120 EAAE no 35 Teaching and Experimenting with Architectural Design: Advances in Technology and Changes in Pedagogy
confused, but the only one having aesthetic value is the sensation of magnitude”^4.
If we refer to the most recent forms of representation, that through computing
tools permit the vizualization of the projected spaces, we often come in contact with
projects that overvalue this visual conception, or with technological tools based on
non Euclidian geometries, that computers can generate.
“The fact that students achieve a complete representation of the work being done
with imagination, transforms them into spectators rather than participants in their
own designs...”^5.
The Fourth Dimension
Architectural experience implies a perception of space in time with all five senses,
way beyond that of mere visualization. Senses are used in the perception of archi-
tecture, but it is fundamentally a “physical experience“, which is developed through
body motion in space during a fixed period of time.
The elements that compose the resources of architecture are referring to the dwell-
ing of the body in its surroundings. Be it to welcome the movements and permanence
of the body through, travel, visits and limits, or to provide the body with the life
and hygiene conditions it requires through proper lodging, illumination, sunlight,
ventilation etc. Thus walls are built, roofs, doors, windows, pillars etc. In this same
physical dimension and through the organs of perception which are defined through
the characteristics of the body’s senses, referring to space as in front, behind, beside,
up or down, directions which summarize the physical possibilities of bodies moving
in space.
“The plan of every building, because of its organization of passages, thresholds,
corridors, series of doors, imposes a certain number of gestures... The body is a place.
of memory... The gesture gives the measurement and, associated to the other senses,
reveals the space. Classical architecture has not ignored corporeal inscriptions. It has
often associated the movements of the body and the gaze. The obligation to climb
steps to get to an important place is very frequent: temple, town hall, court. The
Buddhist architecture in Japan has made ample use of this. Thresholds where it is
necessary to bow ones head and raise ones foot are associated with the entering of
all temples. The changes of direction with a necessary rotation are often used several
times when going in the same direction. Why such interest? Why create incidents on
a stroll? It is necessary to associate the body with aesthetic impressions, give them
a physical reality. A gesture registered in the body, an encounter with a remarkable
place.”^6
Architecture develops in the ambience of the basic physical laws, which are the
same that apply to the human body, this way gravity and the phenomena associated
with light, become central topics of architectural thought and development.
In architecture, technology gives us systems of representation to visualize the
projected spaces, but we tend to forget the architectural experience of our body
moving in space: the heat of the sun coming through a window, the sound that our
footsteps make on a flat wooden floor and the dizziness caused by looking out of a
balcony onto a big room full of people chatting.