MATTER OF PERCEPTION

AUSTEN J HESLER

Project By : Austen James Hesler

Major Advisor : Janice ShimizuMinor Advisor: Kevin Klinger

Special Thanks: James Kerestes, Andrew Wit, and Josh Coggeshall

CONTENTS

I. INTRO. . . . . . . . 1 Abstract 3 Final Project Proposal 4II. CASE STUDIES. . . . . . . . 7 Chapel of St. Ignatius (HOLL) 9 The Therme Vals (ZUMTHOR) 12 In/Odore (DIVERSERIGHE) 15III. LITERATURE REVIEW. . . . . . . 17 Eyes of the Skin (PALLASMAA) 19 Questions of Perception (HOLL) 22IV. METHODOLOGIES. . . . . . . . 27 Phenomenon 29 Criteria 48 Morphology 54 Evaluation 66 Full Circle 75V. CONCLUSIONS. . . . . . . . 77 On Generation 79 On Phenomenon 80

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ABSTRACT 1.2

With our society having a high reliance on connectivity, our busy daily schedules, and high stresses that disconnect us with the world around us, we become increasingly engulfed into a world of anesthetics. Architecture is the mediator between the realms of aesthet-ics and anesthetics. This architecture has no preconceived form, but rather a form generated by sensory and ecological inputs. This process gives it the opportunity to more readily adapt, change, and accept environmental considerations to produce a system that is composed of moments of phenomenal focus.

Phenomenon has been broken into four primary elements based on ancient religion and philosophy. Even we are thought to be com-posed of these four elements; Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. Through the study of these elements and their influence in both phenom-enal experience and architecture, the process of design is changed to become adaptive to context, program, and ecological testing. Thus, this process bring quantitative elements to a dominantly qualitative idea framework. This si the start in moving away from sense-less architecture to more intelligent architecture that fuses beauty and data.

1.3 FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL

Naturally we inhabit the realm of aesthetics; a place where our senses are active and we appreciate and notice the small subtle wonders that the world has to offer. These small wonders are as simple as a cool breeze against the skin, the warmth of a spot of sun, the sound of rain hitting various surfaces, the smell of the morning dew. The question becomes whether architecture can facilitate and even en-hance these incredible natural phenomenon to the point where it jostles us out of the anesthetic realm.

Anesthetics is the dulling of the senses, a moment where we are completely numb to the natural world and disconnected from simple phenomenon that start to have a deeper impact on our self. Anesthetics come from always being connected, our daily busy lives, our focus on other things such as phones and computers, always being plugged in. This isn’t necessarily a criticism of network and global media, but rather an opportunity to break us from the day-to-day anesthetics and drop us into a realm where we naturally exist.

So the question evolves into a more defined question of how architecture can facilitate the enhancement of phenomenon to where people notice the phenomenon more readily. How do we break someone from a day-to-day routine? That question can be answered by looking at architecture as a sort of surreal expression of phenomenon. Surrealism is linked to the notion of dreams and a “dream-world”. Things that are but shouldn’t be or things that make you stop and look at them again because things aren’t what are expected. This dreamscape like architecture can suddenly jostle someone out of their daily schedule and make them explore or even just stop and look.

Another way this architecture works is that instead of a direct surreal message, the architecture starts to impose a subliminal notion of phenomenon. Phenomenon so subtle like the passage of time through shadows can have an incredibly powerful effect. Someone may not notice a shadow pattern the first few times, but eventually they may stop and suddenly look. Suddenly open their eyes and let become aware of a sensory atmosphere.

Once again, the question evolves. Can architecture enhance phenomenon utilizing surreal and subliminal ideas to start facilitating the natural phenomenon? This question starts to raise more questions however. Can architecture start to transform based on these phe-nomenal criteria and can architecture start to take the phenomenal form?

These practices are not necessarily anything new. They’ve been used time and time again and even recently through Steven Holl, James Turrell, Juhani Pallassma, Peter Zumthor, and many others. How can these processes start to be developed in the digital realm? How can we start to use the digital tools that break us from aesthetics and turn them into tools to create architecture for a phenomenal ideology?

Digital tools have evolved exponentially over the years; architects have incredible power at their fingertips that can start creating far more intelligent buildings and far more meaningful buildings. The ways of building standards are in the past and a new approach to architecture needs to be sought out. My question is if architecture can start to be manipulated through forces obtained through the environment and based off their context.

With this method, the architecture is able to deform and create a form that is a resultant from ecological forces and can start to give opportunities, not just in interesting forms and layouts, but rather opportunities to start to incorporate phenomenon and ecological aspects that were utilized to form the object.

The tools can start to simulate any number of conditions and deform the geometry in any number of ways depending on parameters the architect changes. This deformed geometry becomes a conceptual mass and from that mass, the architect can start to create a building with a layer of intelligence that could not be obtained before. One conceptual mass has the ability to take any number of physical realizations.

So the question finally comes to can architecture start to physically manifest itself in the image of phenomenon to become a mediator between humans and phenomenon in such a way where it makes the impact of natural phenomenon more profound to transform us from an anesthetic moment to an aesthetic moment?

Architecture is a mediator through which we perceive phenomenon. The architect in this case is the orchestrator between architectural design and the phenomenon. The tools the architect uses in this case would be digital tools that allow the architect to manipulate and alter architectural form based on a resultant geometry given through parameters that the architect sets.

FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL 1.4

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Chapel of St. Ignatius By: Steven Holl

Understanding the Chapel of St. Ignatius comes from understanding the process of development as well as the program for the space. The space is used for Jesuit Catholic worship at Seattle University. Jesuit Catholi-cism exercises spiritualism where no singular method is prescribed. This idea of differences coming together for a larger purpose was something that was taken into account with the volumes of light. The light sculpted by these volumes correspond to the program of the Jesuit Catholic worship. 7 volumes of light for the 7 sacre-ments.

These volumes of light were aimed at different qualities of light: north, south, east, and west. It is not about the differences, but how the differences can be unified to create a comprehsive whole. This idea of united differ-ences is echoed with the colors. As light streams through the colored lens of the volumes the walls reflect the opposite color. This light is faced against a baffle that is back painted so the color pulses as clouds pass over. At night, the purpose of the volumes are inverted in which instead of the light being brought inside, the light is pushed outside.

The structure is bent around these seven volumes of light. The light being the craft. The walls are curved as if the light physically pushed the walls. These walls evolve to the exterior walls built of massive concrete slabs that interlock to create voids where windows were formed.

ReflectionsThe purpose of utilizing the Chapel of St. Ignatius as a case study is the exploration of light as a material instead of a by-product of windows. The light, as mentioned above, serves as a physical understanding of space as it crafts the architectural elements around it. The light is not only seen as a crafting agent, but as a transcender. The use of light, colors, and reflection sends the inhabitants into an ethereal state. This ethereal state, not only essential to the program, is a state in which other senses are activated, if not enhanced. This is the state in which the person becomes of the space. These examples show that space can be crafted around an abstract material. With that understanding, can space be constructed with the material of senses?

Steven Holl utilizes light as that material by carefully bending the light and analyzing the effect on space. Even through light is abstracted, can space be defined with a more abstracted material like smell? The argument I am proposing is yes. Smell, like light, has a path of travel. This path can be bent and changed based on exter-nal forces. Light can change direction with the use of opaque and transluscent materials. Smell can be altered by material as well. Using these paths of travel, wind calculations, material choice, and olfactory activators; the space can be crafted based on the point of origin and then the inputs from the other factors.

CHAPEL OF ST.IGNATIUS 2.9

For example, if a strong odor is placed in an undefined area, the space can start being crafted based on how that smell is going to travel. If the smell is to travel, having the orientation toward the wind allows that scent to travel, so that path defines a space in which the start of a form can be derived.

The light also becomes activators of the other senses. The texture of the “corduroy surfaces” become blantan-tely evident and changes as the passage of time sweeps along the walls. The walls are the texture, but the light allows one to see the texture and feel it without even touching the surface. The analysis opens the question of how one sense can become activators of other senses? Can hearing influence taste like vision influences touch? Surely smell can influence taste, but hearing influence taste? If one hears the burning of something, maybe the taste and smell of smoke is recollected. Maybe the taste of ham being slow-cooked over and open flame is recalled.

The Chapel also bring forth an interesting thought of “accidental architecture”. Holl may have designed the space around light, but it is almost impossible to know that at a particular time, the textured walls may do something completely different than at another. I argue that this isn’t just luck or coincidence, but rather an understanding that nature is unpredictable and being open that there might be a moment in architecture that create a powerful statement. Can this be designed? Yes it can, painstakingly so however. Mock-ups and physi-cal modeling can give way to these moments after being monitored during different conditions.

Phenomenon is hard to understand and grasp on an analytical level. Behavioral modeling and natural analysis programs are critical in understanding how natural forces act upon structures, but they can’t quantify or qualify the experience that snesory experience gives us. Steven Holl successfully analyzes this experience and under-standing through the use of abstract mediums; more specifically watercolor. Using this abstract medium forces the designerto think about the effect and experience without predetermined thoughts onwhat architecture really is.

ReferencesSteven Holl Architects. http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?id=40ArchDaily. http://www.archdaily.com/115855/ad-classics-chapel-of-st- ignatius-steven-holl-architects/Monograph

2.10 CHAPEL OF ST. IGNATIUS

2.12 THE THERME VALS

The Therme Vals By: Peter Zumthor

“Mountain, stone, water - building with the stone, into the mountain, building out of the mountain, being inside the mountain - how can the implications and the sensuality of the association of these words be inter-preted, architecturally? - Peter Zumthor

The Therme Vals is a spa and hotel built over thermal springs in Graubünden Canton in Switzerland. The stone was the major driving force behind the design and the informal layout of spaces creating a variety of rooms that have a variety of effects. Zumthor played with the senses from aroma of perfumed waters to the sound of bubbles and echoes from the stone in the cavern like structure. Hot and cold water mixed in with the touch of stone on the hands and feet left one to a multitude of sensory experiences.

The idea of time that Pallasmaa states also is an important aspect to the stone, the footprints appearing after every wet step and slowly dissipating into the air as time wipes away the trace of movement.

The Therme Vals is also quite specific to its context. The stone was quarried locally and the structure is built into the undulating landscape of Switzerland which creates a holistic piece in its setting. Instead of the build-ing taking over the land, the building is tucked underneath it or into it, using the roof to reclaim the land lost by construction.

ReflectionsPeter Zumthor creates a brilliant series of spaces in Switzerland that act as a series of experiments. Each space is carefully crafted to be an expression of experience. Aesthetics in the form of visual beauty were created by the understanding of another input. This input was primarily touch.

The statement of this architecture as an architecture of touch needs careful explanation. This isn’t to be con-fused with the idea that other senses were not considered, however, the other senses were more of an output rather than an input. Smell and taste especially are end results. As poetic as aromatic flowers on the water are and how the taste of the air and water can be, they are just products of an end result. I speak about this not in disdain, but the fact that it is done gracefully. Smell and taste are used in particular rooms as individual experi-ence rather than a holistic experience.

THE THERME VALS 2.13

Sound though was heavily considered and quite spectacularly done with vision. The rooms are enclosed, block-ing the vision to other areas. The only thing heard is the movement of the water immediately, the movement of people on the stone floor, and the echoes of conversations through the stone corridors. Sound becomes more than a secondary thought, but more of a method to understand the surroundings. Vision cannot confirm the source; the source is something to be speculated.

With those distinctions made, I now will talk about touch. Touch is a significant, if not primary, component of the baths. The walls, floors, and ceilings are made of stone. The stone is dynamic when it comes to thermal properties when it comes to comparison to air temperature. The air could be cold, but the stone warm or vice versa. The stone responds to walking of feet, allowing the visual interpretation of time. The water is completely touch, the program being centered on the assumption that you go there to interact with the water.

Touch doesn’t end with the physical interaction with the material; touch extends to the feelings of weight. Weight can be felt, the stone slabs teetering on stone walls, each slab never touching the other. These gaps cre-ate seams for light to penetrate through the ceiling and creating a sense of weightlessness.

IN/ODORE 2.15

OthersIn/Odore By: diverserighe studio

Unlike the Chapel of St. Ignatius in which differences become united, In/Odore celebrates this dualism. On the bottom, flowers are placed on reinforcing rods and above is an undulating surface of upside-down flowers. This duality can be broken down into utopian gardens, but for my purpose, the duality is a lesson in altered percep-tion. One side has a form of artificial sensory activation while the other a more naturally occuring sense.

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EYES OF THE SKIN 3.19

Eyes of the Skin: By: Juhani Pallasmaa

The Eyes of the Skin by Pallasmaa is an intense read that conjures controversial but necessary questions for architecture and space in general. Pallasmaa focuses on the assumption of an ocularcentric society, a society so focused on vision that the other senses are dulled. He describes the world as living in an anesthetic state, an argument I feel is very true in evidence. He links the fall of experience and sensory activation with speed, more specifically the speed of images. Photos and pictures of places and spaces litter our vision everyday. He argues that this is no substitute for experiencing architecture.

Pallasmaa is correct in that do no justice to actually experiencing the architecture. Even in educational con-straints, the images show glimpses of what is happening in architecture. The image does not convey weight of space, the olfactory and audible understandings of the space, and the way light interacts with the space. How-ever, it feels as if the idea becomes a crusade against photography. Photography, no matter how dampening it may seem, is essential in documenting and preseving experience. Good photographers can capture experience just like good architects can capture the senses.

Even though it seems as if Pallasmaa crusades against photography, I think he understands its importance in the role of documenting architecture. However, his stance on the use of technology is undoubtedly a crusade. Technology and the computer are merely tools as much as a pencil and paper are tools to conveying ideals. Behavioral and parametric modeling have the abilities to react to external forces to show how interactions may occur. The information recieved from the programs can then be inputted into physical models and retested to find results. Technology, craft, and experience do not have to be separate entities.

Pallasmaa speaks of how memory and sensory activation are linked together. When one smells a scent, it can create memories from where that scent was previously encountered. It can send someone into a sort of trance, altering their current mental state. Maybe the scent brings them back to a time of peace or maybe it brings anxiety or heartbreak. However, this link between senses and memory is seen as an archaic ideal. Hearing and vision are the primary social senses with the other senses catering to a more private life. Can this be changed? Why can’t we embrace the world around us more? To experience is to embrace all the senses.

Vision is defined as a mostly analytical understanding of the world, seeing an object in space. I use the word seeing because percieving is a different matter. To perceive, we need to interact with the object. We see the edges, the vertices, the faces. That information is readily available, but what happens when we touch the ob-ject? We solidify it, we add weight and texture. That object has become real. A comparison most heard of in the Bible when Jesus encourages Thomas to touch his wounds. It is to make real.

3.20 EYES OF THE SKIN

“I perceive in a total way with my whole being: I grasp a unique structure of the thing, a unique way of being, which speaks to all my senses.” These words are echoed by Pallasmaa from Merleau-Ponty, a French phenome-nological philosopher. Like with the combination of vision and touch, we experience through the interpenetra-tion of the senses. Pallasmaa’s argument is that we have become a monocentric society around vision and thus have destroyed this very important link between all of our senses.

Because of this correlation between vision and anesthetic, Pallasmaa speaks of a Narcissistic Eye and Nihilistic Eye, both of which focusing on detachment. The Narcissistic Eye “vies architecture solely as a means of self-expression and as an intellectual-artistic game detached from essential mental and societal connections.” Is this related to Capital A architecture? New Orleans can be a major argument in this favor. When A-ranked architects came into the devestated New Orleans’ communities, they brought their high design ideals and forced them upon a community, more interested in the art and expression of the architecture instead of the importance of personal elements within the architecture. How did this devestated community live in the world that was taken away from them? Their experience, their memories, were of touching the wrought iron rail of the shotgun house, smelling gumbo cooking in the kitchen, and hearing the familiar voices and sounds in the neighbor-hood. The sight of high-end architecture brought them no solace.

The Nihilistic Eye “disengages and isolates the body instead of attempting to reconstruct cultural order, it makes a reading of collective signification impossible.” Pallasmaa argues that only vision is capable of this. Vision is seen as a distancing, because sight has no nearness, no intamacy, no identification. When the other senses are activated, they require a conscious effort for identification, they require us to stop.

This identification of how vision distances us from the world leads to the assumption that the other senses bring us closer to the world. This is understood from what was said before about an intimacy. This brings into question the idea of vernacular architecture. Before oral language was converted into written language, as Wal-ter J. Ong says, people heard and smelled first. The architecture was focused around simpler needs and ideals. How can this knowledge be converted into modern architectural practices?

Even though Pallasmaa shows a sign of ocularphobia, he understands the possibilities of vision. The main principle of this book is that we have become an ocularcentric culture more focused on visual stimulation than searching to acquire a full experience using all of our senses. Vision should be a reinforcer, a sensory invitation and stimulant, to the other senses. It should be the confirmer, not the dictator.

The criticisms of modern architecture and practices, mainly the use of technology in the field, has been restated several times, one of which is the idea that modern architecture is ageless. In the way Le Corbusier tried to en-capsulate ageless buildings, Pallasmaa is correct. However, time is a powerful element that cannot be ignored. Even though a structure is machined,

EYES OF THE SKIN 3.21

does not mean that it is ageless. Architecture that is associated with the digital arts does not mean it becomes complete void of time, space, and craft. Like all architecture, the piece has the ability to embrace all of those elements and still be digitally designed.

Pallasmaa overall defines the sensory architecture as a wholistic approach to the world. Architecture should be the space through which we are able to experience from sensory activators. Architectural elements from windows and walls to materiality and color can all become significant in the sensory experience of architecture. Through our lives, we become less aware to sensory responses, we tone out certain things so we walk along the street plugged in and oblivious to the world around us. We need an architecture that facilitates the senses to create this wholistic experience. However, how does architecture

3.22 QUESTIONS OF PERCEPTION

Questions of PerceptionBy: Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, Alberto Perez-Gomez

The book is a beautiful composition of literature by Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Perez-Gomez. The book is both elegantly written and wonderfully designed, with different paper types excentuating the textural ideals in the book. The book works very symbiotically with imagery, which is ironic based on their unanimous stance against architectural imagery. This imagery reinforces ideas, especially the idea of light and shadow; however, the cooperative relationship makes it a little difficult to write about without imagery aides.

The authors start off with talking about architecture as an ideal and practice more than anything else. Perez-Gomez starts off the book with an adventure into the realm of philosophical and ancient ideals of space, time, nature, and chaos. These ideas are a linking effort of describing the powerful phenomenon in architecture and in how the architect is the designer. The architect in this book plays a dual role as both designer and spectator. This main idea is, to me, one of the most important point in the book. The architect is a person, a person that experiences the world in the same way. This isn’t to say we don’t experience things differently, but we experi-ence them with the same sensory utilities. The architect needs to remember that he/she should design from a perspective of an inhabitant and determine if they would be able to distill an experiential quality from their own work.

Holistic architecture is another consistent theme in the book. Architecture is seen as a collaborative effort be-tween a substantial magnitude of inputs and ideas. Artistic pursuits, experiential meaning, technology, ecology, social justice, and multitudes of forces (economic, environmental, structural, etc.) are, or should be, combined to create a piece that is actively engaged by the public.

This active engagement; however, is what differentiates good architecture from great architecture. Good archi-tecture allows the inhabitants to have a place to exist. There is no greater function besides the program. Great architecture engages the users; thus allowing the users to interact with the architecture. This type of interaction makes the users capable of contemplation and understanding, a way of channeling experience. The architec-ture becomes a median to experience and to the self.

The next sections of the book go to detail about methods of focusing design ideas to make architecture an experiential median. The word “median” is definitely an intriguing word to use in this case. The word has a certain ethereal connotation that allows for contemplation on how these perceptive ideals have an ethereal ef-fect. They break the book into sections of methodologies: merging object and field, perception, color, light and shadow, spatiality of night, time, proportion, scale, context, water, sound, and details.

QUESTIONS OF PERCEPTION 3.23

Merging Object and FieldIn other words, the enmeshed experience, which is defined as “the continuous unfolding of overlapping spaces, materials, and detail.” I like to think of this as a narrative effect, the architectural story of space. As users, we walk through a space, but we walk to a destination. Why can’t the journey be just as important as the destina-tion? The journey, just like a narrative, can reveal characteristics and events that may impact our self. The hero in a story goes through changes before he gets to his destination. Without these changes, these moments that cause self-contemplation and understanding, the story becomes dull and predictable. Architecture should be seen as a story or journey that encompasses events and situations. This narrative can shape our perception, but our perception of the building can shape the building. The way spaces intertwine with each other and the way objects are hidden or revealed can become incredibly important to how the story unfolds. Just as the story needs moments of questioning and moments of eureka, so to does architecture. It has the opportunity to create curiosity and intrigue.

ColorColor is a misleading topic, especially in this book. When color comes into conversation with architecture, it is assumed the color of the walls or ceilings. The color is seen as static when called by its name. When something is perceived as yellow, it is considered yellow. However, when situational light is introduced into color, that color is no longer just yellow, it’s mustard when there are dark clouds, and neon when the sun directly hits it. The color takes on a dynamic condition.

Light and ShadowNatural light has interesting qualities because it is completely situational. The light is influenced by clouds, time, space, season, air, and material. Every day, the light is a little bit different, giving off a different intensity or slightly different hue because of these conditions. This type of reliant structure makes dynamic scenes with light possible. Time becomes an essential element that can change the shape and feel of a spaceconstantly.

Shadows are an ethereal aspect of light, the absence of light. There is no mystery why there have been so much mystique created from these dark figures. Shadows create a theatric; they make it seem like light dances or they record the passage of time. Even shadows casted by people hold a mystery, an otherworldly idea. Architecture has the opportunity, the multitude of structural and architectural elements each cast their own shadows.

NightI think the chapter on night was a little slim and I think they miss out on an incredible opportunity to really talk about the sensuality of night. They speak about how sound can create a spatial map of the city, but they miss the opportunity to really speak about how night hinders

3.24 QUESTIONS OF PERCEPTION

Night also encloses, it creates space. Because we cannot perceive but to a certain depth, wherever we are night encloses a space on us. Space may only be perceivable by the immediate light. Just like a campfire creates space, night encloses that space.

TimeThroughout the entire book, time is seen as an integral part of the architectural process. Time is, as they argue, being perceived in a linear fashion. Things go from day to night and exist between the hours we are awake. Ar-chitecture should reflect this temporal existence just like anything else. Time changes materials and influences how space is perceived. Time can be seen through light, shadows, and materials.

WaterWater is an interesting element, changing every minute by the slightest touch. Ripples record the impact and fade away in time. It becomes not only an element that changes in time, but can become a bender of light. Just like light, it becomes incredibly reliant on external conditions. The weather capable creating a dynamic condi-tion with the time.

SoundSound is given an interesting spot in the book. It is described as the art most closely related to architecture. Architecture and music are similar in the way they blend harmonies, notes, and tones to describe a powerful composition. Space, like sound, surrounds us and creates a space. Echoic ideas reflect the idea of spatial under-standing through an abstract concept, defined by more than just walls and ceilings, but by reactions. Sound sees no walls or floors, it sees geometry. Instead of an assembly, it is a shape. Sound has a way of abstracting space.

DetailThis is an incredible link to anesthetics. Anesthetics, being the dullment of the senses, is created through this media intense life. It also comes from, as the book states, from the falsity of materials and the loss of craft. Fake materials like artificial wood and stone create a false touch. The sense of touch is linked to our sense of vision, there has been no real semblance of actual material. There is always a tell that shows the material’s true form.

“The total perception of architectural spaces depends as much on the material and detail of the haptic realm as the taste of a meal depends on the flavors of authentic ingredients”.

QUESTIONS OF PERCEPTION 3.25

Proportion, Scale, and PerceptionProportion has been an essential architectural ideal from the beginning of architectural design. The great structures like the Parthenon stress proportions. The Japanese matt houses are constructed around a propor-tional system. This proportional system relates to our human scale. This links back to the idea of the architect as designer and spectator. If we are building structures for human use, why are they out of scale with humans?

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PHENOMENON 4.31

The focus of this project is to start with phenomenon in the beginning instead of it being a byproduct of a pre-conceived idea or design. The phenomenon should shape the architecture like the scultpor shapes stone. In order for this idea to take hold, the process must start and end with phenomenon. In this section, there are a series of photgrographs that start a conversation about phenomenon.

Light and ShadowThe opposites of many stories, light and shadow cannot exist without the other. Wherever light is cast, shadow follows and without shadow, light can never exist. The dance of light and shadow, especially in nature is the delicate process of time. Shadow patterns shift and change as the time of the day passes, as seasons change, and even as years change. Architecture has a profound ability to harness this and create spectacular patterns from the sun. The artifact can make shapes of shadows and create areas of light and dark with a theatrical ap-proach.

Light and shadow’s theatrical ability is shown in many cases and can provide emotions of warmth and safety and at the same time give emotions of fear and curiosity. A dark corridor may seem frightening, but that strong emotion allows the senses to quick activate to keep you safe. Can strong emotions through architecture also evoke such emotions that the senses are activated through them? If so, how can architecture start to form to harness that without making things dangerous or too frightening?

Architecture and light have always had a hand-in-hand relationship. It is hard to talk about architecture without talking about light and shadow. However, light goes far beyond allowing for adequate daylighting, but how can that daylighting start to have a more profound effect?

4.32 PHENOMENON

Structure and DensityDensity is related to opacity. The denser the objects are the less information is seen behind it. It allows for exploration and curiosity. It hides things away while giving only small clues of what is behind it. Density also shapes light and shadow. The density blocks light from the core, except for when the rays are able to penetrate through the layers of branches and into the core.

Curiosity is a strong aspect in architecture, the more curiosity and exploration is participated, the more inter-active the inhabitants become. Through this interaction, the senses are continually activated and the more memorable the architecture becomes. This is where the old homage to the open plan comes into question. Does an open plan facilitate this level of curiosity? Does it excite and allow people to explore?

People are naturally curious and generally like to explore. Architecture has the great capacity to awaken this natural curiosity that makes people explore. A simple placement of a column or a densification of them allow for the concealment of information like what was talked about earlier. Spaces can start to be arranged around this densification to where inhabitation is discovered rather than just being a room with a door.

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WaterLiquids are curious things. They draw people to them, but also repel them at the same time. People gather around bodies of water, sit by fountains, and dip their feet in the water. However, when it rains, people seek shelter and try to stay dry. Can architecture use this to define space?

As water drains into an opening in a canopy, it creates a spot of wetness. It creates an auditory and olfactory location of the rain hitting a surface from above a canopy. This spot can become a moment of joy or a moment of contempt. People react different to the penetration of water and it’s hard to determine whether they will be accepting or rejecting of it. This moment of human interaction with the architecture can have surprising results. Will they splash in the isolated waterfall or will they be occupying a sheltered area cursing the architect’s name?

What happens when the rain stops? The steam from the hot sun revealing itself from among the clouds creates an entirely different spatial quality. Things become blurred and the density spoken before becomes a waypoint instead of a masker of information. The architecture responds through this change in environment by allowing the form to start being manipulated by the very ecology that is changing the space around it.

The water can start also to define the ground plane to allow for the collection and pooling of the water to cre-ate a different space or even for collection for it to be stored and reused. The flow of the water on the ground plane divides the floor into sections and diverts traffic in ways the architect cannot fully foresee, but the condi-tions for these opportunities for the architecture to change based on ecological changes is there because it was incorporated in the beginning of the process.

4.36 PHENOMENON

Ice and SnowWater cannot be fully talked about without talking about its counterpart. Ice is the solidifcation of the water and creates dazzling icicles and areas of translucent material that the sun is able to bounce light off and add an-other layer of phenomenon. Ice is a moment in time in which the water was once moveing, a static dynamism. If the architecture is able to promote the movement of water, how does the freezing of that movement change the space? Does it make it too dangerous or does it start to become a spectacular art piece on the ground where the light becomes trapped within the translucent material?

Not only does ice track a moment of water, but it also tracks moment within the water. Bubbles and ripples are frozen in time and add another level of depth and density to the material that can never be fully anticipated. Each winter, the ice is never the same based on the intensity of the winter and the changes from day to day.

With ice, comes snow usually. Snow is like water, but instead of it pooling and collecting in a stream, it piles and starts to create mounds of frozen liquid. The snow becomes its own object and if let penetrate through a canopy it piles in particular areas that, like water, creates a divergent traffic pattern and, like density, create a sense of exploration.

PHENOMENON 4.39

Light and ColorAs the light streams in through a material of color, it lights the walls of the material with a vibrant blast of color. Although color is often thought to be a post-product, if done right with the right materials, the color can be-come quite a powerful statement, evoking emotions from the inhabitant. The beautiful thing about light is its strong relationship to time. As time passes through the day and the sun sets, the colors and hue of the system changes accordingly. When clouds pass by and change the quality of light, it’s as if the system is breathing as it moves in between states of vibrancy.

Color is a powerful aspect of architecture because everyone perceives color differently. It may give off the same general emotions, everyone’s preferences of color is different and will react differently when presented with the color. Color can be soothing, color can be focusing, and color can be surreal.

If color is used correctly in a surreal way, the contract of color compared to natural colors is enough to get people to stop and look. Color can be incredibly alluring, especially in contract and can aid in the idea of curios-ity and exploration. A contracting color in the distance is almost beckoning and becomes a source of question.

Light is not only a way of casting shadow, but architecture can create the means of casting light onto a plane. In the presence of darkness, shadows do not get cast, but rather streams of light become the visible material. This distinction can become a powerful actor in architecture. During the day, the light is crafting the shadows while during the night, the shadows craft the light. Architecture is just the mediator between these phenom-enons.

4.40 PHENOMENON

OpacityThere is a beautiful thing about differences in opacity, an ethereal feeling of nothing being completely visual. Things are blurred and there is a soft glow radiating from the objects and the light is diffused through the sur-face. This ghostly phenomenon changes, like color, throughout the day and when the environment changes.

Shadows of people passing by the wall or when clouds cover the sun and the light coming through the trans-lucent areas are dimmed and seem to fade in and out as the sun skips from behind to ahead of the clouds and casts diffused light onto the surface. The wall practically asks for the person to touch it, to feel along the surface to explore what is making the opacity the way it is. The hand runs along the thin and thick, noticing the differ-ences from the extrusion of material making it both tactile and visual.

There are countless levels of opacity and even having a stark contract between fully opaque and full transpar-ent creates beautiful crisp shadows and strong light, while an intermediate level like shown to the side create soft images and diffused light.

PHENOMENON 4.43

The Elements and the PersonFrom ancient philosophies to religions, the human is thought to be made of four primary elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. These primary elements are found in nature, and thus found in ourselves. This idea of a con-nection with the world around us is diminished through our daily lives and constant connectivity. We become dulled to the world around us and it become harder to perceive the subtle phenomenon in the everyday.

In architecture, the building is said to be an extension of our self. We create the building and thus it is a part of us. Architecture has a direct relation to the person from creation to occupancy. The architecture is experienced by the person each and every day it is occupied and even when it is not occupied. It is experienced outside as well, even from a distance. We experience through our senses, through touch, smell, taste, sound, and sight. The senses are the representations of the elements.

It becomes evident when you run your hand along stone, feeling the roughness or smoothness of ages of environmental impact. The smell of rain as it hits dry soil or the taste of salty air at the beach. The sound of rain hitting the ground and the wind rustling through the trees. Finally the sight to link these phenomenons all together and see the reaction of these events.

However, sight becomes a double-edged sword. How does architecture become a product of ecology rather than visual dominancy? It starts with the abandonment of preconceived notions of form and ideas of what the final product will look like. It starts again with these elements, if architecture is the extension of our self and we are products of the elements, architecture should also become a product of these elements.

Architecture has the opportunity to be formed and to mediate the phenomenon and become something more than a shelter or structure, but a vehicle in which phenomenon is perceived through. It becomes the focusing lens, turning raw light into crisp shadows, taking wind and funneling it or blocking it, allowing rain to penetrate its skin and create space around the event, and become a product of material that influences tactile responses.

Because the mass is generated through these ecological inputs into a system that starts to shape the mass, it yields opportunities of phenomenal moments in a multitude of areas within the architectural piece. It is the ar-chitect’s responsibility to then decipher the information they have received and manipulate that into an inhab-itable structure that has built in phenomenal capabilities.

It becomes marble in which the sculptor must reveal the form. The form and effect is already there, the archi-tect must uncover it and shape it into the final result.

4.44 PHENOMENON

PHENOMENON 4.45

4.46 PHENOMENON

ATLAS OF PHENOMENONWhile research phenomenon, the idea of composing an atlas of phenomenal effects was very important to start distinguishing some of the vast possibilities. The four corners of the atlas represent the four primary elements and from there, effects can start to be derived. This beginning of the atlas is a hope that effects can start to be added and explored much like material science. It’s possible to start a collective database of phenomenon in which the architect can start drawing and start making parallels between phenomenons.

WINDWind is an incredibly complex thing. It bounces and moves, but it is never seen. The only way it is seen is through a reaction or through a tactile sense. The start of deriving the effects looked at how wind can start being funneled or start going back and forth between blocked and porous. However, wind is still invisible. It is only visible through the objects that get moved by it. Studies of how the wind can start deforming surface geometries and objects became increasingly interesting. The folds and caverns created through the deforma-tion and even the stretching, depending on the material, created beautiful effects.

WATERFollowing the wind line, water also has the ability to deform. A highly reactive surface may take each droplet as an individual impact, deforming the surface based on where it gets hit. The surface can also start being deformed through submerging into a liquid and its reactions. Water also has the incredible ability to move along a surface and trace its movement with a glossy shadow trailing behind it. Tracing this movement results in beautiful line work that has both logic and an asymmetry that is alluring. Like with wind, how do porous and solid surfaces start to alter the path and alter the space on the other side of the surface?

FIREWith the porous surface comes the exploration of porosity with light and the shadows created from it. How do the shadows bend along the surface and map the sun as well as create spatial areas of light and dark? It be-comes an investigation into what light does as it diffuses, refracts, reflects, and penetrates.

EARTHEarth is a category that is a bit difficult to deal with. Two main paths are identified as either letting earth take over or using earth as a metaphor within materials. Letting earth take over is homage to time and adaption. The architecture is able to aid in the growth of plants and allows for the growth along its shell. Materials have a different function to serve as both physical tactility and visual tactility. Texture is not just felt, it is seen.

PHENOMENON

CRITERIA

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EVALUATION

CRITERIA 4.49

CRITERIAPhenomenon is an incredibly vast field and can easily become a project on its own with just identifying a multitude of phenomenal effects and testing them for those effects. For an architectural project, there needs to be constraints for both phenomenon to adapt to and for the architectural requirements. Criteria should not be seen as limiting, but rather areas of difference or change. Constraints do not need to be ideas of program or layout, but rather phenomenal constraints.

Other criteria like site and context are incredibly important. The site allows for the ecological forces to become more real and site specific allowing for a very different effect when placed on another site. Not only does site matter, but the three-dimensional environment also matters. Existing context can and should play an enor-mous role in how the form is created. Some objects may be okay with a collision through it and other may need the geometry to wrap around it. This criterion is important to establish in the beginning because it can later turn into constraints for the system to work more effectively.

Constraints are more of places that either the geometry will collide into and wrap around or they are physical locks that prevent the geometry from moving. When this is applied, certain architectural requirements can be accomplished without sacrificing the overall logic and geometry because the system will adapt accordingly and change around those constraints.

Criteria as opportunities, not criteria as obstacles.

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4.52 CRITERIA

PHENOMENAL ZONESThe criteria evolve into zones in which there are specific areas for phenomenal effects and areas of general context that start to define a constraint system that was spoken of before. The zones serve as a diagrammatic representation to what needs to be done to the geometry.

From constraints, areas of wet and dry, cold and hot, light and dark can start to be better defined. Initial studies of phenomenon allow us to determine zonal constraints of where these zones should be. Through the studies and preliminary constraints, the diagrams on the previous page show where the zones could be and are de-rived from ecological data input into the system.

The top left diagram shows that the site has existing important features. These features are defined as cross-walks and the existing metro entrance. With these contextual constraints an enclosure system can start to be formed. The crosswalks become areas of enclosure to allow people to stay dry or warm while they wait for the bus. However, some of them can be open and other can be completely enclosed to provide a variety of spaces. Where two crosswalks were opposite each other, gave an opportunity for a larger atrium space to allow for larger amount of people to gather and for program to start.

With the enclosure system, a basic understanding of zones can start being generated in which enclosed areas are dry. Damp areas are areas that are sheltered from direct rain, but not from completely enclosed on all sides. Wet are areas that rain is allowed t partially or completely penetrate through the skin and openings. This zonal system starts setting up logic for the rest of the project.

More zonal diagrams can be done such as wind bitterness. Cold winds should not be allowed to penetrate while warmer winds should be allowed in. This could start defining a skin system or even a program layout based on phenomenal and ecological ideas of the environment.

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MORPHOLOGY

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MORPHOLOGY 4.55

MORPHOLOGYMorphology is a term borrowed from biology dealing with the study of form and structure of organisms and their structure. Morphology is the perfect term for this because that is essentially what this is doing. Like or-ganisms, the architecture is adapting itself to site, context, environment, and necessities. Regardless if the site is placed in a different country, state, or block, the resultant form will be completely different and yield different opportunities for phenomenal application.

The morphology, just like us, is a process of continual progression through a series of rigorous tests that start to define conceptual mass, structure, and components that allow for phenomenal integration within the sys-tem. The morphology becomes an intensive process that continually builds upon the logic that is already being inserted from the criteria as well as the previous step in the process.

The process steps are categorized by the primary elements and the built-up logic continually alters the geom-etry as if it is evolving. The greatest part of the morphology is that the steps are just recipes and can be altered in either how they are executed, removed, replaced, or just switched in order to give a variety of effects. The geometry will adapt and alter based on the procedural steps and yield different opportunities for phenomenal effects based on these.

4.56 MORPHOLOGY

PRIMITIVEThe start of the morphology is the beginning mass. This primitive gives the process a set base to work off of. This mass is usually kept as a simple shape to prevent wandering into preconceived formal ideologies. From this primitive the morphology begins.

MORPHOLOGY 4.57

DEFORMThe primitive is exposed to horizontal vector forces that push against the geometry and twist and shape it into a new altered conceptual mass. Much like the primitive, this conceptual mass is the base for ideas. Now that the primitive has been exposed to the desired force, the conceptual mass can be altered in a multitude of ways. Above, you can see how the geometry clings to certain areas because those criteria and zones have now been implemented into a constraint for the system to acknowledge.

4.58 MORPHOLOGY

DIVIDEBecause the location is a transit station, enclosure is not the top priority which allows for many opportunities with relationship to the external environment. The division is a product of the wind zone diagram above (p 4.51) which determines the height of the entire cut line that deter-mines a division line for the form itself.

MORPHOLOGY 4.59

STRUCTURAL PATHWAYSVertical vector forces are applied to the shell and get traced along the shell and onto the ground. The mapping can then be sorted and drawn which serve as a path for the structure to follow. The vectors are both wrapped down the shell and penetrated through the skin to start to de-fine structural columns.

4.60 MORPHOLOGY

TRUNKSThe lines from the forces penetrating through the shell start to define pathways for structural columns to start and be defined.

MORPHOLOGY 4.61

PRIMARY BRANCHESFrom the top, the vector paths that travel down the shell leave an open area in which an opportunity for thick branch systems can start being strung through the enclosed areas. These thick primary branches serve as bases for a secondary branch system to start growing from them.

4.62 MORPHOLOGY

SECONDARY BRANCH SYSTEMFrom the pathways streaming down the side of the shell, a secondary branch system to start growing from the primary branch system. These branches will serves as the enclosure of the canopy system above the main program. These secondary branches also serve as the start for the phenomenal part of the canopy.

MORPHOLOGY 4.63

SOLAR ANALYSISThe final layer of direct information is derived from a solar radiation test on the geometry. Above are colored diagrams that show the radiation on three different times of day over the four months. This color mapping serves as the base for opacity of the canopy which creates brilliant ef-fects.

4.64 MORPHOLOGY

RESULTANTThe resultant canopy of the solar mapping comes to a semi-porous canopy that have individual panels placed based on the solar analysis. The openings correspond to the color and determine their sizes.

The resultant form is a tree and corporeal structure that shields cold winds and allows warm winds to penetrate through it while allowing the same idea with the sun and rain. The canopy has an opacity idea that allows for stunning shadows while not creating a dizzying effect on the ground.

PHENOMENON

CRITERIA

MORPHOLOGY

EVALUATION

EVALUATION 4.67

EVALUATIONThe morphology has a necessity to go through evaluation. If the evaluation doesn’t work out then the orga-nization needs to change to accommodate more accurate data. This, in the animal kingdom, would ensure survival. In architecture, it allows the structure to become performative with both phenomenon and ecology.

Phenomenon can be tested through observing the effects and understanding how they move and operate within the system. This particular evaluation method is best performed with models and how real phenom-enon interacts with the model instead of digital quantification.

With that being said, phenomenon can be assumed and tracked through real data from digital simulations. With the simulation, the architect can track the general movement of wind and water through the system and base phenomenal actions off that data. This process and system starts to break down phenomenon into a quantifiable system and helps the architect to better understand how forces are acting upon the geometry.

Even though this system is starting to try and quantify general attributes to phenomenon, there is still no sub-stitute for seeing it in real time and constructing models to display the phenomenon.

The evaluation segment also allows the architect to determine certain performative aspects like passive venti-lation, drainage, and day lighting which are important aspects in buildings. These performative aspects were not exclusively studied, but the geometry already has conditions set up to provide for the integration of those systems.

4.68 EVALUATION

WIND EVALUATIONThis evaluation is a base diagram of how the flow of wind can then be tested against the form and structure. It also starts to show how the wind is penetrating through the shell, where it is penetrating, and what it is doing when it gets inside. This wind evaluation is a simple diagram at this point, but can become far more complex to really start fine-tuning wind focusing and path management.

EVALUATION 4.69

WATER EVALUATIONThis evaluation starts to study the vertical vectors being applied to the shell structure. The vectors roll off the surface and from there; drainage and penetration can start to be evaluated. Holes can be closed and curvature can be altered to allow for better drainage.

4.70 EVALUATION

BALANCING EVALUATIONThe evaluation process can be incredibly important in being able to tune phenomenon. However, phenom-enon can never be completely tuned. If it could, it would no longer be considered a phenomenon. Phenom-enon is what they are because their cause or explanation is in constant question.

The image to the right displays just this. There is no structure directly behind this, nor is the light skewed enough to project the shadows from the canopy. There are no glossy or reflective materials and the top of the enclosure is a solid piece in the model that is adequate thickness to prevent light penetrating through it. How-ever, light seems to have managed to appear on the structure.

Tuning can take a long time and evaluation can essentially go on forever. The reason for the evaluation process is to find issues, breaking issues of lackluster or non-performance. Phenomenon just needs to happen, but the architecture is crafted in such a way that it has conditions built into the system that allow for this kind of phe-nomenal “accident”.

Evaluation may need to go longer based on the scope and criteria of the individual project. If the project is really focusing on wind and pathways, then the evaluation period of that particular test may be extended to where the wind is focused in such a way.

Regardless of scope, it is important to remember that phenomenon just happens and should be allowed to happen unexpectedly. Accidental phenomenon is not an issue, but an opportunity for far richer experience.

PHENOMENON 4.75

FULL CIRCLEThe resultant is an architecture that isn’t afraid to allow for the environment to encapsulate it. Generated through rigorous evolution and morphology, the structure is both adaptable and capable. Because phenom-enon was at the beginning and conditions were set from the start to allow for phenomenal effects, it delivers an experience that change and varies from day to day, month to month, season to season, and year to year.

The phenomenon start to define the space more than the enclosure, when the sun streams through the aper-tures, spots of the sun’s warmth appear and change with the passage of time. It casts brilliant shadows on the ground for a dazzling display of light and shadows of structure.

When it rains, the canopy acts as a leaf system, allowing the rain to seep into the cracks and fall to the ground, the tip tap of each droplet echoes as it hits the ground and the ground changes from the dusty color of age to a darker color. That color and waterfall start to define space, it becomes either an exploration of how to dodge the apertures or a time of play as the water splashes inside the structure.

When it snows or when autumn has stripped the leaves off the trees, piles of either accumulate from the holes, creating visual and movement barriers causing a diverging of traffic. The snow and leaves become dictators of space, phenomenon is allowed to alter the space and alter habitation.

The entire canopy changes brightness as the sun dip between clouds or as time passes as the sun diffuses through the varied translucent panels in the structure. The canopy shields against the bitter sting of winter and allows for the gentle breeze of summer to sweep through the canopy, allowing for people outside to be pro-tected while outside.

The geometry becomes the mediator; it creates scenarios of phenomenal moments that makes people stop and alter their paths or to explore. It shakes people from the anesthetics and casts them into a world where the senses are starting to be engaged through exploration, curiosity, and natural phenomenon that are diffused through the architecture.

AUSTEN J HESLER

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CONCLUSIONS 5.79

CONCLUSIONS - ON GENERATIONAlthough the form was both intriguing and performed phenomenal obligations well, the geometry only went through one iteration. With more iterations, various ways of interpretting the conceptual mass would be help-ful. The conceptual mass should be seen as a blank canvas that the primitive set up. From the blank canvas, a logic and pattern of process is painted on the canvas. Each stroke changes a detail or alters a form.

For example, the mass could have gone another direction, the curvature could have become angular and dis-played sharper features. Instead of light corporeal structure, the structure could have been a porous concrete shell. These iterations will be helpful to progress the process and how it can adapt according to needs and project.

The process is completely adaptable and allows for the altering and changing of any component without destryoing the system framework. Future research will be into how the programs can be optimized to produce better results and better effects as well as strongly analyzing the framework and making it more robust and involved so it might be better equipped for change and alteration.

Another future development would be starting to break down the processes and finding new ways to generate the form that still lives within the framework. Instead of utilizing horizontal forces to alter a surface, new ways such as vertical forces, fluid movements, solar crafting, or other methods could be used to start the conceptual mass.

The most prevelent issue is time and fluidity of the system. As of now, it requires a lot of program jumping and a lot of manual alterations. The jumping between systems is acceptable, but utilizing software the focuses on manually crafting halts the production process and cuts the evaluation phase down so phenomenal effects are only seen from a product that took a significant amount of time to model. Finding a method that would allow for a fast prototyping while keeping the smoothed geometry intact and not loosing the aesthetic or intelli-gence.

5.80 CONCLUSIONS

CONCLUSIONS - ON PHENOMENONThe world of phenomenon is vast and never ending. There can be projects based on just one phenomenon and still take years to understand. Even when just one phenomenon is focused on, others seep in and create a far richer experience.

The aim of this thesis was to take pre-conceived notions of form and leave them behind and focus on phenom-enon. The phenomenon came first. The geometry bent around phenomenon instead of adapting phenom-enon to the geometry. The resultant was a conceptual mass that was neither expected nor typical. It becomes the blank canvas for everything else to be created. At the end, phenomenon was still the top of the list as the evaluation of it required the building of models to test to see the effects and then re-implementing them into the architecture.

Phenomenon will never be completely understood and that is what makes it so exciting. Phenomenon chang-es based on location, day, time, year, season, context, weather, and events. The uncertain phenomenon that occur from the passing ages is what makes the architecture stand out, because it becomes the mediator regard-less of the phenomenon. How can architecture become the mediator of phenomenon?

It becomes the mediator through a process that starts with phenomenon, is shaped through forces other than preference, accepting of environmental impact, and evaluated by the phenomenon it was created by. The cycle then starts again, the key is that the process starts and ends with phenomenon. The architecture is the product of phenomenon, not the other way around.

If phenomenon is how we describe beauty, then the aim is to create an architecture that defines beauty through the phenomenon it focuses.

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