SUTD Masters of Architecture Thesis
SENSORIUM
Yu Jiaxin
Advisor: Assistant Professor Christine Yogiaman Second Advisor: Assistant Professor Kenneth Tracy Masters of Architecture | Architecture and Sustainable Design | 2021 Singapore University of Technology and Design
ABSTRACT
“...we privilege that which we know, that which we see, that which matches our image of a permanent and static architecture.” Michelle addington, Contingent Behaviours
The weary body of a city dweller often desires refuge in nature retreats. However, this need to displace the body is more than just a simple desire to ‘destress’. As architects, we need to first study how the urban space is overstimulating the body before we can truly begin to provide restorative solutions. As multi-sensory beings, we can explore the body as the subject and break down the experience and expressions of body stress in terms of spatial behaviour. Stress contributing spatial strategies are then used to inform better design methods aimed to calm the body. Inspired by the intimacy of home, this research experiments with a private nature resort house typology. Based on the multi-sensory body of needs, different spatial qualities were applied to various rooms to allow calming of the body in the process of activity. The result is a wellness experience focused on reducing body pains and fear derived from urban lifestyle, achieving restoration to body systems, and ultimately returning a calmed body.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Biggest thanks to my thesis advisors, Prof. Christine and Prof. Kenneth, for their time and guidance throughout this journey. Their creativity and vast knowledge was essential to help me fine tune my research direction. Thank you for being so understanding, so patient, and going through Work From Home struggles with me and late night zoom sessions together. Special thanks to my family and friends for their everlasting support and encouragement. And of course, your generous gifting of snacks have helped me pull through too many late nights.
CONTENT PAGE INTRODUCTION
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01 SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
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The body
02 SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
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Energy Landscapes by Sean Lally
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Ronchamp by Le Corbusier
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Therme Vals by Peter Zumthor
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Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier
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03 STIMULATING THE BODY
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Enhancing the senses
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Body in the city
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04 HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS
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Sound + Visual
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Shapes + Visual
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Pleasurable Space
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05 THE WELLNESS RETREAT
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Site conditions
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The design
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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INTRODUCTION
If our senses do not work anymore, we know that our body will start to malfunction. But we will never truly notice, let alone appreciate them when they are still around. By going through similar sets of actions and senarios daily, our body habitually behaves in certain ways and over time, we lose conscious towards them. This means that we often, if at all, only notice the ‘primary’ senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. However, our body has many more systems that are equally as important and they work together in combination to allow us activity. It is easy to understand the presence and importance of our senses when we analyse the lack of them. For example, an astronaut’s body can easily collapse if it cannot feel gravity for a long period of time. Without the gravity pull, a downward force, the vestibular system loses its sense of direction, causing the astronaut to have problems navigating up and down. Without the need to account for the usual body mass and now lighter movements, bone density and muscle mass decreases significantly. A loss of proprioception may also occur as the limbs floating much gently and subltly without gravity pull which can cause the body to lose sense of its position.1 On Earth, we experience constant gravity everyday and has lost concious of its operation. Our bodies are grown and move in specific ways to counter it. The weight to our body parts provides the brain with information for proprioception, allowing us to know the position and engagement in our body parts. From there we constantly engage the vestibular system, which is regulating our movements and analysing direction. Since every body has a unqiue physique, our gait, for example, is different in different built environment context.
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Something closer to home would be eating. The food experience is also not one-dimensional. Taste involves not just the tongue, but also the throat, the roof of the mouth and the nose.This means that a lose of taste may not always mean a problem of the tongue, but could indicate problems in the throat or more commonly the nose. The lose of smell, known as Anosmia, significantly affects how one tastes food, causing common mistaking for a loss in taste.2 While on the topic of food, we may also remember past memories of kitchen accidents. All of us would have at some point in our lives carelessly touched a hot pot and then quickly retract our hands and put the injury under a running tap to prevent blistering. In this one moment, we have engaged many mechanisms as well.Thermoception for warmth allowed us to realise our hands have came into contact with a dangerously hot object; Vestibular system and proprioception allows us to move our hands and body away from that danger; Thermoception for coolness allows our blood vessels to constrict and regulate the impending swelling at the injury. In this scenario, memory work is also at play. Memory of painful past burns and knowledge of burns creates a muscle memory associated with certain context. This is why, for example, when we see fire and a pot, our body is already instinctively preparing for the possible dangers. In the urban context, we live in so much overstimulation that our body has no choice but to prioritise immediate functionality. It is undeniable that we rely mostly on muscle memory, formed by experiences, to handle most situations, while the priority is still the old school five senses that feeds us with quick information about the world. This research therefore would like to explore what it would be like to bring full awareness to sensory mechanisms that we are usually unconscious of and how that can potentially enhance our experience of city living.
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1.
SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
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01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
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Abstract Human Bodies by Tsuyoshi Imamura
THE BODY
The 18 Senses: 01. Sight - Perception of Light 02. Sight - Circadian Cycle 03. Hearing 04. Smell 05. Taste 06. Touch - Pressure 07. Touch - Vibration 08. Touch - Gentle Contact 09. Itch 10. Nociception / Pain 11. Thermoception - Coolness 12. Thermoception - Warmth 13. Proprioception 14. Vestibular - Head Rotation 15. Vestibular - Equilibrioception 16. Vestibular - Horizontal Motion 17. Interoception 18. Gastrointestinal Sensations
01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
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01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
THE BODY AND LIGHT
Let us first differentiate sight and vision. Sight is the sensory experience of our eyes receiving light bounced off our surroundings while vision happens in our brain, is the interpretation of information received through sight. Sight is undeniably one of the most important sense of the human body. The ability to pereive our surroundings from a distance has provided us evolutionary advantage.
Parts of the Eye
The visual system is the first thing infants rely on to attend and respond to social stimuli. Infants watch and copy facial expressions and simple movements. From there, they start to develop body awareness. Rod cells in the retina are first developed, allowing babies to detect brightness of light, followed by cone cells, allowing babies to detect colours.1
01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
Amount of light passing through the cornea is adjusted by the iris.The lens then focus the light onto the retina, where the photorecptors, the rod and cone cells, are located. Rod cells allow us to detect brightness of light. There are generally three types of cone cells - the blue, red and green. These photoreceptors turn light into electrical signals and travels through the optic nerve to reach the brain. It is then the brain processes the information and translates them into images.
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THE BODY AND THE CIRCADIAN CYCLE
How the Optic Nerve passes information to the Brain2
Our eyes are also essential for regulating our circadian cycle. Unlike vision that is achieved with the help of photorecptors on the retina, the circadian cycle is informed by a different light-sensitive pigment melanopsin. Melanopsin is also found on the retina. It is important to note, therefore, that even in the absence of rod and cone cells, the eye is still able to sense light levels with melanopsin, and is able to regulate the body clock.
01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
Depending on the colour of light received at different times of the day, different levels of serotonin and melatonin hormones are released by the brain. Serotonin influences our energy level while melatonin influences fatigue levels. When it is bright, the ganglion influences the pineal gland to release serotonin instead of melatonin.
Changes in the body throughout the day3
Recommended indoor lighting throughout the day3
01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
THE BODY AND SOUND
Like sight, sound enables us to receive information beyond our immediate surroundings. Without looking, we know that the ringing of a bicycle bell indicates an incoming cyclist, predict its proximity to our location and move out of the way. More importantly, as social beings, hearing is a crucial part in communication.
Anatomy of the Ear
01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
Sound, like vision, is also a creation in our brains. Hearing is actually a type of physical contact of our ears with vibrations. A movement triggers particles in a medium to oscillate and this vibration will be detected by our eardrums. This in turn causes the maleus, incus and stapes to vibrate. In the inner ear, pessure waves are created in the perlymph of the scala vestibuli of the chochlea, transmitted to the endolymph inside the cochlear duct. Inside the cochlear, the hair cells on the basilar membrane would vibrate.
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Different tone with different frequencies causes stimulation to peak at a different places on the basilar membrane. The region that vibrates most vigorously then stimulates the greatest number of hair cells in the organ of Corti, which in turn sends the most nerve impulses to the auditoy nerve and the brain.The brain receives information about the location on the basilar membrane and thus the pitch of the tone. For lower frequencies up to about 3000 hertz, the auditory nerves conveys information about the timing of the sound frequency as well.1
Basilar Membrane and Frequency
It is interesting to note that babies are born with familiarity of sounds from the world. Foetuses are able to respond to loud noises at five months of gestation and later when the ear canals open and the cochlea is operational, they are able to detect muffled noises through the mother’s body. Hence babies are able to respond with preference for or against sounds simliar to what they have heard while in the womb. Another interesting phenomenon is the McGurk effect, an illusion in which humans would perceive auditory stimuli wrongly influenced by visual speech cues. It demonstrates that as we process speech, both visual and auditory information is required to form a perception that is not a simple reflection of either. In the study by McGurk and MacDonald, participants who watch a clip of someone speaking but receives an audio soundtrack of other syllables articulated in synchronisation, they often perceive a syllable thats neither the heard or shown given syllable.2 However the McGurk effect does not affect everyone so another study3 was done to find the reason. The result of the study strongly suggest that the activation of the left STS (Superior Temporal Sulcus) region in our brain has an influence on whether or not the McGurk effect will be experienced. The STS is involved in interpreting social perception and physical cues such as facial movement and expressions;The STS is the second largest sulcus in the human brain, after the Sylvian fissue. but the STS multisensory area actually occupies a small protion of STS. 01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
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THE BODY AND SMELL
Smell is a chemical reaction. Molecules from an object can travel, either through the nostrils or the channel connecting the roof of throat and nose, to reach olfactory sensory neurons located high up inside the nose. Olfactory signals are directly connected to the olfactory buld at the front of the brain and have direct influence on the amygdala and hippocampus which are regions related to emotion an memory. This means that smell is directly linked to memory and certain scents can evoke memories related to the situation. Olfactory branding is an application that puts an extra layer to enhance an experience. In many commercial settings, olfactory branding is used to evoke emotions in customers and forms a distinct experience in their memory. For example, Hyatt Place’s signature scent is meant to make customers feel welcomed1 while Nike’s signature scent evokes memories of sports and sports venues2.
THE BODY AND TASTE
01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
Something closer to home would be eating. The food experience is also not one-dimensional. Taste involves not just the tongue, but also the throat, the roof of the mouth and the nose.This means that a lose of taste may not always mean a problem of the tongue, but could indicate problems in the throat or more commonly the nose. The lose of smell, known as Anosmia, significantly affects how one tastes food, causing common mistaking for a loss in taste.2
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THE BODY AND TOUCH
There are four types of tactile mechanoreceptors in the skin - Pacinian corpuscles, Meissner corpuscles, Merkel’s disks and Ruffinin endings. Merkel’s disks are found on both skin that has hair and without hair (glabrous skin) and densely populates the fingertips and lips. They are small and have well-defined allowing them to respond to light pressre with accurate information on location of stimulus. While Merkel’s disks are slow-adapting and unencapsulated, Meissner’s corpuscles are fast-adapting, encapsulated.Meissner’s corpuscles are mainly found on skin without hair such as fingertips and eyelids. Like Merkel’s disks, they detect touch and pressure. On top of that they also detect low-frequency vibrations.
Touch Sensors in Skin
Under the epidermis lies the dermis, where Ruffini endings and Pacinian corpuscles are located. Both can be found on hairy and non-hairy skin. Ruffini endings detect skin stretch and deformations within joints so they provide information related to grip and finger movement. Ruffini endings also detect warm. Since the Krause end bulb and free nerve endings, that help to detect cold, are located closer to the skin surface than Ruffini endings results in us feeling cold stimuli before a warm stimuli. 01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
Pacinian corpuscle detects deep pressure and high-frequency vibrations by receptors being compressed and this stimulates their internal dendrites . Pacinian corpuscles are found in locations such as bone periosteum, joint capsules and pancreas.1
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THE BODY AND PAIN
Nociception refers to noxious stimulus detection. Like many of previously mentioned senses, what our body detects is actually not pain, but the damage or the potential for damage. Nociceptors are free nerve endings found in in the skin, muscles, joints, bones and membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Skin nociceptors come in four types to perform different functions. First, the high threshold nociceptors respond only to intense mechanical stimulation such as cutting. Second, the themal nociceptors which responds to the same mechanical stimulation as well as thermal stimuli. Next, there are chemical receptors and polymodal nociceptors which responds to chemicaal substances, with the latter also able to detect mechanical and thermal stimuli as well. Besides skin nociceptors, we also have silent Nociceptors are also found in the skin. However they only respond to mechanical stimulation during inflammation and after tissue injury.1 When we receive a stimuli, a series of chemical reactions are triggered and A delta fibers first transmits signals to our brains allowing us to respond in a split second. Their recpetive field is rather small, allowing precise localisation of pain. The C fiber however transmits signals slower than A delta fibers, serving as reminders to us of the damage and the need to treat it. This results in the double pain sensation we feel when exposed to suddne painful stimulations.1 Congenital insensitivity to pain, CIP, is a rare genetic disorder where pain cannot be felt.This often results in children engaging in dangerous self-harming activities. Without able to feel pain, they are unable to identify, comprehend and avoid danger.2
01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
THE BODY AND ITCH
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Itch arises due to activtation of pruriceptors, itch-sensing nerve endings by chemical, thermal and mechanical mediators. When pruriceptors of C-fibers are activated, signals are sent to the spinal cord and brain, allowing a response to be generated.1
THE BODY AND THERMOCEPTION
Thermoreceptors on skin includes earlier mentioned Krause end bulbs and Ruffini endings1 present in the epidermis. Krause end bulb detects cold while Ruffini endings detect warmth.1 Thermoreceptors may also have free nerve endings, such as those in dermis and skeletal muscles. Thermoreceptors are poor indicators of absolute temperature but sensitive to changes in temperature instead.
Krause end bulb
Ruffini endings
THE BODY AND PROPRIOCEPTION
01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
Proprioception is ‘the perception of joint and body movement as well as position of the body, or body segments, in space’ as concluded by British physiologist Charles Sherrington.1 Proprioreceptors are receptors serving information about the body itself, contributing to the performance of complex movements. For bodily motion, receptors include muscle spindles, Golgi tendon organs, and joint receptors.
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Inside the Muscle fibres
Muscle spindles are only found in some skeletal muscles, consisting of four to eight specialised intrafusal muscle fibers and they are arranged parallel to normal fibers of skeletal muscles. The hand and the neck contains a lot muscle spindles, allowing accurate head movements, eye movements and complex motions. They do so by signalling changes in muscle length. Golgi tendon organs relays information on muscle tension instead while joint receptors relay information on limb positions and joint movements.2 Ian Waterman lost his prioprioception to a fever at 19 years old. From his neck down, he can only attempt to move his hands and legs. Without a visual, he will not know where his limbs are and the state that they are in. Due to strong gesture to speech relationship, Ian’s gestures have an accuracy of only up to the morphhokinetic level.3
01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
THE BODY AND INTEROCEPTION
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Interoception is awareness of sensations within the body, both physically and emotionally.1
THE BODY AND VESTIBULAR SYSTEMS
Vestibular sense allows us to maintain balance and body posture. This is different from kinesthesia which is the perception of moving through a space. The cochlea is responsible for detecting balance. The three tubes of the cochlea are positioned in the plane of head rotation, allowing each tube to detect a different motion respectively - nodding up and down, shaking side to side, and tilting left and right.When there is head movement, the fluid endolymph flows from the semicircular canals to an expansion canal ampulla, results in distortion of the cupula. The hair cells move and sends signals to the brain about head movement. The otolith organs1 - the utricle and the saccule, helps to detect linear acceleration, gravity and tilt. Hair cells in otolith organs are called macula. The otolithic membrane has octocania, crystal calcium carbonate, making the membrane heavy. When linear acceleration occurs, the membrane shifts due to displacement of macula and the brain is notified.
THE BODY AND GASTRO-INTESTINAL SENSATIONS Hunger cycle is influenced by the hormone ghrelin. When there is a need to increase blood sugar and insulin levels drop, the hypothalamus would trigger release of neuropeptide Y to stimulate appetites. When we are done eating, hormone leptin is released to stop us from continuing consumption. 1 01 | SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS
Brain cells within the lamina terminalis is able to detect insufficient water levels in the body. These brain cells may lie outside of the blood-brain barrier, allowing them to directly be in contact with the fluid in the third ventricle of the brain. They detect based on the osmolality and minerals present in their blood.2
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2.
SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
“Aside from meeting common standards of performance, architectures do little creatively with acoustical, thermal, olfactory, and tactile sensory responses.”
02 | SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
Williams, A.R.1
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CASE STUDIES
Engineering is physics but architecture is an art. And history bare witness to many well crafted projects.The beauty in such architecture goes beyond their form and visual aesthetics, but contains a well narrated sensory journey. In this research, however, we shall borow the romantised, poetic praises of space, into something more grounded, more factual, more scientific. Learning from Sean Lally’s energy diagram, these case studies are broken own in detail by identifying and relating their physical attributes - functionality and physics, to the 18 sensery mechanisms of the body. Further analysis will illustrate how these strategies can be used to enhance a space.
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ENERGY LANDSCAPES BY SEAN LALLY
Attributes
Features
The Senses Sight - Perception of Light
Standing surface
Sight - Circadian Cycle Hearing
Electromagnetic Radiation
Solar radiation Thermal conduction
Taste Touch - Pressure
Primary light source
Thermal convection Thermal radiation
Smell
Touch - Vibration Touch - Gentle Contact
Secondary light source
Itch Nociception / Pain
Precipitation
Water vapour
Thermoception - Coolness Thermoception - Warmth
Evaporation
External Humidity
Proprioception Vestibular - Head Rotation
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Water
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Vestibular - Equilibrioception Vestibular - Horizontal Motion Interoception
Legend.
Spatial strategy causing a response in the environment Environmental conditions feeding back to the system
ODUM Diagram of Architectural Shape1
02 | SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
Sean Lally’s New Energy Landscape for the Istanbul Design Biennale proposes that energy can be a determining
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RONCHAMP BY LE CORBUSIER
Attributes
Features
The Senses
Tilt of walls
Sight - Perception of Light
Whiteness of walls
Forces distribution for structural stability
Gentle curvature of walls
Thickness of walls Acoustic amplifiers / Sound reflection
Sight - Circadian Cycle Hearing Smell Taste Touch - Pressure Touch - Vibration
Roughness of walls Embedded columns in walls
Touch - Gentle Contact Itch Nociception / Pain
Tapered window openings
Thermoception - Warmth
Natural ventilation Tinted window panels
02 | SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
Proprioception Vestibular - Head Rotation
Amplified lighting
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Thermoception - Coolness
Curved roof
Vestibular - Equilibrioception Vestibular - Horizontal Motion Interoception
Legend.
Initial inputs to the system, if applicable Spatial strategy causing a response in the environment Environmental conditions feeding back to the system
Ronchamp by Le Corbusier1
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02 | SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
Sectional perspective of the interior of Ronchamp2
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Diffused lighting to create soft and warm ambience against the stark white and cold materials in the interior.
Physical potrayal of ascension causes body to tilt and rebalance, and hints for the user to look up at the ‘higher’ light pouring in from the ceiling gap.
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Surface texture is rough to the touch, giving the building a primitive and humane feeling to the construction of the chapel and the chapel itself.4
02 | SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
Structure allows for long reveberations and echos highlights the emphasis on the individual and allows for harmonious blend of dissonant and disparate voices in the cathedral space.3
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THERME VALS BY PETER ZUMTHOR
Attributes
Features
The Senses Sight - Perception of Light
Warm spot lighting Target lighting creates soft atmosphere
Hearing Wooden walls
Smell Taste
Thermal conduction Stone walls Thermal convection Thermal radiation
Sight - Circadian Cycle
Touch - Pressure Touch - Vibration
Hot outdoor pools
Touch - Gentle Contact Itch
Light reflected and scattered by water is enough to lit up the dark indoor spaces Changes the gait and slows down the pace of walking into the pool
Cold indoor pools
Nociception / Pain Thermoception - Coolness
Low pool lighting
Thermoception - Warmth Proprioception
Stairs with longer thread
Vestibular - Head Rotation
02 | SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
Vestibular - Equilibrioception
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Vestibular - Horizontal Motion Interoception
Legend.
Initial inputs to the system, if applicable Spatial strategy causing a response in the environment Environmental conditions feeding back to the system
Indoor baths are intimate1
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02 | SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
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VILLA SAVOYE BY LE CORBUSIER
02 | SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
Photograph of Villa Savoye by August Fischer1
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The Villa Savoye seems to be a successful sensory home on the outskirts of Paris. It embodies Le Corbusier’s five key points of Modern architecture - the use of pilotis, the free found plan, free facade, horizontal windows and a roof garden. With this, Le Corbusier was able to craft his own kind of minimalist yet efficient narrative.1 With this, a sensory experience is evoked as the visitor moves through stairs and ramps, is indoors and outdoors, comes in contact with various materials, etc. For a house, such narrative is important because it allows each space curate its moments that suits the body of the inhabitant It is the sensitivity that can allow us to explore more ways our body will experience the moments in a house. A house is therefore the perfect inspiration for design. A house is intimate. Our bodies go through a larger range of detailed activities within the small area and move in many more ways then it would otherwise behave if in public. Borrowing Le Corbusier’s idea that the home is a machine for living in1, we can attempt to curate a sensory experience of a home that matches and emphasises characteristic body behaviours at different moments in the house.
02 | SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE
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3.
STIMULATING THE BODY
ENHACING THE SENSES
Retail and commercial spaces are where most common men would find some form of ‘multi-sensory’ experience in a typical day in the city. According to Kotler2, a store’s atmosphere involves breaking down visual stimuli to colour, brightness, size and shapes, coupled with aural stimuli through volume and pitch, olfactory stimuli through scent and freshness, and tactile stimulo through softness, smoothness and temperature. Taste was not of importance to Kotler, in curating a retail atmosphere to improve marketing and increase satisfaction to customer experience. From department stores to high end retail to antique shops, the designed atmosphere curates specific shopping routines to induce customers to browse in certain manners and end up with a satisfactory store experience, and most likely walk away with a purchase.
03 | STIMULATING THE BODY
Such old ways of ‘multi-sensory’ approach uses direct stimulation, targetting each individual senses. This shallow approach, fed by capitalistic “form follows function” notion, blinds us from the untapped possibilities of the body.
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Next page: Body positions in a typical day of a city dweller With the body as the subject of interest, let us first look at the range of movements the body goes through a generic routine as a city dweller - the body that goes to work in the day and returns home in the evening. Inspired by the rythmic patterns of music, the body charts are organised similarly in equal time periods of an hour, adding up to the 24 hours of a day. By assuming a generic 9am to 7pm work day, the body goes through rapid movements during transitions between spaces but idles in singular positions for long periods at times. The conclusion is simple - take away the context ie. no visuals, no sounds, no surfaces etc, and the boring bodily routine is revealed. Each senses being targetted alone and unable to provide more holistic interpretations about the body or the space, the senses collapses from overstimulation. And the same day only serves to repeat itself. And we put our bodies through the same overstimulating context that would soon leave no interest.
03 | STIMULATING THE BODY
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BODY IN THE CITY
03 | STIMULATING THE BODY
Charting body rhythms in musical scores
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Left: Body positions in a typical day of a city dweller With the body as the subject of interest, let us first look at the range of movements the body goes through a generic routine as a city dweller - the body that goes to work in the day and returns home in the evening. Inspired by the rythmic patterns of music, the body charts are organised similarly in equal time periods of an hour, adding up to the 24 hours of a day. By assuming a generic 9am to 7pm work day, the body goes through rapid movements during transitions between spaces but idles in singular positions for long periods at times. The conclusion is simple - take away the context ie. no visuals, no sounds, no surfaces etc, and the boring bodily routine is revealed. Each senses being targetted alone and unable to provide more holistic interpretations about the body or the space, the senses collapses from overstimulation. And the same day only serves to repeat itself. And we put our bodies through the same overstimulating context that would soon leave no interest.
03 | STIMULATING THE BODY
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HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS
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04 | HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS
“Our sensory systems activate only in the presence of change, and our cognitive awareness of heat, light or sound is not of the environment at all, but of the manner in which our own bodies are reacting to the environment.We directly sense ourselves, and only indirectly sense our environment.” Michelle addington, Contingent Behaviours
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SOUND + VISUAL.
04 | HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS
“The modern architect is designing for the deaf... The study of sound enters modern architecture schools only as sound reduction, isolation and absorption.4”
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Noise pollution1 is no stranger topic, one that we experience everyday, especially if you live in the city. And in order to battle these undesirable noise, we choose the extremes - battle overstimulation with overstimulation or resign to understimulation. To battle the grand package of traffic noise and crowd chatters on the streets, we put on our headphones and hit that favourite playlist; to distinguish external corridor and interior retail spaces, just one shopping experience would have taken us through many eras of music; to muffle the conversations at the next table, we plug in “study music” for concentration, etc. Such a solution is examplified in the addition of a waterfall in Paley Park, New York, by Zion and Breen2, which effectively drowned out the unwanted traffic noise in the vicinity. And this masking strategy3,
04 | HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS
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04 | HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS
VOLUME INFLUENCE RHYTHMN
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Studies correlating background music to profitability of restaurants, for a start, are evidence that appropriating volumes can affect behaviours. Louder background music makes us drink faster and consume significantly more drinks4. We also need to look (or hear) no further than current music trends to discover the increasing pace of our lifestyle and the resultant stress. Schafer5 draws clear parallels between the human breath cycle and habits of our daily movements influencing the poetic rythms of music from an older time period, with the unsynchronised rythmns of the modern lifestyle influencing the explosion of genres in contemporary music. As Schafer puts it, it is like understanding “the influence of the railroad on jazz and the automobile on contemporary music.” 5 Therefore, reducing volume can reduce agitation and slow down the body rhythm.
NATURAL OR MAN-MADE
04 | HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS
Studies have shown that natural settings provides significantly more healing benefits to the human body than the built setting3. And the sound, or in fact any natural stimuli including non-audio stimuli, is perceived to originated from a more pleasant source rather than an undesirable source, such sound would be perceived as more pleasant and provide more restorative results6. Closer to home, sound baths7 are trending. Clinical studies8 have shown improvements in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) through the use of such low frequency sound stimulations. FM syndrome easily reflects common problems faced by the worn out city dweller - body pain associated with fatigue, sleep abnormalities, mood disorders, and other somatic symptoms.
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04 | HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS
THE RESTORATIVE EFFECT OF THE FOREST
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Besides source and volume of sound, rhythmic properties also restores the body by stabilising coherent oscillatory neural activity8 - the background sound of leaves rustling in the wind, the consistent flow of the stream, the sound of footsteps, etc.
“Natural materials - stone, brick and wood - allow the gaze to penetrate their surfaces and they enable us to become convinced of the veracity of matter … But the materials of today - sheets of glass, enamelled metal and synthetic materials - present their unyielding surfaces to the eye without conveying anything of their material essence or age.5”
04 | HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS
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SHAPES + VISUAL. Recent studies have shown that humans do have a preference for curvilinear spaces or objects over rectilinear ones. Cognitive neuroscientists found that the anterior cingulate cortex is exclusively activated when the brain is doing aesthetic accessment on curves1. On the other hand, angular forms are more likely to trigger fear response in the amygdala even when viewed for a short period of time2. Fear is a compex set of behavioural set of reactions, regulated by various receptors in the amygdala in acquisition and expression of conditioned fear3.
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From this we can conclude that the use of more curves can enhance visual appeal and lower fear factor. This calming result can also be achieved by simply reducing angular encounters to reduce fear and lessen the avoidance response4.
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APPROACH - AVOIDANCE
INFLUENCE OF SCALE
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TACITILITY OF THE FOREST
The natural world exist in many forms but the man-world mostly come in angular shapes due to ease of manufacturing. Although curved edges have found its way into daily designs to address safety and enhance certain visual appeals, we are still largely surrounding by angles, both indoors or outdoors. By bringing the body closer to softer edges of nature, reducing fear triggering encounters with angular shapes, we can obtain the overall effect of calming the body.
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PLEASURABLE SPACE
From a scientific point of view, pleasure is a positive feeling for the body. But drown in the tiring city life, pleasure is too often linked to negative conotations - sexual context, drugs, illegal acts, toruble making, etc. Nontheless, the meaning of pleasure remains to mean satisfaction, enjoyment, not without some kind of sensual gratification.2 For the tired city worker, pleasure could mean a home cooked meal, no calls on the phone, being a couch potato, having a beer before bed; for the stressed student, pleasure could mean gaming, snacking, singing in the shower; for the housewife, pleasure could mean yoga in the morning, getting the best deals at the market, etc. Pleasure remains the healing solution for the worned out city soul.
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Architecture, the stage for which all live happens on, should then be the house of pleasure. With various fields of design pursing sensory experiences as the way to reinterprete our lifestyles and crafting fresh outlooks for relaxation, it is not acceptable that the host of them all remains dragged down by the modern hum-drum when it should be leading at the forefront.
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In order to curate the truly pleasurable living context, a healing space to battle the mandane yet tiresome city life, we need strategies that stimulates comprehensive correlations between diferent systems of our body.
Healing comes from within, and there is no better place to start than from the house. From sunrise to twilight, a house can do much to provide for the tired soul. By combining the housing typology with the ideal restorative context in nature, we land ourselves perfectly on a wellness retreat project.
Spaces in the wellness house should... 1. Re-awaken our senses 2. Changing the pattern and intensity of sensory stimulations 3. Restoring balance to the body
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5.
THE WELLNESS RETREAT
SITE CONDITIONS
LOCATION:
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BALI, INDONESIA ON THE HILLS OF MELANTING WATERFALL HIKING TRAIL
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Geographical location
Contours of hills around Melanting Waterfall hiking trail
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Annual weather data1
Sunpath of Bali2
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Windpath of Bali3
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CONCEPT
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ENGAING BODY MOVEMENTS
A study of possible body rhythms and routine on a wellness retreat
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POINTS ON SITE
1. Obtaining points on the site that is desirable for the body to receive various natural influences (ie. sun, wind, view of forest, etc.).
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2. Presence of contour allows for variety of elevations to enhance the natural influence.
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POINTS ON SITE
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LOOPS
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3. Connection of points in 3D result in many form iterations.
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LOOPS
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DESIRABLE SITE INFLUENCES
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4. Ensure the form is exposed to different light conditions and encourages ventilation through the spaces.
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DESIRABLE SITE INFLUENCES .
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APPROACHING CURVES ON EDGES
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5. Soften edges in strategic areas to encourage approach, driving both horizontal and vertical circulation.
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APPROACHING CURVES ON EDGES.
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SITE PLAN
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FORM
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PLANS
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Bedroom
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Lounge and Dining
Courtyard
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Showers
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SECTIONS
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ROOF PLAN
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION 1. Elizabeth Howell (2017), Weightlessness and Its Effect on Astronauts Reference from https://www.space.com/23017-weightlessness.html 2. Medical News Today (2019), What causes a lost of taste? Reference from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325281#causes
01 SENSE: THE 18 MECHANISMS THE BODY Light and Circadian Cycle 1. Hyvarinen, Lea, Current Understanding of What Infants See Reference from Current Ophthalmology Reports 2.
How It Works Team (2015), Science of vision: How do our eyes enable us to see? Reference from https://www.howitworksdaily.com/science-of-vision-how-do-our-eyes-enable-us-to-see/
3. Staples, What is circadian rhythm Reference from https://www.staplesadvantage.co.uk/get-inspired/workplace-health-and-hygiene/what-is-circadian-rhythm/ Smell 1. Britannica, Basilar Membrane Reference from https://www.britannica.com/science/basilar-membrane 2.
McGurk H. & MacDonald J. (1976), Hearing lips and seeing voices
3. Nath A. R. & Beauchamp M. S. (2012), A neural basis for interindividual differences in the McGurk effect, a multisensory speech illusion Reference from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196040/
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Sound 1. Laurence M, Colleen F, Caroline F (2018), Inside the Invisible but Influential World of Scent Branding Reference from https://hbr.org/2018/04/inside-the-invisible-but-influential-world-of-scent-branding 2.
Colleen Walsh (2020), What the nose knows Reference from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/how-scent-emotion-and-memory-are-intertwined-and-exploited/
3. Vittoria Traverso (2017), Learning about cities by mapping their smells Reference from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/art-mapping-smell-smellscapes-kate-mclean Taste 1. Medical News Today (2019), What causes a lost of taste? Reference from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325281#causes Touch 1. Boundless Biology, Somatosensation Reference from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/somatosensation/ Pain 1. Nachum Dafny (2020), Pain Principles Reference from https://nba.uth.tmc.edu/neuroscience/m/s2/chapter06.html 2. David Cox (2017), BBC Future:The curse of the people who never feel pain Reference from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170426-the-people-who-never-feel-any-pain Itch 1. Scientific American (2007), Why and how do body parts itch? Why does it feel good to scratch an itch? Reference from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-why-we-itch-and-scratch/ Thermoception 1. Nachum Dafny (2020), Pain Principles Reference from https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_Biology/Book%3A_General_Biology(Boundless)/36%3A_ Sensory_Systems/36.2%3A_Somatosensation/36.2C%3A_Thermoreception Proprioception 1. Sherrington Charles (1906), Yale University Mrs Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Lectures 2. NCBI, Mechanoreceptors Specialised for Proprioception Reference from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10812/ 3. David McNeill, Liesbet Quaeghebeur, Susan Duncan. IW - “the man who lost his body” Reference from http://mcneilllab.uchicago.edu/pdfs/IW_lost_body.pdf
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Interoception 1. Cynthia J Price, Carole Hooven (2018). Interoceptive awareness skills for emotion regulation Reference from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5985305/ Vestibular Systems 1. Neuroscientifically Challenged (2015). Know your brain: vestibular system Reference from https://www.neuroscientificallychallenged.com/blog/know-your-brain-vestibular-system Gastrointestinal 1. Cristen Conger. How food cravings work. Reference from https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/food-craving1.htm 2. Michelle Frank (2019). The Neuroscience of Thirst: How your brain tells you to look for water Reference from https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2019/neuroscience-thirst-brain-tells-look-water/
02 SENSIBILITY: SENSORY ARCHITECTURE Energy Landscape by Sean Lally 1. Cynthia J Price, Carole Hooven (2018). Interoceptive awareness skills for emotion regulation Reference from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5985305/ Ronchamp by Le Corbusier 1. Andrew Kroll (2018). AD Classics: Ronchamp / Le Corbusier Reference from https://www.archdaily.com/84988/ad-classics-ronchamp-le-corbusier?ad_medium=gallery 2. Riccardo Bianchini (2021). Notre Dame du Haut Chapel by Le Corbusier - Ronchamp Reference from https://www.inexhibit.com/mymuseum/notre-dame-du-haut-le-corbusier-ronchamp-chapel/ 3. Frances Sherry Mckay (1979). A study of Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame du Haut Ronchamp as a twentieth century pilgrimage chapel (Pg 72) Reference from https://docplayer.net/63236461-A-study-of-le-corbusier-s-notre-dame-du-haut-ronchamp-as-a-twentieth-century pilgrimage-chapel-frances-sherry-mckay.html 4. Robin Evans (2021). Ronchamp: “Rough to the touch” Reference from https://drawingmatter.org/ronchamp-rough-to-the-touch/ Therme Vals 1. (2019). The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor Reference from https://www.archdaily.com/13358/the-therme-vals 2. Stella Miao (2017). Function:Thermal Bath Vals - Peter Zumthor Reference from https://visuallexicon.wordpress.com/2017/10/04/function%EF%BC%9Athermal-bath-vals-peter-zumthor/
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Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier 1. Eleanor Gibson (2016). Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye encapsulates the Modernist Style Reference from https://www.dezeen.com/2016/07/31/villa-savoye-le-corbusier-poissy-france-modernist-style-unesco-world-heritage/
03 STIMULATING THE BODY ENHACING THE SENSES 1. Williams, A.R. (1980), The urban stage: A reflection of architecture and urban design. Reference from San Francisco: San Francisco Center for Architecture and Urban Studies. 2. Kotler, P. (1974), Atmospherics as a marketing tool. Journal of Retailing, 49(Winter), 48-64 Reference from http://belzludovic.free.fr/nolwenn/Kotler%20-%20Atmospherics%20as%20a%20marketing%20tool%20%20 (cit%C3%A9%20171)%20-%201973.pdf
04 HEALING THROUGH SENSORY CO-RELATIONS SOUND + VISUALS 1. National Geographic, Noise Pollution Reference from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/noise-pollution/ 2. Herbert Muschamp. (2000), R.L. Zion, 79,Who Designed Paley Park, Dies Reference from https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/28/arts/r-l-zion-79-who-designed-paley-park-dies.html 3. Haga, A., Halin, N., Holmgren, M., & Sorqvist, P. (2016), Psychological restoration can depend on stimulus-source attribution: A challenge for the evolutionary account. Reference from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01831/full 4. Spense, C. (2014), Noise and its impact on the pereption of food and drink. Reference from https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2044-7248-3-9 5. Schafer, R. M. (1977), The tuning of the world. Reference from New York: Knopf, p222 6. Herz, R. S., and von Clef, J. (2021), The influence of verbal labelling on the perception of odors: evidence for olfactory illusions. Reference from Perception 30, 381-391. doi: 10.1068/p3179 7. Alli Sim (2021), Everything you need to know about sound baths. Reference from https://vogue.sg/sound-baths-benefits/ 8. Lili N., Heidi A., Pasqualino M., Lee B. (2015), The effect of low-frequency sound stimulation on patients with fibromyalgia: A clinical study Reference from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4325896/
SHAPES + VISUALS 1. Vartanian, O., Navarrete, G., Chatterjee, A., Fich, L. B. , Leder, H., Modrono, C., et al. (2013), Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approachavoidance decisions in architecture. Reference from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 11(Supple 2), 10446-10453 2. LeDoux, J. (2003), The emotional brain, fear, and the amygdala. Reference from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/9076656_The_Emotional_Brain_Fear_and_the_Amygdala 3. Michael Davis (1997), Neurobiology of Fear Responses:The Role of the Amygdala Reference from https://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/jnp.9.3.382 4. Salgado-Montejo, A., Salgado, C., Alvarado, J., & Spence, C. (2017), Simple lines and shapes are associated with, and communicate, distinct emotions. Reference from Cognition & Emotion, 31, 511-525 5. Pallasmaa, J. (1994), An architecture of the seven senses. Reference from In S. Holl, J. Pallasmaa, & A. Perez-Gomez (Eds.), Architecture and urbanism: Questions of perception: Phenomenology and architecture (Special issue), July, (pp. 27-37)
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PLEASURABLE SPACE 3. Google Dictionary by Oxford Languages Reference from https://www.google.com/search?q=pleasure+meaning&rlz=1C1CHBF_enSG838SG838&oq=pleasure&aqs= chrome.0.0i433i512j69i57j0i512j0i20i263i512j0i512l6.2646j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
05 THE WELLNESS RETREAT SITE CONDITIONS 1. Matzarakis, Andreas, and H. Mayer., Physiologically Equivalent Temperature Reference from “Heat Stress in Greece.” International Journal of Biometeorology, vol. 41, no. 1, 1997, pp. 34–39.,doi:10.107s004840050051. chrome.0.0i433i512j69i57j0i512j0i20i263i512j0i512l6.2646j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 2. Gaisma (2021), Bali, Indonesia - Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times Reference from https://www.gaisma.com/en/location/bali.html 3. Windy App (2021), Bali, Indonesia: weather statistics and wind history Reference from https://windy.app/forecast2/spot/338730/Bali%2C+Indonesia/map
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