experiential architecture_example

During a landscape theory class in New Zealand, we discussed the relationship between experience, phenomenology, and [landscape] architecture.  This project, the Querini-Stampalia Foundation in Venice by Carlo Scarpa, was an example of a project that intelligently calibrated the use of material, space, history, and multi-sensory design to enhance the experience of the occupant. 

Convergence of place, architecture, and experience
Image from http://theaccounts.tumblr.com/post/283713834/carlo-scarpa-and-water-brion-vega-tomb-querini

The foundation is designed to allow [and perhaps encourage] the water that characterizes Venice to flow in and out of the building.  The site, sound, movement, and touch of water is critical to the design.  References to the water are also seen in the physical design itself based on formal and material choices. 

Harmony of water + building
Image from http://www.msa.mmu.ac.uk/continuity/index.php/2007/11/30/querini-stampalia-foundation/

Material use to express movement of water
Image from http://emthesis.wordpress.com/precedents/carlo-scarpa-fondazione-querini-stampalia/

architectural_SPIRITUALITY

suzdal, russia.  what is it that defines the experience of [religious] space? take a listen...........

ARCHITECTURE IS_

Architecture is [or has become] sterile.  The domination of the visual has been accepted and embraced in both the process and the product.  Ocularcentricism has reduced architecture to a mere backdrop to everyday life, a passively inhabited realm that has minimal impact on the experience of the occupant.  Such an approach deprives us of the opportunity to indulge in a holistic experience of built space, an experience that envelops and challenges not only the five senses but also the haptic realm.  Architecture should be active, a phenomenological and functional entity that engages and challenges the occupant in new and unexpected ways.

The relevant question is not what architecture is, but rather what architecture can become.