Senses in architecture
A research about the senses in relation to architecture and their status of importance in current
architecture.
„Architecture is the art of reconciliation between ourselves and the world, and this mediation takes
place through the senses”
Juhani Pallasmaa1
1
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
1
Senses in architecture _______________________________________________________ 1
Introduction _______________________________________________________________ 3
The senses _________________________________________________________________ 3
Definition _____________________________________________________________________ 3
Overview _____________________________________________________________________ 3
The senses in architecture ____________________________________________________ 4
Sight – the top sense ____________________________________________________________ 4
The dominance of vision _______________________________________________________________ 4
A new mode of vision _________________________________________________________________ 5
The second vision ____________________________________________________________________ 5
Touch – an intimate sense _______________________________________________________ 6
Feeling shape ________________________________________________________________________ 6
Acoustics – the silent sense _______________________________________________________ 7
A building’s soundtrack________________________________________________________________ 7
Hearing nothing ______________________________________________________________________ 8
Smell – space’s odour ___________________________________________________________ 8
One in a million ______________________________________________________________________ 8
Taste – more a combination of two ________________________________________________ 9
The taste of architecture _______________________________________________________________ 9
Interactive architecture – a possible new field for the senses ___________________________ 9
Conclusion ___________________________________________________________________ 10
2
Introduction
At first, the question of senses in architecture seems to be unnecessary. Buildings are rather functional
constructs that, if possible, should include an aesthetical component. Some architects try to fulfil the
function requirements and after that focus on the shape that will give the building their individual style
and by that its acknowledgment in society.
But it is not satisfying for the users to translate the program of demands into shape and assume their
content. Besides the functional demands the question for design should be how the people feel inside
the building and how they are going to experience the space. Not only in terms of how the space looks,
but also how it touches, how it smells, sounds and maybe even tastes.
Architecture is a multi-sensory experience.2 Architects should make use of this fact to create buildings
that are more intense, more exciting and profound than three dimensional objects that are waiting to be
photographed for the latest magazines and addressing the vision only.
In this essay an overview of the five main senses and their relation both to architecture and to each
other is given. A collection of examples will underline the difference between sensory architecture and
a visual understanding of architecture. A short excurse to interactive architecture will lead to the
conclusion of this essay.
The senses
Definition
Senses are
a : the faculty of perceiving by means of sense organs
b : a specialized function or mechanism (as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch) by which an animal
(or human) receives and responds to external or internal stimuli3
Overview
The five main senses are vision, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. But it is agreed that there are at least
seven senses for humans, and a minimum of two more in other species.
Further human senses or sense systems are thermoception the sense of heat which uses the skin
including internal skin passages, and nociception, the sense of pain.
2
3
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
Merriam Webster online dictionary: sense
3
Or, more important for architecture, Equilibrioception, the vestibular sense, that senses the balance of
the body over liquid in the inner ear, and Proprioception, the kinesthetic sense, that gives the body the
awareness of where its parts are located.4
Thought can also be regarded a sense. With it we understand, evaluate and process experinces.5
The senses in architecture
Vision has a strong connection to architecture. The first impression we get from architecture relies
most of the time on the first view that we get on it. And still we perceive architecture with all our
senses. In the following paragraph examples for each sense individually explain its importance in
architecture and the possible impact on us.
Sight – the top sense
The dominance of vision
Already in early times the vision was the leading sense. Plato regarded vision as humanity’s greatest
gift.6 Until today, sight prevailed on top of the hierarchy of the senses and our technological culture
has separated the senses even further. “Vision and hearing are now the privileged sociable senses,
whereas the other three are considered archaic sensory remnants with a merely private function, and
they are usually suppressed by the code of culture.”7
With the technological development our world has become a lot faster than it used to be. Screens,
advertisements, radios. Constantly our senses are triggered and it seems like time and space are fused
by speed. The only sense that can keep the pace of this development is sight.
As a result architectural design is meant to please this sense. This should not imply that architects
focus only on the nice picture of their design but some of them are just not balanced in terms of the
sensual possibilities. Whereas other architects focused on the visual component of their design but
conscious or unconsciously built architecture that did affect several other senses. Le Corbusier with
the statement that “Architecture is the masterly, correct magnificent play of masses brought together in
light”8 is a good example. His statement is clearly leading to an architecture for the eye but with his
sculpturing talent and his sense for materiality he prevented his buildings from turning into sensory
reduction.
4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense
Hekkert, P. (2005/2006)
6
Plato (360 BC) in Jay, M. (1994)
7
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
8
Le Corbusier (1959)
5
4
A new mode of vision
So there are several methods to dethrone the sense of vision. One opportunity is to combine the sight
with other senses. This is already applied in the same media that brought the vision to its current
status. Visual art, TV and even architecture try to use the fast created images to stimulate new
experiences to achieve what David Levin calls a new mode of looking.9
It is a contextual, associative look that stimulates also our other senses over a visual component. So it
uses in fact a combination of senses that can bring back a sensory balance.
Like both Merleau-Ponty and Pallasmaa argue the importance lies in the interaction of the senses to
create sensory architecture in opposition to the prevailing visual understanding of architecture.10 11
The second vision
A special case is the lack of vision. Architecture is still perceivable for blind people. Over the other
senses. The lack of one sense stimulates the others to develop.
Still they perceive architecture in a different way. So designing a building for their use is a very
special task. In several interviews blind people describe their feelings about architecture.
“The outside can be sensed with hearing and description. We can hear the wind blow off the building
and sense the size of it that way. I tend not to like the smooth glass and steel because it sounds very
hallow and cold. I can hear it creak and moan and groan. I listen for how the wind or breeze flows
around an older structure and I can then sense the little crevices and hallows.
I am still learning about my world through lose of sight. I feel that the more questions I ask then I can
learn how different things sound.”
Here the author writes only about the exterior but the same goes for the interior, lighting and different
materials.
“Open spaces are a double edge sword for us. Open space gives us a sense of freedom and on the other
hand it can be too noisy for us. Sound is a primary source of our world.
Inside rock walls tend to muffle the sound which isn’t a help for us.
Brick seems to be a little better
High ceilings make the rooms sound huge.
Wood panelling seems to hold the noise out. If I am in the laundry room which has a wood wall
around it I have a hard time hearing what is being said to me from the other room. And this is hard to
do because my loved ones say I can hear the grass grow.
9
Levin, D.M. (1988)
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964)
11
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
10
5
My preferences are rooms that aren’t too small because I feel restricted and enclosed. Feeling trapped
is the best way I can describe it.
I like walls with some texture because then I can feel it and get a sense of what it looks like through
that sense.
Lighting is very important when designing for the visually impaired. It depends on the person too
much light can hurt and not enough makes it too dark. Fluorescent lights are glaring and annoying for
us.
In a utopia each building would have a plaque describing the building for us.”12
Some of these descriptions are too detailed for non impaired people. But some of them are sensed in
the same way. Because of the visual dominance they tend to be suppressed by the visual impression,
but still they are supporting the experience of the space.
Touch – an intimate sense
The eye is the organ of distance, whereas touch is the sense o nearness, intimacy and affection. The
eye observes and investigates, whereas the touch approaches and feels.
So when the light makes space for shadow our other senses are sharpened including the sensitivity to
touch.
Feeling shape
We can feel if a room is brightly lid or if it is dim. In the same way as we can feel the sunlight on our
skin. So light is a good method to address touch in architecture. But the skin can sense more things. It
can read texture, weight, density and temperature of matter.13
By touching material we experience more than by the bare gaze at it. Structures have a visual effect
but by touching them we feel more components of their construct. Hardness, Depth, Temperature
these components can vary in materials that give the same visual impression.
Two different examples of architecture can be the holocaust memorial in Berlin from Peter Eisenman
or the interior of the iWeb by Kas Oosterhuis. Both the extremely smooth concrete and the sprayed
foam layer just invite to be touched. Though our vision leads us there only the touch is actually
satisfying our curiosity.
12
13
American Foundation fort he blind
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
6
In the next step this desire can be used to give further impressions. By touch associations can be
inspired. Like a pebble polished by the sea is not only pleasurable to the hand, it expresses the process
of its formation. It is time turned into shape.
Acoustics – the silent sense
A building’s soundtrack
Hearing is a very incorporating sense. It is omni-directional, not focused like vision.
A view at a building will not show the person watching the building but a building will return the
sound of a person walking in it and listening to the sound.
And still most of the time acoustics remain an unconscious background experience but in the right
places it can create the right atmosphere for almost spiritual sceneries.
“We are not aware of the significance of hearing in spatial experience, although sound often provides
the temporal continuum in which visual impressions are embedded.”14
Like a soundtrack in a movie, where music is increasing the tension in a thriller or the drama in a love
story, sounds in architecture can increase the intensity of its perception.
“However the temporary city has lost its echo.”15
On one hand we have new technologies that enable architects to build great soundscapes on the other
hand we cheat on the spatial experience by installing sound absorbing materials and other sound
optimizing elements. So the built product does not equal the heard product.
The question is, if this is a smart alternative or just a lack of critical examination.
14
15
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
7
Hearing nothing
One of the most exciting auditory experiences in architecture is tranquillity. In the past the tool of
silence has been used to create great atmospheres. The silence in the Pantheon combined with the great
view to the roof is indescribable. The absence of sound is actually creating the atmosphere.
To name a more current design the Jewish museum by Daniel Libeskind is playing with the same
phenomenon. In the museum complex he designed special rooms called voids in which he installed
different installations. In one copper plates in the shape of faces are laying on the ground of a very
high room. The visitor has to walk over the faces and a noise echoed by the high walls will fill up the
room. The installation is also meant as a reminder to the holocaust and the sound should make aware
of all the individuals that had to suffer. This is a very dramatic usage but in other simple installations it
can still have a nice effect also if it is a birds song recording in an interior garden or a ground covered
with sand and it is possible to hear the sound of it while walking over it.
Smell – space’s odour
One in a million
We need only a little amount of molecules of substance to trigger an impulse of smell in a nerve end,
and we can smell more than ten thousand different scents. If it is a new scent it is possible to
remember the scent and identify it again later.
Since it is not possible to name all the odours, spatial qualities are associated. That is why the
expression “it is a hospital smell” is familiar to most people. Also the own smell of a person is so
familiar that it is possible to recognize your shirt out of 100 identical and your flat when you come
home just by taking a deep breath.
These associations could be used in architecture. To stimulate emotions, to guide, or to distract.
8
In the same way as every city has its own smell every building could have the same. It will end up as a
difficult task, since smell is so sensitive that for example a mixture of scents in one room is not
possible. But the effect could be as great as the effort.
To the subtopic of the smell I found another book in the library but couldn’t borrow it yet….
Taste – more a combination of two
The taste of architecture
The human tongue can only distinguish among 7-8 distinct types of taste, while the nose can
distinguish among hundreds of substances, even in minute quantities. Olfaction amplifies the sense of
taste.16 This rule is also applicable to taste in architecture. It turns out clear that there is not a literal
taste of architecture since the ferry tale of Hansel and Gretel. And still architecture can stimulate the
sense of taste. In this case together with the sense of vision not with smell.
Vision becomes transferred to taste. “Certain colours and delicate details evoke oral sensation. A
delicately coloured, polished stone surface is subliminally sensed by the tongue”17
So the taste in architecture does not literally mean to kneel down and try to eat the stone bricks, but it
means that architecture can make our mouth water just by the sight of appealing materials.
Interactive architecture – a possible new field for the senses
As cited in the beginning senses are the mediator between people and architecture. In interactive
architecture the goal is to reach a dialogue between the building and its users. This is mostly done
gathering digital information from the people by the use of sensors and other technical tools.
These senses inserted in the building equal the human senses. In fact the building is imitating the
human perception.
More interesting than the gathering of this information is the answer of the building to it. In most cases
the answer is only visual or acoustic. This is a loss of information. It should be possible to
communicate back to all senses, since it is possible to imitate all perception methods. Then the name
interactive architecture would resemble more the human interaction, which is also dominated by
acoustic, haptic and visual components but still uses taste and smell for direct or indirect
communication.
16
17
www.wikipeida.com:scent
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
9
Conclusion
Using senses in architecture is not new. But the level of perfection is by far not reached. “ Architecture
reflects, materialises and eternalises ideas and images of ideal life.”18 Today we aim at the
construction of intelligent buildings that help their users and communicate that. So the method of
communicating will always be an important issue. It is easier to communicate in the same language
and with the same method than responding only in one or two ways, where five a re possible.
The usage of some senses like smell and taste appears rather difficult, but architecture is developing
very quickly at the moment, so one can be confident that appropriate methods will develop to
incorporate also theses senses into architecture.
References
Le Corbusier (1959), Towards a new architecture; London, Architectural press
Hekkert, P. (2005/2006), Design Aesthetics: Principles of Pleasure in Design; Netherlands, TU Delft
Department of Industrial Design
Levin, D.M. (1988), The Opening of Vision – Nihilism and the Postmodern Situation, New York and
London, Routledge
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964), Le Visible et l’invisible; Pairs, quoted in Hubert L Dreyfus & Patricia
Allen Dreyfus, Translators’ introduction; in Merleau-Ponty, M. Sense and Non-Sense, Evanston,
Northwestern University Press
Merriam Webster online dictionary; http://www.m-w.com/, sense, accessed 18.12.2006
Wikipedia.com; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense, sense, accessed 18.12.2006
18
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
10
Pallasmaa, J. (1994), The eyes of the skin – Architecture and the Senses; Great Britain, Academy
Editions
Plato (360 BC), Timaeus; in Jay, M. (1994), Downcast Eyes – The Denigration of Vision in
Twentieth-Century French Thought, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press
American
Foundation
for
the
blind
(2006),
http://www.afb.org/message_board_replies.asp?TopicID=956&FolderID=3; online Forum, accessed
22.10.2006
11