An Architecture of the Seven Senses

When we talk about senses, usually we will just think about the common five senses, which are, vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. But when it come to Juhani Uolevi Pallasmaa, a Finnish architect and former professor of architecture. He conclude architecture with seven senses, which is the usually five and the additional of muscle and skeleton.

In the present of lives, the sense of vision had actually meant everything to an architect and also everyone else. There are reason why architect nowadays lack of applying all the senses into their design and work. Is undeniable that majority of people will judge things by the first slight of eyes whether it’s beautiful or ugly. An most unfortunate reason of concentrating on the visual, without the others senses is due to the side effect of media. When we open up a magazine, it’s impossible to convey all the senses others than visual through photographs. That’s no ways that we can smell the building, sense the volume of space, neither feel the warmth of the sunlight. Media in current live is too competitive that usually first magazine to publish a building often sells more. So if you get to discuss the building before its completion, then you is first involves to speak.

Due to the side effect of the media, that lead architect to concentrate more on the visual, because they know more and more their clients understand their designs through media representation of them, rather than visiting them. And this also leads to a consequence, where more and more designs are discussed through the media and simply understand by the presentation without going to the site and analyse it.

I would like to add in a situation, how an architect should build a house to a client, if the client is blind. Is impossible that the house is without the others senses other than visualization. By an American architect, Charles Moore, he had design a house for a blind client in California. The house was oriented by a series of rooms containing scented plants, containing water and things that would make differences noise. This will lead the client to use his ability of senses of hearing, smell, and also touch. Within every room things to touch remind him of the room where he were. This have show that the important to include all the senses in our design.

Sense of visual


Sense of visual is the ability to see by a pair of eyes. Usually we will see and observe a thing with our eyes before all. By jus applying the sense of visual had become a threat to nowadays architects. When we design, we shouldn’t only view things in a perspective, we should have view it in difference perspective so that we can understand it better and full use of our ability.

Acoustic Intimacy


Hearing is the ability to hear through our ear. Every building or space has its characteristic sound of intimacy or monumentality, rejection or invitation, hospitality or hostility. Sense or hearing creates a sense of connection and solidarity. However, sound also measures space and makes its scale comprehensible.

The Shape of Touch


Touching is an ability by the contact of our skin. Skin do reads the texture, weight, density and temperature of matter. The tactile sense connects us with time and tradition. Our skin traces spaces of temperature with unerring precision. Our skin also traces the density and texture of the ground through our soles.

Taste of Architecture


By Juhani Pallasmaa, "To me, it is, I have experience on a number of occasions that certain qualities of stone, for instance, certain metals, detailing of wood, can be so subtle that you feel it in your mouth. I have made the observation that architecture can be subtle enough to even evoke a sensation of taste.” Vision also becomes transferred to taste; certain colours as well as delicate details evoke oral sensations.

Images of Muscle and Bone


Primitive man used his body as the dimensioning and proportioning system of his construction. A building is not an end to itself, it frames, articulates, restructures, gives significance, relates, separates and unites, facilitates and prohibits. The sense of muscle and bone is just like a structure in our body, it’s interrelated.

Beyond Appearances - Architecture and the senses

This is an article of the conversation between Alan Saunders (host of radio national), Rebecca Maxwell & Peter-John Cantrill(the guest). They were discussing about how the professional Architects can even things up, so that our experience of the world we build around us becomes a truly multi-sensory.

http://www.ebility.com/articles/beyondappearances.php

Monuments, Testimony and Memory..

Jewish Museum Berlin was located in Berlin, Germany. This museum consists of two parts of the buildings. Kollegienhaus which is the old former courthouse was built is the 18th century. And the new one was built by a well known architect Daniel Libeskind in year of 1999.



In my opinion, I think that Jewish Museum has successfully in commemorating the dead. The Jewish Museum exhibits the social, political and cultural history of Jews in Germany from the 4th century to the present. First of all, Liberkind have created and design the Jewish museum in a straight linear of zigzag form from the thought of all the violent or the rapture history of Jews and Germany. Besides that, Libeskind has also expressed the disappearance of Jewish culture in the city by applying the concepts of absence, emptiness, and invisible. This can be found by ‘The Voids’, which is certain empty rooms that is orchestrated to allow visitor to see but not to enter.



In addition, Libeskind has used three axes which symmetrically arrange, to show out the principal of continuity, axial, and death. The longest roads lead to the ‘stair of continuity’ and to the museum itself. While second leads to ‘Garden of Exile. And third lead to the dead end of ‘Holocaust void’.



National Museum was designed by a local architect, Ho Kok Hoe, in 1959, shortly after Malaya gained independence. National museum is a repository of Malaysia's rich cultural and historical heritage. The museum houses four exhibition galleries featuring Malaysia's history and rich cultural diversity.The architect have design the four exhibition galleries space due to its own period of time.



Prehistory Gallery
The Prehistory Gallery on the first floor showcases the formation of the Malay Archipelago to the findings of numerous important prehistoric archaeological sites in Malaysia. Due to pre-historical period, human were living in cave. That cause the theme of it is darker and mostly decorated with rock and stone.



Malay Kingdoms Gallery
The Early Malay Kingdom Gallery features the existence of the Malay States and highlights the zenith of the Malaccan Empire during the 15th century as centre for the spice trade and the proliferation of Islam. Due to the Early Malay Kingdom period, human will largely dependent by timber. Therefore, the theme of this gallery will mostly decorate with timber.



Colonial Era Gallery
The fall of Malaccan Empire in 1511 to the Portuguese was the start of 446 years of foreign influence, from the Dutch, British and then Japanese. When Colonial Era conquering Malacca, they have use brick to build their castle. Therefore, brick will be chosen to be the theme of this part of gallery.



Malaysia Today
The Malaysia Today Gallery brings visitors to the sights and sounds of the Road towards Independence. As a developed country, lots of high technology devices will used in this gallery.

Remembering the home…

Do you think that environment really will affect a person characteristic? Base on serious studies at America, 80% of a person characteristic will be build between zeros to three. Is true that people seldom realize that they are actually being shape and affected since they was young, under the environment where they growth up. By the day this exercise handout, I only realize that a lots of my design characteristic were related to the house that I stay when I was young.

When I was young, I am staying in a small wooden house located at Petalling Jaya. Only until when I was age of 9, then my family and I have shifted to Subang Jaya. They are a big contrast between these two areas. The place where I stay in Petalling Jaya was an older development area, which the site planning and environment lack of afforest that causes the air qualities goes low. Compare to Subang area, the later site planning have included the green projects which make the environment feels more harmony and creates better visualization. The difference between this two areas have make me understand the effect of an environment bring to human comfort level. Which I will always emphasize on the site planning when I doing my designs.

Due to my farther career, which is a constructor, there are a lot of tools and materials needed to keep in a house after projects have ended. By that time, my house will be a real mess up cause by that stuff. Later on, my father has made a wooden rack to along the wide external stair way beside my house to store all the paint and stuff in a systematic way. Furthermore, there is also some furniture which attaches to the wall which safe up a lot of space. This has reminded me that the ways where my father used the empty space with a function and apply it in my design class.

Others than that, I have also realize that I often used linear principal in my design classes. This is maybe due to the environment when I was young and also my personality. When I was young, there are a lot of linear spaces around me. For example of my house, there will be a distances approximately between 12m of my front gate to my main entrance with a width of 6m. The narrow walk ways from the living hall toward to my room, it will need to pass through my parent’s room. In addition, there was a 400m walk ways which need to pass through a series of three beside me to my primary school. And one of the reasons may cause by my personality, I will like to think and place things which include all the elements in a point of view with the importance of itself. And linear principle will definitely suit my requirement, which is placing things that which come first will be at the front and others will be at the back.

Last but not least, I realize that my entire project will also have big opening and mostly placed at the rear part of the building. I guess this is because of a habit that I have created since young. Usually after caned by my mother, I will also hide myself in the room, sitting on the bed, and look out toward the sky with my large window to cold down my emotional. Due to the topography of my house, which was located at a higher ground level, this will make the night view clearer and peaceful. That might be the reason why I am creating a big opening on my design and if it is possible, I will design it at a higher ground level to avoid from unnecessary lighting that will spoil the night view.

As a conclusion, the design characteristic n style I having now, basically there is a big major that affected by the environment when we was young.