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Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture

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Architects and students who are bored to death by OMA, MVRDV, Hadid, and the rest of the New Postmodernists will find consolation -- and inspiration -- in this book.

"Questions of Perception" was originally printed in July 1994, as a special issue of the architectural journal A+U. Back issues have been sold out for some time, and until recently, buying a used copy of the book would have set you back a couple hundred dollars. I'm very glad to see that the publishers of A+U decided to reprint these important essays.

Rather than serving as a polemical manifesto, or another boring iteration of reactionary academic theory, the authors discuss the experience of architecture on a basic psychophysiological level. Unlike the work of many of today's starchitects, this book will never seem dated, because it is focused on human constants -- the way that our minds and bodies respond to space, light, texture, color, and other architectural fundamentals. It is not a manual of style, or a collection of glossy photos for you to copy in your next project. It requires active thought. It requires an attention span. You have to absorb the meaning of the writings, not just look at computer renderings with copy+pasted supermodel silhouettes. It has nothing to do with urbanism, globalism, terrorism, or any of the other "isms" that hopeless, clueless, talentless academics increasingly try to link to the building and construction industry. Instead, it's a quiet reflection on the ways that buildings (and natural environments) shape our daily experiences. Even though 13 years have passed since these essays were written, they are still highly relevant for any designer who wants to infuse their work with quality and honesty.

As far as I can tell, the book's design is identical to the 1994 version, with the exception of the cover artwork. I must admit that $50 is a bit pricey for a book that is so plainly printed and bound. Regardless, it's better than paying a couple hundred dollars for a used copy of the original. And, all things considered, it's only a few dollars more than something like S,M,L,XL. So if you're tired of pretentious, pedantic academese, and you're ready to read something with permanence and substance, do yourself a favor and buy "Questions of Perception" instead.

The book is a combination of three articles. The first article, Architectural Space: Meaning as Presence and Representation, is by Alberto Perez-Gomez. The second article, Architecture of the Seven Senses, is by Juhani Pallasmaa, and the third article by Steven Holl is titled Questions of Perception: The Phenomenology of Architecture. The articles were originally published in the Architecture and Urbanism periodical in July of 1994, and were recently published into a separate book by William Stout Publishers.

The first article, Architectural Space: Meaning as Presence and Representation, discusses architecture in only two of its sixteen pages. The article is very dense and must be read many times over to be able to grasp what the author is trying to say. Gomez begins with a story about how architecture and language were created simultaneously with the invention of fire, arguing "This architectural action was an act of affirmation taking place in a space that was, from its inception, social, cultural and linguistic." (Gomez pg. 9) He continues to discuss art in Ancient Greece, specifically of theatre and how architecture played a role in its creation of public space. The rest of his argument tries to explain to the reader Plato's writing of space and how `mysterious' it is.

Professor Joseph Agassi wrote a book review on these articles and when writing about this first article by Gomez, Agassi strongly expresses that Gomez fails to explain Plato's writings correctly. Gomez writes as if Plato's writings of space are mysterious when in fact Plato had a strong opinion about space and what it was made up of. "According to the ancient atoms theory, the world is made up of space and particles that move in it. Plato rejected this approach, presenting his own theory but which the world is composed of matter and form, whereby space is nothing but formless matter." Agassi pg. 14) This is a mystery in itself and that is what Gomez is trying to explain but he writes nothing about fact leading the reader to believe, if they know nothing of scientific history, that Plato was a poetic writer that spoke only of space and how it is mysterious in ways we don't understand, when actually Plato had very specific ideas about what space actually is.

The second article, Architecture of the Seven Senses, discusses how all the senses are closely integrated. Pallasma argues that architecture has turned into something only for the eye, but in reality all human senses engage architecture. He argues that "We behold, touch, listen and measure the world with our entire bodily existence and the experiential world is organized and articulated around the center of the body." (Pallasma pg. 35) He continues to discuss material and their relation to the human touch, light and shadow with the relation of temperature on ones skin; he discusses how smell and sound can trigger memories of space, giving specific examples for each of these arguments. I agree with Pallasma, in that architecture is sensual. No matter who you a stone floor covered in sun is going to feel warm beneath your feet, and the touch of wood is going to feel more natural than the touch of metal.

The article starts to speculate around Pallasma's arguments of scent. He references Gaston Bachelard in the Poetics of Space claiming, "Memory and imagination remain associated." (Pallasma pg. 32) Both Bachelard and Pallasma assume that everyone will have the same experience with the same smell. Pallasma uses the example of an abandoned house and the hollow smell within, or of a shoemakers store and the images one thinks of when the odor enters their nostrils. These are the images that Pallasma remembers when he smells these odors. I agree that smell can trigger memory but it is bold of the author to assume that the same specific smells conjure up the same specific images for everyone.

The third article by Steven Holl discusses the experience of architecture and how, according to Holl, the building speaks through the silence of perceptional phenomena. Holl breaks his argument down into eleven `Phenomenal Zones' from perspective space to sound and detail. Within each zone he gives an example of his own work and ideas to strengthen each argument. These examples might all relate to his arguments but some of them belong in the realm of art rather than the realm of architecture. Holl argues "that only architecture can simultaneously awaken all the senses - all the complexities of perception;" but what about nature? All of his examples, light and shadow, water, spatiality of night are elements found in the natural environment. He continues his entire argument, based on these phenomenal zones discussing how they are found within architecture and how only in architecture can they awaken ones senses but in reality they have the same effect in nature that they do in buildings.

Holl tries to capture the reader into this sense of amazement within his own work, arguing that he has found ways to recreate perceptional phenomena within his works, this is not what I argue is wrong with his article, but that these natural phenomena are not only within architecture as he states, but are found within the wilderness of the everyday life.

Architecture, unlike other forms of art, addresses all the senses simultaneously and instantaneously, according to Holl but I agree with Joseph Agassi when he says that this is an exaggeration. Just as in Pallasmas article smell is only indirectly tied with architecture, and as Agassi points out, so is theatre as in the first article.

Joseph Agassi concludes his book review by saying the concepts the authors propose are not phenomenology and do not contribute to our understanding of architecture. As a student trying to understand perception of space through the human body I found these articles to open many doors into further exploration of human perception within the built form. Do they relate to phenomenology? Considering that there is no one straight answer to what phenomenology is, I can't say. I can say that the first article is much more philosophical relating to the idea of space than the last two articles which complement each other well explaining sensual architectural experience.

I am an architectural designer with Margulies Perruzzi Architects. www.mp-architects.com

The book was published more than 10 years ago and it's making its own history by the exclusive way of combining profound theoretical essays and design works together seamlessly. I have to say it works pretty well. Having seen Steven Holl's works and the office expanded, this book and the design deserve more attention than other cheap building constituted with meaningless idea and shallow skins.

Excellent essays but the typesetting makes it a difficult read (the font is extremely small.)

A revealing reading for whoever is curious about perceiveing the space he/she lives in, passes through, comes across, etc...much more important for people who have the responsibility for making or changing these spaces.

Post service super fast and excellent conditions of the product, when I received it, have made this purchase perfect.

Anything, of course, is about the sensorial. It's our world. It's your world. What do you feel in it? What do I feel when I'm there, in a space? And this meditation -- regardless of what that space might be -- is really about everything, from architecturally conceived environments, to the nature of truly "natural" space. There is the potential in all, to contemplate the spirit of the space and the character of your presence in it. You are there, you are "in there". And you feel the warmth, the chill, the stillness, the breeze; you experience the scent drifting; you see light, shafts of movement; you hear something of reverberation in the containment of "where you are". Taste might play, balance might offer a sensed component to experience. But it's all about the meditation of what this means, how it can be considered - and how it can be reflected in active design, or in the nature of contemplating this phenom. Either it's meaning full -- and you consider it; or it's not the stuff of absorbed introspection and you simply design for it. Do it. Experience it. One way. Or an other. Surely, both have merit. As does reading this grouping of essays and ideas.