What is Architecture?
This is a quest that many in the design community have sought to answer. Architecture by definition is limiting, perhaps that is why it has been described as vague. Architecture is defined as; ‘being the art of which a building is constructed’. To some, it is the details, how pieces of a building go together, while to others, the drastic and sometimes controversial beauty that space can give or be. Some would describe it as function, whilst others form. However, these are just mere words used to describe something they see or feel. What is a building worth? The structure’s capacity to create awe and thought, or is it the cost of construction and maintenance? The ability to change lives on a personal level, or is it far simpler? The debate of form and function are just pieces of the view, they don’t provide clarity to what architecture is. Architecture is a masterpiece of beauty and thought, that is built with a purpose. If it has the ability to convey it’s thought, it could be described as a work of art. Architecture, if I had to simplify it into a couple of words they would be; Sensorial Love.
Sensorial Experience
Here is an experiment; think back to some of your first memories as a child. Can you still smell your grandmother’s homemade cookies? Think of the warmth of a loving parents hug. Maybe you can feel the breeze of the wind on your face as you learn to ride a bike. Everyone has a memory of a positive or negative feeling. As humans, we hold onto these as we grow old. Some of these memories follow us in times of hardship. In fact, oftentimes we rely on them for comfort. Sometimes they haunt us, wasted or lost opportunities. We still feel them. Architecture drives to find these feelings and use them, or exploit them, to build an image of an office, home, sanctity, etc.
If you have ever been to a new public place. You almost have an instinct of where to go. Like the Path leads you to your goal. Even though you can’t see the path ahead you just have an inherit feeling. You enter a store you are almost guided to the registers no matter how you finish your shopping. In fact, Most of the time it is like the design of the space makes it feel awkward to leave a store without passing through the registers. You take a flight and land at a new airport in a different Country that doesn’t share your native tongue. But you still manage to get to the baggage claim and pass through any legal check points in place. How? If you don’t travel often this could appear as magic, coincidence or just intuition. But there is more.
You were able to discern through the architecture of the Space, sometimes referred to as design or the Function where you were able to go. You passed through a Sensorial experience so common that you don’t even notice it.
Love: What is Sensorial Love?
Why the word Love? I once received a fortune from a fortune cookie – I know not the best source – It reads: “Love is the first feeling people feel, because love is nice.” I have thought about this statement for many years now. I think it is the First, as well as the Strongest and barely first to Fear. I think that Fear is the opposite of Love that they are not different but the absence of each other. It is impossible to feel them at the same time and when we do we call it Courage. It is through opposites that we experience Life.
It is through experiences that we live. When we have strong experiences – both good and bad – our minds record the emotions and every sensorial input that we feel. Our mind then compares them to other experiences we have had and documents them. And when we start to feel them again our mind will then tell us we are Safe or in Danger. That we are Loved or we need to Fear. The saddest thing is when people mix up the two from experiences they have had. Architecture can envoke these emotions to tell us we are loved or we should fear.
In high end – expensive design – everything has been thought out and planned. It is the ultimate physical manifestation in construction that we are loved. We feel safe and welcome. We feel like every detail is placed there for us. That is why we feel so comfortable in it. The joints down to the surface materials, and even the vast voids of space have been thought out. It is planned out to make us feel nice. But not just the design, even the construction is high quality. You just get the impression that someone actually cared about their job. It is not just a job but a Craft or Art. That is why designers will spend lots of time to make sure something feels right. I am not sure how many times I have heard classmates stress over a small detail. For whatever reason it bothers them and they will often say I don’t know why but I don’t like it. It is as if they are searching inside, to make something in them say it is Nice.
