden access
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Transverse Section, showing lobby, garden, and vertical circulation
Entry Garden, curved planter design with integrated benches
Lobby, seating area with garden outside
Mezzanine, looking out over lap pool
Rooftop Garden, coming up from the mezzanine level access
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Longitudinal Section, lap pool, entry garden, sauna and leisure pools
Hot Tub, with access coming off lobby, view into lap pool area
Lap Pool, four lane, 25m pool with skylight/structure design
Rooftop Fountain, kids playing in fountain with leisure pool shown behind
Sauna Pool, last step of sauna process, cold pool, leads into leisure pool
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This design is based on the gestalt principle of closure, which states that the eye will complete shapes if given enough parts. It can be assumed that this principle translates with the sense of touch.
Stamped concrete, based on priciple of closure discusses previously
Similar to the previous design, this stamped concrete is based on the gestalten of capture. It can also be read as emission depending on direction.
Stamped concrete, derived from the gestalten concept of capture
The pattern of the boardformed concrete is a nod to the structural nature of the column design. This simple texture that comes from the construction process can be as intriguing as other designs like the ones shown above.
Board-formed concrete, texture created from construction process
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Market Street, showing entry garden as part of streetscape
Overall, the design for this proposal was created as a set of parts, the various programs were designed as components, independent from one another. Each one was designed based on physical movement through the space. Together they create a building with a variety of experiences, not just visual, but haptic. With the incorporation of textures and three-dimensional designs on surfaces, a complex experience begins to form. With the application of even more of these ideas, a rich
haptic experience can be created to engage both the sighted and blind communities. This supports the general discussion about creating architecture that is more than just visual, so it can be enjoyed and understood by people whether they can see it or not.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY “Casa Mac.” So & So Studio UG. Accessed November 10, 2019. https://www.soandsostudio.com/casa-mac. “Fast Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 25, 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/ basics/ced/fastfacts.htm Hatwell, Yvette. Touching for Knowing: Cognitive Psychology of Haptic Manual Perception, Philadelphia, PA. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2003. Hull, John M. Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness. London, UK. SPCK, 1990. Kepes, György, Sigfried, Giedion, and S.I Hayakawa. Language of Vision. Chicago: Theobald, 1951. Lopez, Henry M. “Blinded in the Vietnam War, Sculptor Naranjo to Be Honored as Santa Fe Living Treasure.” Santa Fe New Mexican, May 14, 2016. https://www. santafenewmexican.com/life/features/blinded-in the-vietnam-war-sculptor-naranjo-to-be-honored/ article_c07b90bb-d96e-5c28-ac2d-fb162a98a3d9. html.
Nalewicki, Jennifer. “Please Touch the Art.” Smithsonian.com, July 19, 2016. https:// www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/artist-making tactile-art-blind-using-screws-180959716/. Oxford Dictionary, s.v. “ocularcentrism,” accessed November 9, 2019. Pallasmaa, Juhani. “An Architecture of the Seven Senses” In Questions of Perception, edited by Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Perez-Gomez. San Francisco, CA: William Stout Publishers, 2007. Pallasmaa, Juhani. Eyes of the Skin. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2005. “Practice.” Haptic Architects. Accessed February 20, 2020. https://hapticarchitects.com/practice/. Rowe, Colin, Robert Slutzky, Werner Oechslin, and Bernhard Hoesli. Transparency. Basel: Birkhäuser, 1997. Smith, Barry. Gestalt Theory: An Essay in Philosophy. Gestalt Theory: An Essay in Philosophy, 1988.
Lupton, Ellen, Lipps, Andrea. The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, edited by Ellen Lupton & Andrea Lipps. Hudson, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2018.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND IMAGE INDEX
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IMAGE INDEX Fig. 1.1
Fig. 1.7
https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/object-package/ giovanni-battista-piranesi-imaginary-prisons/3640
https://www.cosmopolitanlasvegas.com/resort/art/ digital
Fig. 1.2
Fig. 2.1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Brunelleschi
https://www.interiordesign.net/ articles/11974-10-questions-with-chris-downey/
Fig. 1.3 https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/object-package/ giovanni-battista-piranesi-imaginary-prisons/3640
Fig. 1.4 https://milanoarte.net/en/portfolio/ santa-maria-presso-san-satiro/
Fig. 1.5
Fig. 2.2 https://www.sundance.org/projects/ notes-on-blindness-into-darkness
Fig. 2.3 https://brailleworks.com/braille-is-not-a-languageheres-what-that-means-for-you/
https://www.nyc-arts.org/events/0/ georges-rousse-eloge-des-lieux-in-praise-of-spaces
Fig. 2.4
Fig. 1.6
Fig. 2.5
https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/ products/three-augmented-and-virtual-reality-apps-fordesign-and-construction_o
https://www.soandsostudio.com/casa-mac
https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/1159162485/
Fig. 2.6 https://www.urdesignmag.com/art/2016/05/19/andrewmyers-uses-screws-to-create-portraits-that-blind-cansee-with-their-hands/
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Fig. 2.7
Fig. 3.6
http://www.dreamtouchbelieve.com/projects
https://www.shutterstock.com/video/ clip-1014907336-girl-touching-wall
Fig. 3.1 Hatwell, Yvette. Touching for Knowing: Cognitive Psychology of Haptic Manual Perception, Philadelphia, PA. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2003.
Fig. 3.2
Fig. 3.7 https://www.urbansplatter.com/2020/02/history-andarchitecturally-significance-of-crown-hall-by-mies-vander-rohe/
Lupton, Ellen, Lipps, Andrea. The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, edited by Ellen Lupton & Andrea Lipps. Hudson, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2018.
Fig. 3.8
Fig. 3.3
Fig. 3.9
https://www.ronline.com/blog/accessibility/ accessible-website-care/attachment/ro_blog_hand/
https://www.archdaily.com/tag/zaha-hadid
Fig. 3.4 https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/404127766541197256/
http://sanfranciscotheatres.blogspot.com/2017/07/ embassy-theatre.html
Fig. 3.5
Fig. 4.2
https://muysaludable.sanitas.es/mente-sana/ distintos-tipos-trastornos-ansiedad/
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/3127/photos/6125
https://www.archdaily.com/84988/ ad-classics-ronchamp-le-corbusier
Fig. 4.1
Fig. 4.3 http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/3127/photos/10327
*All images not included in this index are original content produced/curated by Regan Eiland
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND IMAGE INDEX
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Auburn University | Bachelor of Architecture ‘20 School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture