Experiencing Architecture, second edition
Experiencing Architecture, second edition

Author: Steen Eiler Rasmussen

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1964-03-15

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780262680028

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A classic examination of superb design through the centuries. Widely regarded as a classic in the field, Experiencing Architecture explores the history and promise of good design. Generously illustrated with historical examples of designing excellence—ranging from teacups, riding boots, and golf balls to the villas of Palladio and the fish-feeding pavilion of Beijing's Winter Palace—Rasmussen's accessible guide invites us to appreciate architecture not only as a profession, but as an art that shapes everyday experience. In the past, Rasmussen argues, architecture was not just an individual pursuit, but a community undertaking. Dwellings were built with a natural feeling for place, materials and use, resulting in “a remarkably suitable comeliness.” While we cannot return to a former age, Rasmussen notes, we can still design spaces that are beautiful and useful by seeking to understand architecture as an art form that must be experienced. An understanding of good design comes not only from one's professional experience of architecture as an abstract, individual pursuit, but also from one's shared, everyday experience of architecture in real time—its particular use of light, color, shape, scale, texture, rhythm and sound. Experiencing Architecture reminds us of what good architectural design has accomplished over time, what it can accomplish still, and why it is worth pursuing. Wide-ranging and approachable, it is for anyone who has ever wondered “what instrument the architect plays on.”

The Experience of Architecture
The Experience of Architecture

Author: Henry Plummer

Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Published: 2016-11-22

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 0500773653

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A thought-provoking consideration of how architecture, from a doorknob to a city plan, can influence human behavior How does the experience of turning a door handle, opening a door from one space into another, affect us? It is no wonder that the door, one of the most elemental architectural forms, has such metaphorical richness. But even on a purely physical human level, the cold touch of a brass handle or the swish of a sliding screen gives rise to an emotional reaction, sometimes modest, occasionally profound. This book aims to understand how these everyday acts are influenced by architectural form, a concept that is vital for all architects to grasp. It considers how specifically built elements and volumes, taken from a wide array of buildings and settings around the world, can affect our powers of decision. From hand-carved stairs in Greek villages to free-floating catwalks, from the elegant processional steps of Renaissance Italy to Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterly manipulation of form, all provide very different experiences of stepping from one level to the next, and all affect our experience of that space. Seamlessly integrating text and image, each chapter focuses on a different aspect of our daily interactions with architecture, looking at stairs, floors and paths, moving interior spaces, perception and perspective, transparency and the relationship between a building and its setting. This book is not just for architects and designers engaged in the production of space, but for all those who seek a richer understanding of their place in the built world.

Experiencing Art and Architecture
Experiencing Art and Architecture

Author: Sanda Iliescu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-03-22

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 1000538672

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In this multidisciplinary book, Sanda Iliescu articulates a rich, multi-faceted approach to the aesthetic experience. Through in-depth discussions of her own lived encounters with art, architecture, and the world around her, she advocates a way of looking that blends sensory perception, formal analysis, social and political consciousness, and personal memory. Focusing special attention on the aesthetic concept of the figure-ground problem, the author challenges this foundational principle’s presumed hierarchies and shows how a new and more dynamic understanding of it can enhance our way of looking at and understanding art and architecture. Works discussed in the book include a wide range of contemporary and historic art and architecture, among them artworks by Rembrandt, Matisse, Eva Hesse, and David Hammons; architecture by Zaha Hadid, Peter Zumthor, and Weiss/Manfredi; and non-Western works such as a thirteenth-century Chinese vase and the Ryōanji dry garden in Kyoto, Japan. Personal and engaging, this book is for a wide audience of those practicing, studying, or with an interest in the creative fields, from beginners to seasoned professionals.

Experiencing Architecture in the Nineteenth Century
Experiencing Architecture in the Nineteenth Century

Author: Edward Gillin

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-10-18

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1350045950

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Bringing together fourteen original essays, this collection opens up new perspectives on the architectural history of the nineteenth century by examining the buildings of the period through the lens of 'experience'. With a focus on the experience of the ordinary building user – rather than simply on the intentions of the designer – the book shows that new and important insights can be brought to our understanding of Victorian architecture. The chapters present a range of ideas and new research – some examining individual building case studies (from grand hotels and clubhouses in New York to the parliament buildings of Westminster), and others exploring conceptual questions about the nature of architectural experience, whether sensory or otherwise. Yet they share the premise that the idea of the 'experience of architecture' took on a new and particular significance with the rise of industrial modernity, and they examine what contemporary people – both architects and non-architects – understood by this idea. The insights in this volume extend beyond the study of Victorian architecture. Together they suggest how 'experience' might be used as a framework to produce a more convincingly historical account of the artefacts of architectural history.

Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?
Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?

Author: Barry Blesser

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2009-09-18

Total Pages: 453

ISBN-13: 026251317X

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How we experience space by listening: the concepts of aural architecture, with examples ranging from Gothic cathedrals to surround sound home theater. We experience spaces not only by seeing but also by listening. We can navigate a room in the dark, and "hear" the emptiness of a house without furniture. Our experience of music in a concert hall depends on whether we sit in the front row or under the balcony. The unique acoustics of religious spaces acquire symbolic meaning. Social relationships are strongly influenced by the way that space changes sound. In Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?, Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter examine auditory spatial awareness: experiencing space by attentive listening. Every environment has an aural architecture.The audible attributes of physical space have always contributed to the fabric of human culture, as demonstrated by prehistoric multimedia cave paintings, classical Greek open-air theaters, Gothic cathedrals, acoustic geography of French villages, modern music reproduction, and virtual spaces in home theaters. Auditory spatial awareness is a prism that reveals a culture's attitudes toward hearing and space. Some listeners can learn to "see" objects with their ears, but even without training, we can all hear spatial geometry such as an open door or low ceiling. Integrating contributions from a wide range of disciplines—including architecture, music, acoustics, evolution, anthropology, cognitive psychology, audio engineering, and many others—Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? establishes the concepts and language of aural architecture. These concepts provide an interdisciplinary guide for anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of how space enhances our well-being. Aural architecture is not the exclusive domain of specialists. Accidentally or intentionally, we all function as aural architects.

Architecture and Silence
Architecture and Silence

Author: Christos P. Kakalis

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-08-23

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 042979519X

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This book explores the role of silence in how we design, present and experi-ence architecture. Grounded in phenomenological theory, the book builds on historical, theoretical and practical approaches to examine silence as a methodological tool of architectural research and unravel the experiential qualities of the design process. Distinct from an entirely soundless experience, silence is proposed as a material condition organically incorporated into the built and natural landscape. Kakalis argues that, either human or atmospheric, silence is a condition of waiting for a sound to be born or a new spatio-temporal event to emerge. In silence, therefore, we are attentive and attuned to the atmos-phere of a place. The book unpacks a series of stories of silence in religious topographies, urban landscapes, film and theatre productions and architec-tural education with contributed chapters and interviews with Jeff Malpas and Alberto Pérez-Gómez. Aimed at postgraduate students, scholars and researchers in architectural theory, it shows how performative and atmospheric qualities of silence can build a new understanding of architectural experience.

On Architecture
On Architecture

Author: Fred Leland Rush

Publisher: Taylor & Francis US

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 9780415396196

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The role of phenomenology in architectural theory and practice, the relation of architecture to other arts, and the role of architecture in urban and suburban design are examined within the context of modern architecture.