The following slideshow takes a look at how light can “set off” built form, and how built form can “set off” light. When the two fuse poetically, they can showcase your materials, an experiential path or even “warm” an otherwise “cold” space.

So, the real question becomes…

WHY Do You Inject Light into Your Building Designs?

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: MarcelGermain | Flickr

Yes, I often write that you should think about the senses, materiality and so on. But I would like to emphasize that as an architect you are a “director” of sorts. It is important to learn how to synchronize and orchestrate all of those architectural elements to create the experience you intend.

As an architect, once you get a good grasp on how the human senses really work and really develop a high design skillset, you should always be concerned with synergy and orchestration.

Here is what I mean…

Lighting + Material = Redefined Form

The equation I just made up above is an example of how powerful (and simple) this idea can be. Take a building like the Torre Agbar in Barcelona (image shown above) and you will get a notion of what I am talking about.

Using technologies to enhance, minimize or morph your architectural elements can be a very effective technique. Most architects today simply “add-on” new technologies to their design. Kind of like the architect said “I’ll include this because I can.” The result is that it is not well integrated and does not do much for the design. In some cases, it actually makes the design worst.

SOME DESIGN TIPS

Take the simple equation that I wrote above and get this to challenge and push the way you think when you are designing a building. Ask yourself about what other technologies you could insert into the “lighting” variable shown above. Also, question what other architectural element types you could insert into the “material” variable shown above.

Although the “Redefined Form” variable in the equation above may not physically move or morph, your technologies often can. Think of ways to integrate new technologies into your architectural design to help bend, enhance, texturize, highlight or soften architectural elements.

Think about how doing this will make the building a better experience.

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Aranda\Lasch | Flickr

Image: Aranda\Lasch | Flickr

CAPTURING FORM

A recent exhibit at Vienna’s Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Gallery is titled Transitory Objects where architectural forms unleashed a redefined way of perceiving architecture. Adaptive architecture can easily stem from such displays where the form is actually a moment “captured” during its dynamic process of mutation.

This results in merging both science and art to yield what we might later coin as the science of architecture. Here is a great excerpt about the Transitory Objects exhibit:

Ritchie, Oxman, Roche, and their colleagues split deeply from the finite, permanent, and utilitarian tradition of architecture. Not to say their end products are not useful or habitable. In fact, their structures are arguably better suited to the constantly morphing, impermanent, and aesthetically driven needs and desires of modern society. Rather than working with an end product or useful context in mind, they focus on the process of producing a structure that follows certain laws or principles. These resulting objects rise from computational models and algorithms whose inputs are being drawn from or at least inspired by some of the most boundary-pushing and abstract ideas in science, like quantum physics or the multiverse theory. (1)

When you think about architecture from this light, it really does unleash a multitude of changes that would impact everything from the architect’s design process to the occupant’s experience. As new technological innovations surface and new scientific discoveries are unveiled this adaptive architecture will truly revolutionize the way we live with space.

These types of investigations certainly do push the envelope — helping us to develop more innovative architectural approaches.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Take a look at the Transitory Objects slideshow by going here.

What are your first impressions? How do you think such investigations can help architecture advance? Do you know of any other projects like these?

(1) Cline, Elizabeth. Building Without Walls. Seed Magazine. July 9, 2009.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman