Synopsis

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303) SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (AUGUST 2018)

Name: Wong Teck Poh

ID No.: 0327462

Lecturer: Mr. Nicholas Ng

Tutorial Time:

Reader/Text Title: Global Sense of Place

Synopsis No: 1a Author: Doreen Massey

In the reader – “Global Sense of Place’’ by social scientist and geographer Doreen Massey, the conventional interpretation of ‘sense of place’ is questioned and challenged. Written in 1991, Massey proposes a new look at the meaning of ‘sense of place’ that reflects the internationalization that is happening at the time, but is still applicable in our age of globalization.

The author first discussed ‘time-space compression’, a phenomenon where the rapid technological advancement of this era merges communities and cultures – and sometimes even places. This disrupts the feeling of locality of a place, as the increased mobility that results from this phenomenon discourages a permanence of the ‘sense of place’ due to the ever-changing elements of a place that can evolve from movement.

Defining a ‘sense of place’ for a certain place has an adverse effect, as it emphasizes the individuality aspect of the ‘sense of place’. The feeling of a place may differ among individuals due to social and economic reasons. The author wrote that places could have multiple identities, much like a normal person. In reference to this, I find it particularly expressed in situations where locals and visitors of a place experience a disparity, where the absence of familiarity creates an intangible barrier for the visitor.

Therefore, Massey envisioned an alternative to the usual interpretation of the ‘sense of place’. In this new outlook, the ‘sense of place’ does not disregard the social link between individuals in a community, but instead takes note of the effects of this network, resulting in a place that has no boundaries, is constantly changing and has no single, ‘unique’ identity that has been so freely suggested by the old concept of the ‘sense of place’.

The final point of Massey’s proposal is interpreted as recognizing the unique patterns of a place, be it social, economical or even geographical, as the combined mixture of these elements are what creates a difference in a ‘global sense of place’. The ‘global sense of place’ is thus a progressive identity of a place, as it is informed by layers upon layers of changing relations.

This well-constructed ideology of a ‘global sense of place’ begs the question in me in regards to its effect on architecture.

If the ‘sense of place’ is constantly changing, how does architecture portray this? Personally, I can see architecture responding by performing a role where it becomes a dynamic element in a community, serving the community by providing adaptable and flexible spaces that can respond to certain needs for different people. The ‘global sense of place’ will then be discovered among its usage, determined by the community of the place itself.

Word Count: 439

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BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303) SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (AUGUST 2018)

Name: Wong Teck Poh

ID No.: 0327462

Lecturer: Mr. Nicholas Ng

Tutorial Time:

Reader/Text Title: Learning from Las Vegas

Synopsis No: 2a Author: R. Venturi, D.S. Brown, and S. Izenour

In the extract from “Learning from Las Vegas” by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour, symbolism in architecture is taken up against modern architecture which celebrates the absence of ornamentation on a building and instead focuses on space or enclosed space that is created by architecture, which is said to separate architecture as a form of art from paintings, sculptures, graphics.

Taking Las Vegas Strip as a study of method, the authors acknowledge the usage of symbols and signages as a form of communication. This architecture of communication is ‘antispatial’, as it dominates space visually without creating enclosed space. Symbols and signs become the focal point of a visual experience, instead of a building of architecture, which becomes second place. This is easily observed in the Las Vegas Strip, where the scale of billboards is often larger than what is being advertised. Iconography rose to a forceful level to make up for what modernism in architecture is deprived of.

The text emphasized the increased importance of an extravagant sign compared to architecture in the Las Vegas Strip, and in some cases, the building itself becomes the sign, letting symbolism to take over architecture. Space, scale, speed, and symbol are words that are bolded in the graphics of the text. Taken into context, symbolism becomes a more effective way of communication in Las Vegas Strip, where the vast open space of the desert town creates the need for a large scale of visual attraction to compensate for the speed in which it is valued at. In a way, it is understandable that symbolism in architecture prevails in this context as the bare, vast land calls for an instant wayfinding for drivers of the strip.

All in all, the reader echoed one thing in my mind, that there is a place for everything. Modernism would prove to be ineffective in the original masterplan of the Las Vegas Strip, where the rejection of ornamentations will create a monotonous scenery, defeating the purpose of Las Vegas as a city of entertainment. Unironically, the architecture of Las Vegas follows one of the principle of modern architecture – form follows function. Today, it has evolved beyond what can be imagined during the time when the text is written in 1972. The oversaturation of signages might have desensitized a person’s experience, but it is the experience of Las Vegas, the Sin City, and this is the place for it.

Word Count: 403

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BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303) SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (AUGUST 2018)

Name: Wong Teck Poh

ID No.: 0327462

Lecturer: Mr. Nicholas Ng

Tutorial Time:

Reader/Text Title: The Eyes of the Skin

Synopsis No: 3a Author: Juhani Pallasmaa

“The Eyes of the Skin” by architectural author Juhani Pallasmaa discusses the prevalence of sight and the negligence of the other senses when designing and experiencing architecture. The excerpt explores the notion of perceiving visual linkage merely as an extension of the sense of touch.

Recalling the interaction between the human body and its surrounding environment, Pallasmaa remembers it as a ‘multisensory experience’, where the eyes cooperate with other sensory organs to provide a simulation of the senses, layering the human experience with distinct characteristics of a space.

I concur with the author in that isolating a single element of the sensory experience and holding it over the others should not be an act that is practiced in the architectural world. Experiencing architecture – or spatial experience is governed not just by the visual aspect, as other senses are able to enrich the human memory of a space, which is widely connected to the spatial experience. Pallasmaa relates the ability of sight as an extension of the sense of touch, as touch is the only sense to inform the depth of a space, which complements the inability of vision to provide sensations of ‘solidity, resistance and protrusion’.

One can say that the sense of sight becomes dominant in spatial experience due to its limitless boundaries that crosses beyond the planes that we can physically touch. For example, the ceilings of say, Sagrada Familia can only be experienced by our eyes and not by our skin. An obvious provision to the experience of touch is the element of materiality in architecture. I imagine a way to compensate for this is a continuing materiality from the ceiling to the walls, to the planes that are touchable, and let haptic memory do the rest. Quoting Pallasmaa, ‘vision reveals what the touch already knows’.

Haptic memory is a powerful tool in architecture. Driven by someone’s personal experience, it can provide variety to an individual’s spatial experience and therefore emphasizes the point of architecture as a form of artistic expression due to its subjectivity. This also enhances the point of designing in relation to a specific user or user group, as we can properly respond through architecture by taking into account someone’s personal experiences, and in turn create architecture that is personal.

Word Count: 376

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