Space as a Sign

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL The following study is hereby approved as a creditable work on the approved subject, carried out and presented in a manner sufficiently satisfactory to warrant its acceptance as a pre-requisite to the Degree of Bachelor of Interior Design for which it has been submitted. It is understood that by this approval, the undersigned does not neccesarily endorse or approve any statement made, opinion expressed or conclusion drawn therein, but approves the study only for the purpose for which it is submitted and has satisfied the requirements laid down by the thesis committee.

Name of Student

Name of Guide

Rahul Sen

Prof. Yatin Pandya

Thesis title: “Space as a Sign - spatial design communication as an interactive process of conception and perception”

Date:

PREface

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’

Space as a Sign | s p a t i a l d e s i g n c o m m u n i c a t i o n a s a n interactive process of conception and perception

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An undergraduate thesis by | Rahul Sen

Guide | Mr. Yatin Pandya


PREface

3 (... For Ma, Baba and Kunal - for always believing in my abilities and for daring me to dream.)

PREface

T A B L E

O F


C O N T E N T S

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I N T R O D U C T I O N P A R T

O N E 17

EMPHASIS ON NON- VERBAL COMMUNICATION 1 . a .

N o n - v e r b a l

C o m m u n i c a t i o n 19

1.a.1) Abstraction and the experience of meaning 1.a.2) The search for ‘decoding’ inherent meaning in spaces in the

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minds of people. 1.a.3) User participation through ‘encoding’ in built spaces – “the

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manner of doing”

1 . b .

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S e m i o t i c s ,

v e r b a l

62 S y m b o l i s m

a n d

N o n -

c o m m u n i c a t i o n

1.b.1) Signs and Semiotics

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1.b.2) Mental processes in human creativity

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1.b.3) Non-verbal communication through a built space

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1.b.4) What are ‘perceptual’ and ‘conceptual’ images?

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P A R T

T A B L E

T W O

O F

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C O N T E N T S 63

EMPHASIS ON SPATIAL COMMUNICATION 2. a .

A r c h i t e c t u r a l

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C o m m u n i c a t i o n 65

2.a.1) How does architecture communicate? 2.a.2) ‘Space’ v/s ‘Place’

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2.a.3) Conception and architectural signal systems

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2 . b .

T o o l s

f o r


2.b.1) Basic elemental tools and their assembly

2 . c .

M e t a p h o r s

a n d

83

c o m m u n i c a t i o n 83

S y m b o l s

129

2.c.1) Metaphors in Design -

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2.c.2) Symbols and Icons – Culturally recognized signification

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P A R T

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T H R E E

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S P A T I A L I L L U S T R A T I O N S 1 | The Mill Owners Association Building (ATMA), Ahmedabad

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2 | L a C h a p e l l e N o t r e D a m e d u H a u t , Ro n c h a m p

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3 | “Between the Lines” - The Jewish Holocaust Museum, Berlin

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4 | T h e V i e t n a m W a r M e m o r i a l , Wa s h i n g t o n D C

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C O N C L U S I O N

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INTRODUCTION (....When are spaces ALIVE?)

...where does one begin a search for meaning in spaces?

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PREface


Cave painting from Spain illustrating an inherent and a timeless desire in the human species to communicate

“There are no facts, only an infinity of interpretations” Nietzsche1 1

through abstraction, the phenomena he encounters around him

This thesis is an analytical enquiry into the phenomenon of ‘design communication’. It is a quest in search for meaning in the built environment. The study analyzes the ways in which inherent meaning can transform built spaces from being mere mute objects in an environment, and elevate them into experiential vehicles of meaning to the people who use it. Among other physiological factors, the animal world is differentiated from the plant world and the non-living natural world by the power to communicate. All animals have their own inherent modes of communication within their own species. They develop ‘signals’ that, with time, experience and understanding come to represent

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“La Guernica”, by Pablo Picasso painted in 1937. The painting marks the artists protest against the horrors of the Spanish Civil War or 1936.

something meaningful. These signals come to manifest themselves in different ways among different animals. These signals in animals are often termed - “body

The painting illustrates the power of visual media to express feelings and emotions, an aspect of commu-

language”, and come to represent their expression of feeling, emotion and meaning. However, as bearers of messages, their signal-content is never interchangeable. In

“The Scream” by Edvard

nication which remains timeless.

other words, animals do not demonstrate the ability to abstract and think in metaphors, or be poetic in their gestures and utterances.

Munch, 1893. The work depicts not so

The human species, on the other hand, is blessed with a potentially advanced and

this state of mind is expressed not only in the lit-

much an incident or a landscape as a state of mind.

highly sophisticated system of communication. The degrees to which these modes of communication are developed depend on various factors such as the mental and relative social development of the individual within the ‘tribe’ or society as it is called today. In Indian society today, even these hard lines between urban and rural behavioral systems is rapidly diminishing. It is not uncommon to find people in tribal areas displaying behavior that is adopted from mediatized urban stimuli

eral expression on the screaming man’s face, but 3

also in the texture and mood of the rest of the painting through the use of waves of colour and texture. The sound of the scream is made to manifest at varied levels

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Nature’s spaces are an outcome of natural forces; Designed spaces are often inspired by these natural phenomena in their resolutions

such as the television, graphic advertisements and the radio. On the other hand, it is also common to find highly urban people, still attached to old customs and values. The communicative tools used by a child, or a tribal varies drastically with the tools used by a person living in cities and towns. Even within cities and towns, geographical locations and culture play an important role in determining the way in which people communicate.

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(Above left) The roots of the towering trees of the Amazon which evolved with roots that expanded in a planar manner so as to be able to provide lateral stability due to the weight of the towering trunks. (Above right) The flying buttresses of the Gothic Cathedral - a symbol of man’s ability to derive meaning from natural phenomena and apply them to relevant constructed environments.

An average human being is endowed with five senses – sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. In addition to this, there is also the vital aspect of the sub-conscious sense or the ‘sixth sense’ or intuition as we commonly call it. With these senses, we become aware of or ‘sensitive’ to our environment. During the course of our interaction with our environment – we largely encounter spaces built by the human hand, but conceived by the human mind and for subsequent perception in the human mind. The intention of this analysis is to examine the content of these built spaces for their power to effectively influence the user’s mind so that the body may follow and perform an appropriate activity.

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A designer is entrusted with the task of giving life to the mute form that is being 6

created. Even Nature’s spaces are intrinsically loadeded with meaning. They communicate the various tangible and intangible forces that act on them. 7

(Above left) An image of a tornado, a form caused by drastic fluctuations of pressure and wond forces. (Above right) The Moonsoon restaurant at Sapporo, Japan designed by Zaha Hadid. The designer resorts to the dynamic imagery of the natural tornado to create a thematic space.

It is we humans who draw inspiration from natural phenomena. Natural spaces evolve out of natural, chemical and physical processes and find their need to exist from within themselves creating natural systems and cycles. A tree does not feel the need to justify its existence to any other neighboring life form, or entice the sun through its mannerisms, to provide it with sunlight. A tree just ‘IS’.

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SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ On the other hand, the human intervention in creating built spaces makes it neccesary for the designer (conceiver) to resort to alternate means of communication with the user (perceiver), since the built spaces that he creates cannot speak directly to the user. Designed spaces need to be endowed with meaning, that allow for a process of communication between between the user and the built environment. This transmittance of signals transforms the role of architecture from being a mere composition of mute forms for fulfilling mechanical functions – to an architecture of experiences, where the human mind is actively involved in each and every act that it perceives as meaningful. 8

These spaces with time become an inseparable existential need in our daily lives. They provide us with the basic need for shelter, and additionally provide us with environments that entice, induce and invite us to perform our activities with greater meaning. These spaces make gestures; they invite us to turn, climb, look, walk, sit and perform a host of other functions without ever actually speaking to us. They communicate not just physically, but also psychologically through cultural and subconscious pre-determinants that are ingrained in us as users over many years of conditioning. “By the use of raw materials, And starting from conditions more or less utilitarian, You have established relationships Which have aroused my emotions. This is Architecture.” Le Corbusier “Towards a New Architecture” 2

Fatehpur Sikri, Agra - an architecture of experiences.

The image above is of the Anup Talao and the diwani-Khaas in the complex of Fatehpur Sikri. The placement of the seat of the Anup Talao upon which the court musicians would sing, and the bridges that link it to the main coutrtyard seem to create an effect of giving emphasis to the person who was performing upon the dias. This simple gesture of isolation through detachment from the rest of the court demonstrates the importance of music and dance to the Mughal dynasty.

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PREface


A society evaluates itself by the level of refinement that its sign-systems have undergone in the context of changing times. This thesis finds its justification from the knowledge that for architectural design to remain at the founding pillars of any civilization, it must readapt and reinvent its sign-systems so that they continue to arouse emotion and feeling in the minds of the user today. This leads us to understand and acknowledge built spaces for their value as ‘places’ to the user – places where meaning is made to manifest. Architecture in many ways can be assumed to be a functional art. Its primary importance is to create spaces for fulfilling certain specific functions. These functions each provide the architect with innumerable complex design issues, which require great amounts of attention and design acumen from the architect. If a designer lacks in this respect, the building or spaces he designs fail to work. A rationally efficient, purely functional space is not a guarantee for a space to be an emotional and a lasting experience on a person who uses it. It reduces a built form to a mere machine for function. Formal diversity in the history of architecture,

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reveal that function alone is not the answer to mankinds problems. This has has been proven time and again through historically diverse forms for the same basic functions, such as the floor, the roof and the wall. If mechanical spatial resolution for a mechanical performance of function was to be the key to human existence then a perfect formula for each function would have been discovered and implemented a long time ago. But this is not the case with human behavior. As human beings, we ‘inhabit’ our architecture - we develop a tendency to relate, associate and develop attachment to them.

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Cinema: Posters depicting two films from two different eras and cultures, where the same signal content is reinvented and re-introduced in a more meaningful representation of the same theme.

PREface


This attachment occurs at various levels ranging from associational to purely cognitive factors. The crux of the argument forwarded by this study is that as human beings, we look to relate to what we see and what we inhabit. We like to belong. We like to occupy a significant place in the space that we are to inhabit. Our functions cannot and will not ever be mechanical, and hence devoid of meaning - because meaningfulness is the very basis of our existence as human beings on this planet. In every human act we find inherent hierarchies of meaning attached. These hierarchies bring about a need to elucidate not just on the act itself, but more on the manner of performing a function, or an act. This in turn enables a human being to reflect on newer and enriched light, each time he performs this function. In other words, the manner of doing something gives a human being signs (or gestures expressing meaning) - in what they are about to achieve. The Chambers’ dictionary, however, says that art is ‘the manner of doing’. The manner of doing in the case of architectural design is an aspect of ‘coding’ that falls within the role of a designer in the process of conception and performed by the users for whom the message is intended. Le Corbusier (from Oeuvre complete, Vol.6) says very aptly – “(…) It only remains to decide whether life (…) Can but touch unknown beings along its path, by the means that one commonly calls - ‘art’.” 3 Architectural spaces are also entities in a man-made environment that can arouse feelings, emotions and associations of various kinds. In that aspect, and the aspect that we shall focus on in this thesis, architectural design is also a form of art.

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PREface AIM OF THIS THESIS The ‘manner of doing’ in architectural spaces is made possible by their being endowed with signal constructs that are perceived as meaningful by the user. This study aims to analyse this process of architectural communication. The analysis is from the point of view of the individual components of a space along with their synthesis as larger spatial constructs that make a narrative manifest itself through the way a person moves through the space. In the case of a column or a floor as elements in a space construct, history reveals that the semantic content attached to them has always shifted from era to era. The attachment of meaning, beyond the mere expression of existential function has always been an inherent phenomenon in archictectural design. Architectural elements endowed with meaning, function as characters in a theatrical performance, where they play an active role in communicating a narrative, while in doing so, expressing their own character with greater lucidity.

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The aim of this work is not to judge architectural design or its history as something that was good or bad, right or wrong - architectural design is too vast and culturally varied as a subject for a study like this to draw out a formula for providing signalcontent in built environments. The study simply aims to address • The various ways in which our built environments can ‘speak’ to us as users. • The role of signal-content in a work of architectural design, from the point of view of the encoding and decoding.


PREface


The formal appearance of the elements of architecture form a primary layer in the ordering of signal content in a meaningful spatial construct and occupy a major part of this thesis. There is also the vital secondary layer of surface articulation expressed commonly in the form of carving, sculpture, murals, paintings, commercial stickers on building facades - that all serve to communicae something additional to the user. In addition to this, there are layers of symbols, metaphors and semantic threads belonging to a specific cultural fabric that enrich an evaluation of the signal content in a spatial construct. As in the case of a spoken language, these factors add a vital layer of expression and accentuation that transform a language from being a mere series of perceivable utterances to becoming a truly communicative and interactive process of communication. This study of architectural communication aims at reiterating a primary concern for humane architecture - the encoding of meaning within the spaces that we inhabit. The analysis shall also attempt to understand built spaces for the varying degrees of meaning that they contain in their various components for the user to perceive and act upon. The study shall also attempt to understand the process of architectural communication from the point of view of encoding and decoding messages of meaning in built form.

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PREface

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ OBJECTIVES

This thesis has the following objectives To understand and investigate architectural communication from the aspect of encoding and decoding during the processes of conception and perception

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respectively.

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To broadly understand the field of Semiotics and non-verbal communication.

To analyse the processes of spatial conception and perception. To focus on the process of conception.

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To dissect and analyse the various components of an architectural/interior

space in their most basic forms as ‘archetypes’. To re-assemble the dissected elements and examine the role of the spatial construct (and its variations) in expression of meaning.

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To test these theories by analysing actual works of architecture and interior

design and demonstrating how the spaces created within are vehicles of meaning.

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SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ SCOPE & LIMITATIONS The limits of such a subject area are to far spread out and generic to be encompassed entirely and comprehensively in this level of study. This enquiry delves into the very basis of our existence as human beings on this planet. The focus is on a search for messages of meaning that designed objects attempt to send to the users - a search that would inevitably lead us into discussions of culture - specific stimuli and climate - induced decisions of form-making. However, this thesis will limit its scope of investigation to universal behavioural stimuli offered by designed spaces, and not to any specific cultural or sociological cocoons in particular. This study will focus primarily on the processes of endowing meaning in forms (conception) and the processes of comprehension of these meanings in the mind of a user (perception). Keeping a broad viewpoint, this analysis will attempt to demonstrate how built spaces can evoke universal responses, both mental and physical in the minds of the people who are to inhabit or use them. In our search for lateral examples to demonstrate certain phenomena pertaining to the illustration of meaning - illustrations have occasionally been borrowed from dance, cinema, theatre, comics and graphic design. The study has been limited to an understanding of the various components of architectural spaces at their most universal level, with a few examples of culture specific treatments of the same. It analyzes spaces as scattered fragments, as meaningul constructs comprising these fragments and their subsequent sythesis. And finally, it analyzes the role played by the vital layer of metaphors, images, symbols and surface articulation in enriching their signal value.

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PREface

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SIGN ... a g e s t u r e expressing a meaning

Chambers English Dictionary

Chapter

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P A R T

An emphasis on Non- Verbal Communication

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O N E

E M P H A S I S

O N

N O N -

V E R B A L

C O M M U N I C A T I O N

O b j e c t i v e : To a n a l y s e t h e v a r i o u s t o o l s f o r h u m a n non-verbal communication, of which built spaces form an

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essential part.

M e t h o d : To d e m o n s t r a t e t h r o u g h t h e u s e o f p i c t o r i a l examples from the visual arts, performing arts and other

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related fields- how meaning is encoded within the formal signals that are being sent to the user.

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A lamp exhibited at the Barcelona Pavillion in August, 2003 by students of Product Design in Catalunya. The lamp, among other products, was based on the concept of a grasshopper.

C O M M U N I C AT I O N T O O L S C O M M U N I C AT I O N T O O L S C O M M U N I C AT I O N T O O L S C O M M U N I C AT I O N T O O L S C O M M U N I C AT I O N T O O L S

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P A R T

O N E

Chapter

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S T R U C T U R E

EMPHASIS ON NON- VERBAL COMMUNICATION

1.a.1) Abstraction and the experience of meaning

1 . a .

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Abstraction and generalization

•

The experience of meaning 1.a.2) The search for ‘decoding’ inherent meaning in spaces in the

N o n - v e r b a l

C o m m u n i c a t i o n

minds of people. •

Decoding as a property of Perception

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Langue and Parole – their role in creating meaning

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U s e r ’s m e a n i n g s a n d d e s i g n e r ’s m e a n i n g s 1.a.3) User participation through ‘encoding’ in built spaces – “the manner of doing”

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Encoding as a property of Conception

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Existential Expression and Shared Expression

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Pe rception in an age of mediated reality – new codes for greater ‘shocks’ 1.b.1) Signs and Semiotics

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T h e s i g n i f i e r / s i g n i f i e d r e l a t i o n s h i p - ‘ D o u b l e a r t i c u l a t i o n ’. 1.b.2) Mental processes in human creativity

1 . b . S y m b o l i s m v e r b a l

S e m i o t i c s , a n d N o n -

•

Context and Metaphor

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Bisociation and Conceptual Combination


1.b.3) Non-verbal communication through a built space •

The Non-verbal communication approach

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Codification in the built environment 1.b.4) What are ‘perceptual’ and ‘conceptual’ images?

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1 . a .

N o n - v e r b a l


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1.a.1) Abstraction and the experience of meaning

1. A tribal cave painting of “The Reindeer Hunt” Discovered in the Castellon Region, Eastern Spain. This painting shows the existential need of man to understand and experience meaning in his life through abstraction and representation in an image. The hunter would paint the image of his victim on the cave wall, with the belief that by abstracting and ‘capturing’ the deer in an image - it would bring him success

•

Abstraction and generalization

•

The experience of meaning

in the actual hunt itself. This image is mankind’s earliest example of an abstraction of reality in an image.

19 2. A French poster for “Le Lido” by Rene Gruau Savignac, for a c a b a r e t perfomance - “the Hunt” cap3

tured in today’s context.

Chapter

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•

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1.a.1) Abstraction and the experience of meaning –

Abstraction and generalization –

As human beings, we are differentiated from other species by our ability to adapt and overcome our handicap in functional and organizational specialization. This

ABSTRACTION AND THE EXPERIENCE OF MEANING

ability has enabled us to remain flexible and capable of developing our functions further. We gain an existential foothold and identity that is not offered to us by nature because of our ability to abstract and generalize. By recognizing the similarities and relationships between phenomena we discover the laws of nature (such as gravity, climate etc.) and varied human processes.

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This flow of phenomena when abstracted comes to represent our existential meanings. The faculty of abstraction and generalization is the basic distinction in man. It is

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his ability to identify similarities and differences in what he perceives around him that enable him to ‘encode’ specific meanings for specific things. It is this ability in us that enables us to designate a word – ‘mother’ for a face we see from childhood, or the word ‘hot’ for an experience we might have had in our daily lives. We store information by using our senses to abstract the phenomena we experience around us. Abstraction may be compared to a process of mental digestion, and subsequent expulsion in a simpler, ‘codified’ mode in the human mind.

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VE NT IO NS” Phrase: “M OT HE R OF ALL IN Varied levels of experience of meaning WORD - MOTHER

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•

The experience of meaning –

The experience of meaning is a basic need in us. When we ‘grow up’ – it is meant that we become more aware of meaning around us. We are able to communicate these meanings more efficiently by using our faculty of abstraction to these processes and creating what we call a –‘language’. 7

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Architectural Language

Human Language

LANGUAGE - The transition of expererience of meaning

Only a language, in the general sense of the word, makes it possible for us to transmit experience of meaning from one person to another and also from one generation to another. It is our common experience, that words do not designate (or attach the sign to) particular phenomena. Words or similar ‘symbols’ simply designate a class of similarities between phenomena. The basic purpose of any symbol is to conserve the inductions of man, and their ‘symbolic function’ forms a necessary complement to man’s faculty of abstraction and generalization. A culture or a society is the cumulative matrix of all the symbol systems taken together to form a particular order. Participation in any culture implies that we know how to use its symbols through perception (experience) and representation (expression). Every individual is born into a system of meanings, which he comes to know through its ‘symbolic’ manifestations. The growth of a man’s mental facilities begin with early disseminated perceptions that are distinguished by the acquisition of ‘total’ character. Later on they develop into more articulate experiences where the parts and the interrelationships within the totality are better comprehended. This is why children and people from tribal

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areas exhibit similar symbolic expression of simplistic meaning. The phenomena they not understand is earmarked as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and dealt with accordingly. A major component of imagination is knowledge. The power to imagine varies significantly with the treasure house of what is known and stored in the memory. These stored images in the mind act as generators of powerful signals for the creation of imaginative ideas. In advanced forms of mental activity, symbolization is found which is quite disconnected from actual perception and sensory motor behavior. They are based

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on a more articulate organization of the perceptual field and on more conceptual classifications. They gradually open up a world of the – “as if”. In this way conscious choice and planned action becomes possible and man becomes capable of coexisting in different levels of reality. In general, mental development implies a simultaneous increase in differentiation and systematic integration of meaning.

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Design involves conscious choices and

planned actions (Apollo Schools, Amsterdam by ar. Herman Hertzberger) The creates of places of activity by the conscious placement of a free standing column with a plinth like pedestal which acts as a seat.

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The experience of meaningcan

be culture specific or also universal at varied levels of understanding and abstraction Movie poster from the film - “Dreams” by

& UNIVERSAL CUES/TOOLS % JAPANESE CUES/TOOLS 10

Japanese film maker Akira Kurosawa. To the people of Japan - the Japanese script and iconography means something specific. At a more universal sensorial level, the film - a protest by Kurosawa against Nuclear Warfare - evokes understanding through the use of commonly understood icons and symbols. The rainbow in this case represents hope and beauty - and nature’s gifts to mankind. The child at the bottom of the page represents an innocence of youth (something that is addressed repeatedly in the film) The alignment of the Japanese text, and the placement of the title film symbol at the top of the page - is a representation of the infamous mushroom that is caused on detonation of a N-bomb.

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Conscious choice and planned action - the capability of coexisting in different levels of reality Painting - “The Person at the Window” by Salvador Dali. Surrealism attempts to capture the most sub-conscious and inner feelings of the human mind and emotions. Simple composition and dynamic framing represent a feeling of - wait, hope, expectancy. The painting creates associations in the mind of the observer who feels tempted to ask - “What is the person thinking?”

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A painting of “Christina’s World” -

by Andrew Wyeth The artist creates a dynamic composition by the mere placement of the body and the destination within the space of the painting. This placement creates a tension that could be understood to mean various emotions such as 11

hope, aspiration, fatigue etc.

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Image, abstraction and the importance of knowledge Installation art - “Batman and Marilyn”- an installation

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by Japanese designer Kenzo Miyage at the MACBA in Barcelona, Spain. Target audience - Europe and America

Image, abstraction and the importance of cultural

The conception of this installation was inspired by the meta15 phors of comic character “Batman” and film legend Marilyn Monroe. The association was meant to co-relate the qualities of Batman with the sex-appeal of

knowledge Advertisement poster - “Volkswagen “Superbus”. Target audience -USA where Superman is a common place

Marilyn Monroe, who is represented here by the symbol of the bathtub - which she made famous because of her erotic photo-ops in them, in the 1960’s.

concept to most people. The conception of this poster was inspired by the metaphor of comic character “Superman”. The association was meant to co-relate the power and strength of Superman with the product. The manner in which the picture has been taken, even at the cost of distortion of the form of the bus, emphasizes the location of the logo (with respect to where Superman wears his logo), the location of the lamp-lights (with respect to where superman’s alter ego Clark Kent wears his spectacles).

The messages encoded in designed objects can lead to the following conclusion 1) Any designed object - be it a painting, or a work of sculpture, a poster, a product and an built space - contain messages that are either consciously encoded by the designer/artist or unconsciously during the process of conception. These messages are waiting to be decoded by the user. 2) This ‘decoding-impulse’ of a designed object is often achieved by the use of visually associative forms, which enable the user to connect dissociated phenomena. 3) The use of visually associative forms leads to the creation of certain desired visual effects that allow the user to connect emotionally with the objects that they encounter.

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The encoding of messages during conception, the creation of visual associational effects and their subsequent decodification through the perception are what would broadly be called the process of design communication.

Chapter

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1 . a .

N o n - v e r b a l


1 . a . 2) T h e s e a r c h f o r ‘ d e c o d i n g ’ i n h e r e n t m e a n i n g i n s p a c e s in the minds of people. 17

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Recurrence of a theme in a new context through the reinvention of its encoded messages - The triumph of good over evil has been a recurring theme throughout the history of storytelling, be it through the epic Ramayana or through the Hindi film ‘Sholay’

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Decoding as a property of Perception

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Langue and Parole – their role in creating meaning

•

U s e r ’s m e a n i n g s a n d d e s i g n e r ’s m e a n i n g s

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Chapter

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1.a.2) The search for ‘decoding’ inherent meaning in spaces in the minds of people. Meaning manifests in a space when perception occurs. The process of perception occurs through encoding and decoding in the user’s mind. Likewise, the process of conception occurs through encoding and decoding in the designer’s mind. This sets of an instantaneous dialogue between the user and the designed space. The success of this communication depends as much on the ease in comprehension of the encoded messages, and their appropriate conformity

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in the built form.

The Home for the Elderly, Amsterdam, 1964-74 by H. Hertzberger.

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The use of a simple frame work construction with a prefabricated junction member, turned into a cause

Decoding as a property of Perception –

Perception of meaning (in architectural communication) occurs only when the user decodes the messages stored (in a built form).

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To elucidate this statement further, an architectural space is a physical experience that is perceived primarily by the sense of vision. To a certain extent, the faculty of touch is also involved, though unless a user is blind, there is no need to touch everything in a built space in order to store the information gained from it in the mind. A s u s e r s , what we see is stored in our minds as an experience of phenomena. A study of Gestalt psychology shows that our perception works in systematic ways where simple acts such as climbing of stairs, walking through a

The inherent search for decoding in the minds of people -

for social unrest because people associated with the building in very negative ways at first. The symbolic associations with the cross made the people living there feel like they were in coffins before burial.

Chapter

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door, sitting on a chair, to the act of praying at a temple, working in an office etc. are all stored in our memory as signals. As a user of architectural space, it would be safe to assume that every architectural space has a human action or ‘event’ associated with it. Homes and houses have evolved out of man’s existential need to dwell. Offices and 21

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THE RECOGNITION OF THE SACRED ICONOGRAPHY

workspaces have emerged out of his need to work, a temple to pray in and similarly a discotheque to socialize or dance within. The architectural form merely is a manifestation of the messages induced by ‘architectural event’ in a perceivable form. It begins as ‘architecture of and within the mind’ and ends within the mind as well, while our bodies perform motor reactions to the impulses fed to the limbs by the reactions in the mind. Let us analyze this statement further by means of an example of the simple act of Praying. To a devotee, the sign of the Crucifix or the ‘Shiva-Lingam’ have become

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SCALES OF SACRED SPACES - In a house and in a temple

culturally accepted and recognized symbols of worship or religious icons. When we pray within our homes, the space where we keep this iconoclastic object – as a representation of God in absentia – the space assumes sacred value to us. If we expand our thoughts laterally, this is also the case with other ‘icons’ such as our favorite sport’s stars and film personalities or even someone we admire. A temple or a church is a public place of worship where the act of praying occurs at a much larger, social scale. It is our common experience that it is not only the

23

24

The ambiguity of the cultural idol Lor d Ganesha and Sachin Tendulkar are both symbol ized as benchmark for the ideal or f or an a s p i ra t i o n .

crucifix within a church or a ‘lingam’ within a temple that is treated as sacred by the user, but the entire ‘image’ of the architecture as well. When we visit a temple, we carry in our minds an image of a temple, a church or a mosque as cultural and associational determinants that are stored deep within our sub-conscious. The actions that we perform in a space with these determinants are preconditioned

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impulses. They are culture and habit specific. Signals of these kinds may mean something to a certain person, and nothing to another. The architecture of any built space invites actions that are primarily simple responses to visual and physical stimuli. Walls could make us look in certain directions; floors could make us move in certain ways. These are reactionary impulses that are stimulated by the decoding of architectural signs universally. A stair will make us climb it, unless we are unaware of the signal content stored in a stair; a door will register in our perception as a door, unless we have no prior information of a door. People react to spaces in terms of the meanings the spaces have in store for them. Material objects first arouse a feeling, which provides a background for more specific images, which are then fitted into the material as a response. These effective responses are based on the meaning that built environments have for the people and are partly a result of the people’s interaction with these environments. The process of decoding signals from built spaces form the basis of what we call

28

cognitive behavior. The manner in which a person perceives a form or the overall scheme of a built environment depends on the ease with which these messages are allowed to reach him, and the user’s willingness to reach beyond the present situation and associate the aspects of past with the present.

26

The architecture of any built space invites actions that are primarily simple responses to visual and physical stimuli - The manner in which a person perceives a form or the overall scheme of a built environment depends on the ease with which these messages are allowed to reach him, and the user’s willingness to reach beyond the present situation and associate the aspects of past with the present. (Image of the Central Beheer, Office Building, Appeldoorn, 1968-72 by Herman Hertzberger)

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Complete communication occurs through a wholesome balance of the following three factors 1 – 1. Sensorial communication – Refers primarily to the physiological comforts accrued from physical resolutions, essentially in response to environmental control. 2. Experiential communication – This aspect of communication is also universal, but the perception through this experience differs vastly as this aspect deals critically with mental and emotional status of the perceiver or the observer. The process is spontaneous and reactionary to the nuances of space configuration and its dictates. PERCEPTUAL EXPERIENTIAL COMMUNICATION Sensorial communication - Our senses perceive spaces in ways that that can > create notions of closure and other visual principles. (left) >create

notions

of

expansion,contraction etc. (below)

PERCEPTUAL SENSORIAL COMMUNICATION

3. Associational communication – This form of communication is a locale specific perception, requiring pre-conditioning and familiarity with the context or the acquired information base. It creates spiritual bonds and succeeds through in depth understanding of cultural connotations. Meaning gains further importance when it is realized that the concept of ‘function’ goes far beyond purely instrumental or manifest functions. When dormant aspects of function are measured, it is realized than meaning is central to an understanding of how environments work.

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Associational communication through individual form (The Johnson’s Wax Center Building, Racine, USA) The individual column form draws parallels to mushroom-like forms. The architect uses the metaphor of natural foliage to draw associations of a forest of mushrooms beneath which the users work.

Associational communication inspired by the surrounding context (The Opera House, Sydney) The form was inspired by familiar images from the Sydney harbour on which the building is located. The form of the Opera House is reminiscent of sailboats, clouds, turtle shells among others and is completely independant of the function for which it was intended for.

30 29

30

Associational communication inspired by the Program (The TWA Terminal, USA) The individual column form draws parallels to mushroom-like forms. The architect uses the metaphor of natural foliage to draw associations of a forest of mushrooms beneath which the users work. PERCEPTUAL ASSOCIATIONAL COMMUNICATION

31

Associational communication inspired by abstractions of the surrounding context (The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain) The conceptual process in this case is unique to the architect, Frank Gehry. Perceptually however, visitors to the building compare it to marine life of some kind, due its scales and slippery form.

1

Chapter •

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Langue and Parole – their role in creating meaning 2

LANGUE

According to de Saussure,Langue is seen as all the signs in a society taken together as a total resource. It is the unconscious aspect of a social phenomenon. A langue is an inventory of signs, symbols and behavioral syntax, which has been accumulated gradually in every culture over centuries. A langue is not easy malleable.

○

“The langue is both a social institution and a system of values. As a social institution

○

it is never an act. It utterly eludes premeditation; it is the social part of language. The individual can by himself neither create it nor modify it. It is essentially a

○

32 ○

○

Parole is each act or selection from this totality. It is a conscious aspect of a social phenomenon. The langue is seen as the more static aspect in this context, whereas the parole is the dynamic aspect. However the two are differentially related, in the sense that, a

○ ○ ○

PAROLE

LANGUE is the universal set of signs and symbols within a particular order or culture. PAROLE is each and any act within the realm of the existing LANGUE.

a

change in the parole would in some way create a change in the fabric of the langue even by not fitting into it. Hence at a macro level, a langue too is changing minutely.

b 31

The degree of change in a langue depends on a culture’s belief in its system of signs and symbols.

Two important acts from within the Langue of their specific e ra s t h a t s u b s e q u e n t l y a ffected their Paroles for ever -

Any activity within a built environment may be analyzed into four components a. The activity proper according to a parole b. The specific way of doing it according to a langue

a) The discovery of the theory of perspective drawing during the European Renaissance b) The discovery of the struc-

c. Additional, adjacent or associated activities that become part of the activity system; d. The inherent meaning of the activity

○

○

collective contract, with which if one wishes to communicate – one must accept in its entirety.” Roland Barthes 3

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tur e of the DNA molecular structure

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1

USING ELEMENS OF A LANGUE TO AFFECT A NEW PAROLE

It is the variability of the last three factors that leads to difference in form, the differential successes of various designs, appropriateness and judgments of environmental value. This suggests that meaning itself is not something apart from function, but is itself the most important aspect of function.

36

!! 34

Poster designed by Alain Le Quernec for an

32

exhibition of Toulouse Lautrec’s paintings in Paris , July 2002 Using the symbol of crucifixion - the crown of thorns, flagellation; the designer here recalls the feeling of excruciating pain and physical suffering that painter Lautrec underwent all through his troubled life because of his physiological anomalies as a dwarf. When most people remembered him as a funny, midget, the designer here wishes to present a different, lesser known side of Lautrec and thereby make people marvel all the more at his immense range of works.

35

From Fatehpur Sikri to The High Court of Justice- Architect Le Corbusier had extensively travelled across India in early 1950’s to study and document the existing langue of Indian architecture. He was profoundly inspired by the architecture of Fatehpur Sikri and other Mughal architecture of power in their use of massing, scale, siting and proportion. During the process of codification of spaces in Chandigarh, he abstracted these stored experiences in his mind to create a new parole in the Modernist mould. This parole which was new at the time added to the langue of Indian architecture for others to now refer to as a storehouse of experience.

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Chapter •

1


User’s meanings and designer’s meanings –

Designers and users are very different in their reactions to environments. Meanings exist in people and not in objects or things. However things do elicit meanings (Bonta, 1979), the question is how they elicit or activate these meanings and guide them, and thus which things or objects “work” best. Users will inevitably attempt to attach a meaning to whatever it is they are doing. It is the task of designers to see how meanings can be encoded in things in such a way so that the users may decode them, and in doing so absorb the character of a place and participate in its activity. In order for the process of communication to occur, there have to be the following three things – ' The sign vehicle (what acts as a sign) ' '

A sender (in our case, the designer) A receiver (in our case the user)

Designed aspects of the environment do encode information in the form of signals that people decode. It is this process of encoding and decoding that sets off a meaningful dialogue between user and the architectural product.

33

Meaningfulness implies choice, and can be thus interpreted from either the sender’s or the receiver’s point of view. Let us briefly examine the differences in the two -

#

A COMMON MIS-COMMUNICATION - Designer meaning and user meaning are not often alike. Users tend to associate with what they see in their own realm of knowledge and experience, which are often far removed from the designer’s intended signal intent.

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1

User’s perception and subsequent de-codification of a space – Users tend to react to environments in associational (may be reactionary or preconditioned) terms. A user is a part of society, which is a summation of all the relevant signal systems in his environment. A user relates to the architecture around him in existential and associational terms first, before associating with it functionally. By being able to associate the signals that are being sent to him by the built space with past sensorial, experiential and associational experiences, the user determines the degree of meaning stored in a space that he could absorb. Whatever is meaningful for user is called informative. Designer’s conception of a space –

37

#

DESIGNER MEANINGS - Metaphors employed

by the ‘Taller de Arcquitectura’ from texts and after sketches by Ricardo Bofil.

Designers tend to react to environments that they create in conceptual terms. He uses the formal tools available to him, and tries to create meaning in them (for the user) by using sensorial, experiential and associational signals to entice the user to participate in his design. Whatever is meaningful for either the sender or designer is known as communicative.

34

The complete appreciation and evaluation of the quality and success of a design depends on an understanding of its meaning, and the way in which perceptual

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39

variables are used to achieve and communicate it. Therefore in the context of our study, the word ‘space’ can be understood to imply all that is man made and occupies a volume. It includes the man-made built environment, each individual building that acts as a component within that environment, each space within the building. Any space begins to act as a ‘place’ when it arouses participatory reactions in the people who are to use them.

#

DESIGNER MEANINGS - Metaphor of a cow’s

head employed in the conception of the Assembly, Chandigarh

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1


1 . a .

N o n - v e r b a l


1.a.3) User participation through ‘encoding’ in built spaces – “the manner of doing” •


•

Existential Expression and Shared Expression

•

Perception in an age of mediated reality – new codes for greater ‘shocks’

40

Manner of Doing Above - A part of the Vitra Factory Complex, in Weil-aumRhein, Germany. The path leads from the Vitra Museum designed by Frank Gehry to the Conference Hall designed by Tadao Ando. Ando creates a path composed of straight lines with sharp right angled turnings even when a straight path connecting the two destinations would have sufficed. Ando uses his Japanese beliefs that this strategy wards off evil spirits from following the user to his destination. Walking on this path, one cannot help but wonder if the evil spirits he is referring to is a sarcastic jab at the deconstructivist Museum that the user leaves behind.

35

Chapter 1.a.4) User participation through ‘decoding’ built spaces – “the manner of doing” From our analysis thus far, it becomes clear that as designers, we are entrusted with the responsibility to not just provide products that affect the ‘doing’ of specific functions, but also affect the ‘manner of doing’ something - a vital layer in the

1

USER PARTICIPATION IN BUILT SPACES- The creation of a ‘manner of doing’ - in this case, the manner of taking a bath - making the bathing space a glamorous space by affecting the manner of seating and taking a bath.

design process that makes the activity itself more meaningful in the overall context. The ‘manner of doing’ architecture elevates it to becoming more than just built physical space. It establishes a sense of ‘place’. “Architecture is a thing of art, a phenomena of the emotions, lying outside questions of construction and beyond them. The purpose of construction is to make things hold together, Of architecture – to MOVE us.”

The ‘manner of reclining’ on the Chaise-Lounge re-

Thomas Thiis- Evenson (1987) 4

introduced in the bathroom of Mme. Savoye at the Villa Savoye at Poissy(below)

Places evoke feelings and emotions. They communicate

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$

Built spaces adopting sign like qualities through cultural pre-conditioning - An 800 year old

with the user. In doing so they allow him to participate in the very event that makes it the space. Space

monastery in Meteora, Greece Here we see a woman, sub-consciously kiss each and

communicates with its own inherent language. Through its own set of basic alphabets and sentences, a space

e ve r y p a i n t i n g o n e ve r y wal l w i t h o u t a ny e v i d e n t invitation to do so.

commits descriptive, vocative and expressive ‘utterances’. In doing so built space begins to adopt

The content of these walls, sacred murals, themselves draw people into these culture specific acts

sign-like qualities. When space adopts sign-like qualities, it starts to act as a medium of transferring specific messages to

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the user and in doing so allow him to participate more actively.

a

•

Conception of meaning in architectural communication occurs only when the designer encodes relevant messages during the process of designing

43

ENCODING IN BUILT SPACES- Comparison of

a built form.

two different elements of circulation and a column In case a) the cylindrical column is embedded into


b

As designers, we have the potential to endow what we create with appropriate signals for the user. These signals are stored within our experiences as human 44

the side of the ramp to create a blend of sructure with movement path. In case b) The act of climbing spirally is given more emphasis and added drama by allowing it to stand free of the structural cuboidal column. Illus: from the Villa Savoye at Poissy.

beings also as sensorial, experiential and associational images. We have control over the first two factors, whereas the associational is a sub-conscious occurrence at first, which we come to harness and give a form to. To take a lateral example, a designer is also a storyteller. He has an image in his mind, of a form that he wishes to create for a specific set of functions. The user also has fragmented images of similar kinds within his mind. As designers, it is how best we convey these images to the user that determines the degree of success of the architectural communication. It is also a pre-supposition that for the communication of information to be of some value to the user, it must tell him something that he was not aware of earlier. Today, in our ‘age of information’ it is o f t e n t h e e l e m e n t o f s h o c k o r s u r p r i s e t h a t m a ke s t h e m o s t s u cc e s s f u l communication.

45

ENCODED MESSAGES - Advertisement for Pan-American airlines, designed by the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency

This enquiry attempts to sensitize us to the language of space making, the various spatial signs, and symbols – spatial alphabets that allow the architect to reveal the space to the user more eloquently. Like the case of story telling, a ‘spatial story’ or ‘narrative’ revealed eloquently evokes emotions from the user. It moves him, and

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hence transcends the boundaries of being just a contained or a confined physical space. It begins to create spiritual and emotional bonds in him. •

An analogy of storytelling - Storytelling as a profession, through the use of appropriate communication methods, has always ensured audience participation. More important than the factual information contained in these stories – the

manner of story telling enabled the storyteller to address emotions and moods, which made a much more lasting impact on the audience. In doing so, he was able to actively involve the audience to participate in the experiences he was narrating. Audience participation is the vital ingredient that ensured the posterity of these stories. •

An analogy of performing arts – We will examine Indian classical dance for our purpose. A classical Indian danseuse through the medium of her body, forming various ‘constructs’, or compositions, tells us stories of different kinds. These constructs over a period of time have come to be understood to mean

46

ETHER I by dECOi ARCHITECTS - Ether I offered a

38

something specific. The danseuse uses postures and expressions, which are abstracted and subsequently represented to a viewer in the audience. The viewer

new oppurtunity to the architects to experiment with newer techniques of creative formal production. The

would then associate these signals with the concepts from within the story he is familiar with and form images in the mind.

form is evolved from the negative traces of two dancers that were captured on video - a trace that cannot

“Where the hand goes, there the eyes should follow

be perceived by the naked eye. Ether I embodies the transitional phase from one state to another by being the trace of an absent presence - a surface which is also in depth. Dance is seen here as an “architecture of disappearance”.

Where the eyes are, the mind should follow Where the mind is, there the expression should be brought out Where the expression is, there the rasa or flavour will be experienced” A verse from the ‘Natya Krama’ 5

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The phenomenon of ‘abhinaya’ is common to all Classical Indian dances. Abhinaya is the expressional aspect of dance, or nritya. It is the abhinaya of a dance form that meaning is codified and given from through body and expressions. In contrast to this, ‘Nritta’ comprises only the pure dance and features striking and aesthetic poses, but will have no expressional meaning and symbolism. A dancer uses expressions and postures as her alphabets and sequences these in specific ways to form appropriate ‘sentences’. Using these tools, she weaves her story to the audience and entices them to participate in the feelings and moods that she is trying to convey. The degree of participation of a member of the audience depends directly on the level of sensitization the particular individual has undergone to understand the ‘signals’ the danseuse is sending to him. 47

STORY TELLING THROUGH DANCE -Indian classical dance communicates stories to its audience by using the architecture of the human body to convey moods, feelings, thoughts and emotions.

39 46

STORY TELLING BY THE HANDS - In Indian classical dancethe hands are used to depict abstractions of animal expression and other subject matter

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1

Through this language of utterances, a space becomes the story or ‘performance’. The architect becomes the storyteller. This makes it possible for us to believe that there is an inherent ‘story’ that resides in every space. A ‘story’ that wants to be told. These spiritual and emotional bonds elevate architectural space to becoming more than just physical boundaries. It makes architecture a true celebration of life. •

Existential Expression and Shared Experience 6

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EXISTENTIAL EXPRESSION -An image of a space

There are two factors that are inseparable from the perception of meaning, factors

from the Katsura Palace, Kyoto, Japan. Space here is created from a harmonious balance of interior and ex-

that act as a common bridge between a designer and a user. They are –

terior.

• •

Existential Expression Shared Experiences 1. Existential Expression

40

The roof, the wall and the floor all do the same thing – they balance the forces of inside and outside. The struggle between these forces is an existential precondition for mankind. Without shelter in the broadest sense, man cannot

49

50

live on this earth.

MOTION as EXPERIENCE IN SPACE - Contrasting

Delimiting elements of space all essentially embody a fundamental potential of existential expression, in that we evaluate them in relation to their principal role of

of dynamic and static existence of space. In the Stepwell at Adalaj, the series of successive frame enhance the

protecting an interior space from an exterior environment. The expression of the delimitation is visualized in the span between opening and closure.

images of the Stepwell at Adalaj, Gujarat (above left) and the Pyramid at the Louvre, Paris representing states

feeling of inward motion through the smallest of movements. The Pyramid of the Louvre draws on the stability of the pyramidal form itself to create a heavy, static expression.

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There are three concepts that are essential to the description of how the delimiting elements open or close themselves to the inside or the outside. These concepts are –

51

52

WEIGHT as EXPERIENCE IN SPACE - Contrasting images of a paper-and-wood partition wall at the Katsura Palace, Japan (above left) and the stone flying buttresses of the Sacre Coeur, Paris (above left). Weight of elements is an existential expression of these two

•

Motion – describes the dynamic nature of elements i.e. whether they visually expand, contract or are in balance.

•

Weight – is related to the ‘heaviness’ of elements and is more a direct expression of gravity.

•

Substance – is related to the materiality of elements i.e. whether they are soft or hard, coarse or smooth.

Existential expressions are distinctiveness of a form that is at base of its symbolic meaning, with their stylistic and symbolic variations.

basic types. SUBSTANCE as EXPERIENCE IN SPACE - Contrasting images of traditional roofing of Japanese house-forms (left) a n d t h e Pa rc d e l a 53

V i l e tt e ( b e l o w l e f t ) where materiality of elements is an experience in itself.

;

2. Shared Experience The attitude of the user represents our most conscious relationship to how our surroundings are experienced. The communicative aspect of architecture is dependant on a number of changing experiential levels. These can be grouped into two major categories both associated to convention and based on recollection – 1.) Personal experiences – These levels are connected to our personal experiences of using a space, and individualities such as comprehensive ability etc. 2.) Social experiences – These levels are linked to common cultural

54

associations. These cultural associations are necessary if the meaning manifested in form is to be comprehended. For example, white is the color of mourning in India, while black serves the same purpose in the West.

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These two levels of experience view architectural forms as symbolic expressions i.e the forms are seen as signs of an external reality. 3.) Universal experiences – This level of experience is to a large extent independent of cultural determinants. These experiences belong to our impulsive and instinctive reactions to design. They are defined by our reactions to the inherent structure of designed forms, independent of their symbolic connotations. Shared experiences are founded on principles of recognition but this time with reference to bodily experience. These experiences form a complex net of references that are the center for our reactions when we move in relationship to objects in space. These movements are described in relation to physical relationships to the things around us. We walk on something, ascend something, descend something, and go under something. But the manner in which we do these

55

TALIESIN WEST, ARIZONA - A UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE OF SPACE - Degrees of openness and closure, light ans shadow, texture of materials, spatial delimitations are all experienced universally in this case.

things is not irrelevant, in that the experience differs if what we walk on is steep or slack, broad or narrow

42

– if what is above us is low and heavy or light and high – if what we walk alongside is soft or hard, coarse or shiny.

#($ SOCIAL EXPERIENCE the Santa Sophia at Istanbul as “THE CENTER

The existential expression of an architectural form is based on the motion, weight and substance of 57

the form and is recognized on the basis of our common experiences with natural phenomenon. As

OF THE UNIVERSE” - The interior of the space was con-

ceived on the metaphor of the universe. Though the spatial experience in both interior and exterior aspects

is the case with symbolic meanings, in architectural design, existential expressions form images to which

is universal, the experience as “The Center of the Universe” is something that is more socio-cultural, and 56

requires pre-conditioning inorder to be experienced.

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1


we react. This means that we use our surroundings psychologically prior to using them physically. “(… it is) an inhabited construct, a heritage which embraces us even before we have attempted to think it” Jacques Derrida on ‘architecture’

b

“Point de Folie – Maintenant l’architecture” 7

61

a

58

This means that we use our environments psychologically before using them physically. If we see a door in front of us, we actually ‘go’ through it in our minds before we do so in reality. In this way, a door acts as a sign of its use as a door because of our indoctrination through past experiences.

e 59

d We wish to ‘be’ what a volume and the delimiting elements do. We walk swiftly through corridors and ceremoniously in an open space. Feelings of security 62 60

c

SYMBOLIC ENTRANCES - The images above are examples of entrances that are loaded with ample meaning and signal value to make them part of the cultural heritage of their respective regions. a) Buland Darwaza, Fatehpur Sikri - “A call to prayer” b) The Grande Arche de La Defense, Paris - “a celebration of urban life around it” c) Gopuram at Madurai - a gateway toward the inner shrine, these gateways are intricately carved with activites that represent the dualities of human and cosmic existence. d)The India Gate, New Delhi - built as a symbolic gateway to the capital of India. e) The protective entry to a fort in India.

within an interior space are decided by the degree to which the space threatened by the assault of the phenomena of nature. It is because we ‘participate’ in these things that we are uplifted under an elevated dome and borne down upon by the nearness of a cellar vault. This does not imply that existential meanings are not influenced by symbolic meanings and attitudes. What our surroundings do and what we can do in them are not experienced as completely different between individuals, but as different possibilities within the same ‘offer’. Existential expression has a fundamental effect on our architectural experiences as an integrated part of the quality of symbolic meaning. Meaning in a space, through signs, can be stored in the following ways –

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1. Elements of space making – Like each word in a work of poetry, each element at an architectural and an interior design scale is capable of being motivated with meaning. Thus simple columns, or the ceilings or even furniture and a play of light can be given the power to communicate by charging it with information that is useful to the user. 2. Spatial sequences, constructs and their organization – Meaning can also manifest in the creation of place through the spatial construct itself. Spatial-constructs imply how a space is assembled or coded semantically using the various individual elements to maximize the impact of transmission of a message to the user who is able to decode it more effectively. The use of metaphors, double-meanings, ‘bisociation’ and symbols – Formal ‘puns’ and other witticism can take the communication of meaning to a higher dimension of meaning. By addressing a user’s past experience, cultural pre-conditioning, and

44

ability to abstract phenomenon – a designer can make a user associate meanings with form in the most creative of ways.

) Perception in an age of mediated reality – new visual codes for newer ‘shocks’ 63

“Contemporary man is certainly passive most of his free time. He is the eternal consumer. He takes in drinks, food, cigarettes, lectures, sights, books, films; everything is devoured, swallowed. The world has become one large object of his desire, one

64

EXISTENTIAL MEANINGS ARE INFLUENCED ALSO BY SYMBOLIC MEANINGS AND ATTITUDES - This is best illustrated by placing the same stair in front of a victory podium (far above) and the gallows (above)

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Spaces whose formal language is evolved through irrational processes

large bottle, and one large breast. Man has become the eternally expectant and disappointed suckling.” -

Erich Fromm 8

Even in today’s modern situation of welfare and material progress, pluralistic tendencies resurface and have an alarming effect on the staunch followers of the rationalist theory. Many architects and designers again profess an architecture where the practical-functional aspect only plays a secondary role, and their formal language appears irrational and far-fetched. A general doubt in the basic creed of early ‘functionalism’ is expressed. This doubt hardly attacks the assumption that a building should ‘function’. Rather it grasps the core of the problem: “Is the rational world conception of the post mediaeval period satisfactory?” It is pointed out in all modern media, that ‘enlightenment’ and ‘freedom’ did not solve man’s problems. Our modern world has created passivity and discontent. Architect Peter Eisenman; in his essay “The End of the Classical – The End of the Beginning, the End of the End” states that for the past five hundred years or so, most of what was generated under the umbrella of the word ‘modern’ were in fact ‘representations of representations’. The classical as a notion had ceased to a) & b) - Interiors of the Vitra Fire Station at Weilaum-Rhein, Germany

exist long ago, and we now exist in a vortex of ‘remixes’ of every kind. These are best demonstrated through the McDonald genre, or in music in the form of techno-

c) & d) - The Vitra Factory at Weil-aum-Rhein, Ger-

remixes. In every culture, the classical still exists, but as a living reference. In India, we still have the classical schools of music alive in almost every state. But

many e) The Guggenheim Mu-

the classical is no longer merely reproduced over and over again by different musician, but re-invented and modified to adapt to the newer needs of the time.

seum, Bilbao f ) The Parc de la Vilette, Paris

65

According to Eisenman, even architecture had ceased to depict the ‘fictions’ of representation, reason and history, and started to evolve out of intrinsic factors that drew attention to itself by its sheer existence.

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Today, the complete onslaught of the visual and other forms of media have played a major role in changing the way people perceive phenomena. With information now accessible far more easily than even fifty years ago, the extent of knowledge in the minds of people has increased manifold. This has been reflected in the codification of meaning in designed objects. The principal subject matter for codification of meaning has shifted in today’s age of information, especially in our bigger cities and towns where the onslaught of visual media has been the greatest. Architectural concepts no longer remain enslaved to religion, function, structure or a style as a springboard for representation of meaning. Walter Benjamin, in his book – “The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction” discussed the reproducibility of images. He pointed out that the loss of their exchange value, their ‘aura’ made them interchangeable, and that in an age of pure information – the only thing that mattered was the ‘shock’ – the shock of images, their surprise factor.

“GODZILLA” - a hy-

66

pothetical project by Michael Sorkin - The architect delves into the cinematized memory of New York city which is rampaged by this gigantic monster in the Hollywood legend. The program is basically identical to a skyscraper, though both in formal attitude and space making - the architect draws parallels from the Giant Ape itself.

In the words of Bernard Tschumi, in “Architecture and Disjunction”, the field of

46

architectural design is where the greatest discoveries will take place in the coming century. “The very heterogeneity of the definition of architecture – space, action and movement – makes it into that event, that place of shock, or that place of invention of ourselves. The event is the place where the rethinking and reformulation of the different elements of architecture may lead to their solution.” Bernard Tshumi 9

In the words of architect Peter Eisenman, architecture today has become a process of ‘modification’ of syntax. The subject matter being ‘written’ is not the object

67

Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio, by Peter Eisenman - The illustrations above are of the famous ‘floating’ column inside the center. This serves to act as a sign by its being an ‘absent presence’ in the space.

Chapter

1


itself – its mass and volume – but the act of massing. This school of thought gives the act of architecture a metaphorical body which he calls a ‘trace’, through which it signals its reading through another system of signs. A trace as a sign is never decoded literally since they have no other value other than to signal the idea that there is a reading event and that reading should take place. A trace, in other words, signals the idea to read. Thus a trace is a partial or fragmentary sign, and signifies that an action is in process. 68

In conclusion, while direct communication with its users remains the primary goal POP ART by Andy Warhol - (above left) “Mick Jagger’ and (above right) “The Suicide - The Purple

of architecture even today, there as been a re-emergence of a more subtle and related objective: the conception of architecture as a poetic art having levels of communication that are more powerfully suggested than rather than specified.

Jumping Man”. Warhol’s art was derived from the basic premise that art was seen for art’s sake and hence commonplace objects like a tin of soup or even a rock-icon could be made into an object of art and mass produced all at once. His subject matter often delved into the irrational - where represented gruesome accidents and death as works of art by the mere replication of the image and the death of the subject matter thereof.

47

Chapter

1 . b . S e m i o t i c s , S y m b o l i s m v e r b a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n

a n d

N o n -

1.b.1) Signs and Semiotics •

T h e s i g n i f i e r / s i g n i f i e d r e l a t i o n s h i p - ‘ D o u b l e a r t i c u l a t i o n ’. 69

Street posters in Mumbai

48

1

Chapter

1


1.b.1) Signs and Semiotics According to the Chamber’s Dictionary, A sign is “a gesture expressing a meaning”. We have already discussed the importance of the word ‘meaning’ in an earlier chapter. In this part we will focus on the word ‘gesture’ and examine how a gesture can express something.

71

70

Human

communication

Semiotics’ is the process by which something acts as a sign or the study of signs. It can also be seen as the study of consequence of the various elements of a structured system, in this case the architectural parole. Semiology has been concerned with what occurs when a man perceives a sign through one of his five

‘ M AY U R A ’ P E A C O C K

senses.

Perfor ming Ar ts - Classical D a n c e

·

The signifier/signified relationship - ‘Double articulation’.

The signifier is a representation for an idea or thought, which is signified. In language, the sound would be the signifier and the resultant idea, that which is signified. In architecture, the form would be the signifier and the resultant content, that which is signified. The fact that every sign has this double nature is called ‘double articulation’. The existence of this phenomenon sets the vary basis for non-verbal communication

Architectural communication SIGNIFIER r

e

l

a

SIGNIFIED t

i

o

n

s

h

i

p

between architecture and the user. Double articulation makes it possible for inanimate objects in space to evoke emotion in the user by signifying something relevant to the user.

49

Chapter

1 . b .

S e m i o t i c s ,

v e r b a l

S y m b o l i s m

a n d

N o n -



50

•


•


72

French Poster by Raymond Savignac showinng an advertisement for soap made from milk - A direct representation of the signal content intended to be communicated to the user.

1

Chapter

1



•


All sign behavior conveys meaning in two similar ways – either by opposition or by association. They are also frequently referred to as ‘context’ and ‘metaphor’

‘ M A Y U R A ’ P E A C O C K

both of which are continuously interrelated. abstracted attributes

When a sign achieves meaning through opposition, it conveys meaning through the unexpectancy of its occurrence in a context. Expectancy of a message in a

associated Peacock entrance to Jaipur palace

73

METAPHOR

context reduces the level of information transmitted by it. Meaning is also conveyed through the use of associations, metaphors or the whole treasure house of past memory. This may occur socially, when a series of architectural elements convey the same connotations as in the spoken language (like an Indian classical dancer’s ‘mudras’). It may also occur individually through some personal way of relating one sign to another. A metaphor originally is a figure of speech where one thing, idea or action is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting another thing, idea or action – so as to suggest some common quantity shard by the two.

74

“Primitives inside a cave” - the conceptual departure for “the Dipolii”, Finland by Reima Pietila - a metaphorical approach to the evolution of a program

People invariably see one building in relation to another, or in terms of a similar object i.e. as a metaphor. The more unfamiliar a built form syntax is to a particular context, the greater is the tendency of people to compare it metaphorically with what they know.

51

Chapter

1

Metaphorical thinking is inevitable and lends a greater degree of potency to any language or thought. They have succeeded in the most accurate representation of our ideas that are connected to the ‘distant’ and ‘future experiences’ through some kind of images. They act as reminders by signifying through associations where the associations are deep rooted socially, culturally or personally.

•


Arthur Koestler defines Bisociation as the “the simultaneous activation and interaction of two previously unconnected concepts”. This collision and subsequent fusing of seemingly unrelated concepts create something new that was absent from the original concepts themselves. Three important aspects that are necessary for making a successful ‘bisociation’ –

75

CONCEPTUAL COMBINATION - The Taj Mahal built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in Agra is a classic example of architecture through conceptual combination. The physical attributes of this masterpeice were derived from the qualities of the Emperor’s wife Mumtaaz Mahal who’s memory this shrine was built.

in

1. Spotting an analogy 2. Judgment 3. Response to stimuli

52

Conceptual combination occurs when one intentionally take existing forms or concepts and mentally blends them together. Imagery in the mind is used a powerful provocative tool to spark off associative images.

76

CONCEPTUAL COMBINATION - The Interior of the Gothic Cathedral was inspired by the feeling generated from walking through the forests of Northern Europe and the filtering of light through the trees.

Chapter

1



a n d

N o n -

1.b.3) Non-verbal communication through a built space a) The Non-verbal communication approach b) Codification in the built environment

77

53

Chapter

1

1.b.3) Non-verbal communication through a built space

a) The Non-verbal communication approach The functions of any communication include three aspects, which refer to all intentional communication (including built products and environments) – 78

•

PERCEPTIVE – involving the reception of incoming data.

•

EDUCATIVE – involving the memory and retention of past experiences as well as decision-making. This includes knowledge, which encourages the human sub-conscious to reconstruct past events, understand present events and anticipate those of the future.

•

TRANSMISSIVE/EXPRESSIVE – involves sending and receiving information, which may encompass art, design, written or spoken language, poetry, prose and even performing arts.

54

In a designed space, communication is non-verbal. A spatial construct cannot speak. It is built with materials that are not endowed with verbal communicative powers. Yet, the designer represents the inherent meaning of the function of each space he designs for the purpose of codification of the user. He tries to ‘compose’ each space in such a way, that the forms used, the layout, the scale, the texture and color etc. each communicate with the user in a way that affects the way the space is in use.

TRANSMISSIVE/EXPRESSIVE COMMUNICATION The creation of a focal point using two simply dynamic lines. Stage designed for the play -“Frontier” directed by Martha Graham in 1935. The stage set was designed byJapanese sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi. Photograph byBarbara Morgan

Chapter

1


As is the case with any form of communication, in the non-verbal process, certain elements are essential – a) A sender – encoder b) A receiver – decoder c) A channel d) A message form which may be in the form of i) A cultural code – the form of encoding ii) A topic – the social situation of the sender, intended receiver, and the intended meaning. iii) The context or scene – which is part of what is being communicated but is partly external to it. It has been concluded quite clearly that human beings communicate in the following ways – • •

Verbally Vocally

•

Non verbally

Verbal communication is much more codified and used more ‘symbolically’ than the other two. However, all three – verbal, vocal and nonverbal messages “act together” i.e. they may say the same thing or contradict each other, in the process either strengthening or weakening the message. On finds that non-linguistic somatic aspects of speech (paralanguage) greatly clarify a spoken language. Tone of voice, facial expression, and shared habits such as the meaning of relative physical positions, stances and relationship of participants further enrich the meaning of the spoken word, far beyond the scope of grammar, structure and so on. In this regard, the socio-contextual aspects of communication,

55

Chapter which are called non-verbal, are the most important. They are the most immediately noted and the ‘loudest’. b) Codification in the built environment CODIFICATION – When a person conceives or perceives a series of events and then wishes to make a statement about them, such a statement itself has to be represented by signs that are comprehensible to others. It is the technical aspect of this process that is referred to as ‘codification’. In the context of built space, it is a set of inherent rules in a specific society that explain how built space made to ‘behave’ in a certain way conveys information. 79

The built environment communicates to its users by virtue of the information stored in the elements that constitute them. In this way, a designed space no longer remains just a geometrical compositional of forms and textures, but assume associational codes for the people using them.

INDEXICAL SIGN - The ‘female’ columns of the Erectheion, Parthenon, Greece directly indicate their function of proportion and scale.

Architectural language, like the spoken one, must use known units of meaning or

56

architectural ‘words’ (refer to chapter 2. on ‘archetypes’). These ‘words’ when uttered in some form of order, create phrases and then sentences. The built spaces become a complex matrix of coded elements – all which are trying to represent an image of something – or to signify. A study of architectural forms till today reveals two basic kinds of signs – 1. Indexical – directly or indirectly indicating their use, like arrows, linear corridors. 2. Iconic – the form is a diagram of function.

80

ICONIC SIGN - The form of the facade of the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, in New York built by Charles Correa is a diagram of its function

1

Chapter

1


These two types of signs when used repeatedly enough to form a coherent image through codification in the minds of people become Symbols. (discussed in detail in Chapter 2) Almost every designer today aims to affect and influence the tastes and behavior of a culture. It becomes important therefore to speak the language of the culture first, and this includes its own inventory of architectural signs and semantic formal constructs. This occurs through the correct process of codification of meaning in the designer’s mind. In the case of non-verbal communication among humans, a large number of these codification systems play an important role like personal appearance, dress, gestures, ordinary actions like eating and drinking besides simple sounds, spoken and written words – as in verbal communication. Any action or thing may have symbolic properties and even represent some other event. On the basis of these three types of coding, one then finds three classes of nonverbal behavior – •

Adaptors – These are the least intentional, most intuitive, exhibiting the least awareness.

•

Illustrators – These augment or contradict what is being stated, but have less precise meanings.

•

Emblems – These are known to have exact verbal translations, with precise meanings known to all, or most members of a group. They are deliberately used for messages, so that the sender takes responsibility for them. They are commonly referred to as symbolic gestures.

57

Chapter Non-verbal communication in spaces cannot occur without the use of proper codification. Pure codification occurs in two ways – a. DIGITAL CODIFICATION – A form of codification which involves phonetic alphabets and which forms language. b. ANALOGIC CODIFICATION – This form constitutes a series of symbols that in their proportions and relations are similar to the thing, idea or event for which they stand. For example, in architectural practices small scale models of the built form are made along with their surrounding context, topography, texture etc. These models may be viewed as being analogous to the actual railroad itself. Such a form of codification deals with continuous functions. Non-verbal communication, specifically in the built environment uses analogical codification devices. Thus various kinds of actions, or pictures or designed objects represent analogical types of denotation. In lingual terms, ‘analogical’ is the discursive language. Non-verbal codification cannot exist autonomously. In fact, non-verbal and verbal

58

codifications work in unison through imagery. If words are to be used successfully, they are expected to arouse pictorial images in the mind of the reader or listener. It is precisely these non-verbal images that make emotional expression possible through words. Every object is either designed consciously or has evolved over a period of time or belongs to such a time that it has additional socio-cultural or historical significance wedded to it. Hence it is bound to be a part of a type of codification system. Individual elements in space and their arrangement are perceived as an integrated whole with respect to principles of common sense, accessibility (both physical and emotional), usage and previous knowledge of it.

1

Chapter

1



a n d

N o n -

1.b.4) What are ‘perceptual’ and ‘conceptual’ images?

59

82

$

Assembly Hall drawing by Le Corbusier,

(June 1953) - Section and studies of the roof compared to the chimneys of an Ahmedabad power plant (shown below) - a metaphor of release of collective energies meant to combine within the Assembly Hall.

Chapter 1.b.4. What are ‘perceptual’ and ‘conceptual’ images? '

Perceptual and conceptual images

We cannot experience sensation without characterizing it with meaning. Communication (visual/verbal) is a language of stored ideas and images that are to be expressed. Thoughts, feelings and emotions of any kind become ideas only when they are objectified or given some tangible form. The visual form of ideas are better understood as IMAGES. To imagine means to cast or to objectify. We see images and not things. Imagism is a symbolism where the symbol is naked and unexplained. A natural object exists in nature as itself and does not represent anything more than it shows. Everything in nature is simple what is and as it is. In effect, it is man who uses the natural object to signify for his convenience. An objects actual meaning and the symbol then become a function of the original object. In this case the mind is able to derive those functions naturally as its basic virtue.

60

“The mind is by nature in constant agitation. It is constantly transforming itself into the shapes of objects of which it becomes aware. Its subtle substance assumes the forms and colors of everything offered to it – by the senses, imagination, memory and emotions. It is endowed with a power of transformation or metamorphosis which is boundless and never put to rest.” Heirmich Zimmer “Philosophies of India” 10

1

Chapter

1


Images are found to be of two kinds –

•

•

Perceptual – Real things, actually existing in memory. Relate to real things that actually exist or existed in memory and survive as coded information in the memory. Perception differs among people, and therefore so does imagery. Conceptual – Represented in the mind from emotion or fantasy. This type of an image is a kind of symbol, shape or form that represents something in the artist’s mind rather than what is actually seen. Conceptual imagery derives from emotion, fantasy or invention.

French philosopher Jean- Paul Sartre puts artistic creativity as being an “”‘imaginative consciousness, which is free from the impact of the perceptual and conceptual consciousness, though we know that knowledge does have a role to play in the formation of an idea or an image.” According to Indian philosopher Geeti Sen in her book “Image and Imagination”, “…they (images) are born from experience, from memory, from the unconscious, from the powers of association that link the past and the future.” German philosopher Emmanuel Kant further adds that the aesthetic idea was sensory, rational and merely served to set up possibilities. Artistic imagination on the other hand could be said to possess higher synthesizing powers. One of the greatest gifts given to human beings, that which distinguishes us from all other species, is this extraordinary ‘power of the imagination’. The act of recollection, of dismantling experience to create a new order of things, gives the designer the power to transcend the barriers of time and space. Creative faculties are born out of the imagination. Images, finite and tangible are transformed in this ‘imagination’.

61

Chapter

C O N C L U S I O N

1

In Chapter 1, the study aims to identify the various tools for visual design communication by the use of illustration from various important fields of visual communication. The Chapter emphasized • •

The need for abstraction, generalization and the experience of meaning The basic premise of design communication - of it being the process

of encoding and decoding meaning within the built environment. • The signifier/signified relationship - the potential of ‘double •

articulation’. The importance of context and metaphor, bisociation and conceptual combination.

These points become the basis for our understanding of the basic tools neccessary for the process of design communication to occur.

62

In the following Chapter we shall aim to examine these tools with the specifics of the grammar of built spaces.

P A R T

E M P H A S I S !

2

T W O

O N

Objective:

S P A T I A L To

analyse

Chapter

2

C O M M U N I C A T I O N the

various

tools

for

architectural and spatial communication and how they affect b e h a v i o u r o f t h e u s e r.

!

Method:

• The first part deals with understanding architectural communication as the interctive dialogue between the designer and the user - it focuses on encoding as a process

62

of conception. • The second part identifies the various basic tools for architectural communication - it examines the various effects that encoding meaning within these tools can create and how t h e y a f f e c t t h e u s e r. • The third part briefly discusses the role of cultural metaphors and symbols and their role in enriching the b a s i c a r c h i t e c t u r a l t o o l s f u r t h e r. S PAT I A L T O O L S S PAT I A L T O O L S S PAT I A L T O O L S S PAT I A L T O O L S S PAT I A L T O O L S S PAT I A L T O O L S S PAT I A L T O O L S S PAT I A L

Chapter

2

An emphasis on spatial communication

EMPHASIS ON SPATIAL COMMUNICATION

S T R U C T U R E 2.a.1) How does architecture communicate? •

W h a t k i n d o f ‘ m e s s a g e s ’ d o e s a r c h i t e c t u r e t ra n s m i t t o u s ?

2.a.2) ‘Space’ v/s ‘Place’

2. a .



2 . b . A r c

h

i

T o o l s t e c t

•

‘ S p a c e s ’ a n d ‘ P l a c e s ’ - V i s u a l a s s o c i a t i o n a s a p r o p e r ty o f p e r c e p t i o n a n d c o n c e p t i o n .

2.a.3) Conception and architectural signal systems

u

f o r r a l


•

C o n c e p t i o n - “ Fo r m d o e s n o t f o l l o w f u n c t i o n , fu n c t i o n d o e s n o t fo l l o w fo r m ”

•

Signal Systems and Function as mutually dependant factors influencing the conception of space

2.b.1) Basic elemental tools and their assembly • Spatial ‘syntax’ as constructs for sign-vehicles, from the point of view of 1) Siting 2) Form & Massing 3) Material 4) Approach & Movement 5) Spatial Organization 6) Surface articulation •

Examining archi tectural alphabets or ‘alphabets’ and their potential capaci ty to encode meaning

63 • The 1) 2) 3)

basic archetypes (as sensorial, experiential and associational signs) The Floor The Wa ll The Roof

2.c.1) Metaphors in Design -

2 . c .

M e t a p h o r s

S y m b o l s

a n d

• •

Metaphors in Conception M e t a p h o r s i n Pe rc e p t i o n

2.c.2) Symbols and Icons – Culturally recognized signification

Chapter

2 . a .


2


2.a.1) How does architecture communicate? •

64

1

What kind of ‘messages’ does architecture transmit to us?

Chapter

2


2.a.1) How does architecture communicate? Design of any kind is a conscious choice and a planned action and hence, communication is an inherent and inevitable part of a designed object. We can assume any human product to be seen as a ‘symbol’ or a ‘tool’, which serves the purpose of bringing order (meaning) into certain relations between man and his environment.

3

4

The human product as a ‘symbol’ or a ‘tool’, which serves the purpose of bringing order in an environment

“I believe that architecture is not reducible to any particular climate of opinion. No abstract theory, game of forms, application of technology or pragmatics is sufficient to communicate the fact that architecture is a movement beyond the material. It is length, height and width, but also the depth of aspiration and memory. The living source of architecture is the very substance of the soul and constitutes the structure of culture itself.” Daniel Libeskind Speech on being awarded project for “Between the Lines”, 1989 1

In an ideal situation, a designed space communicates with the user by catalyzing the process of

65

encoding and decoding of the meanings stored within it. When this process is set in motion, the designed space is perceived by the user who is able to decode the messages stored within it. Thereby the space is used meaningfully.

The designed a r c h i t e c t u ra l o b j e c t

DESIGN

communicates with the user through

COMMUNICATION - Designed products

inform the user through the codification of abstract messages in the design of the form by the user. These

coded gestures that ask to be acted upon. 2

messages are intended to be perceived through decodification by the user.

Chapter •

2

What kind of ‘messages’ do built spaces transmit to us?

The phenomenon of perception is not a linear one. Several factors are working in tandem and forming images in our mind and enabling us to decipher the matrix of form, function and meaning. Built space constructs can communicate its encoded ‘signal content’ to us through the following tools – 1. It could communicate through its physical aspects – location on site, form, material, mass, movement and approach. 2. It communicates through individual elements - their texture, color, scale, proportion, entablature etc. 3. Collectively through the above tools, an architectural product can tell us

"

CULTURAL PRECONDITIONING

of its existence in relative space and time i.e. it can communicate its ‘place in the today’, its state of ruin or usefulness. These tools simply make architecture a work of sculpture. Furthermore, the user

66

participates in the architectural event, within an architectural form when – 4. The architecture could communicates how best to meaningfully perform the activities, which are to occur within it. This aspect of any built space is known as the “program”. 5. An architectural space could convey the ‘manner’ in which these activities are to be performed. This aspect is often referred to as

"

RELATIVE SCALES OF SIMILAR FORMS

“interpretation of a program”.

Chapter

2


#

Messages of cultural association - The illustration here simply demonstrates the basic ambiguity of any a rc h i t e c t u ra l s i g n . W h il e t h e ‘swastika’ symbol is considered sacred and worshipped by Indians, it is seen as a sign of guilt and embarrasment in Germany because of its association with the Nazi party during the second World War. $ A sketch of a typical ‘puja’ or personal place for worship in an Indian home. While to an o u t s i d e r, t h i s c o n f i g u r a t i o n might seem alien - it is treated as sacred by the owner and an outsider as well.

These additional messages enable the user to enter a built form and perform the function intended within it efficiently, meaningfully in the present. It makes architecture purely a machine for efficient function, which is not necessarily true, as had been discussed in the introductory part of this analysis. There is a third layer of signal-communication that works in the sub-conscious of every user that is inevitable. These messages, affect the earlier messages in a way that makes the user feel ‘emotion’ that are rooted beyond the mute architectural form. These messages are – 6. Messages stored from past experiences of encountering built spaces. These involve physical and sensorial dimensions. The experiences could be of similar spaces or different ones. They could be experienced first hand, or through secondary sources through pictures or other forms of visual media. 7. Messages of association, derived from cultural, metaphysical and

#

Messages of religious or metaphysical association - The image shown here is of the metaphysical figure or ‘Purusha’ which stands for the constant thought harmonious duality of man and the cosmos. It is seen here in this image as a work 5 of sculpture that greets a person who enters the intended space. However, to a person conditioned to the deeper meanings rooted in the form - the act of entering will assume a different meaning.

other subconscious determinants. These additional messages enable the user to enter a built form and perform the function intended within it efficiently, meaningfully in the present. It makes architecture purely a machine for efficient function, which is not necessarily true, as had been discussed in the introductory part of this analysis. From this analysis, it emerges that when perceiving architectural design, what we ‘see’ as physical space is actually a complex matrix of signs and codes. The designer can encode these messages within the form in order for the user to decode them in the best manner possible.

67

Chapter

2

These messages are never perceived as a linear narrative, like the spoken word, to the user. They are acting simultaneously at varying degrees - both visible and invisible in the minds of the user, who processes them and then responds to them accordingly.

#

BUILDING AS A FRAME, The Grande Arche de La Defense, Paris - This symbolic building stands as a 8 counter-point to the Arch of Triumph at the other end of its axis. The building here assumes the dual role of programmatically housing the offices as well as acting as a frame for a larger activity of Parisian life.

!

SIGNIFICATION THROUGH PROGRAM, Center Georges Pompidou, Paris - The architect, Renzo Piano left exactly half the site area unbuilt so that people visiting the centre and the people of Paris would perform a multitude of activites in the plaza in front of it. The rest of the building as well is a skeleton of its program, where every function is revealed in all its nakedness to the user. This makes the building one of the most communicative and interactive of its kind in the Modern era 6

HINDU NORTH INDIAN INTERPRETATION OF A PROGRAM, ! St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City - The TEMPLE FORMS - Hindu belief in oneChristian belief in worshipping together as to-one personal worship has led to an a community is exemplified in its most grand o r d e r i n g o f s u c c e s s i v e s p a c e s t h a t example. The overpowering volumes of the gradually grow in their altitude and in

!

68

9

inner apse, and the constant impulse of the their degree of entablature, but reduce visitor to look up and marvel at the sheer in their degree of openess from inside scale of the space is a direct outcome of and in scale. The inner most shrine is 7 completely dark and closed in. the correct interpretation of program.

In the subsequent part, we shall study the tools for spatial encoding of meaning with a greater degree of detail.

Chapter

2


#

SPACE: “Godzilla” - a conceptual mega-skyscraper designed by Michael Sorkin.

2. a .

S

P A C E



2. a . 2) ‘ S p a c e ’ v / s ‘ P l a c e ’ 10

•

‘Spaces’ and ‘Places’ - Visual association as a property of perception and conception.

69

11

P L A C

E

#

PLACE: A image showing a visually busy street facade in Mumbai, India - a struggle

to establish individual identity, a sense of familiarization in a community.

Chapter

2

PLACE: Scenes from around the Picasso Museum, Barcelona - the images here show the inherent need of users to associate and familiarize themselves with a space and create a ‘place’.

70

12

13

SPACE: Arches define the entrance to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. They are constructed of exposed local brick. The newer extensions to the museum are steel plates painted black.

14

Chapter

15

16

17

2

An emphasis on spatial communication # O C C A S I O N MAKES PLACE The image here is taken inside the Cathedral of Mary de Deu de I’ile, Barcelona. The ancient Gothic cathedral is prevented from becoming a ruin,and remains a meaningful place because of the activities that make the occasion of visiting this Cathedral more meaningful. (Left) A lady lights a ceremonial candle, thereby affecting not only the quality of the space - but also creating a timeless personal bond with the visitors. (Left below) A choir sings devotional songs - transforming the quality of space through sound and also creating a humane link with the visitors, who find this occasion a means of emotionally scaling the vastness of the building.

18

"

From SPACE to PLACE The image here is taken outside the Hotel de Ville in Paris in the month of summer at an occasion where the government creates artificial beaches on the roadside, to allow the citizens to enjoy the summer holidays with greater zest. Acts or gestures of this have the potential to drastically transform the program, and hence the architecture of an environment.

“Whatever space and time mean, Place and occasion mean more. For space in the image of man is place, and time in the image of man is occasion. Make of each a place, a bunch of places of each house, and each city; for a house is a tiny city, a city - a huge house.” Aldo van Eyck, 1962

71

Chapter •

2

‘Spaces’ and ‘Place’ - Association as a property of perception and conception.

From our understanding of the earlier sub-chapters, it becomes clear that • Formal configurations comprising materials, texture, order etc. constitute a

•

space. PEOPLE

i.e. their association, feelings, emotions make spaces into

places. The essential linking aspect between and a space is the human factor – that designers design spaces for people to associate with them. It is when the user is made to participate emotionally with a space, that it becomes a place for him. A physical space construct remains purely a work of functional sculpture without the use of some form of sign-content. It is these semantic aspects of space making that make users participate emotionally and whole-heartedly in the activities that are to be performed within it. By participation, we mean that the process of decodification of meaning is successful and that signs in spaces are communicating effectively not only in the physical use of the space, but also being stored as signal-

72

stimuli in the user’s sub-conscious memory. The perceptual property of visual association is an ingrained habit in an user’s psyche enables the user to co-relate apparently disjointed phenomena and derive meaning from the narrative of a place. It is this aspect of ‘place-making’ that elevates architecture from being a purely physical experience, to becoming a wholesome experience of emotions, moods and character. It is very often a ‘place’ that endures longer as a vivid memory in the minds of users.

19

SPACE v/s PLACE - Toward the creation of meaningful places: The image here is taken at the Parc Andre Citroen in Paris. The image demonstrates a common transformation of a space into a place - an outdoor staircase being used by the user as a seating element.

Chapter

2


#

WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS, OHIO A r c h i t e c t Pe t e r E i s e n m a n resorts to the language of a scaffolding to evolve form from it. This gesture is meant to signify the constantly changing temporalness that a Center for Arts must possess as an ideology

According to George Baird from “Queues, Rendezvous and Riots”, by becoming ‘arbitrary’ sign-vehicles, architecture asks questions of the people who use it. The arbitrariness of a public symbol makes them susceptible to reinterpretation in the first place. In the context of a langue and parole relationship, it is this arbitrariness of a sign as a ‘parole’ in society that makes it possible for a ‘langue’ to be flexible differentially over long periods of time. This is what makes it possible for spaces to continue to evolve as newer sign vehicles while at the same time, remaining as places to people who use them.

20

!

EXTENSION TO

THE LOUVRE MUSEUM, PARIS Architect I.M.Pei resorts to the memory of the Grand Pyramids of Egypt to signify monumental presence of the artefacts inside, and also the majority of Egyptian art that is stored in the museum.

21

$ LA

CEILING OF SAGRADA

F A M I L I A , B A R C E L O N A Architect Antoni Gaudi creates an organic architectural language by drawing inspiration 22

from natural form for t h e c re a t i o n o f t h e elements cathedral.

of

this

73

Chapter

2 . a .


2


23

2. “The Creation of Adam” - Michaelangelo (15081512), from the vault of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican - Conception depicted in a painting, as the very root of the existence of life

2 . a . 3 ) Conception and architectural signal systems •

Conception - “Form does not follow function, function does not follow form”

•

Signal

Systems

and

Function

as

mutually

factors influencing the conception of space

74

24

2. “The Last Damnation of Christ” - Michaelangelo (1508-1512), from the vault of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican - Conception as the act of giving life to something. In this case a vault is elevated to becoming a source of communication in numerous emotive ways.

dependant

Chapter

2


2.a. Conception and architectural signal systems ·

Conception - Function does not follow Form, Form does not follow Function

Conception is the act of abstract codification of meaning within the mute, material forms of a space. In today’s world where railway stations become museums and churches become nightclubs, a point is being made: the complete interchangeability of form and function, the loss of conventional, canonic cause-and-effect relationships. Function does not follow form. Form does not follow function. However they certainly interact, with the help of signal patterns that make both the form and the function cognitive to the user. This occurs through the transmission of information (through proper coding) that is beneficial to the user both for his performance of a function and his usage of a corresponding space. Built spaces encourage different responses in people. Before any quantitative judgments about the scale and dimension are made about a building one finds it common to attach qualitative evaluation to it. Spaces are spontaneously characterized as ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘gloomy’, ‘vibrant’ etc. In the field of interior design, the ‘spirit’ or ‘character’ of a space overwhelms the viewer first as a whole before any clarification of function, or the organization of spaces. One immediately grasps the ambience or the mood that a place tries to convey.

25

Form follows function? The Orsay Museum in Paris built in what was formerly the Gare d’Orsay railway station. Architect/Interior Designer, Gae Aulenti inserted the new museum within the restored shell of the old station. The re-use and adapatability of a space comes from the fact that any sign can be re-used to fit into a new context. Form is never reliant purely on function , and function cannot be made potent by form alone.

75

Chapter

2

“Architectonic arrangements vary according to the nature and form of the society whose image they are. In every age, they express the fundamentals that constitute the socialist state.” Victor Considerant From “Le Corbusier” by William J.R. Curtis 2

The old credo of – “form follows function” may not unconditionally hold true in today’s context. As architecture and built space continue to fill the earth in which we live, they begin to function as ‘medium of communication’ that elicit responses in people through their interaction with them and the meaning that is extracted from these interactions in the minds of people. Pure form can never follow simply a function, because these two terms are never in isolation from signal systems and semantic patterns that form a part of the user’s conscious and sub-conscious memory.

76

26

Places create the possibilities of occasion The image above demonstrate the multivalence of the architectural sign in public space. Simple stairs become places where unforeseen activities occur such as a public gathering (far above) or the washing of clothes. This search for places to dwell in in inherent within the human race. It is the designer’s prerogative to provide for them in their designed environments.

Chapter •

2


Signal Systems and Function as mutually dependant factors influencing the conception of space -

It becomes clear that forms and function are interrelated by the signal stimuli that each provide to the other. A function carries images that lend sign-stimuli to the form that they are to be contained within, so that the designer can incorporate the stimuli in a way that gives the form greater meaning. The function of climbing a flight of stairs, over a period of time, memory and shared experience, has formed a specific image in the

27

minds of the user and the designer. When we say ‘climbing’ we can usually associate an image or a memory to the stored concepts in our brain, and our body generates motor responses accordingly. Simultaneously, a form too has the potential to transmit signal-stimuli to the user and affect the function he is to perform within a space in a more meaningful way. When we see a stair in front of us, our stored memory of a stair makes us perform a ‘function’ accordingly. A wide stair could make us climb in an air of grandeur. A narrow stair could make us feel cramped and subdued. The equation of form, function is a dynamic one, where each one through the manifestation of its signs - differentially affects the other. It also differentially affects the user. These are factors that a designer would find necessary to keep in mind when designing a space construct. This gives the elements of space making the added potential of becoming carriers of powerful messages, which affect the way a space is given life and meaning

28

Light as signal- stimuli to demarcate a function and a tectonic aspect of architecture.

(Far above) - The wall at “The Chapel with the Light” at Mt. Rokko in Japan, built by Tadao Ando. Here the image of the function of praying in a church has been re-introduced in the most mysterious of ways by the simple use of a symbol of the cross on a wall. This simple gesture or sign addresses questions of religion, God and prayer in the most intimate of ways. (Above) - The roof of the Pantheon in Rome (AD 124-24), where light is used in a dynamic way to animate an otherwise static space. Light here seems to convey relationships of scale, tectonics, corporeality and illusion to the viewer in the space.

77

Chapter

2

within a specific cultural system. We shall examine spaces, both as parts and as a whole, as carriers of signals later in this chapter.

4929

Musee d’Orsay, Paris The glass floor that makes people look down over the model of the city of Paris.

78

Communication of conceptual tools and repertoire (Left) A series of caricatures (artist unknown) published in the annual journal of the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology annual diary in 1998. Six world famous architects are depicted here using 30

their principal design projects as facial elements.

Chapter

2


2 . b.

Tools for Architectural communication

2 . b. 1) B a s i c e l e m e n t a l t o o l s a n d t h e i r a s s e m b l y 31

"

The makers of meaningful places -

American architects at the Beaux-Arts ball of 1931, dressed up as buildings.

•

Examining architectural alphabets or ‘alphabets’ and their potential capacity to encode meaning

•

The basic archetypes (as sensorial, experiential and associational signs)

1) 2)

The Floor The Wall

3)

The Roof

•

Spatial ‘syntax’ as constructs for sign-vehicles, from the point of view of

1) Siting 2) Form & Massing 3) Material 4)Approach & Movement 5) Spatial Organization 6) Surface articulation (Above left) - Human anatomy from Gray ’s Anatomy. ( A b o ve r i g h t ) - S h a ke r s t a i rc a s e b y M . B u r n e t a t Ke n tucky (1839-41)

32

79

Chapter More than the surface articulation, it is the mass of the Gates of the complex that stand as visual signs of entry, even when the temple complex is not in sight. The diminishing of mass, scale,

33

2

2.b. Spatial ‘syntax’ as constructs for sign-vehicles •

The importance of abstract implicit relationships in the conception of a ‘space syntax’

surface articulation as one moves inward gradually indi-

Syntax is defined as the relationship of one sign to another sign within a system of signs or the structure of the sign system concerned.

cate a transition from the outer physical world into the per-

In the study of built spaces, a spatial syntax would constitute studying the

sonal spiritual one. MEANINGFUL SPATIAL SYNTAX - The gates of the Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, India are largest at the outer perimeter of the complex. As the visitor moves toward the shrine they progressively di-

relationship between the various elements, each acting as a sign, that make the space. This possibility enables us to encipher and decipher meaning encoded within these ‘sentence-like’ utterances.

minish in size and surface articulation. The shrine as the innermost layer is intimate in

Architectural communication is governed by the presence of ‘actual objects’ dealing with real dimensions of form and space. In painting, the relationship of

scale advocating a one-on-one interacting with the idol.

forms can be used to create the illusion of space. In architecture, however, the relationship of forms is the space. The mere presence of some form of construction, whether it is two walls or a grid of columns and beams will necessarily define, suggest and imply space. In architecture there is no given frame for understanding or demarcating the abstract structure because the viewpoint for experiencing architecture is constantly changing. Architecture is understood

80

by the sum of many perceptions in time and in space. Built space is characterized by the presence of actual physical relationships. In the process of finding meaning through formal constructs a necessary first step would 34

The complex plan (not to scale) indicating diminishing masses for diminishing interaction with the outer world.

b e t o p re s e n t a m e a n s t h r o u g h w h i c h a b s t r a c t r e l a t i o n s h i p s w e r e conceivable as independent of tangible relationships.

Chapter

2


In architecture, both abstract and tangible relationships coexist continuously. There is a surface aspect fundamentally related to the sensual qualities of the object i.e. aspects of surface, texture, color, shape etc. which engender responses that are essentially perceptual. These are actual relationships that are perceived. There are also equally important aspects concerned with conceptual relationships, which are not sensually perceived. These include phenomena such as ‘frontality’, obliqueness, recession, elongation, compression and shear, which are concepts understood in the mind. These are characteristics, which accrue relationships between objects in a specific context rather than to the physical presence of the objects themselves. Spatial abstractions of the conceptual aspect are constructive simply because of their capability to present a structure for implied meaning as opposed to explicit meaning.

SITING

To analyze this in further detail, we shall examine architectural syntax from the point of view of 1) Siting 2) Form & Massing 3) Material 4)Approach & Movement 5) Spatial Organization 6) Surface articulation

81 35

COMMUNICATION THROUGH SITING Accessibility, sense of grandeur, contextual response etc could usually be communicated in a work of architecture by the siting of the built form. Siting can encode vital messages that pre-condition or acquaint a visitor to the overall character of a built form. THE SITING OF THE CHAPEL AT RONCHAMP, FRANCE

Chapter

SITING as a sign

s p a t i a l

2

s y n t a x

Stable - Taj Mahal Agra(left)

1) C O N T R A S T T H R O U G H S I T I N G -

Tensioned - Church on the Water, Japan (below) 36

a b

b

Field of influence of built form

a

38

Field of influence of built form - Leh Palace, Ladakh 37

and its respective environs

i) F O C U S / P R O M I N E N C E / D I S T I N C T I O N -

PROMINENCE

-

The Secretariat B u i l d i n g ,

a

Chandigarh is given prominence by

Focus

b Prominence/ Distinction

placing a pool of water at its periphery thereby focusing on the

39

FOCUS - The placement of the Anup Talao, Fatehpur Sikri on a pool of water

a

82

40

b

and connected by bridges

mass of the building itself.

ii) DISTANCE/IDENTITYRETREAT/INACCESSIBILITY

a

Distance/Identity 41

b Retreat/ Inaccessibility

a

IDENTITY through DISTANCE - The Udaipur Lake Palace, Rajasthan.

42

b

INACCESIBILTY through DISTANCE The Monastery at Meteora, Greece.

Chapter

2


s p a t i a l

SITING as a sign

s y n t a x

2) M E R G I N G T H R O U G H S I T I N G -

44

b

43

a

Taliesin East, USA

Monastery of Tourette, France

a

La

b

i) INCONSPICUOUSNESS

Fallingwaters, Bear Run, USA set against a backdrop of a waterfall 46

The

45

Church

on

the

Water, Japan set against a backdrop of natural elements

47 48

83

ii) BACKDROP

51

49

a

b

50

a Amphitheatre at Lucco town square, Italy b

St. Peter’s Square, Vatican

iii) INTEGRATION/ CONTAINMENT

Chapter

F O R M

2

!

NAGAKIN TOWER, TOKYO by KISHO KUROKAWA - Metaphor of a

C O M M U N I C A T I O N T H R O U G H F O R M - Visual cognition of the overall form of any built construct is

pidgeon-hole strucure is used here to convey a verdict on the changing

the most basic first step in the process of perception. Any built construct is first perceived by the

social structure of urban Japan.

codification of its form in the mind of the user and the feelings invoked therewith. In this case, architecture varies from other similar fields such as fine art or literature, where the overall form is not often

%

perceived first, and does not play a primary role in their respective narratives.

by the form of the mythical Mount Kailasha, where Lord Shiva is believed

THE ‘SHIKHARA’ OF A HINDU TEMPLE - The form here is inspired 54

to reside.

!

THE GEORGE RESTAURANT, POMPIDOU CENTRE, PARIS - Fluid forms are used here by architects Jacob and McFarlane, to communicate a contrast to the rigid ‘pipeline’ framweork language of the rest of the Center. The conception of the final form was possible using the same technical understanding

53

of ship-buildiers.

52

MASS/MASSING COMMUNICATION THROUGH MASSING -

'

57

Form

alone is not the only visual tool for conveying messages to the user. Massing - or the relatively proximity or

84

density of arrangement of forms also plays an important role in expressing meaning in spaces.

(

56

"

55

JAISALMER FORT- Massing of the bastions here & TOWN SQUARE, SIENA, ITALY emphasizes the message of defense that a fort wall Massing is used to create an effect of enclosure should communicate to enemies attempting to conquer in an urban square. The facades and rooves of it. the buildings surrounding the central cathedral # VILLA SAVOYE, POISSY, FRANCE - Massing are massed together to achieve this effect. is used here as a tool to create a floating effect in of the house. This effect signifies the freedom of the building from the ground plane.

Chapter

2


FORM as a sign

s p a t i a l

s y n t a x

58 65

From Sailboats, Gull’s wings etc.

From Egyptian pyramids

60

From cascading of waterfalls

59

66

67

From a crucifix

From Fish like forms

1) THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATION

From the notion of a bird in flight

2) T H R O U G H P R O G R A M M A T I C A S S O C I A T I O N

85

61

From a mountain

62

From a lotus

68

Organic against in-organic

63

From a bird

64

From a ruin

3) THROUGH METAPHORICAL ASSOCATION

Fluid against rigid

69

4) T H R O U G H C O N T R A S T

Chapter

s p a t i a l

s y n t a x

2

MASSING as a sign 2) T H R O U G H M E R G I N G

Water Temple, Hyogo, Japan massing used to create contrasting entity the surroundings

76

78 77 71

"

From an aircraft hangar - The American Air Musuem, Manchester.

Kailasha temple, Ellora - merging of masses through progession of spaces

2(i) INTEGRATION WITH THE STRUCTURE AND FORM

70

" A m o u n t a i n - M e e n a k s h i Te m p l e , Madurai 1) T H R O U G H N O T I O N A L A S S O C I A T I O N /

80

79

2(ii) DIRECTIONS FROM CONDITIONS Udaipur Palace - merging due to integration of forms defining spatial volumes

86 72

Musee d’Orsay, Paris - massing used to create contrasting entity with the existing shell.

!

Toilet block as mass - Mill Owner’s building, Ahmedabad

Fallingwaters, USA merging due to site conditions Hemis Monastery, Patwa ki Haveli Ladakh - merging due to merging due to site site conditions conditions

Farnsworth House, USA Mass is used here to show independance from the site


WITH IN THE EXISTING Taliesin West, Arizona, USA - merging due to integration of forms defining spatial volumes

73

! 74

81

82

75

83

2(iii) INTEGRATION OF FORMS THAT DEFINE SPATIAL VOLUMES

Chapter

2


M A T E R I A L COMMUNICATION

THROUGH

MATERIAL

-

Materials, both man-made and natural have their own semantic value in creating associations and feelings in the minds of people. Natural surfaces often exude warmth and comfort, and industrial materials could broadly speaking have the opposite effect. Materials can create their own visual and tactile effect that aid in signification of a specific message. In addition to this, the users also respond to tactile changes in material.

!

THE EXTENSION TO PALAIS de BEAUXARTS, LILLE - Glass is used both for its transparency as well as reflective properties as an outer sheath of the new building. This effect creates a new building that simply gestures the shift of focus and importance at all times, to the older Gothic Palace opposite it. 84

85

"

THE GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, BILBAO by

FRANK GEHRY- Material and technology here enabled the architect to conceive this fantastical form. Beginning with the metaphor of fish and marine forms, the architect used the technology of doubly curved aluminium plates to his advantage to conceive a form which was an outcome of the processes of computation.

#

SANDSTONE

BRACKET, FATEHPUR SIKRI, INDIA - A structural function is given greater meaning through entablature. 87

!

WATER CHANNEL, JAHAZ MAHAL, MANDU, INDIA - The act of draining water is underscored to give greater emphasis on ‘flow’

88

87

Chapter

s p a t i a l

MATERIAL as a sign

90

" Vaulting detail at Musee d’Orsay,Paris -cast iron tectonic

The Reichstag building, Berlin, covered Glass tubes at the Johnson’s in cloth by artist Christo - a gesture of Wax Center, USA - creating a visual texture through the enshrouding a historical building in fabric reflections through glass

& !

1) THROUGH TEXTURAL GESTURES

s y n t a x

94

93 89

2

Column detail, Pompidou Center, Paris - prefabricated tectonic Bracket detail, Fathepur Sikri India - stone expressed as wood

95

2) THROUGH TECTONIC GESTURES

88 92

"

The sign of the cross as a pattern on material - creates associations of function in the minds of people

# 91

Stone etchings of names in the Vietnam War Memorial, Washington DC - creates associations in the minds of people

3) THROUGH ASSOCATION

98 96

97

Thermal Baths, Detail at Musee " d’Orsay,Paris - Switzerland contrasting colour and c o n t ra s t i n g m a t e r i a l and environment material

"


"

Katsura Palace, Japan -contrasting treatment of the same material

Chapter

•

2


Kinesthetics (Kinetic aesthetics) -

The built environment only becomes ‘meaningful’ when it offers rich possibilities of identification of the various signal systems that are in play. These abstract relationships are made to manifest before the user through ‘kinesthetics’. In the words of Goethe 3: - “ One would think that architecture as a fine art works solely for the eyes. Instead it should work primarily for the sense of mechanical motion in the human body – something to which scant attention is paid.”

99

The role of kinesthetics as a powerful tool for an effective spatial narrative - The Angkor Vat Temple complex in Cambodia built by King Suryavarman

Kinesthetics or kinetic aesthetics is the perception of spaces through

in the 12th century AD. 1. Cruciform Portal

movement with dynamic points of view and the varying vignettes that arise as a result of the spatial composition.

2. Vishnu gallery enclosing complex 3. Courtyard crossed by galleries

Space is conceived and perceived on account of movement through it. The journey, the process of movement through the space – in itself becomes the event. Actions take place in spaces, and the signals that are encoded in these spatial elements inform the user how to proceed. It is when the user is allowed to participate whole-

4. First terrace with corner towers 5. Central terrace with stairways on both sides 6. Central tower (Mount Meru) In keeping with the Hindu notions of space making, the inner most sanctum is extremely small, signifying an intimate one-on-on interaction with God. The form of the inner sanctum is an abtracted mountain, depicting cosmic Mount Meru which the Cambodians held as sacred.

heartedly in the process of deriving meaning from each space he encounters do they become ‘places’ to

From the inner sanctum outward, the dregree of enclosure, transparency, and interaction with the outer world increases gradually. The most elaborately carved and articulated parts of the temple are the walls and the gates.

him.

#

Narrative bas-reliefs depicting Hindu epics found on the galleried cloisters, and remain a source of 100

enchantment even today.

89

Chapter

2

During the user’s journey from one domain to the next along paths, various places are revealed to him. The clues for movement that are coded inherently within the space are sequentially revealed to him. The time gap essential for the ‘deconditioning’ of the previous and the preconditioning for the next space is taken care of within the dimensions of the current place. This gradual unfolding of spaces creates a sense of curiosity within the user, and involves them in the process. During the process of movement through domains comprising places the stimuli that create paths are three-fold: 1. The physical path or the route that the user is made to follow by inherent physical conditions of the building. 2. The path created by visual axes along the path of movement governed by visual principles of perception. This causes him to trace a path using the eye as a guide, but this path may not necessarily coincide with the physical path chosen. 3. The third and most intangible stimulus that guides him through a space is the way he moves within a space based on cultural pre-conditioning. This is what makes a Buddhist walk clockwise around a stupa and never in

90

the opposite direction. It is this habit of culture that plays an important role in how people relate to the codification of meaning in a building vis-à-vis movement. Though the character of spaces discovered along a visual axis, the physical path of movement changes to make the observer move around the theoretical cores of the space. These changes in direction and diversion of movement cause variations in path and axis. The presence of an axis is made more prominent by variation along its course. The whole length of the imperceptible axis is not revealed at once, but is

Chapter

2


experienced as an episodic sequence of places. This may be compared to punctuation in a sentence. ‘Thresholds’ or ‘pause’ elements serve to de-regularize these sequences. These elements cause individual nodes of interest, which create subspaces. They also enhance the pause in movement making even the act of pausing a meaningful and informative one. Threshold elements define spatial boundaries and reinforce the transition from one place to another. They also serve as vital spatial tools for the perception of meaning in the spaces that are being traversed by the user.

91

Chapter

2

A P P R O A C H COMMUNICATION THROUGH APPROACH - The approach to any built form or space or element in a space can communicate/signify in various respects to the user. It can act as a precursor to an experience of a space. The approach could condition the user’s mind to feel certain emotions and feelings before actually physically performing a function.

#

THE STEPWELLS OF GUJARAT - The approach to the pit of a wells here, are made visually and sensorially enriching experiences by the constant shift of frames and the constant binding of the element of the sky, earth and water. The simple act of collecting water is given a deeper meaning by the approach alone.

!

SCALES OF APPROACH - The grand humbling entrance of the Buland Durwaza, Fatehpur Sikri and the modest entrance to a tribal home in Manali

101

102

103

M O V E M E N T COMMUNICATION THROUGH MOVEMENT Movement plays the most important role in the unfolding of any spatial narrative, as architecture is never viewed from a static view point. It acts like a script in a dramatic performance.

92

$ 106

104

105

"

SPIRAL RAMP OF " ILLUMINATED CORRIDORS OF THE GUGGENHEIM - This THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST MUSEUM, building is characterized by BERLIN - Dark corridors here are given a source of light overhead a movement impulse by illuminated bands and a ceremonial of light. This light signifies hope or movement toward it direction in a tunnel that is generally dark.

TEMPLE ENTRANCES, SOUTH INDIA - The

movement toward the inner sanctum of a south Indian temple is a truly metaphysical experience. Temple gates have the most communicative value to the user through their scale and their varying degree of enclosure, as well as their entablature. In walking from one gate to the next, the user experiences town-life as exists. Along the axis of movement toward the shrine, the degree of enclosure increases gradually, and the outer world is g r a d u a l l y l e f t b e h i n d . In t h e i n n e r s a n c t u m , t h e interaction is most intimate.

Chapter

2


s p a t i a l

MOVEMENT (CIRCULATION)

s y n t a x

#

Stepwell at Adalaj, India movement along a linear axis

%

Plan of Hindu temple, India 111

107

108

113

112 230

1) ALONG A PROMINENT LINEAR AXIS

2) AROUND A CENTRAL POINT

93

110 109 114

ECO-TAAL Ecological Center, Phillipines, 1997 Movement is along the curved spine of the prominent axis 116 115 232

3) ALONG A CURVILINEAR PATH

#

117

Katsura Palace, Japan -inside outside relationship

4) THROUGH TENSIONS CREATED THROUGH CONTRAST

Chapter

s p a t i a l

MOVEMENT (APPROACH)

s y n t a x

118 119 127

128

120

2) THE CHAPEL AT RONCHAMP, FRANCE

1) THE PARTHENON, GREECE

94

122 125 121

123

3) “FALLINGWATERS”, BEAR RUNS, USA

124

4) THE TAJ MAHAL, AGRA

126

2

Chapter

2


s p a t i a l

SPATIAL ORGANIZATION

s y n t a x

Central Beheer, Amsterdam - creating interlocked interactive volumes

136

Katsura Palace, Japan - creating inside outside relationships

129 130

1) ESTABLISHING SPATIAL HIERARCHY Horyuji temple, Nara, Japan composition within peripheral enclosure

135

137

2) RELATIONSHIP TO LANDSCAPE Havelis of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan - degree of transparency increases as one climbs higher

-

Casa Milo, Barcelona - street profile affects spatial organization

95 138 133

131

139 132

134

3) COMPOSITION WITHIN AN ENCLOSURE

140

4) RELATIONSHIPS IMPOSED BY EXTERNAL FACTORS

Chapter

s p a t i a l

SPATIAL ORGANIZATION

2

s y n t a x

146

143

144

142 141

1 ) COMPOSITION ALONG AN AXIS

#

Master plan of Peking - composition of the Royal Palace is along a rigid linear axis

147

145

"

The Musee d’Orsay - composition of the inserted masses follows prominent axis of the vaulted site

The Guggenheim Museum, New York - spatial organization evolves radially around a central void

96 150

148

The Nagakin Capsule, Tokyo - spatial organization is around a central mass

3) AROUND A CENTRAL MASS

149

151

152

4) AROUND A CENTRAL VOID

Chapter

2


s p a t i a l

SURFACE ARTICULATION

164

163

153

s y n t a x

155

154

165

166

2) RESPONSE TO CLIMATE

1) CULTURAL MESSAGES

167

97 156 168 157

158

171 170

159

160

3) THROUGH ASSOCATION

169 161

162

4) RESPONSE TO CONSTRUCTION

Chapter

2

2.a.Elements of space making as sign vehicles

•

A brief introduction to the ‘alphabets’ or ‘archetypes’.

A study of space as sign could move in a very different psychoanalytical direction if it were not for the use of an understanding of archetypes. A study of these archetypes is necessary because they help us in our study of meaning in form by achieving meaning primarily through a spatial understanding , supported by metaphors, associations and abstract images. A work of design communicates in various ways with the user. In planning an action, event or an effect, a designer must be acquainted with the expressive characteristics of basic formal elements so as to be able to use them effectively.

172

Archetypes in music The basic note, modifications of the basic note and their relationship to the overall musical composition.

He must also be able to select the most suitable form for the intended representation.

“Archetype – the original pattern or model prototype.” The Chamber’s English Dictionary

98

These basic forms are commonly referred to as the archetypes of architecture. The word is derived from a Greek word that meant ‘first form’ or ‘original model’. It has gradually been perceived that design creativity is primarily related to the way certain basic forms are combined and varied. Behind the plurality of the many forms in history lies a simple set of archetypes that we could call alphabets of architecture. These archetypes may be understood as images, which can be identified in relation to architectural form, function and technology.

173

Archetypes in classical dance The basic gestures, modifications of the basic gestures and their relationship to the overall dance composition.

Chapter

2


Carl Jung first used the term within the field of psychology. Paul Zucker later systematically employed it for the first time in the field of architecture in 1959, in

Archetypes in architecture-

his book “Town and Square”. “The most essential aspect of building is that the images they offer our senses should arouse sentiments analogous to the use for which these buildings are dedicated.” FLOOR

WALL

ROOF

E. L. Boulee “Boulee and visionary architecture” By H. Rosenau (1974)

An archetype’s expression can be found in the exact description of ‘what they are’, ‘what they do’ and ‘how they do it’. The archetypes that constitute the elements of ‘spatial delimitation’ are – MAJOR FORMS

• •

The horizontal elements – floor. The vertical elements – walls, columns, and openings.

•

The overhead plane - roof

(This is not to ignore spatial volume itself such as the cube, the sphere, the cylinder and the cone.) With respect to representation of SCALE, these categories may be divided into further sub-categories – • Major forms.

SURFACE TREATMENT CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS

SCALE

OPENINGS

• •

Construction system. Surface treatment of major forms.

•

Openings.

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Chapter Within the interior of the space, the elements that lend a vital added layer of refinement in spatial delimitation and experience are – • •

Furniture (fixed and movable) Light and shadow

•

Secondary layers on either floor, wall or roof (e.g. carpets, tapestries)

• •

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175

FURNITURE

LIGHT

&

SHADOW

Objects of personalization Color and texture

In each of these sub-categories, archetypes exist which represent general solution to problems of form that remain the same regardless of time, place, or function. These are known as ‘themes’ and ‘motifs’. Themes are related to the function of elements to ‘what they do’ (e.g. a floor which directs, delimits and supports). Motifs suggest how the elements do their job, which means the specific interpretations within each of the themes.

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177

S E C O N D A R Y LAYERS

OBJECTS OF PERSONALIZATION

100 179

TEXTURE COLOUR

180

INTERIOR ELEMENTS

2

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FRAGMENTATION OF FLOOR - The Floor of the

•

The Basic Archetypes (as sensorial, experiential and associational signs)

Villa Doges at Venice

1) The Floor – The floor has three primary functions in relation to our actions. The floor – • Directs • •

Delimits Supports

The Directional Theme – concerns the way in which the form of the floor emphasizes certain motion, connecting places to each other. These motions are generated either by the floor’s surface, form or by its paths. They may act alone or in combination. The directional floor concerns the quality of our forward movements .

61

The Delimiting Theme – signifies the way in which •

Delimits

the floor creates a stationary situation by keeping the user in a centralized position or containing us within a

101

boundary. •

Directs

The Supporting Theme – deals first and foremost with the vertical nature of the floor, that is, its relationship to the ground below. It deals with the floor’s expression of weight and substance i.e. whether

BASIC TYPES OF FLOOR

•

Supports

it lies above, on or below the ground; or whether it is soft or hard, loose or solid etc. whilst on the other 181

DIRECTIONAL FLOOR - Outdoor path at the Katsura Palace, Japan

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2

hand, the directional and delimiting themes deal more with the expression of motion of the floor. Architectural history reveals 6 types or basic motifs – a. The attached floor – which rests firmly on the ground. b. The sunken floor – which are sunken into the ground and are physically

F l o o r a t A n u p -Ta l a o , Fatehpur Sikri, India 186

beneath the ground’s surface. c. The open floor – if the decline into the floor is merely an optical effect. d. The rising floor – floors that rise above the natural ground level

Floor at Modehra Sun, Temple,Ahmedabad

187

Sunken floor

Open floor

Rising floor

Floor at Kailasha temple, Ellora

102 188 185

182

Inherent forces in floor 183

Floor at the Musee’ d’Orsay, Paris

184

Top - Town Square, Siena, Italy Above - Floor at Fallingwaters, Floor at the Fondazione Querini USA Stampalia, Venice

types a), d), e) - Raised floor b) - c) Sunken floor f) Rising floor

189

Throne at the Diwani - k h a a s , Fa t e h p u r Sikri

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2


e. The detached floor – which is independent of the ground, whilst lying above its level. f.

*

The directional floor – those that are independent of the ground, but serve to guide us along it. Stairs – an expression of motion

Stairs are the connecting link between the below and the above. In content, stairs conflict between potential humility (of descent or departure from a higher plane to a lower one), and potential exaltation (of ascent or arrival from a lower plane to a higher).

191

Stair leading to the monasteries at Meteora, Greece

The expression of the stairs is determined by the motion impulses it arouses in us. These are determined by the extent to which the stairs demonstrate relative strength in upward or downward motion, a relationship, which is dependant on two factors – a. The climbing impulse – a spontaneous response a stair creates in a person facing them. This response is generated by the importance of the destination at the top of the stairs. Creating polarities of importance – destinations, help in creating a greater climbing impulse. b. The impulse created by form – the way in which the basic form of the stair itself can lessen or increase the impulse to climb or descend. The basic

Climbing impulse of a stair as a function of its slope

structure, decided by the diagonal form and the form of the steps contribute to this impulse. The relationship of the stairs to its immediate surroundings, a factor determined

Escalators at the Pompidou Center, Paris

by the approach to the stairs and the goal to which the stairs lead also play an important role in determining the expression of the stairs. 192

103

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In the study of the architectural stair forms, there emerge 4 clear motifs, which determine motion expression – a. Breadth, b. Slope, c. Attachment and d. Form vIn these ways we see that the floor, the horizontal ground plane (either as a whole, or as a flight of stairs act as a sign of its basic functions of delimiting, directing and supporting.

76

193

194

195

1.a) - b) Width of the stairs Above left - Stair at St. Peter’ dome, Vatican Above right - Stair at the Opera, Paris

104

197

196

2.a) - b) Height of the stairs 200 Above left - Stair atJewish Museum, Berlin 3.a) - b) Mass of the stairs Above right - Ramp at Mill Owner’s building, Above left - Stair at Mill Owner’s buildAhmedabad. ing, Ahmedabad. Above right - Stair at Jahaz Mahal, Mandu

198

4.a), b), c) - Split motifs of stair Above left - Stair atSchauspielhaus, Berlin Above centre - Stair at Modhera Sun Temple, India Above right - Stairs atEl Castillo Pyramid, at Yucatan

199

4.e) - f) Split motifs of stair Far right - Stair at Vaux-de-Vicomte, Paris Right - Stair at Ronchamp, France

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2) The Wall In architectural and interior design, the function of the wall is to delimit a space from another and to support the overhead plane or roof. Supporting the roof is more a architectonic and structural problem. Delimitation as a vertical phenomenon is found not only in landscape forms, but also in social behavior between people. In both cases a wall demarcates territorial spaces of two kinds each having a specific content. The constructed wall demonstrates the definite way in which two diverse areas can meet, thereby interpreting the relationship between them. The wall is a concrete realization of the existential struggle between an attacking exterior and a secure interior, and thereby acquires expressive importance. A wall that delimits an interior space may vary between expressing complete openness, thus inviting us to enter, and complete closure, which rejects us. The expression of penetration is dependant on the relationship between three themes, which are a result of the interface between delimited and enveloped space. This interface affects the wall in its – •

Breadth – indicates the relation to spaces, which meet the corners to the left and right.

• •

Height – indicates the relation to spaces above and below. Depth – indicates the relation between spaces in front of and behind the wall.

203

Facade of the Hawa Mahal, Jaipur The Wall as an encoded element of meaning

105

Chapter

*

2

The Breadth Theme –

The ‘vertical tri-partition of a wall – A wall’s extension may be described as the dynamic relationship between a central field and two peripheral fields. This phenomenon may be called ‘vertical tri-partition’. It postulates that every wall comprises these three basic fields of energy. This theme exists as an archetypal reference for the treatment of the breadth of a wall and can be divided and strengthened to suit the desired expression. The expression of the breadth theme – The expression of the breadth theme could manifest in the following ways – •

106

Symmetry –

The theme of breadth is by nature correlated to symmetry or the lack of it. Symmetry can be seen as an image of a fundamental order, which we carry with us as a reference for all of our actions. A more anthropomorphic explanation takes symmetry to be a sort of extension of an image of our own human bodies. Just as the shoulders terminate the ‘wall’ of our bodies, it takes its reference of symmetry from the position of the head. Thus the expression of the wall also depends on the relative placement of its openings and energy outlets.

204

The Town Hall, Amsterdam A clear demonstration of the phenomenon of vertical tripartition of a wall. Placement of openings and their effect on the vertical force fields of the wall

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• Vertical and horizontal forces acting along the surface of the wall -

Centrum and corners of the space and their spatial implications

In the context of this study, bodily experiences must be supplemented by a model that answers mans spatial need in relation to what the forms ‘invite us to do’. The Centrum of a space generally is the place where we experience the essence of the space. The corners give the space its perceptible form. The order of a space, generally, has an existential meaning. The form of the space tells the user where he is and therefore has a more concrete and local meaning. Centrum – Man always seeks a place in his environment where things achieve their main objective or essence. This essence is known as the centrum, the midpoint between its corners. This does not necessarily means it is the geometric center. Every place in which meaning becomes manifest is in fact a center. It is the

CENTRUM

very basic notion of primitive existential space.

206

The centrum is then a place for the space’s communication with the environment both as a goal for our movement inward and as the starting point for our movement outward.

CORNERS

Corners - It is the corners i.e. the angles between the walls which intersect, in addition to their number and the spacing between them, that dictate whether the form of the space. In this way, the wall, which creates the space, is a function of the corners. 207

Wall - centrum and corners Top - The columns of the step well at Adalaj; the sym-

‘Solitary’ corners create invisible walls as well by making the user draw invisible

metry constantly reinforces the creation of a centrum Above - The Vitra fire Station, Germany; the absense

boundaries from corner to corner. Conversely, two wall planes that are located apart from each other are optically extended so that they meet at the projected

of a centrum creates a dynamic effect with the walls

corner and complete the space. This is elaborately explained by the Gestalt principle

107

Chapter

2

of Closure, which makes the human power of perception complete an incomplete form by itself, with the help of the reference of his experiential memory. Corners and walls tell us where we are in relation to a space, thereby making it a figure. They are mutually dependant on each other although they have disparate meanings. The corners hold the space together and are the factors that govern the space’s individuality and ‘force of resistance’. The central area conversely, is where the pace communicates with its surroundings.

208

In buildings in which the facades have powerful corners and open midsections, the walls provide an immediate sense of both strength and publicness. This has been demonstrated amply in architectural design history where the theme of breadth

209

is emphasized in monumental buildings. Thus ancient churches, palaces, city halls and libraries have a definitive communal role, which is expressed by their façade walls. The Motifs of the Breadth Theme –

108

If the theme of breadth is examined deeper, it is discovered that the phenomenon of tripartiton can vary between 3 basic motifs. Each motif helps to either accentuate or weaken the basic meaning of the major expression.

210

These ‘motifs’ may be called – • Breadth Motif

Second from top - The wall at the Va u x - d e -V i c o m t e , Ve r s a i l l e s ,

• •

To p - T h e wal l a t t h e V i c t o r Emmanuel II Monument in Rome.

Paris. Above - The wall at the Casa del

Split Motif Side Motif

Fascio, Como, Italy. VERTICAL TRI-PARTITION OF WALL (VARIATIONS)

Chapter

2

An emphasis on spatial communication *

The Height Theme –

The horizontal tri-partition of wallThis theme is concerned with the relation to the ‘up’ and ‘down’ in any wall. This involves the meeting between a wall and the earth (or floor in an interior space), and between the wall and the sky (or ceiling in an interior space). In this

211

way we can divide a wall into three horizontal bands of energy. The lower band relates to the floor and tends so seem heavier and sink downward. The upper band relates to the roof and tends to be lighter and lift 212

upward. The middle band mediates between the two, and determines whether the wall’s overall character is to be dominated by either the upper or the lower bands. The expression of the height theme With reference to the acknowledgment of the forces of gravity and a wall’s attempt to either oppose or strengthen its pull, the expression of height varies according to –

213

• •

Gravity and motion from above downward. Experience and motion from below upward

Far above left - Wall at the Cincinatti Arts Center, USA 214

HORIZONTAL TRI-PARTITION OF WALL (VARIATIONS)

Second from top - Wall at the Vitra Fire Station, Germany Above left - The facade of the Villa Savoye, Poissy, France Left - The facade of the High Court of Justice, Chandigarh, India

109

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2

The Motifs of the Height theme If the theme of height is examined deeper, it is discovered that the phenomenon of horizontal tri-partition can vary between 4 basic motifs. Each motif helps to either accentuate or weaken the basic meaning of the major expression. 215

These ‘motifs’ may be called – • The rising motif • •

The sinking motif The split motif

•

The opening motif

a

216

*

b

The Depth Theme –

A study of the theme of depth of a wall is dependant on the following 4 factors, on the basis of which they may be analyzed –

217

a) Main form of the wall (height, width, slanting, curving and their effect on inside and outside)

110

c

b) Building system (massive, skeletal or a combination of both and their effect of interior and exterior space) c) Openings (doors and windows; the form of the opening, location and area, framing around the opening) d) Surface articulation (affects scaling of the wall, division of the wall, colors and textures) Far above right - Wall at the Mill Owner’s Association building, Ahmedabad, India Second from top right - Wall at the Mill Owner’s Association Building, India Above right - Fort wall, India Right - The Merchant’s Exchange, Philadelphia

d 218

a) b)

Main form of the wall Building system

c) d)

Openings Surface articulation

DEGREES OF LAYERING OF MEANING IN A WALL IN TERMS OF PURE SPATIAL EXPERIENCES

Chapter

2


a, b

a) Main forms All basic motifs of the main forms of a wall are actual representations of fundamental motion situations. Assuming that we stand more or less at the same position in front of each wall motif they will arouse motion impulses, which in turn create highly different impressions of the inside-outside relationship through depth. These 8 basic motifs, with reference to the basic motion impulse created by them

c, d, e

are – a. Horizontal – ‘follow along’ motion b. Vertical – ‘upward’ motion c. Flat – ‘halting’ motion d. Convex – ‘retreating’ motion e. Concave – ‘advancing’ motion

f, g, h MAIN FORMS (VARIATIONS) a. b.

Horizontal – ‘follow along’ motion Vertical – ‘upward’ motion

c. d.

Flat – ‘halting’ motion Convex – ‘retreating’ motion

e. f.

Concave – ‘advancing’ motion Straight – ‘neutral’ motion

g. h.

Leaning toward Leaning away

f. Straight – ‘neutral’ motion g. Leaning toward h. Leaning away

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Chapter

a b) Building systems (massive, skeletal, infill and layer system) –

b

The expression of motion, weight and substance in the various types of building systems of a wall play a vital role in transforming the impact of the main form. The building system implies how the wall is built. The four motifs we prevail are -

c

a) Massive system – In this case the wall is built as a solid whole. This signifies that it is a compact mass from inside to outside and all its parts are of equal importance. b) Skeleton system – In this system, the wall is divided into separate units, each having a different role in transmitting vertical load. The basic unit of this system is the frame comprising the lintel and the posts.

112

d

c) Infill system – In this system, the basic supporting element is the frame. A secondary wall fills the opening, which might be massive or skeletal. d) Layer system – This system is composed of wall sections juxtaposed in depth. Support may be fulfilled either by the front or rear sections or all the sections together.

BUILDING SYSTEMS (VARIATIONS) a. Massive b. Skeletal c. d.

Infill Layer

2

Chapter

2


BUILDING SYSTEMS (MOVEMENT FORCES) BARRIER v/s PASSAGE

THE ASPECT OF THICKNESS AND TEXTURE IN A WALL

223

LAYERED SYSTEMS (VARIATIONS) -

224

a

b

219

113

221

220

c

Top right -Layered wall at the entrance foyer o f t h e M i l l O w n e r ’s A s s o c i a t i o n b u i l d i n g , Ahmedabad. Above right - Layered wall at the St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican.

225

226

d

a) Planar wall at the Barcelona Pavillion, Spain 222

Top - Barrier wall, Ronchamp, France Above - Passage wall, Adalaj Step-well, India

b) Massive wall at the Chapel at Ronchamp, France c) Textured wall at Humayun’s tomb, Delhi d) Plain walls at the tomb of Ahmad Shah, Gulbarga

Chapter abstract visual

literal and informative

2

FORCES CREATED BY SURFACE ARTICULATION

Literal The literal messages displayed on the walls of The Cathedral of Toledo, Spain.

TEXTURE OF A WALL Transparent and smooth - Vitra fire Station, Germany

114

texture of material

SURFACE ARTICULATION

227

229

Rough

opaque - Chorten walls in Choglamsar, 228

Ladakh

Abstract visual The composite textures created by

and

231

Texture of material The granite and onyx clad walls at the Mies van der Rohe Pavillion, Barcelona

230

the walls at the Wexner Center for the Arts, USA.

Chapter

2

An emphasis on spatial communication Scales and massing of the trabeated form of construction Contrasting examples of the Stonhenge ruins (far below) and the tube corridors of the Pompidou Center, Paris demonstrate the role of scales and massing.

232

115

231

The earliest example of the trabeated style of construction - China and Japan Most striking feature of the frames constructed in the Katsura Palaces and other similar palaces, was the complete absense of triangular tied frames. This made it neccessary to ensure a vertical thrust upon the pillars by multiplying the poi nts of support under the rafters.

233

Chapter Cuboidal column v/s Cylindrical column

Below left - Cuboidal column at the Schroeder House, Utrecht Below right - Column of the Tower of Victory, Chittor, India

236

Curved wall v/s free-standing column (Below) The St.Peter’s Square, Vatican City

237 234

Contrasting attitudes in

116

the join of a wall to a column -

235

a) Independant b) Integrated Illustrations Top - The walls of the Katsura

239 238

of

THE COLUMN -

Palace are examples intergration of the two.

Penetration of column through a slab -

Form, Proportion and Surface

Above - The walls of the Barcelona Pavillion are examples

(Right) Penetration of cylindrical column at Mill Owner’s Associa-

of independance of the two.

tion building, Ahmedabad.

2

Chapter

2

An emphasis on spatial communication Weight suggested by placement of openings

Straight The Diwan-i-Khaas

and their repsective components -

Fatehpur Sikri, India

a) Neutral b) Upward

240

c) Downward d) Neutral

Rounded Byzantine arch of Monastery in Greece

(Far below)- Openings at the Monastery of La Tourette, France

Pointed Arch atTughluq’s

(Below center) - Openings at the Unity temple, Oak

241

Tomb, Tughluqabad,

Park, USA (Below) - Openings of the

India

Winslow House, USA

Shallow Byzantine arch of Monastery of Castiraki in Greece

243

117

242

244

Variations in the type of beam in a trabeated structureinherent gestures of force suggested.

124 245

Chapter

+

2

Roof at the Sacre Coeur, Mont-

martre, France - The roof as the spatial experience of the divine or the ‘above’

a 3) The Roof -

In an interior environment, a roof is two-dimensional.

b

The fundamental function of a roof is to protect an interior space from the exterior spaces both over and a r o u n d i t . I n r e l a t i o n t o t h e s k y, a r o o f m a y acknowledge the sky by accentuating a downward

246

motion from above. Conversely, it may resist the sky by directing motion upward from below. A roof may also be a balance between downward and upward motion.

c

Basic themes of the roof –

d

Architectural history reveals a series of shelter forms that in their own way are variations, vertically and horizontally of these basic expressive components. These basic themes are –

118

a) The dome b) The barrel vault

e BASIC THEMES OF ROOF (forces of direction) -

a) b) c) d) e)

The The The The The

dome barrel vault gable roof shed roof flat roof

c) The gable roof d) The shed roof e) The flat roof All these prototypes suggest precise expressions with regard to motion, weight and substance. These in turn shape the experience of the space underneath. In relating the expression of these various types, the terms ‘neutral’, ‘sinking’ and

Chapter

2


‘rising’ are used in terms of its verticality. The terms ‘centralizing’ and ‘directional’ are used with reference to the horizontality of the roof plane. These impressions depend upon three conditions of the walls that support the roof, each influencing the main influence of each theme. These are – • Spatial form of the wall • •

Height of the wall and The articulation of the wall

Directions of force created by the variation in placement of roof with respect to the geometry of the room -

247

248

249

a)

The vaulted roof is perpendicular to the circulatory openings of the space underneath.

b)

The vaulted roof is parallel to the circulatory openings of the space underneath.

c)

The curve of the vaulted roof is perpendicular to the cir culatory openings of the space underneath.

Directions of force created by the various typologies of the roof form a) The flat roof b) c)

The dome The vaulted roof

d)

The shed roof

119 250

Illustrations Above left - The domical roof of the St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican Above center - The vaulted roof at the Muse’ d’Orsay, Paris Above right - The shed rooves of the Katsura Palace, Japan

Height of a space in relation to the roof a) Vaulted roof at Monasteries in Kastiraki, Greece b) Va u l t e d ro o f a t H i g h C o u r t , Chandigarh

251

Chapter

2

DOME ROOF

257

Height of dome above the ground and the effect of forces a) Downward - (Above right) Domed roof of a Mosque in Multan, Pakistan 252

253

b) Upward - (Below) Domed roof of the St. Basil’s, Moscow.

254

Openings in a roof and its effect on a space a) (Above left) Vaulted roof with openings in the Musee d’ Orsay in Paris. b) (Above right) Circular opening at the base of the step well at Adalaj.

120 255

Basic types of domed roof a) Accented vertical axis - (Above left) Domed roof of the Cathedral at Florence, Italy b) Flattened surface - (Above right) Domed roof of the Hagia Sophia, Constantinople c) Accented horizontal axis - (Right) Domed roof of the Pallazetto dello Sport, Rome

256

258

Chapter

2


121 260

The inverted vaulted roof Illustrations (Top) - The inverted vault of the Chapel at Ronchamp, France. 259

The horizontal and vertical forces of a dome - (Illustration from the Pantheon in Rome)

(Above) - The roof at the Secretariat, Chandigarh, India

Chapter V A U L T E D R O O F

2

SHED ROOF

261 264

The role of the width of the vault (Above) - The vaulted roof at the Libary of St.

#

Genevieve, Paris. (Below) - The vaulted roof at the High Court building, Chandigarh, India.

% 265

amples of this kind of archetype.

height and profile of a vaulted roof

122 "

The effect of

forces with a shed roof on the walla and the inner structure. 263

Gothic vaulting an intersection of vault perpendicular (Right) Exeter Cathedral, England.

The traditional shed-

roof of the Izuno Shrine, Japan - one of the oldest ex-

Variations of the

262

The shed roof as a in-

stinctive symbol of shelter from a child’s drawing.

!

The shed roof at

the Acropolis, Parthenon, Greece. 267

266

Chapter

2

An emphasis on spatial communication INCLINED R O O F

SPLIT VOLUMES WITH INCLINED ROOF TYPES

#

Variations in the roof type in scale and in the role of masses.

270

#

intermediary

Variations in the di-

rection of force (Above left) - guiding

# "

Variations in the basic form of the shed roof

along circulation path (Left) - effect of sheltering

272 268

" The traditional shed roof of the Padmanapbhapuram Palace, Kerala, India

123

271

"

The sheltering effect created at the Stadelhofen Station, Zurich # The two contrasting gestures of the inclined roof type " (Top) The dynamic forces gener-

269

"

The composite shed rooves of the Vaux-

de-Vicomte, Versailles, France

The split-towers on the East wall of the ated by the inclined " roof at the MoonSoon Chapel at Ronchamp which seem to reach out to the far horizons in a gesture of calling to prayer. restaurant, Japan.

Chapter

•

DEGREES of motivating a form 1) At a sensorial level - with regards to visual dimensions, thickness etc. 2) At an experiential level - with regards to light, texture, colour, scale, movement, organization etc. 3) At an associational level - with regards to cultural and m e t a p h y s i c a l assocations.

2

Spatial (archetypal) elements as ‘signs’ in a space –

“Any form in the environment, Or sign in language, Is motivated Or capable of being motivated. The moment a new form is invented (or noticed) It will acquire inevitably a new meaning” Charles Jencks “Meaning in Architecture” The archetype merely acts as an existing reference of stored meaning in forms. Modifications in these archetypes, based on other related factors, causes the archetypes to be motivated to carry newer meaning in newer contexts.

124

EXAMPLE: The peripheral walls of the Hagia Sophia, Constantinople 1 ) As a wall with physical dimensions. 2 ) As a wall with experiential qualities created by light and shadow, colour and surface articulation 3) The entire assembly as a depiction of the place being a ‘center of the universe’.

273

In an early chapter in this thesis we had mentioned, “architecture is a celebration of life”. A study of basic archetypes reveals to some extent the reason behind this statement. Archetypes and their modifications enable mundane functions to attain a more refined degree of meaning. Hence it becomes essential to understand the basic semantic essence of each archetype before attaching further layers of meaning to it. For example, by using a common archetypal expression (either of verticality or even elements themselves), an industrial shed may be made to feel like a place of worship. We have seen this illustrated in the monasteries of Ronchamp and La Tourette by Le Corbusier, where a simple ship is represented in its archetypal essence to communicate to a devotee that a temple is a vehicle to reach God. A similar

274

phenomenon has also been demonstrated in the Kailasha Temple at Ellora, in India,

Chapter

2

The notion of ‘vimana’ or aircraft created by the Kailasha Temple, Ellora by the simple use of massing, and surface articulation

An emphasis on spatial communication KAILASHA TEMPLE, ELLORA,INDIA an effect of hovering

! Floor plan indicating the clear profile of a vehicle created by the massing of elements 276

275

where the Hindu notion of ‘vimana’ or spacecraft is made manifest in the temple form. Spatial elements throughout the history of architecture have potentially been the vehicles of important semantic meaning to a user. To summarize, spatial sign vehicles may carry the following messages – •

277

"

The gesture of upheaval and immense force represented by rows of elephants in the rear of the Temple

125

Communicate their specific functions – Natural objects always exist as they are. They do not need to adopt the signal of function from somewhere else. For example, the seeds of plants in the Amazonian forests have rotorlike forms so that they can hover away from the tree trunks and hence blossom into newer trees. Such functions are adoptive in man made forms. The designer borrows these ideas from phenomena around him, and is able to attach these to formal elements he designs. A wall may convey, either by an exaggeration of form or by articulation, the manner in which it carries

278

" Free standing elements act as beacons that gesture upward to the sky in anticipation of flight

Chapter

2

out its basic structural purpose. An individual furniture element could tell the user how best to sit on it. The Pompidou Center is one such example of a b u i l d i n g w h o s e e l e m e n t s m a ke a n a e s t h e t i c o u t o f ‘ fu n c t i o n a l ’ communication right to the façade to the interior. This makes the built space interact more actively with its users. •

Inciting a physical act – The use of appropriate formal stimuli may cause a spatial element to attract, repel, re-orient, and animate a user. For example, the door of the innermost sanctum of a Hindu temple, the ‘garba-griha’ is of a relatively small height as compared to the rest of the temple. This

279

A column (right) modified by thematic influence of the metaphor of a flying bird (TWA Airport, USA).

causes the user/devotee to bow before the presence of God as a symbolic act, before entering the shrine. Formal elements can have this power to orchestrate actions. •

Cause associations in the minds of people – Formal elements in a space are never perceived simply as they are. They have the power to house implied meanings. The moment they are placed in the context of a culture or a society, they are bound to cause associations in the minds of the user.

280

They form iconological or symbolic images in the minds of people. This is born out of a natural tendency to attach meaning to what they see, with

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what they are already familiar with. Thus it is normal for users to look at the Sydney Opera House and associate it with sails, turtles, eggshells etc. This inevitable phenomenon is a powerful tool for the designer, which if kept in mind during the process of design can cause conscious associations

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A domed roof (above) modified by multiple metaphors to create a shell like effect (Sydney Opera House, Australia) ARCHETYPES MODIFIED TO CAUSE ASSOCIATIONS THROUGH ENCODED ABSTRACTION

in the minds of people, thereby increasing the degree of meaning absorbed from a built space. •

C a u s e s h a r e d e x p e r i e n c e s w i t h i n p e o p l e – T h e r e a r e s p e c if i c conventions (grammatical structures) that are the founding blocks of any

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society (as in verbal language). By either conforming to, or opposing these conventions spatial elements could act as signs. This is what causes the experience of the ‘tree-ness’ of a column, or a ‘fluidity’ of a floor. •

Manifest existential expressions before the user – Every element of form as a product can express qualitative existential values to the user. Thus a column can seem like it is ‘floating’, or ‘heavy’ by the sheer nature of semantic content stored in its form.

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The encoding of ‘treeness’ in the ribbed Gothic vaults in Europe - the archetypal transformation of a pointed vault.

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The feminine proportion 284 of a column expressed in the Erechtheion, Parthenon, Greece ARCHETYPES MODIFIED TO CAUSE ASSOCIATIONS THROUGH ENCODED ABSTRACTION

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2.c. Metaphors and Symbols

2 . c. 1) M e t a p h o r s i n D e s i g n -

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Metaphors in Conception

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Metaphors in Perception

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Symbols

recognized signification

and

Icons

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Culturally

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2.c. Metaphors and Symbols In the earlier parts of this chapter, we discussed the various elements that constitute the physical aspects of the conception of any space. These form the alphabets and sentences in the grammar of every architectural utterance conceived. 285

However there exists a vital layer in every language of communication that provides a deeper dimension to the language through the perception of associated images. This happens when the system of codification of a language is understood and developed enough to be able to draw parallels between apparently dislocated phenomena. Metaphors, symbols (which include cues and icons) provide this most vital layer in every creative conception. We use these three methods almost all the time in our daily existence. 2.c.1) Metaphors in Design Metaphors are conceived through the transformation of ideas through the

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Metaphors - transformation of ideas through the association of concepts. The Institut du Monde Arab designed by Jean Nouvel. The architect uses a sign familiar to the Arab world the intricately decorated screen. However the architect achieves a shift in message content by combining the metaphor of a screen with that of the shutter of a camera. In doing so, Nouvel achieves a dynamic, moving series of shutter frames that re-create the feeling of a Islamic screen.

association of concepts (or objects as concepts) with another – either through a direct combination of the two or by looking at one as the other. Metaphors as figures of speech in English language exists in two rhetorical senses – 1. By achieving its desired affect through association, comparison and resemblance. 2. By comparing two things by saying that one is the other.

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Chapter Therefore, only in the broadest sense is has been suggested that all language is metaphorical because of is symbolic nature. •

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Metaphors in Conception

“…we all perform metaphorical acts whenever we…displace the focus of our scrutiny from one area of concentration for from one inquiry into another (in the hope that by comparison or through extension we can illuminate our contemplated subject in a new way…” Anthony Annoniades “The Poetics of Architecture” (1992) In addition to what has just been stated above, the ‘transfer of references’ from one subject (concept or object) to another also, assists in performing metaphorical acts i.e. seeing one object as if it were something else. In the mind of the designer, the gestation and transformation of metaphorical ideas occur in a pre-rational manner. Metaphorical thoughts are based on previous and

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“Both juice-squeezers do their job, one has more fun” - Terence Conran (from “On Design”) The one on the right designed by Phillipe Starck combines the functions of a juicesqueezer, with the dissociated visual imagery of an alien from a sci-fi movie, making the act of squeezing lemon, more meaningful.

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well-known ideas that stretch, grow and transform in the process of assimilation of a new vision. They often comprise many unexpected yet associated ideas. They come together as formal solutions through some initial, hazy, wordless cognition of an interesting design idea. In the words of Annoniades, “Metaphors in relating unusual ideas, allow the admission in the mind of relationships and aspects relevant to the new conception which would not normally be available to a conscious and therefore practical and critical mind.”

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Metaphors from Nature Paul Henningsen’s PH5 Hanging Lamp (1958) demonstrates the role of natural processes and elements in influencing the design process and making objects more interactive with the user’s sub-conscious.

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• The Exeter Cathedral, England - ‘treeness’ created through Gothic vaul ting and the surface articulation which resemble leaf-like patterns 290

Metaphors in Perception

As opposed to spoken language, metaphors in design provide a possibility of changing, reducing, adding to, reshaping or of being entirely new, to present and define the new idea. Thereby in the perception of design, metaphors are provided with the possibility of suggesting different meanings in different situations. Metaphors ensure a more effective communication when the perceiver does actually not see the object of resemblance from which the metaphor is derived. Instead communication occurs when, a perceiver is able to map the resemblance or association in the object or act in which the metaphor is manifested, in his subconscious. Metaphorical perception is in many ways inevitable in the minds of users. Any new building or form that becomes part of an environment always struggles to find a place in the user’s array of meaning stored in his experiences. By comparing the new form with something that has been experienced tangibly, the user finds similarities and resemblances with the new form and draws his conclusions through

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METAPHORS IN CONCEPTION - The “tree-ness” of the Gothic space - an effort to create the effect of walking under trees, through the use of light and the roof

metaphor. It is in this way that we see many buildings being compared to ‘icecream cones’ or ‘egg-crates’ or ‘a slice of cake’. The power of the metaphor has often been considered to be the bedrock of imagination. The metaphor can be helpful in achieving the ‘new’ at many points in the built space and in its conceptual process. The shape of architectural elements may be seen in a new light, overall expressiveness and feelings that are intended to be sent as signals to the users, can be done more effectively with the use of metaphors.

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Metaphors may be broadly classified under the following categories: i

Intangible metaphors - Those in which the metaphorical departure for the creation

is a concept in itself, or an idea, a human condition, or a particular quality (e.g. individuality, naturalness, community, tradition, culture.) ii

Tangible metaphors - Those in which the metaphorical departure stems strictly

from some visual or material character (e.g. a house as a castle, or a roof of a temple as the sky, or a church as a ship etc.)

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Combined metaphors - Those in which the visual and the conceptual overlap as

INTANGIBLE METAPHORS (Above left) The cosmic dimension as a metaphor in th e

ingredients of the point of departure, and the visual is an excuse to detect the virtues, qualities, and the fundamentals of the particular visual encounter.

Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. (Above right) Despair as a feeling is expressed in the

iii

Jewish Holocaust Museum, Berlin

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TANGIBLE METAPHORS (Above left) Bird nests represented in the Nagakin Capsule, Tokyo, Japan. (Above right) Train compartment joinery metaphorically represented through masses in the Musee d’ Orsay, Paris

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2.c.2) Symbols and Icons – Culturally recognized signification Meaning is transmitted through means of communication and results in perception. The means are perceptual representations, which are learnt by all human beings from childhood, as well as systems and forms of varying kinds, which make description and expression possible for communication. These systems and forms over a period of repeated usage become ‘symbols’ of their perceptual schemata. Symbols integrate an individual with a culture’s sign systems. 298

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INDEXICAL SIGNS (Above left) The internal order of Pompidou Center, Paris is displayed directly on its facade (Above right) The cascading organization of spaces is displayed directly as the form itself

ICONIC S I G N S (Left) The Sydney Opera House (Below left) The Lotus

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degree of articulation. Symbols are usually of two kinds – 1. Indexical – when they directly indicate their use, like arrows. 2. Iconic – when the form acts as a diagram of its function.

Temple, New Delhi (Bottom left) The Pyramid

Robert Venturi in his book – “Complexity and Contradiction in Modern Architecture” illustrated the indexical symbols aptly by calling them ‘ducks’ as opposed to

at the Louvre, all function as diagrams

‘decorated sheds’. A ‘duck’ building is one that looks like its function or that allow its internal order to be displayed on its exterior.

of their functions - in the sense that the form itself causes associations of implied meaning within the user.

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The capacity of a symbol system (form, in the case of architectural design) depends on its ability to fit the ‘content’ it has to receive; the inner consistency and the

In a rapidly mediated, pluralistic urban society the possibility of a common basis to the different symbol systems exist, making it possible for us to communicate universal emotions, beliefs and reactions, in a manner generally understood by most in spite of our cultural differences.

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Chapter

In Chapter2, the study has identified and demonstrated through the use of varied examples how the various tools for spatial design communication become more meaningful to the users. The Chapter emphasized •

The inherent capacity of any element in a space, to be encoded with meaning that is either sensorial, experiential or associational.

The various aspects of Spatial Design communication will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 3 where the study will aim to demonstrate the subject - “Spaces as Signs - spatial design communication as an interactive process of encoding and decoding” further.

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C O N C L U S I O N

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SPATIAL ILLUSTRATIONS

1 | The Mill Owners Association Building (ATMA), Ahmedabad 2 | La Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp 3 | “Between the Lines” - The Jewish Holocaust Museum, Berlin 4 | The Vietnam War Memorial, Washington DC

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The illustrations chosen in Chapter 3 have been selected on the basis of the following criteria 1 | The Mill Owners Association Building (ATMA), Ahmedabad

•

Spatial Illustrations

C R I T E S E L E C S P A T I I L L U S

R T A T

I A F O R I O N O F L R A T I O N S

To demonstrate the role of perceptual dynamics to a user upon upon

physical interaction with the building - a spatial narrative.

2 | La Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp 3 | “Between the Lines” - The Jewish Holocaust Museum, Berlin 4 | T h e V i e t n a m W a r M e m o r i a l , Wa s h i n g t o n D C

•

To demonstrate the potential of encoding meaning - at various levels - within a built form.

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1 | The Mill Owners Association Building (ATMA), Ahmedabad Architect - Le Corbusier Location - Ahmedabad, India Built in the year - 1962

Aims and Objectives

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•

To analyze the perceptual experience of visiting the

b u i l d i n g f r o m n o d e s o f e x p e r i e n c e ( r e f. “ T h e P e r c e p t u a l C o n c e p t u a l dynamics of Spacemaking” - unpublished thesis b y Priyamvada Singh).

•

To illustrate the purely spatial phenomena that was dealt

with in Chapter 2 by recognizing the major elements of the building (with special focus on the connecting spaces) and analyze how they are perceived and responded to by the user.

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SPATIAL ILLUSTRATIONS 1 | The Mill Owners Association Building (ATMA), Ahmedabad INFERENCES

•

This illustration simply demonstrates the importance of encoding through the various components of an architectural space, without any specific emphasis on a function or program. It demonstrates the near-universal responses that encoded elements of a built form can have on the user.

•

The primary encoding strategies in this study, may be summed up as 1. T h e u s e o f c o n c r e t e a s a m a t e r i a l t h r o u g h v a r i a t i o n s i n texture. 2. T h e u s e o f t h e c u r v e d a n d e n c l o s i n g w a l l a s g u i d e s t o movement along a certain direction. 3. T h e u s e o f b a s i c c i r c u l a t i o n e l e m e n t s t o m o t i v a t e t h e u s e r to climb or descend in different ways. 4. T h e u s e o f f r e e s t a n d i n g s e c o n d a r y e l e m e n t s t o g u i d e movement and orientation.

•

Archetypal elements and their constructs have the power

to encode meaning and re-invent themselves in newer contexts. These meanings manifest before the user by the correct planning of the ‘kinesthetics’ of the built form.

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SPATIAL ILLUSTRATIONS 2| L a C h a p e l l e N o t r e D a m e d u H a u t , R o n c h a m p

Brief description of the project background and brief – Architectural promenade – Brief description of the formal division of the space – Ronchamp as a sign vehicle with respect to time (as a relic/ ruin/ symbol), overall volume, bi-sociation, directional thrusts, kinesthetic forces etc – The significance of these signals in the creation of emotive responses in the visitor.

Architect: Le Corbusier Duration of project: 1950-56

146 TO ANALYZE THE ENCODING OF MEANING THROUGH -

ARCHITECTURAL

SIGN

SITING OVERALL DYNAMICS OF FORM PERCEPTUAL/CONCEPTUAL ASSOCIATION CODIFICATION OF INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS KINESTHETICS

SCOPE - This analysis will deal only with the aspects of the outer architectural interplay with the environment of the Chapel. The interior of the Chapel has not been discussed in this illustration

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About the project – The Chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut at Ronchamp is widely regarded as one of the most important works of master architect Le Corbusier and is the best evaluation of his treatment of the catalysis of spatial meaning right from the conceptual phase. Along with the Monastery of La Tourette, the Chapel at Ronchamp comprises Le Corbusier’s entire repertoire of religious architecture.

The Site –

Monastery of La Tourette, Le Corbusier

From its commanding position on the hilltop of Bourlemont in the Haute-Saone region in France, the Chapel overlooks the village of Ronchamp. The hill reaches a height of about approximately 500 meters, flanked by trees, through which two access paths have been allowed out. It culminates in a rounded summit forming a small plateau, which serves as a ‘podium’ for the chapel as an exhibit for pilgrims.

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The site of Ronchamp is thus steeped in history. Its tradition of pilgrimage is deeply rooted in its local culture right from the time of the Roman conquest of Gaul. These factors lend a symbolic dimension to the place and cloak it in an air of emotion. Le Corbusier was

Plateau and hilltop location suggest a monument of some visual consequence

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especially sensitive to the atmosphere that bathed the site as well as its cosmic dimension. “…this is a place of pilgrimage, but some things go deeper than one would generally imagine; there are certain places that for one reason or another are hallowed, because of their site, setting, geographical location, political tension surrounding them etc. And there are designated places, ‘high places’ in both senses: altitude and elevation.” Le Corbusier “Le Livre de Ronchamp” cited by Jean Petit

!

SITING ‘TRACE’ - Any vertical structure placed on Ob

such a circular, equipolar site at a high altitude would naturally tend to act as a beacon for miles.

East

liqu ite es con diti on

!

The approach route - from southeast flanking the open area with the contours also giving a south eastern slope.

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!

The site is placed at the high

point on an east-west axis

When the Chapel was first completed, purists were aghast that the ‘proscribed’ laws of Modernist thinking, the ‘zeitgeist’ (spirit of the time) was broken. Forbidden spatial vocabulary such as the plastic mass, the hole in the wall, the expressive curve and the foetal interior reappeared here at Ronchamp. But upon actually embarking on a journey through the space, and becoming aware of its narrative power – it was universally agreed that Ronchamp was a truly new dimension in modern architecture. An attempt at creating a plastic, dynamic space that was well ahead of its time.

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The Chapel at Ronchamp also marked a renewal of interest in basic existential meanings in the field of Modern architecture. a\ The first basic gesture of meaning comes to manifest from the confrontation between the building and the movement around it in an oblique site condition

b\ Le Corbusier creates two separates zones for entry and pilgrimage on either side of the oblique axis on the site

Kinesthetic of the Chapel - The “Promenade Architecturale” The rich application of plastic arts in this building, and to discover the way in which it unfolds spaces, forms and functions as a narrative can be valued by embarking on what Le Corbusier called the “Promenade Architecturale” - proposed by him in the late 1920’s. This kinesthetic or ‘notion of procession’ as he called it performed a crucial role in the way in which visitors to his buildings were to perceive meaning

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inherent in his work. In 1936, at a conference held in Rome, he explained the vital role of the individual within the architectural interplay – “Forms bathed in light. Inside and outside; below and above. Inside: we enter, we walk around, we look at things while walking around and the forms take on meaning, they expand, they combine with one another.

We walk, we turn, we never stop moving or turning towards things. Note the tools we use to perceive architecture… the architectural sensation we experience stems from hundreds of different perceptions. It is the ‘promenade’, the movements we make that act as the motor for architectural events.” Le Corbusier

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Outside: we approach, we see, our interest is aroused, we stop, we appreciate, we turn around, we discover. We receive a series of sensory shocks, one after the other, varying in emotion; the jeu (architectural interplay) comes into play.

The Exterior of Ronchamp as a vehicle of meaning -

1. Associative abstractions of the overall form The greatest power of the architecture of Ronchamp is the treasure house of suggestive metaphors it possesses. The visual codes used here take in both

!

INTERIOR VIEW of the Chapel, showing the play of light and darkness-

private and social meanings at an unconscious level in the minds of the visitor and the people of Ronchamp. We are able to associate these metaphors immediately without caring to draw a single plan or diagram. The architect is able to call upon the visitor’s rich storehouse of images without our being aware of our intention - a classic example of space’s power to act as a sign in numerous ways. It invoked sub-conscious perceptual and conceptual processes from both the designer and the user. Program forms an essential stimulant for the metaphors associated with this building. The fact that Le Corbusier intended the building to be ‘a vessel of intense

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concentration and meditation’ (from “Oeuvre complete 1946-52”) gives the built form a sub-conscious ‘shipness’ that is inescapable. This also emerges as a spirit of the times, both at a social and an individual level. It is well known that Le Corbusier, both in his Purist paintings and his architecture often referred to industrial

!

INSPIRED ASSOCIATIONS - Interior views

of the Byzantine Santa Sophia at Constantinople (above left) and the Gothic Cathedral at Chartres, France (above right)

icons – ships, airplanes, and machines, as inspirational symbols to layer his work with.

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A visitor arrives at the south side of the building and perceives the heavy white mass of a lofty tower firmly anchored to the ground and a high wall pierced with sporadic openings. He also perceives the dark massive curves of a roof that sags into a thick sloping wall with smattering of color sprinkled over the door. To the visitor to the Chapel, the object itself seems to be derived out of a pair of hands folded in prayer, or a priest’s headgear. These are inevitable cultural associations that are based on the preconditioning of the visitor and his own inherent system of decoding and encoding in the mind. This ambiguity adds to the drama of Ronchamp by inviting the visitors to search their memory for possible clues to unraveling the possible meaning of the forms themselves. This overall semantic power of The Chapel at

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CONCEPTUAL ASSOCIATION - The metaphor o f t h e fo l d e r h a n d s i n p r a y e r a n d i t s p hy s i c a l

Ronchamp enables it to establish a niche for itself in the history of religious architecture without having to resort to the formal dogmas of the time or of the past. The Chapel makes the visitor experience

manifestation in the apex of the roof Directional curved wall

meaning at virtually all three levels – existential, sensorial and associational. Approach Route

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2. The south facing Entrance Façade o

Horizontal directional gesture of curved wall and roof - The entrance façade is composed of the thick curvilinear wall overseen by the volume of the roof. The combined dynamic of the wall with the roof create strong visual lines of force that entice a visitor to move along its face and view the East façade where the pilgrimage usually ends in a mass gathering. The wall is intended to act as a receptacle for

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THE ROOF AND WALL CONSTRUCT - Sets the

visitor in motion along the face of wall toward the pilgrim arrival area, whilst protecting the interior. Demonstration of the vertical tripartition of wall.

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visitors and pilgrims, and in receiving them, set them in a procession around the building itself. o

Vertical directional gesture of zenith of the curved wall and the roof The curved wall is skew tilted in relation to the entrance, and straightens up gradually, re-establishing a strong verticality in the swell of the southeastern

The south east corner - vertical directional gesture upwards

corner, where the ‘crab-shaped’ roof is at its highest level and seems to be sending a physical gesture of prayer to the heavens. This south wall meets with the east side in a pronounced vertical line. This line forms the highest point of the chapel. o

Signal outlining the main entrance - On it’s lowest side where it is most steeply inclined, the base is at its widest – the roof appears to be thickest and sags lower than at any other point. The bold vertical column formed by the curving of the west façade establishes a strong verticality in the composition and invites the visitor to also enter the Chapel through the main entrance door also situated on this face.

The vertical plane within which the door is set marks the

152 The south entrance wall - perceptual dynamics

division between the wall and volume of the tower. Here a gap serves to free the mass of the roof from that tower. o

Smaller elements of reference - Within this free and dynamic range of shapes, the geometric order is set by several essential elements from within the plan. Two parallelepiped blocks for example accentuate the outline of the door. The first is of vertical proportion and acts as the foundation stone of the Chapel. The

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second sits horizontally and is actually a console fixed into the surface of the main tower. This marks the relative right angle in the overall composition. These two volumes highlight the entrance space, which in the larger scheme of things is set back between the powerful volume of the southwest tower and the sloped mass of the south wall. They also serve as an orthogonal and static reference within a façade dominated by dynamic curves and oblique curves. In addition to this, these are the sole protruding volumes and thereby contribute to the plastic play of positive and negative space, by invoking a dialogue with the depressed cavities in the openings. 3. The Outdoor Chapel in the East o

Overall composition - The overall composition of the eastern wall of the Chapel is characterized by the dynamically tensioned facades, a balance of curved and straight lines and shapes that stretch out towards the surrounding countryside respond to the very basic function intended by the architect – a southern façade that opens out in a warm gesture of welcome – adding a sense of grandeur to an otherwise mundane act of gathering for Mass.

o

The Eastern Wall - In keeping with the same concept of dynamics, the form of the east side of the chapel resembles a full sail, or an airplane’s dorsal plane. Here the roof juts out to form a large hood leaving space beneath for an outdoor chapel. This canopy joined to the far end of the southeastern corner slopes down to the north side to finally rest on a pier concealed within a cylindrical sheath. Like the south wall, its

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surface is skew and its shape expands so as to encompass the outdoor sanctuary. o

The sanctuary - This sanctuary was designed to receive crowds of gatherers on pilgrimage days and host open-air celebrations of Mass. It opens onto a natural walkway whose limits are defined by the orthogonal volumes of the pilgrim’s shelter nearby and the pyramid of stones forming a memorial to the dead.

The floor of the outdoor chapel is formed by paving stones that follow the curve of the roof canopy. This hood overhangs and protects the liturgical elements – the Above left - the choir gallery and altar on the East facade Above right - The upward thrust of the south-east corner in a gesture reminiscing hands folded in prayer to the skies.

altar, the bench for officiating priests, pulpit and choir gallery. An effigy of the Virgin Mary is embedded into an opening visible from both inside and outside. A second entrance, reserved for celebrants, separates the vertical wall from the reverse side of the south wall. Recesses designed to hold religious objects are hollowed out within this reverse side. o

Secondary elements - Other secondary elements are extremely simple in form a n d c o n s e q u e n t l y produce a stabilizing effect within the overall composition.

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·

The sacred altar – the ancient component – is simply perceived as a block of white stone perched on two orthogonal bases. Several other smaller geometrical elements mark the right angle in the façade. They act as a geometrical counterpart to the curved forms of the structure, such as those comprising the choir gallery and the sheath encasing the pier. In other words, they add a human dimension to the order.

The East facade

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I n t h e w o r d s o f J e a n Pe t i t , “ T h e b l u e amphitheatre of the sky and the landscape unfurls in the distance. The altar is perceived as the pivot of a cosmic celebration”. ·

The pulpit is a rigid-cube laid on a pillar, accessed by an oblique set of steps at the rear; it backs onto the massive cylindrical white surface in rough plaster. Made from exposed concrete it creates a contrast with the walls of the chapel both through its form and the color of its material.

·

Inserted recesses - Another cubic part made in exposed concrete is

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The north facade - an introverted wall that conceals and protects what is inside.

the service table used for keeping all objects used for outdoor celebrations of Mass. This is inserted into one of the hollowed out recessed in the rear of the massive south wall. These recesses play a vital role in the overall composition – by acting as a typological opposite to the surrounding elements, they serve to exaggerate their interplay. They also emphasize the thickness of the wall, by emphasizing their solid appearance. 4. The North and West Facades o

Overall composition - The north and west facades stand in stark contrast to the south and east walls. They are made up of vertical and horizontal lines and stalwart thickset shapes like those of the two small towers. If the south and east walls we more extroverted from the exterior and served to gesture and welcome a visitor; the north and west facades appear to be turning their backs to the surrounding landscape in order to protect themselves from the outside world in a concealed, closed off, protected place that inspires meditation.

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The north façade - This façade confines both the functional spaces and the two side chapels housed with the two towers. Orthogonal openings and a twolevel oblique staircase leading to the functional rooms punctuate the vertical wall. The dynamic tension of its form underscores the play of mass and space.

The cylindrical towers face in opposite directions and seem to invoke the feeling of the bastions of some ancient fortress. One cylinder is bathed in light at sunrise and the other, at sunset. A second door is placed in the gap that separates these towers as they stand back to back. Visitors and worshippers use this entrance on a daily basis. o

The west façade – This facade is the ‘blindest’ of the entire structure and acts as an extreme introverted element, characterized by its stark, opaque white surface. It seems to act as a backdrop to another cosmic act of rain and the collection of the water into the ground.

This façade is characterized by the parabolic curve of the last leveling course of the wall. The line of the last leveling course visually links the vertical line of the edge of the north tower with that of the south tower. It is the highest of the three towers that causes the building to stand out so strikingly against the landscape,

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thus beckoning visitors from all around. o

Secondary elements - The façade is embroidered with secondary elements, which fulfill both a functional and semantic role – the gun-barrel shaped gargoyle, which drains rain, water from the roof and the tank that catches

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Periscopic towers - A clear gesture of summonig to prayer is sounded by the two opposing towers on the north facade

this water and stores the water due to a scarcity of wateron the hilltop. These elements create a sculptural drama on the façade, a sort of ‘plastic event’ within the architectural promenade.

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SPATIAL ILLUSTRATIONS 2 | The Chapel Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp INFERENCES

•

The study analyzes the dual function bestowed on this

building by the architect – a small chapel for prayer and meditation and a place of worship with facilities for receiving thousands of worshippers. It highlights the manner in which these appropriate gestures have been encoded to create these effects.

•

These shapes both debate and dialogue with one another: the breathtakingly high thrust of the southeastern corner, offset by the mass of the towers anchored to the ground; the dynamic shape of the hull of the roof, counterbalanced by the solid static forms

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of the gently curving towers. These shapes complement and communicate with each other in the same way in which they converse with the surrounding landscape and the four horizons.

•

This illustration demonstrates best how architectural form can encode meaning at all three levels - sensorial, experiential and associational - to the user. This potential of spatial forms when harnessed by the architect can influence not ony movement and other aspects of human behaviour but also cause emotions and feeling in the mind.

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The Horrors of the Jewish Holocaust Jewish children, kept alive in the Auschwitz II (Birkenau) concentration camp, 1942

3| “ B e t w e e n t h e L i n e s ” - T h e J e w i s h H o l o c a u s t M u s e u m , B e r l i n

Brief description of the project background and brief – Brief description of thevarious concepts inducted by the architect into the for of the building – The Museum as a sign vehicle with respect to representation of the feelings of a time and people - The Jews of the Holocaust. The use of bi-sociations, directional thrusts, kinesthetic forces etc – The significance of these signals in the creation of emotive responses in the visitor.

Architect: Daniel Libeskind Duration of project: 1989 - 99

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SPATIAL SIGN TO ANALYZE THE ENCODING OF MEANING THROUGH FORMAL ASSOCIATIONS THROUGH CREATION OF FEELINGS

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The Stairs to the Old Jewish Museum, Berlin - A Museum that acts as a standing reminder of a human tragedy, for generations to come.

OVERALL DYNAMICS OF FORM PERCEPTUAL/CONCEPTUAL ASSOCIATION CODIFICATION OF INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS KINESTHETICS

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Introduction “I designed a building that is emblematic of the earth shattered by conflict” Daniel Libeskind Excerpt from “Between the Lines” The Jewish Holocaust Museum in Berlin is a museum, which unambiguously schematizes and integrates the history of the Jews in Germany and the repercussions of the Holocaust, for

the

first

time

in

post-war

G e r m a n y.

The design of the Jewish Museum engenders a fundamental rethinking of architecture in relation to its program. The museum exhibits the social, political

Perceptive metaphors Scars in a collective psyche A crack in the earth’ s surface

and cultural history of Jews in Berlin from the 4th Century to the present.

Incisions

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The new extension is connected to the Baroque building via underground axial roads. The longest one leads to the ‘Stair of Continuity’ and to the Museum itself; the second leads to the ‘Garden of Exile and Emigration’ and the third axis leads to the dead end of the ‘Holocaust Vo i d ’. The displacement of the spirit is made visible through the straight line of the Void, which cuts the ensemble as a whole, connecting the museum exhibition spaces to each other via bridges. The Void is the impenetrable emptiness across which the absence of Berlin’s Jewish citizens is made apparent to the visitor. In the first eight weeks of the opening more than 200,000 visitors attended.

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Daniel Libeskind and his involvement in this project “Architecture is a communicative art. All too often, however, architecture is seen as mute. Buildings are understood as disposable consumer items whose sole fate is to disappear with their use. In our day, the only distinction people make between architecture and building is that buildings are utilitarian and architecture is a monument belonging in a cemetery.” Daniel Libeskind From the essay “Catching on Fire” the extension to the museum

t h e h o l o c a u s t v o i d

e t a hoffman garden of exile

The discussion about a Jewish Museum in Berlin was in process for almost a quarter of a century since the completion of the Second World War. Many eminent experts and Holocaust survivors discussed this issue and the implications of building a Jewish Museum in Berlin. The conclusions reached were the ones formulated in a b r i e f fo r t h e c o m p e t i t i o n h e l d i n 1 9 8 8 - 1 9 8 9 . Libeskind was invited by the Berlin Senate in 1988 to participate in this competition for the Jewish Museum. The architect felt that the project was not a program that he had to invent or a building that needed research. He felt the project was one in which he had been implicated from the very beginning being a Jew himself. He had lost most of his family in the Holocaust and had been born only a few hundred kilometers east of Berlin in Lodz, Poland where the most heinous of Nazi supported genocides

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An experience represented through space A constant reminder of guilt and regret are expressed through the Voids in the museum where by the simple creation of tall spaces without any openings. The floor is covered by masks of faces contorted in agony upon which the visitor is made to walk.

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An experience represented throuhg space an experience of unstability and insecurity is represented by the constant use of unstable geometric forms that seem to be frozen in its unstability by unseen forces. An experience represented through space Unstable, dark spaces are created with the placement of openings at their farthest end - thereby creating impulses to move ahead even when there apparently seems to be no physical route ahead. This echoes the same feeling that prisoners must have had when they were imprisoned in concentration camps during the War

These serve to disorient the visitor and creating a constant feeling of unrest.

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of the Jews was carried out in the Second World War.

The Concept – “Between the Lines” Libeskind was deeply challenged by the notion of creating a place, which was at once intimate and civic. He wanted to create a “place in which the story of the significance, sacrifice, tragedy and destiny of conflict

can

come

alive”.

”What could inform a museum of conflict and of war? Clearly, this is not a museum of peace but a museum of the permanent struggle to attain it.” There are three basic ideas that formed the foundation for Libeskind’s design of the Jewish Museum design 1. The impossibility of understanding the history of Berlin without understanding the enormous intellectual, economic and cultural contribution made by the Jewish citizens of Berlin.

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2. The necessity to integrate physically and spiritually the meaning of the Holocaust into the consciousness and memory of the city of Berlin. 3. Third, that only through the acknowledgement and incorporation of this erasure and void of Jewish life in Berlin, can the history of Berlin and Europe have a human future.

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Climbing impulse of the main stair to the old Museum Intersecting and piercing beams along with a drama created by light and shadow give a user a constant impulse to climb while looking upward.

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Spatial Illustrations Libeskind called the project - “Between the Lines.” because it was a project about two lines of thinking, organization and relationship. One was a straight line, but broken into many fragments; the other was a tortuous line, but continuing i n d e f i n i t e l y . The site was the new-old center of Berlin on Lindenstrasse next to the distinguished Kollegienhaus, a former Baroque Prussian courthouse. The Order – an irrational codification of a human matrix – 1. The invisible and irrationally connected star, which shone with the

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Laceration on the facade - derived from the mapping of Berlin - a building representative of a scarred psyche of the Jewish community

absent light of individual address. An important clue for his codification of meaning into the forms he chose for the built form, Libeskind felt that there was an invisible matrix of connections, a connection of relationships between figures of Germans and Jews. Even though the competition was held before the Berlin Wall fell, he felt that the one binding feature, which crossed East and West Germany, was the relationship of German people to the Jews. Certain people, workers, writers, composers, artists, scientists and poets formed the link between Jewish tradition and German culture. Libeskind identified these connections and plotted an irrational matrix, which would yield reference to the emblematic of a compressed and distorted star: the yellow star that was so frequently worn on this very site. This was the first aspect of the conceptualizing of the project. 2. The cutoff of Act 2 of Moses and Aaron, which culminates, with the nonmusical fulfillment of the word - the influence of the music of Schonberg –

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An aerial view of a Polish concentration camp at Birkenau

Libeskind was always interested in the music of classical music composer, Schönberg and in particular his period in Berlin. His greatest work was the opera called “Moses and Aaron”, which could not be completed. For an important musical structural reason the logic of the libretto could not be completed by a musical score by Schonberg. According to Libeskind, “…at the end of the opera, Moses doesn’t sing, he just speaks “oh word, thou word”, addressing the absence of the Word, and one can understand it as a ‘text’, because when there is no more singing, the missing word which is uttered by Moses, the call for the Word, the call for the Deed, is understood clearly.”

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Conception of the plan The influence of the ‘Gedenkbuch’ - a diary containing the addresses of Jews killed in the Holocaust, and the opera of “Moses and Aron” were sources of encoding

Libeskind sought to complete the opera ‘architecturally’ and this formed the second aspect of the conception of this project. 3. The omni-present dimension of the missing Berliners

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The third aspect of this project was my interest in the names of those persons who were deported from Berlin during the fatal years of the Holocaust. I asked for and received from Bonn two very large volumes called the ‘Gedenkbuch’. They are incredibly impressive because all they contain are names, just lists and lists of names, dates of birth, dates of deportation and presumed places where these people were murdered. I looked for the names of the Berliners and where they had died in Riga, in the Lodz ghetto, in the concentration camps. 4. Walter Benjamin’s urban apocalypse along the One Way Street.

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Conception of the plan The geometry of the building is derived from the absent adresses of Jews who were killed or deported during the Holocaust

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Spatial Illustrations The fourth aspect of the project is formed by Walter Benjamin’s “One Way Street”. This aspect is incorporated into the continuous sequence of 60 sections along the zigzag, each of which represents one of the ‘Stations of the Star’ described in the text of Walter Benjamin. The spatial narrative of meaning and form Daniel Libeskind in his book “Between the Lines” wrote that - “A building can be experienced as an unfinished journey. It can awaken our desires and propose imaginary

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THE E.T.A. HOFFMAN ‘GARDEN OF EXILE’ Planters emblematic of tombstones that seem to sink into an inclined ground plane - the visitor is made t o fe e l u n e a s y a n d c o n stantly unsettled by this experience.

conclusions. It is not about form, image or text, but about the experience, which is not to be simulated. A building can awaken us to the fact that it has never been anything more than a huge question mark.” Libeskind aimed to create a building, that not only intelligently programmed for the events which were to take place in it, but one which emotionally moved the soul of the visitor toward a sometimes unexpected realization – that “Conflict was not simply a story with a happy or unhappy ending, but an ongoing momentum, which structured one’s understanding of the future in relation to the past.”

167 In specific terms the building measures more than 15,000 square meters. The entrance is through the Baroque ‘Kollegienhaus’ building and then into a dramatic entry Void by a stair which descends under the existing building foundations,

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Seat at the garden - a place to contemplate the t ra g e d y s u f f e r e d b y t h e Jewish community in the Holocaust.

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the ground plane as an experience of restlessness.

crisscrosses underground and materializes itself as an independent building on the outside. The existing building is tied to the extension underground, preserving the contradictory autonomy of both the old building and the new building on the surface, while binding the two together in the depth of time and space.

Chapter There are three underground ‘roads’, which programmatically have three separate stories. 1. The longest ‘road’, leads to the main stair, to the continuation of Berlin’s history, to the exhibition spaces in the Jewish Museum. 2. The second road leads outdoors to the E.T.A. Hoffmann Garden and represents the exile and emigration of Jews from Germany.

3

"

The ETA Hoffmann garden represents an attempt to completely disorient the visitor. It represents a shipwreck of history. One enters it and finds the experience somewhat disturbing. Yes, it is unstable, one feels a little bit sick walking through it. But it is accurate becausethat is what perfect order feels like when you leave the history of Berlin.” Daniel Libeskind (on the “Garden of Exile”)

3. The third axis leads to the dead end - the Holocaust Void. Cutting through the form of the Jewish Museum is a Void, a straight line whose impenetrability forms the central focus around which the exhibitions are organized. In order to cross from one space of the Museum to the other, the visitors traverse sixty bridges, which open, into the Void space; the embodiment of absence. As the visitor is made to move through this ‘splintered globe’ (in the words of Libeskind, “Catching of Fire”) with its fragmented curvatures, there is a feeling of

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vulnerability. Normally, there is a detachment of the visitor from the exhibitions, but here there is a fusion of the instability of space with the permanent time of reflection.

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According to Libeskind - “To create a continuity of experience across the discontinuity of interpretation was my aim.” The space of the building produces an oscillation between the artifice of the exhibition and the materiality, which it contains. Each visitor is sensitized by the topos, just as footsteps and the eye become guides treading through a history that dawns only in retrospect. The realignment of geometries toward the narrative of programs, physically articulates the ambiguous tensions, which mirrors the attempt to construct and reconstruct an illusive world order.

A zig-zagged, path to an end A straight line path to an end

Lines of absent address as ordering trace The architect utilizes the pre-Holocaust maps of Berlin to locate the addresses of the nowabsent Jewish Berliners who were eradicated by the Holocaust.

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Spatial Illustrations The work is conceived as a museum for all Berliners, for all citizens. Not only those of the present, but those of the future who might find their heritage and hope in this particular place. With its special emphasis on the Jewish dimension of Berlin’s history, this building gives voice to a common fate - to the contradictions of the ordered and disordered, the chosen and not chosen, the vocal and silent.

The startling and stark subject matter of the Museum is addressed not only by the temporary and permanent exhibitions, but also by an emotive and intuitive relationship to the building. The interplay between known proportion and the The Interior The interior emerges as an outcome of Libeskind’s 5-point strategy of conception. Openings are kept to a minimum, and are not viewed as traditional windows. They act as signs of address of missing Berliners since the war, and accidentally offer views to the outside, and allow natural light to enter through cracklike fissures.

unknown disproportion, between an anticipated roof and an unanticipated wall eliminates the space in which the metaphor of Greek legend ‘Medusa’s’ face shows

#

unfolding adventure.

Inclined display panels > Unsettles >Unstable, like the Garden of Exile > Directs

itself. The danger of being turned into stone by simply becoming a voyeur, gives way to the unique spatiality of the exhibition. The architectural topography of the building allows gravity to act on the body and on the consciousness of the visitor in order to vitalize one’s awareness. The experience of architecture together with exhibition is choreographed through a series of precise and discrete movements, each of which is connected to the

It was important to realize that a Museum which was to depict the ongoing implication of past conflicts into present day fears should also be a place that has dignity, elegance and magnetism -– qualities offering the visitor unique sensations, ones not to be confused with negativity or simulation. The Museum has a wealth of such meaningful signs that when decoded penetrate the viewer’s psyche. Libeskind believed that this project joined Architecture to questions that are now relevant to all humanity. To this end, he sought to create a new Architecture for a

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time, which would reflect an understanding of history, a new understanding of Museums and a new realization of the relationship between program and architectural space. This strategy for codification of deeper meanings in the Museum not only responded to a particular program, elevated the building to an emblem of Hope.

$

Use of fragmentation, piercing and laceration of elements to convey a feeling > To evoke a memory of abuse to a group of people and constantly make the viewer associate with this feeling. > By fragmentation, the relationship of a p a r t i n B e r li n ’s s o c i e ty a n d i t ’s absense is given a visible, measurable form.

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The Wall-hung Exhibits Though the museum stores a very rare and valuable collection of exhibits, the conception of meaning within the pure architectural space renders the objects on display to secondary narrative elements. The feelings evoked by the space by the user’s perception of meaning - acts as the principal storyteller in this narrative.

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Use of light as a sign of direction > At a outer skin level, the slashes allow adequate quantities of natural light to enter and guide the visitor through the space > At an interior display level, artificial light is used as a sign of direction as well.

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SPATIAL ILLUSTRATIONS 3 | “Between the Lines” - The Jewish Holocaust Museum, Berlin INFERENCES

•

Apart from being a container of artefacts, the dual function

bestowed on this building by the architectas a medium of communication of a specific set of feelings - those of despair, hopelessness, depression and scarring - have been encoded within the program of the building itself.

•

In this Museum, encoding of meaning occurs mostly in

elements of circulation through their geometry, scale and surface articulation.

•

This illustration demonstrates best how architectural form

can encode meaning at all three levels - sensorial, experiential and associational - to the user. This potential of spatial forms when harnessed by the architect influences not ony movement and other aspects of human behaviour but also cause emotions and feeling in the mind.

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SPATIAL ILLUSTRATIONS 4| T h e V i e t n a m W a r M e m o r i a l , W a s h i n g t o n D C

Brief description of the project background and brief – Analysis of the codification of meaning into a simple archetype - in this case, a wall - A study of how meaning has been encoded by the architect during the process of conception - A brief outlook at how users decode meaning from this wall.

Architect: Maya Ying Lin Duration of project: 1989 - 99

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A wall of remembrance -A child (top) and a man (above) stand before the Wall and spend time contemplating the loss of a loved one.

ARCHETYPAL SIGN TO ANALYZE THE ENCODING OF MEANING THROUGH ASSOCIATIONS THROUGH CREATION OF APPROPRIATE SPATIAL GESTURES CODIFICATION OF AN INDIVIDUAL ELEMENT MEANINGFUL SURFACE ARTICULATION

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Spatial Illustrations The Program L o c a t e d i n Wa s h i n g t o n , D C , T h e V i e t n a m Veteran’s Memorial recognizes and honors the men and women who served in one of America’s most divisive wars in 1968. The memorial grew out of a need to heal the nation’s wounds as America struggled to reconcile different moral and political points of view.

The semantic power of this memorial is in the fact that it was conceived to make no political statement whatsoever about the war. The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial is a place where all visitors, regardless of their political opinion of the war, can come together and remember and honor those who served. By doing so, the memorial has paved the way towards reconciliation and healing, a process that continues today. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial accomplishes these goals through the three components that comprise the memorial: 1. The Wall of names,

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2. The Three Servicemen Statue and Flagpole 3. Vietnam Women’s Memorial. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial serves as a testament to the sacrifice of American military personnel during one of this nation’s least popular wars. The purpose of the memorial is to separate the issue of the sacrifices of the veterans from the U.S. policy in the war, thereby creating a venue for reconciliation.

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A wall of remembrance - Views of the wall showing the two perpendicular pathways and the wedge shaped profile of the two walls.

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The Wall – Use of meaningful archetype and surface ‘décor’ “ . . . this memorial is for those who have died, and for us to remember.” Maya Lin The Wall was the first part of the memorial to be erected in November 1982. The goal of the memorial was to allow all people to reflect on the price of war and to honor those who served.

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A vehicle for mixed emotions - A simple wall is transformed into a tactile vehicle of remembrance. The names of the martyrs of the War are etched into polished black granite. The etched name and the reflections of the people visiting the monument are superimposed o v e r e a c h o t h e r. This symbolically unites the past with the present and transforms a mute wa l l i n t o a p l a c e loaded with deep meaning.

Situated in the grassy park of Constitution Gardens, the Wall is neither prominent, nor grand, nor imposing. Rather, it is simple, thoughtful, and profound. It is a place to remember those who served during a turbulent time in American history. It is also a place for the nation to heal its wounds. T h e V i e t n a m Ve t e r a n s Memorial Wall contains the names of the 58,226 men and women who were killed and remain missing from that war. The names are etched on black granite panels that compose the Wall. The panels are arranged into two arms, extending from a central point to form a wide angle. Each arm points

to

either

the

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Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial in the distance to bring the Vietnam Memorial into an historical context on the National Mall. The Wall is built into the earth, below ground level. The area within the Wall’s angle has been contoured to form a gentle sloped approach towards the center of the Wall. While entering the memorial at ground level from either end of its arms, the descent to the center reveals more and more of the Wall until it towers more that ten feet above the walkway. At the center, within the protection of the arms of the memorial and surrounded by the grassy slope, is a place of quiet, calmness, and serenity. Name after name after name appears on The Wall in an almost never-ending account. The listing appears chaotic, just like war. But there is an order to the chaos. The names are listed in the order in which the men and women died or were declared missing. The first name is located in the center of the memorial, at the top of the Wall, under the date “1959,” the year of the first death. The names continue line by line down each panel, as if each was a page in a book, towards the right end of the memorial. The names resume at the left end of the memorial and continue toward the center. It is here, at the bottom of the wall, where the last death is recorded, next to the date “1975.”

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Codification of meaning in the wall –

Maya Lin had sensed that words, commentary or literal representations could not serve the purposes of this particular memorial. Instead, she decided simply to chisel the names of all who had died in Vietnam on black granite walls. Depending on the observer, they would be a mute testimony – or rebuke – to the war.

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The wall - “an incision in the earth which would heal itsefl with time”.

According to architect, Maya Lin in an interview with The Washington Post said that it was while she was at the site that she had designed it. Her intention was not to destroy a living park, as that would go against the basic emotive essence of the Memorial itself. She wanted to use the landscape to her advantage by absorbing it. When she examined the site she had an intuitive feeling that she would design something horizontal ‘that took the visitor in’. She wanted the visitor to feel safe within the park, yet at the same time be reminded of the dead. “ So I just imagined opening up the earth. . . . I thought about what death is, what a loss is. A sharp pain that lessens

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Night and day views of the rock - Mirror polished black granite as a source of relection of development around it

with time, but never quite heals over. A scar. The idea occurred to me there on the site. Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it. As if you cut open the rock and polished it.” Maya Lin In order to make the acute angles of the wedge shaped wall mean something, the architect wanted to engrave the names of those who died in the war, in chronological order. “…because to hone the living as well as the dead it had to be a sequence in time.” Maya Lin

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Spatial Illustrations ·

De-codification of meaning in the wall –

Maya Ying Lin’s design, consisting of a long, black granite wall upon which would be etched the names of the 57,9391 men and women who died and were missing from the Vietnam War, sought to honor their collective sacrifice. A veteran assailed the design as the “black gash of shame.” Source

–

Vietnam

Wa r

Memorial Website Other detractors criticized it as a “black, flagless pit,” while others attacked it as being “un-heroic,” “deathoriented,” and “intentionally not meaningful” as it went against the conventional form of a memorial. With time however, each visitor, sensing the meaning of this break in the earth, quietly takes in the long stretch of names that first appear on the few square inches of stone at the start of the incision, then become overwhelming in number and effect as the cut plunges deeper and the wall of names looms higher. As the war symbolically fades to its end up the other side, finally rejoining the normal plane of American life, visitors reach the end of the war and are left to contemplate what they have seen. The memorial could begin the healing and reconciliation process of a still divided nation. But before the nation could heal, old wounds needed to be opened.

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Surface articulation - the names of martyrs etched into the wall - (above) a visitor takes pencil rubbings of a name from the wall: this gesture gives greater meaning to the wall in itself as a source of living remembrance by making the visitor interact with it at all times.

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Other than the names, nothing on the Wall describes who the men and women were. No name appears any more meaningful or important than any other. The names are distinguished only by how the men and women were lost. A diamond next to a name indicated that a person was killed. A ‘plus’ next to a name indicated a person was missing. · The Memorial as a Place –

literal and informative

“At close range, the names dominate everything. The name of the first soldier who died is carved at the angle in the wall, and the names continue to the right in columns in chronological order of date of death, out to the east end where the wall fades into the earth. The names begin again, with the next soldier who died, at the west end, where the wall emerges from the earth....” Robert Campbell,

texture of material

“An Emotive Place Apart,” A.I.A. Journal, May 1983

Every day, family and friends of those on the Wall, and the general public, visit the memorial. Often, they leave flowers and mementos to remember their loved ones. They leave letters to say thank-you, good-bye, “I’m sorry,” and whatever else is in their heart. Some take pencil rubbings of the name of someone special.

180 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall honors all who served, and in particular, those FORCES CREATED BY SURFACE ARTICULATION

who were lost. The memorial puts a human face on what was America’s longest war.

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SPATIAL ILLUSTRATIONS 4 | T h e V i e t n a m W a r M e m o r i a l , Wa s h i n g t o n D C INFERENCES

•

This illustration demonstrates best how an architectural element can encode meaning at deeply emotional levels. This communications gives all three levels - sensorial, experiential and associational - a dual meaning to the user.

•

In the Holocaust Memorial, encoding of meaning in a basic

archetype i.e. a wall has been done through its texture (surface articulation), material, and orientation.

•

This potential of spatial forms when harnessed by the architect

influences not ony movement and other aspects of human behaviour but also cause emotions and feeling in the mind.

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CONclusion

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ sensitization, we sometimes fail to see these associations as users. This could definitely be an area of concern for a progressive designer of tomorrow. As newer materials, highly advanced building technology, and a rapidly globalizing world peer at us with the turn of every succeeding year - the point that this thesis hopes to have underlined is that the human link to the conception of spaces must never be lost. Architectural design must always attempt at being a mirror to the human face of the times. If this vital link is lost, the very essence of architecture of being an experience of emotion is lost. It is merely then a structure, a material presence in an environment that is disharmonious and inhospitable. It would evoke neither joy nor sorrow. Invite neither feeling nor association. Built space becomes just one more, redundant, tool for communication of the highest kind.

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B I B L I O G R A CONclusion PHY

Vistara: The Architecture of India by Charles Correa / Paperback / Concept Media / 1988 Meaning in Western Architecture by Christian Norberg-Schulz / Paperback / 236 Pages / Studio Vista / January 1980 Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture by Christian Norberg-Schulz / Paperback / St Martins Pr / August 1980 Intentions in Architecture by Christian Norberg Schulz / Paperback / Mit Pr / June 1966 Concept of Dwelling: On the Way to Figurative Architecture by Christian Norberg-Schulz / Paperback / St Martins Pr / June 1985 Architecture: Meaning and Place Selected Essays by Christian Norberg-Schulz Existence Space & Architecture by Christian Norberg- Schulz Meaning in Architecture by George Baird, Charles Jencks / Book / 288 Pages / Barrie & Rockliff the Cresset P. / January 1969 Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander / Hardcover / Oxford Univ Pr / July 1976 Radical Reconstruction by Lebbeus Woods / Paperback / Chronicle Books Llc / April 2001 Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design by Anthony C. Antoniades/ Paperback / 320 pages / August 1992 Remembrance and the Design of Place by Frances Downing / Hardcover / 187 Pages / Texas A & M Univ Pr / February 2001 Occupying Architecture: Between the Architect and the User by Jonathan Hil / Paperback / 253 Pages / Routledge / August 1998 Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition by Sigfried Giedion / Hardcover / Harvard Univ Pr / May 1967 Houses of Cards by Peter Eisenman, Manfredo Tafuri, Rosalind E. Krauss / Hardcover / 224 Pages / Oxford Univ Pr / November 1987 Chora L Works: Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman by Peter Eisenman, Jacques Derrida / Paperback / 207 Pages / Penguin USA / July 1997 Archetypes in Architecture by Thomas Thiis-Evensen / Paperback / Aschehoug AS / May 1988 Mind and Image: An Essay on Art and Architecture by Herb Greene / Hardcover / Intl Specialized Book Service Inc / June 1976 Queues Rendezvous Riots: Questioning the Public in Art and Architecture by George Baird, Mark Lewis / Hardcover / Lpg Distribution / June 1994 Katsura: A Princely Retreat by Akira Naito / Hardcover / Kodansha Amer Inc / August 1994 New Paradigm in Architecture: The Language of Post-Modernism by Charles Jencks / Paperback / 288 Pages / Yale Univ Pr / September 2002 Le Corbusier: An Analysis of Form by Geoffrey H. Baker / Paperback / Routledge / March 2001 The Language of Postmodern Architecture by Charles Jencks / Paperback / Wiley-Academy / July 1991 Le Corbusier: The Poetics of Machine & Metaphor by Alexander Tzonis / Paperback / Thames and Hudson Ltd / January 2002 Beehive Metaphor: From Gaudi to Le Corbusier by Juan Antonio Ramirez / Paperback / Consortium Book Sales & Dist / April 2000 Le Corbusier: LA Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly / Paperback / 137 Pages / Chronicle Books Llc / November 1997 Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright by Peter Blake / Paperback / W W Norton & Co Inc / October 1976 Daniel Libeskind: Countersign by Daniel Libeskind / Hardcover / St Martins Pr / February 1992 Daniel Libeskind Jewish Museum Berlin: Jewish Museum Berlin Between the Lines by Daniel Libeskind / Paperback / 64 Pages / Prestel Pub / May 1999 Jewish Museum Berlin by Daniel Libeskind / Paperback / 160 Pages / Taylor & Francis / June 1999 Architecture and Disjunction by Bernard Tschumi / Paperback / Mit Pr / April 1996 Complexity & Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi / Paperback / Architectural Press / November 1977 Architecture, Form, Space and Order by Frank Ching / Hardcover / Thomson Learning / January 1980

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BIBLI CONclusion

OGRAPHY


Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich / Paperback / Perseus Books Group / March 1991 Modern Architecture by Vincent Scully / Paperback / 158 Pages / W W Norton & Co Inc / June 1977 History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj by Christopher Tadgell / Paperback / 336 Pages / Phaidon Inc Ltd / September 1995 Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms by George Michell / Paperback / Univ of Chicago Pr / November 1988 Modern Architecture in India: Post-Independence Perspective by Sarbjit Bahga, Surinder Bahga, Yashinder Bahga / Book / 268 Pages / Galgotia Pub Co / January 1993 Concept of Space: In Traditional Indian Architecture by Yatin Pandya / Hardcover / Mapin Publishing Pvt Ltd / June 2004 Elements of Space Making by Yatin Pandya / Vastu-Shilpa foundation / July 2003 Zaha Hadid: The Complete Buildings & Projects by Zaha Hadid, Aaron Betsky/ Paperback / Thames and Hudson Ltd / October 1998 Archilab: Radical Experiments in Global Architecture by Frederic Migayrou/ Hardcover / Thames and Hudson Ltd / May 2001 The Living Planet by David Attenborough/ Hardcover / BBC Books / 1984 Lessons for Students in Architecture by Herman Hertzberger/ Book / 272 Pages / Uitgeverij 010 Publishers / January 1991 Architecture After Modernism by Diane Ghirardo/ Paperback / 240 Pages / W W Norton & Co Inc / October 1996 Towards a New Architecture by Le Corbusier/ Paperback / Dover Pubns / February 1986 Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms by William Curtis/ Paperback / 240 Pages / Phaidon Inc Ltd / April 1995 Mimesis As Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts by Kendall L. Walton/ Paperback / Harvard Univ Pr / October 1993 Built, the Unbuilt & the Unbuildable: In Pursuit of Architectural Meaning by Robert Harbison/ Hardcover / Thames and Hudson Ltd / April 1991 Body, Memory and Architecture by Kent C. Bloomer, Charles Willard Moore/ Book / 147 Pages / Yale University Press / January 1977 Sign,image & symbol by Gyorgy Kepes/ Unknown Binding / Studio Vista / January 1966 I.M. Pei by Aileen Reid/ Hardcover / Random House Value Pub / March 1995 Michael Sorkin Studio: Wiggle by Michael Sorkin/ Paperback / Springer-Verlag Vienna / September 1998 Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From a to B and Back Again by Andy Warhol/ Paperback / 241 Pages / Harcourt / April 1977 Metropolis by Fritz Lang, Forrest J. Ackerman, Thea Von Harbou/ Paperback / 264 Pages / Lightning Source Inc / November 2001

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UNPUBLISHED THESES Thinking in Metaphors - A Dip into Design Thinking by Niraj Shah / Thesis - 0011 / School of Interior Design / CEPT/ Ahmedabad Visual Experience of Signs in Space by Monica Hirani / Thesis - 0046 / School of Interior Design / CEPT/ Ahmedabad Perceptual Conceptual Dynamics of Space-making by Priyamvada Singh / Thesis - 0052 / School of Interior Design / CEPT/ Ahmedabad Symbolism and its manifestation in interior spaces by Komal Dighe / Thesis - 0093 / School of Interior Design / CEPT/ Ahmedabad

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ ! !

I L L U S T R A T CONclusion IONS

The author has produced all illustrations that are not marked with a number. All images marked as “from the author’s personal collection of photographs” are from the author’s personal travels over a span of five years and more.

PREFACE – 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

From “The Living Planet”/ David Attenborough La Guernica by Pablo Picasso - www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9820/guernica.htm The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893) - www.museumsnett.no/nasjonalgalleriet/ munch/eng/innhold/ngm00939.html The Living Planet/ David Attenborough www.photovault.com/Link/Cities/ Europe/France/Places/NotreDame.html www.photovault.com/Link/Nature/ Weather/Tornadoes/NWTVolume01.html From “Zaha Hadid: The Complete Buildings & Projects”/ Zaha Hadid, Aaron Betsky From “History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=817102419&item=828857

CHAPTER 1 F r o m t h e a u t h o r ’ s p e r s o n a l t r a v e l s : 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 34, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 51, 52, 53, 54, 59, 60, 61, 65, 69, 71, 72, 79 From books and websites: 2. The Living Planet/ David Attenborough 8/9. Lessons for Students in Architecture/ Herman Hertzberger 10. http://www.allposter.com/gallery 11. http://www.allposter.com/gallery 12. http://www.allposter.com/gallery 13. Mind and Image: An Essay on Art and Architecture/ Herb Greene 16. Mind and Image: An Essay on Art and Architecture/ Herb Greene 17. www.artoflegendindia.com/read/pictures_of_ramayana.htm 18. www.sholay.com/stories/2000/september/25092000.htm 19. Lessons for Students in Architecture/ Herman Hertzberger 20. http://www.andotadao.org/chlight2.htm 21. reisserbilder.at/en/index.asp?a=g&gid=122 22. History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj by Christopher Tadgell 23. www.sanatansociety.com/indian_ art_galleries/hg_ganesha_paintings.htm 24. www.indianceleb.com/enter/Sachin-Tendulkar-Website.html 26. Lessons for Students in Architecture/ Herman Hertzberger 27. www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/ detail/-/0226776247?v=glance&vi=reviews - 48k – 28. www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/exhibits/SydneyHarbour/ - 6k 29. www.galinsky.com/buildings/twa/ 30. Image # 437, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition/ Sigfried Giedion 31. www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Guggenheim_Bilbao.html 32. from; Sign,Image & Symbol/ Gyorgy Kepes 33. The Living Planet/ David Attenborough

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TRATIONS

– – From Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design/ Anthony C. Antoniades – – Mind and Image: An Essay on Art and Architecture/ Herb Greene Archilab: Radical Experiments in Global Architecture/ Frederic Migayrou http://www.kanakasabha.com/kanakasabha/index.jsp www.yamasa.org/japan/english/ destinations/kyoto/nijo.html – from; I.M.Pei/ Aileen Reed http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Frank_Lloyd_Wright.html http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Hagia_Sophia.html Great Architecture of the World/ John Julius Norwich History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj by Christopher Tadgell 62. History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj by Christopher Tadgell 63. From author’s personal collection of photographs (courtesy Birju Shah, SID,CEPT) 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 55. 56. 56. 57.

CHAPTER 2 1. 4. 5. 7.

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10. 20. 21. 25. 26. 27. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

From http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Musee_Orsay.html From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook From; “Vistara: The Architecture of India”/ Charles Correa “History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell From “Michael Sorkin Studio: Wiggle”/ Michael Sorkin From; http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Wexner_Center.html From; “I.M.Pei”/ Aileen Reed From http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Musee_Orsay.html From “Lessons for Students in Architecture”/ Herman Hertzberger From www.andotadao.org From http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Musee_Orsay.html From Festival diary, CEPT, India From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook “History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell “History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell Le Corbusier: La Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ 64. From; Jewish Museum Berlin/ Daniel Libeskind 65. From author’s personal collection of photographs; www.greatbuildings.com (for Bilbao) 66. From Michael Sorkin Studio: Wiggle/ Michael Sorkin 67. From; http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Wexner_Center.html 68. Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From a to B and Back Again/ Andy Warhol 70. From Metropolis/ Fritz Lang, Forrest J. Ackerman, Thea Von Harbou 73. From [email protected] 74. From Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design/ Anthony C. Antoniades 75. From; http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Taj_Mahal.html 76. From Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design/ Anthony C. Antoniades 77. From; Sign,Image & Symbol/ Gyorgy Kepes 78. www.noguchi.org/lifework.html 80. www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Charles_Correa.html 81. —

36. From; http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Taj_Mahal.html 37. From www.andotadao.org 39. “History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 40. 41. www.incredibleindianet.com/ incredible-india-luxury-tours/beach-tour-ofindia1.html 43. www.geocities.com/SoHo/1469/flw.html 44. www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Le_Corbusier.html 45. www.andotadao.org/ando_resume.html 46. 47. 48. From author’s personal collection of photographs (courtesy Rajat Shail Singh, SID, CEPT) 49. From “Lessons for Students in Architecture”/ Herman Hertzberger 51. 52. Archilab: Radical Experiments in Global Architecture/ Frederic Migayrou 53. www.indiastudies.org/Publications/pages/EITAN.htm 54. Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978 56. From; “Vistara: The Architecture of India”/ Charles Correa 57. Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition/ Sigfried Giedion

58. www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Sydney_Opera.html

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ 58. www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Sydney_Opera.html 59. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Guggenheim_Bilbao.html 60. From author’s personal collection of photographs (courtesy Rajat Shail Singh, SID, CEPT) 61. “History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 62. www.tourism-of-india.com/lotus-temple-newdelhi.html 63. www.galinsky.com/buildings/lyonairport/ 64. From; http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Wexner_Center.html 65. From; “I.M.Pei”/ Aileen Reed 66. www.andotadao.org/ando_resume.html 67. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/TWA_at_New_York.html 68. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Guggenheim_Museum.html 69. Archilab: Radical Experiments in Global Architecture/ Frederic Migayrou 70. www.madurai.com/gallery.htm 71. www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Norman_Foster.html 72. www.musee-orsay.fr/ 75. www.greatbuildings.com/architects/ Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe.html 76. www.andotadao.org/ando_resume.html 77. TC 78. TC 80. www.pbase.com/cokids/fallingwater 81. From; “Vistara: The Architecture of India”/ Charles Correa 82. From; “Vistara: The Architecture of India”/ Charles Correa 83. From; phoenix.about.com/cs/famous/a/taliesin01.htm 84. Archilab: Radical Experiments in Global Architecture/ Frederic Migayrou 85. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Guggenheim_Bilbao.html 86. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Guggenheim_Bilbao.html 88. — 89. From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook 90. www.greatbuildings.com/ buildings/Johnson_Wax_Building.html 91. From; www.vietvet.org/thewall.htm 92. From; www.andotadao.org/ando_resume.html 93. From www.musee-orsay.fr/ 98. From; Katsura: A Princely Retreat/ Akira Naito 99. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 100. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 101. — 102. “History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 104. From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook

CONclusion 105. From author’s personal collection of photographs (courtesy Birju Shah/SID/CEPT) 106. “History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 107. History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 108. 109. From; Archilab: Radical Experiments in Global Architecture/ Frederic Migayrou 110. From; Archilab: Radical Experiments in Global Architecture/ Frederic Migayrou 111. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/ Guggenheim_Museum.html 112. From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook 113. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/ Guggenheim_Museum.html 114. TC 115. From; Katsura: A Princely Retreat/ Akira Naito 116. From; Katsura: A Princely Retreat/ Akira Naito 117. From; Katsura: A Princely Retreat/ Akira Naito 119. TC 121. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Fallingwater.html 122. TC 123. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Fallingwater.html 124. TC 127. Le Corbusier: La Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly 128. Le Corbusier: La Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly 129. From; Lessons for Students in Architecture/ Herman Hertzberger 130. From; Lessons for Students in Architecture/ Herman Hertzberger 131. From; Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978 132. From; Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978 133. From; Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978 134. From; Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978

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135. From; Katsura: A Princely Retreat/ Akira Naito 136. From; Katsura: A Princely Retreat/ Akira Naito 137. From; Katsura: A Princely Retreat/ Akira Naito 138. History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 139. History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 140. From; Lessons for Students in Architecture/ Herman Hertzberger 141. From; Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978 142. From; Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978 144. From unpublished thesis – “An Enquiry into the phenomena of insert – an investigation of the work of Carlo Scarpa”, by Parantap Bhatt /SID/ CEPT. 145. From; http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Musee_Orsay.html 146. From; unpublished thesis – “An Enquiry into the phenomena of insert – an investigation of the work of Carlo Scarpa”, by Parantap Bhatt /SID/ CEPT. 147. From unpublished thesis – “An Enquiry into the phenomena of insert – an investigation of the work of Carlo Scarpa”, by Parantap Bhatt /SID/ CEPT. 148. From; Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978 149. From; Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978 150. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Guggenheim_Museum.html 151. From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook 152. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Guggenheim_Museum.html 153. From; [email protected] 154. From; [email protected] 155. From; Vistara: The Architecture of India/ Charles Correa 156. From; Le Corbusier: La Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly 157. From; “Jewish Museum Berlin”/ Daniel Libeskind 158. From; www.awildorchid.com/monuments2.htm 159. From; www.greatbuildings.com/ buildings/Chartres_Cathedral.html 160. From; www.jewishlink.net/holocaust.html 161. From; www.war-stories.com/wall-search-1.htm 162. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ 163. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 164. From author’s personal collection of photographs (courtesy: Anjalika Bose, SID, CEPT) 165. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 166. From; Vistara: The Architecture of India/ Charles Correa 167. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 168. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 169. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 172. From; Sign,image & symbol/ Gyorgy Kepes 173. From; chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/nritya.html 179. From; www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Sydney_Opera.html 181. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 182. From; www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Musee_Orsay.html 185. From; Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition/ Sigfried Giedion 186. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 187. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 188. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 189. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 190. 194. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 195. From; “Jewish Museum Berlin”/ Daniel Libeskind 197. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 198. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 199. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 200. From; Vistara: The Architecture of India/ Charles Correa 201. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 202. From; Le Corbusier: La Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly 203. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 204. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 205. 206. — 209. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ 210. From; Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition/ Sigfried Giedion 211. From; www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/ohio/cincy/hadid/cac.html 214. — 221. From; Le Corbusier: La Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly 222. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 224. From; Le Corbusier: La Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly 225. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 226. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 229. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 230. From; www.galinsky.com/buildings/colconv/ 231. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 233. From; www.picturesofengland.com/England/ Wiltshire/Amesbury/ Stonehenge/pictures 234. From author’s personal collection of photographs (courtesy: Anjalika Bose SID/CEPT) 235. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 236. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 240. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 242. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 243. From; www.geocities.com/SoHo/1469/flw.html 244. From; www.oprf.com/unity/tour/ 245. From; www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/ Convent_of_La_Tourette.html 249. From; Katsura: A Princely Retreat/ Akira Naito 253. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 254. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 255. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 256. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 257. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 258. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 260. — 261. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 262. — 263. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 264. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich

CONclusion 265. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 266. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 268. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 269. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 270. From; Zaha Hadid: The Complete Buildings & Projects/ Zaha Hadid, Aaron Betsky 272. From; Le Corbusier: La Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly 273. www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Hagia_Sophia.html 274. www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Hagia_Sophia.html 275. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 276. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 277. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 278. From; History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj”/ Christopher Tadgell 279. www.travelsinparadise.com/australia/sydney/ 280. www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Sydney _Opera.html 281. From; Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition/ Sigfried Giedion 282. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 287. From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook 288. From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook 289. From “Terence Conran on Design” / Terence Conran/ Hardcover/ 288 pages/ Sep 1996/ Overlook 291. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 292. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 293. 294. From; Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich 295. From; “Jewish Museum Berlin”/ Daniel Libeskind 296. From; Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture by Michael Franklin Ross/ Book/ 200 Pages/ Architectural Record Books/ January 1978 299. www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Fallingwater.html 300. www.imagesaustralia.com/sydney.htm 301. www.virtualtourist.com/vt/10c85e/4/2468/ 302 . From; “I.M.Pei’/ Aileen Reed

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CONclusion


From the author’s personal travels: 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 38, 42, 50, 55, 73, 74, 79, 87, 94, 95, 96, 103, 118, 120, 125, 126, 143, 170, 171, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 183, 184, 191, 192, 193, 196, 207, 208, 212, 213, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 223, 227, 228, 232, 237, 238, 239, 241, 242, 243,244,245,246,247,248, 250, 251, 252, 259, 267, 271, 283, 284, 285, 286, 296, 297, 298 Chapter 3

"

All images, illustrations have been produced by the author, unless specified below.

Illustration 2) All pictures are from Le Corbusier: An Analysis of Form/ Geoffrey H. Baker/ Paperback / Routledge / March 2001 Le Corbusier: The Poetics of Machine & Metaphor/ Alexander Tzonis/ Paperback / Thames and Hudson Ltd / January 2002 Beehive Metaphor: From Gaudi to Le Corbusier/ Juan Antonio Ramirez/ Paperback / Consortium Book Sales & Dist / April 2000 Le Corbusier: LA Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp/ Daniele Pauly/ Paperback / 137 Pages / Chronicle Books Llc / November 1997 Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright/ Peter Blake/ Paperback / W W Norton & Co Inc / October 1976 Illustration 3) All pictures are from Daniel Libeskind: Countersign/ Daniel Libeskind/ Hardcover / St Martins Pr / February 1992 Daniel Libeskind Jewish Museum Berlin: Jewish Museum Berlin Between the Lines/ Daniel Libeskind, Bernhard Schneider/ Paperback / 64 Pages / Prestel Pub / May 1999 Jewish Museum Berlin/ Daniel Libeskind/ Paperback / 160 Pages / Taylor & Francis / June 1999

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T H A Y O U

N

K “...And now,

The end is near and so I face, The final curtain, My friend I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.

Guruji and the unseen powers that guide me... Ma, Baba and Kunal - my family. My temples of peace, love and understanding. Thank you for the freedom, the unconditional love, friendship, support and togetherness; and for urging me to be the best Rahul Sen I could possibly be. The Bose family in New Delhi - Maami, Maamu and Tiklu for being my home away f rom home; my second family - I can never thank y ou enough. Our bonds are too deep to ever be bro ken. My director, Prof Krishna Shastri - for being there for me l i ke only a mother would. For nurturing me and giving me the courage to innovate. Thank y ou KD and the entire staff at the CEPT and NID libraries

I’ve lived a life that’s full, I travelled each and every highway.

My guide Prof Yatin Pandya, for being the most patient and understanding guide ever - but also for some ‘meaningful’ discussions these last 5 years.

And more, Much more than this -

My good friend Prof. Aniket B hagwat for bel ieving in me, and more important ly - making me believe in myself and my potential.

I did it my way”

P rof. Kirit ’bhai - for being my greatest teacher, guide and phi losopher these last few y ears. Snehal’ben’ - for being a great teacher and friend. Rajan’bhai’- for being a dedicated teacher and for al l the help.

- Frank Sinatra

The old guard - Rajat, Nal ini, Parker, Abhishek, Pa rantap for al l the inspiration these last fiv e years. To the team members of Natakbaazi and the SID cricket team - you hav e taught me more lessons about life than you wil l ever know. The gang - Apeksha, Shakti, Shweta, Chandni, Dhara, Surra, Srujana for all the memories. My good friends from archi tecture - Ranjeet, Veer, Viraj, Bala, Zameer, Sagarika, Rika, Ipsit, Mihir, Naman, Niketa, Ashok - for the laughter. B irju, PK , Jyoti, Pooja and Darshan S oni for al l their help, friendship and support through the years - especial ly when I needed it most. Megs - for being a great thesis companion and a caring friend. Thank you for the coffee and the memories! Last but certainly not least, the people who real ly need all the thanks - Anjal ika. My greatest friend, companion, rival and mentor since I first came to SID. Rink - I owe my every happiness and success to you. We wil l be in each other ’s hearts fore ver.

Thank You Kavit, Mitul and the guys at ‘Mint’. The most inspiring place to sit and do a thesis!

Krithika - words can nev er describe the immense debt I owe to you. Only you know how I feel when I say this - Thank you for being there for me through my darkest moments and my greatest of suc cesses. You are in my heart and mind alwa ys. Finish fast! Hiske - for finding me the wings to exceed my self and for chasing a dream....

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CONclusion


CONCLUSION (....When do spaces die?)

....can a search for meaning ever end?

182

CONclusion


From our analysis so far it emerges that Spaces act as Signs in both subtle and obvious ways to the user as well as the designer. In ancient times, in almost every civilization across the world, architecture played a pivotal role in the evolution of a culture. Through this evolution - a further refinement of its signal systems in all forms of communication came about as a natural consequence. Architecture was the fountainhead of art, sculpture, music and dance. Be it in the Egyptian, the Roman, The Greek or the Indian civilization over a thousand or more years ago - Architecture was where a civilization placed its social treasures. In every society, a certain built form - either the Cathedral, the Temple, the Mosque etc. - was always given the status of a social nuclei around which common life performed its activities. An architect was a person of supreme skill and ability to synthesize all forms of arts, craft and culture. Architecture was recognized by people of the time as something that was a powerful tool for communication of emotions and value and in that sense, it acted as a conscious mirror of the progress of a society, or the lack of it. Architecture as a signature of its time Above - A man dressed as a Roman guard from ancient times stands outside the Pantheon in Rome and entertains tourists. Below - Greek army soldiers conduct an army drill be-

Today, the reflection in the mirror that is life, has changed. Society has undergone rapid changes. The role of the built space is under serious threat, as it struggles to reinvent and establish for itself the once meaningful place that it found for itself as the pillars of society.

side the Acropolis in Athens Illustration source - from the author’s personal travels

We live in the midst of a human race today where a blind belief in ‘nuclear’ society of every kind is rapidly disintegrating. There is no one irrefutable meaning.

183

CONclusion

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ But that does not mean designers should deny themselves the chance to provide a platform for re-interpretation of multivalent meaning. There is no one supreme truth. But that does not mean that architecture should cease striving to attain a semblance of reality. In the last century or so, the sole supremacy of religion over the masses has rapidly been dissolving the world over. Newer binding forces find themselves being given places of increasing importance with each passing year. This can best be characterized by the rapid, frantic changes that merely the last fifty years have witnessed in the field of technology alone. As communication vehicles, signs will always change their content with the evolution of newer vehicles for their recognition . For example, the wheel thousands of years ago was the symbol of transportation, today it is the space-shuttle, or as was depicted in the tele-serial “Star Trek” in the 80’s - deatomization of the human body and transportation through their displacement. A decade ago, the cellular phone was merely a figment of the imagination of the

184

daring dreamer. It is today found in the hands of every age-group and strata of civil society. Merely a couple of decades ago, the computer was an alien concept. Today, it finds itself at the cog of every wheel that turns in the diverse mechanism of life. Even the remotest towns and villages find themselves being rapidly connected to the rest of the world via the Internet and the computer. Spin the clock a few more decades backward in time - and the television, the radio, the telephone - the electronic media boom, were all alien phenomenon. As a result, the way we look at things, the way we read, the way we talk, act and communicate has changed. The way we think - conceptually and perceptually, has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past generation alone.


CONclusion

Signal content of the newer media have played an undeniable role in affecting our lives forever. The point that is being underlined through all these cues is that as modes of communication evolve over a period of time, so too must the signs and symbols of the parole or ‘signal-inventory’ that makes certain form of communication possible. Built spaces must continue to evolve as signs. Spaces must continue to generate for themselves, a newer and more comprehensible signal repertoire so that it can reach out and touch the masses. It must continue to be able to strike a familiar chord with the emotions of people once again so that the people in turn look up to architecture as being more than just shelter from physical factors, but as bastions of cultural progress in a a society. From our study it becomes clear that this change in signal content is inevitable in architectural design as well. It is either a conscious tool for the architect while designing a building. Or it creeps in subtly into thought processes and conception. In any case, at the end of the user , ‘associative abstraction’ is an inevitable process of perception. The user will always abstract environmental phenomena to their essence, in order to mentally digest the signals being sent to the brain, and re-act accordingly. Spaces can either incorporate this aspect in their conception, or be confined to being mere functional mechanisms.

More specifically with architectural design, the process of associating correlated and apparently fragmented phenomena; is an undeniable perceptual tool. The designer may choose to encompass this tool in the conceptual process or be resigned to the designed spaces being abstracted and judged

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CONclusion

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ perceptually by the user in ways that were never intended - resulting in miscommunication. The four illustrations that have been chosen for the purpose of our analysis, are all public spaces that manifest themselves as important built forms in their respective culture. They are loaded with signs that point toward the realization of a meaning - a message that wants to be communicated to the user. In the case of The Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp, the space communicates the essence of Christianity for its time and the embodiment of its principles through a built form. It acts as a vessel of meaning - some of which are perceived and some which need to be investigated and underscored to reiterate their presence. But the undeniable feeling of ‘place’ that a user gets upon visiting the space has a lasting impact. Each wall here, each archetypal component of this Corbusian masterpiece acts as a sign by associating human processes, emotions, feelings and religious principles with the use of spatial elements in the play of light.

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In the case of the Jewish Holocaust Museum at Berlin and the Vietnam War Memorial at Washington DC, the built forms stand as mute reminders of two of the last century’s worst human atrocities. They serve as powerful reminders to the people who visit it of the dangers and perils of war and violence - by signifying human feelings through their architectural components. In the case of the Holocaust Museum in Berlin, this feeling is comnveyed in highly abstracted terms through often irrational codification processes. But the journey through the space evokes the same feelings of hopelessness and desperation that a person involved in the Holocausr must have felt. In the case of the Wall in Washington DC, the codification of meaning into a simple archetype of a wall is shown to have far reaching and dramatic effects on the people who visit it.


CONclusion

In Chapter 2, where our analysis focuses on archetypes and their collective configurations, we conclude that each and every element within in a space can be endowed with a power of non-verbal speech. Spatial constructs can communicate various aspects of their existence and other abstract and associated concepts that make the experience of a space much more enriching and memorable. We also emphasize the importance of how meaning manifests through the spatial narrative with the kinesthetic experience in a space. History has proven, and the future will only underline the fact that a meaningful archetype usually re-invents itself. The understanding of archetypes was essential to understand their basic function and their basic semantic content. From our enquiry, it becomes quite clear, that the archetype of a roof will never cease to exist in so long as mankind needs to be sheltered. As a sign of a roof however, the messages encoded in the articulation of the roof changes with time and with changing expressional concerns. Where carving on the wall of a temple earlier provided us with important historical information of the time in which it was built - graffiti and advertisement hoardings today communicate the same parole, but in a vastly different langue.

From our analysis, it emerges that spaces act as signs in various different ways. However, most of these ways are so deeply ingrained in our reflex mechanisms that as users, we often take them for granted. Conversely, due to a lack of

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CONclusion

SPACES AS ‘SIGNS’ sensitization, we sometimes fail to see these associations as users. This could definitely be an area of concern for a progressive designer of tomorrow. As newer materials, highly advanced building technology, and a rapidly globalizing world peer at us with the turn of every succeeding year - the point that this thesis hopes to have underlined is that the human link to the conception of spaces must never be lost. Architectural design must always attempt at being a mirror to the human face of the times. If this vital link is lost, the very essence of architecture of being an experience of emotion is lost. It is merely then a structure, a material presence in an environment that is disharmonious and inhospitable. It would evoke neither joy nor sorrow. Invite neither feeling nor association. Built space becomes just one more, redundant, tool for communication of the highest kind.

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B I B L I O G R A CONclusion PHY

Vistara: The Architecture of India by Charles Correa / Paperback / Concept Media / 1988 Meaning in Western Architecture by Christian Norberg-Schulz / Paperback / 236 Pages / Studio Vista / January 1980 Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture by Christian Norberg-Schulz / Paperback / St Martins Pr / August 1980 Intentions in Architecture by Christian Norberg Schulz / Paperback / Mit Pr / June 1966 Concept of Dwelling: On the Way to Figurative Architecture by Christian Norberg-Schulz / Paperback / St Martins Pr / June 1985 Architecture: Meaning and Place Selected Essays by Christian Norberg-Schulz Existence Space & Architecture by Christian Norberg- Schulz Meaning in Architecture by George Baird, Charles Jencks / Book / 288 Pages / Barrie & Rockliff the Cresset P. / January 1969 Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander / Hardcover / Oxford Univ Pr / July 1976 Radical Reconstruction by Lebbeus Woods / Paperback / Chronicle Books Llc / April 2001 Poetics in Architecture by Leon Van Schaik / Paperback / John Wiley & Sons Inc / May 2002 Remembrance and the Design of Place by Frances Downing / Hardcover / 187 Pages / Texas A & M Univ Pr / February 2001 Occupying Architecture: Between the Architect and the User by Jonathan Hil / Paperback / 253 Pages / Routledge / August 1998 Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition by Sigfried Giedion / Hardcover / Harvard Univ Pr / May 1967 Houses of Cards by Peter Eisenman, Manfredo Tafuri, Rosalind E. Krauss / Hardcover / 224 Pages / Oxford Univ Pr / November 1987 Chora L Works: Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman by Peter Eisenman, Jacques Derrida / Paperback / 207 Pages / Penguin USA / July 1997 Archetypes in Architecture by Thomas Thiis-Evensen / Paperback / Aschehoug AS / May 1988 Mind and Image: An Essay on Art and Architecture by Herb Greene / Hardcover / Intl Specialized Book Service Inc / June 1976 Queues Rendezvous Riots: Questioning the Public in Art and Architecture by George Baird, Mark Lewis / Hardcover / Lpg Distribution / June 1994 Katsura: A Princely Retreat by Akira Naito / Hardcover / Kodansha Amer Inc / August 1994 New Paradigm in Architecture: The Language of Post-Modernism by Charles Jencks / Paperback / 288 Pages / Yale Univ Pr / September 2002 Le Corbusier: An Analysis of Form by Geoffrey H. Baker / Paperback / Routledge / March 2001 The Language of Postmodern Architecture by Charles Jencks / Paperback / Wiley-Academy / July 1991 Le Corbusier: The Poetics of Machine & Metaphor by Alexander Tzonis / Paperback / Thames and Hudson Ltd / January 2002 Beehive Metaphor: From Gaudi to Le Corbusier by Juan Antonio Ramirez / Paperback / Consortium Book Sales & Dist / April 2000

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OGRAPHY


Le Corbusier: LA Chapelle De Ronchamp, the Chapel at Ronchamp by Daniele Pauly / Paperback / 137 Pages / Chronicle Books Llc / November 1997 Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright by Peter Blake / Paperback / W W Norton & Co Inc / October 1976 Daniel Libeskind: Countersign by Daniel Libeskind / Hardcover / St Martins Pr / February 1992 Daniel Libeskind Jewish Museum Berlin: Jewish Museum Berlin Between the Lines by Daniel Libeskind / Paperback / 64 Pages / Prestel Pub / May 1999 Jewish Museum Berlin by Daniel Libeskind / Paperback / 160 Pages / Taylor & Francis / June 1999 Architecture and Disjunction by Bernard Tschumi / Paperback / Mit Pr / April 1996 Complexity & Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi / Paperback / Architectural Press / November 1977 Architecture, Form, Space and Order by Frank Ching / Hardcover / Thomson Learning / January 1980 Great Architecture of the World by John Julius Norwich / Paperback / Perseus Books Group / March 1991 Modern Architecture by Vincent Scully / Paperback / 158 Pages / W W Norton & Co Inc / June 1977 History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj by Christopher Tadgell / Paperback / 336 Pages / Phaidon Inc Ltd / September 1995 Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms by George Michell / Paperback / Univ of Chicago Pr / November 1988 Modern Architecture in India: Post-Independence Perspective by Sarbjit Bahga, Surinder Bahga, Yashinder Bahga / Book / 268 Pages / Galgotia Pub Co / January 1993 Concept of Space: In Traditional Indian Architecture by Yatin Pandya / Hardcover / Mapin Publishing Pvt Ltd / June 2004

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ILLUSTRATIONS

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CONclusion

ILLUSTRATIONS

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CONclusion


T H A Y O U

N

K “...And now,

The end is near and so I face, The final curtain, My friend I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.

Guruji and the unseen powers that guide me... Ma, Baba and Kunal - my family. My temples of peace, love and understanding. Thank you for the freedom, the unconditional love, friendship, support and togetherness; and for urging me to be the best Rahul Sen I could possibly be. The Bose family in New Delhi - Maami, Maamu and Tiklu for being my home away f rom home; my second family - I can never thank y ou enough. Our bonds are too deep to ever be bro ken. My director, Prof Krishna Shastri - for being there for me l i ke only a mother would. For nurturing me and giving me the courage to innovate. Thank y ou KD and the entire staff at the CEPT and NID libraries

I’ve lived a life that’s full, I travelled each and every highway.

My guide Prof Yatin Pandya, for being the most patient and understanding guide ever - but also for some ‘meaningful’ discussions these last 5 years.

And more, Much more than this -

My good friend Prof. Aniket B hagwat for bel ieving in me, and more important ly - making me believe in myself and my potential.

I did it my way”

P rof. Kirit ’bhai - for being my greatest teacher, guide and phi losopher these last few y ears. Snehal’ben’ - for being a great teacher and friend. Rajan’bhai’- for being a dedicated teacher and for al l the help.

- Frank Sinatra

The old guard - Rajat, Nal ini, Parker, Abhishek, Pa rantap for al l the inspiration these last fiv e years. To the team members of Natakbaazi and the SID cricket team - you hav e taught me more lessons about life than you wil l ever know. The gang - Apeksha, Shakti, Shweta, Chandni, Dhara, Surra, Srujana for all the memories. My good friends from archi tecture - Ranjeet, Veer, Viraj, Bala, Zameer, Sagarika, Rika, Ipsit, Mihir, Naman, Niketa, Ashok - for the laughter. B irju, PK , Jyoti, Pooja and Darshan S oni for al l their help, friendship and support through the years - especial ly when I needed it most. Megs - for being a great thesis companion and a caring friend. Thank you for the coffee and the memories! Last but certainly not least, the people who real ly need all the thanks - Anjal ika. My greatest friend, companion, rival and mentor since I first came to SID. Rink - I owe my every happiness and success to you. We wil l be in each other ’s hearts fore ver.

Thank You Kavit, Mitul and the guys at ‘Mint’. The most inspiring place to sit and do a thesis!

Krithika - words can nev er describe the immense debt I owe to you. Only you know how I feel when I say this - Thank you for being there for me through my darkest moments and my greatest of suc cesses. You are in my heart and mind alwa ys. Finish fast! Hiske - for finding me the wings to exceed my self and for chasing a dream....

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Space as a Sign

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