An Architecture of the Seven Senses
From the article given, I totally agree with the standpoint that architecture is experienced by humans through senses. The author below writes about the relation between human senses and with the architecture surrounding them.
“Jewish Bodies, Christian Senses, Urban Spaces”Laura Hollengreen, Georgia Insitute of Technology
Apart from manifestations of sanctity, experience of sexuality, and conduct of war, nothing stimulated the sensory imagination of medieval Christians as much as the Jew. Building on work I’ve presented elsewhere on the spatial and, in particular, the urban aspects of medieval Christian-Jewish interaction—in examples from eleventh-century Mainz, twelfth-century Rouen and Oxford, and thirteenth-century Chartres—I propose in this paper to extend my study by incorporating detailed information about the Jewish quarters of other medieval cities (probably Paris, Norwich, York, and one German city).
The medieval Christian sensorium was often depicted as assaulted by Jews—Christian hearing was outraged by Hebrew chant, sight confused by unmarked Jews, smell offended by noxious odors, taste deceived by wet nurses’ milk, and touch sullied by Jewish hands working for profit or other evil. At the same time, the “spectral Jew,” as defined by historians like Stephen Kruger, was produced precisely by the effacement of real Jews. Focusing on a small set of urban case studies, I seek to locate and to measure the conjunction of historical (including archaeological) evidence of Jewish-Christian contact on the one hand and literary/artistic testimony on the other. Preliminary conclusions are that although the homes of Jews were regarded as particularly dangerous, that is where most small loans by Jewish moneylenders were contracted; that the protection of person and commerce afforded Jews by lords’ castles was subject in unpredictable ways to the political relations between Christian elites; that synagogues and other Jewish ritual structures were typically modest in scale and sometimes all but invisible to Christian eyes; and, perhaps most tellingly, that Jewish offense to the Christian sensorium emanated so forcefully from a fundamentally corporeal conception of Jews that it lingers as much in records of public streets and squares as it does in evidence about specific buildings. Not surprisingly, medieval Jews frequently evinced what I have termed an “agora-aversion”.
Architecture presents the drama of construction silenced into matter and space; Architecture is the art of petrified silence. This means that architecture, a non-living/ lifeless object, unable to speak is able to communicate to humans. Of course, it is not a ‘talking building’ but it communicates via the construction elements and also designs orders. Different from dramas and stories, dialogues and words, make us understand the storyline. Buildings and cities are instruments and museums of time. Through buildings, we are able to find story, history of that place; this is as there are different styles of buildings in different era. Architecture, like the recorder of time/history, slows down time, with all the historical elements in it, allows us to understand our passed history.
"the timeless task of architecture is to create embodied existential metaphors that concretize and structure man's being in the world. images of architecture reflect and externalize ideas and images of 1ife; architecture materializes our images of ideal life. buildings and towns enable us to structure, understand, and remember the shapeless flow of reality and, ultimately, to recognize and remember who we are. architecture enables us to place ourselves in the continuum of culture".
Juhani Pallasmaa: "Architecture of the Seven Senses." A+U, July 1994
Architecture paused time and brings us all back to ancient era. Solitude, understood as the state of being alone. In architecture, I think that it means only individual, the viewer speaks individually with the building. Architecture should be able to convey its message to each individual. So if the architect designs the building well or with thoughtful consideration, the building itself will present a clear message to everyone. If not, architecture is almost a failure. For example, the building itself should be able to lead the people to the right place. Designs which speaks, works as signage itself.
“Smelly” is what we remembered most of a garbage dump area. “Smell” is the most easily remembered thing of a space. A certain smell would make us recall different areas. But when smell is gone, it takes a lot of memory and imagination to recall it back. And of course different smell makes us recall different memories. Memories are then enhanced with great power of imagination. Memories aren’t wonderful if you are unable to imagine it. Same goes to architecture, power of imagination is very important. Provided with the images of architecture, the building and spaces will not be interesting if one does not put his/her imagination in. If you are able to imagine the architecture images, it would be more interesting.
“Already during the Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime in the seventh century, a pleasant smell became an important aspect of communal worship in the mosque, as mentioned in his collected sayings and deeds (hadith). For instance, once during congregational prayer Muhammad noticed the body odor of a group of believers who worked in menial jobs and traditionally wore heavy woolen garments; he told them to wash and perfume themselves before prayer, so as not to disturb fellow worshippers. As the Ottomans were upholders of Sunni Islam, they emphasized the continuation of such practices.
The smellscape of sixteenth-century Ottoman mosques can be partially reconstructed based on documents preserved in different archives in Turkey, in the form of the charters specifying the conditions of the endowments responsible for the administration and upkeep of the mosque complexes. These charters routinely mention the employment of a buhurcu or buhuri, a person who perfumed the mosque on Fridays and other holy days. Using the case of the buhurcu as a springboard, I will discuss the types of smells and perfumes that worshippers could sense inside the mosques—such as the prayer rugs’ wool, the wooden Qur’an stands and chests, the mosque lamps fueled by olive oil, the plants in the garden surrounding the mosque, the water in the mosque courtyard, and the aroma of the food served in the soup kitchens often attached to larger mosque complexes.”
“Olfactory Aspects of Ottoman Mosque Architecture” by Nina Ergin, Koc University
For ancient times without the advancement of technology yet, man normally uses their body for scale. Proportions- anthropometry. Older times, buildings are shaped according to human own bodies. But now technology seems to take over all manual work and enables many impossible buildings to be built. More creative and innovative designs are created. It is also said that architecture is not experience by viewing only. The whole human body should be involve in the experience. For example, when you walk up the stairs, your legs touches the ground and hands touches the handrail, it makes you connect with the spaces surrounding. Hence, architecture should be experienced not only by our views, we must also feel the space with our body.
Besides vision, smell, sound, and touch, taste is also an important sense in architecture. Different architects have different taste in their designs of buildings. This is merely called their architectural identity. For example, Frank Gehry taste or style, once you look at the building, automatically you can know that it is Frank Gehry’s building without any indicators.
Architecture structures man’s being in the world. Architecture materializes life, concretize time and creates continuous culture for us. As for me, I believed that I experienced the space through senses, maybe not all senses used. I hear, I see, I smell, I touch and I feel architecture. The building I am about to describe is KLPAC, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre located in Sentul West Park designed by landcape architect Ng Sek San. This adaptive reuse building really touched my heart when I see it. An amazing piece of architecture by Ng Sek San, this piece of art is able to communicate to people with its design. In KLPAC, sounds of people practicing dramas feels the space, participants shouting, yelling and many more makes us remember the sounds which fills up this building. If weren’t for this sounds, this building wouldn’t have been KLPAC. I see KLPAC and it gives me the sense of vision, the image it produces tells me history of the building. Image reflected to my eyes tells me that this building are an old building built during British Colonial Era with the materials and architectural styles. The arches, brickwork and classical columns represent themselves well. A slight touch on the old brickwork reminds me of Neoclassicism….In addition, when I enter KLPAC building from the entrance, the brutalism of the natural unfinished concrete work gives me the feel, the injection of a new life into an old building. Without any understanding on this building, merely by experience, I feel that the massiveness and rigid form of the building functions to carry the “art centre” identity. The message KLPAC gave me when I was communicating with it, spending time in it is that “We as future generations should preserve old architecture, instead of demolishing a still-strong standing structure, and creating greater carbonprints on our Mother Earth, why not we make use of the already built structure to create new spaces” The beauty of old architecture should be appreciated. In my opinion, the architect managed to convey the message of “Preservation and Conserve Old building” to us. Hence, KLPAC represents itself well merely with its design and construction
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