Image: Aka Hige | Flickr

Many major companies and institutions (like Starbucks and some major airports) are now making sure to include free WiFi wireless connection to boost sales through major increases in customer traffic. And in doing so, they are using this incentive for customers to come in and buy their products and services.

But, as more and more people come to these venues with their mobile digitally connected technologies, what does that mean for the design of the buildings which house them? How do you as an architect account for higher volumes of traffic that may congregate, use the space differently, and be technologically connected at just about all times?

Almost gone are the few coffee shops where the space is simply a place to enjoy that warm cup of coffee and perhaps a slice of desert with a friend or with a good book. Instead, being added to that picture, is the rapidly increasing popularity of free WiFi connection — which, with it, is bringing about some new occupant interaction behaviors within such established institutions like cafés and airports.

In fact, I went into a café recently and saw their new renovation which “updated” their previous standalone tables and chairs to now be replaced by one elongated cafeteria-style table where cyber café customers now sit with their laptops, androids, ipads, and other mobile devices. What I find interesting is that in a world where so many people are “on the go”, it seems that mobile devices are simultaneously better connecting them to information, while also disconnecting them from various social or “sensorial” interactions. Being interpreted loosely, being “on the go” time-wise does not necessarily mean moving between only physical spaces, but it can now mean moving between virtual ones as well.

A Place Where Bits Merge with Bites

Thus, I think it is the new challenge for architects to straddle both areas — providing building occupants with both greater digital world connectivity to social and informational networks while also providing them with a way to “disconnect”, or better “bridge” with the physical world so they can sensorially experience what is happening around them in real time. After all, I think that the two can work together very well for people, as they feed in and out of each other. For example, your design could bring sensorial and social interactions to impact building occupants’ way of thinking, which, in turn, will impact what they do with their virtual connections…and visa versa.

I was recently reading an excerpt from the book Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City (affiliate link) where William J. Mitchell makes a point about just how interconnected virtual bits are to their physical body counterparts. That is to say that actions that occur in the physical world, are almost timelessly linked to the actions that are now occurring in virtual space. With that in mind, it should be your job as an architect to design physical spaces that impact not only the building occupants within them, but also the stream of bit-like interactions that will result because of them.

So begin simply by taking a second look at those cafés and airports which are often taken for granted. For when you think of a café and its customers, think of the physical and sensorial interactions that occur there — and then think of the parallel effects of those interactions in the digital world of virtual space. How will the two merge within your design? How can you play off of one to make the other better? And is there a place within which you would ever try to separate them? Today, architects must often design for not only the physical, not only the ethereal, but also the digital world of bits.

So, perhaps the reason customers go to these places are changing. And as what they do there changes, will you be adjusting your architectural designs to their change in behavior after the fact? Or will your architectural designs lead the way?

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 and Facebook followers by clicking on the “re-tweet” and “like” button at the beginning of this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: La Citta Vita | Flickr

What will turn your architecture from merely being a place that people go to, into a place that people feel attached to — a space where they have made a connection and one that is meaningful? Many theories exist and contribute to what can make a place…well, more than a “place”.

In reading the article entitled What makes neighborhood different from home and city? Effects of place scale on place attachment, I found that this study determined that scale plays a large role when it comes to predicting and creating place attachment for those that experience it. So, this leads me to consider this notion of scale and its meaning for you, as an architect, when it comes to designing architectural spaces that attract — versus just standing to exist.

My personal notion about “spaces of attachment” also brings up the aspects of socialization. I deem that providing a community place within your architectural designs is important. The way in which your occupants interact not only with the architecture, but with each other is paramount. And I think this is a major player when it comes to building a place that will foster and promote occupant attachment.

Using Principles of Scale to Promote Better Occupant Connections

Scale is relative. You can look at what I will call “macro-scales” like cities, versus neighborhoods, versus individual buildings. Or you can look at more “micro-scales” like a building, versus a room, versus a transitional space. Again, scale is relative — not only when it comes to size of the space, but also when it comes to how many people inhabit that space and how they interact within it.

In the article which I previously mentioned, it was found that neighborhoods actually yield the largest inhabitant attachment (compared to city or home/apartment). So why might this be? For starters, I think that in a neighborhood you have the best of both worlds. You have a place to call your own and to retreat to, but you also have collective areas which you share, maintain and within which you can commune, socialize and interact with your neighbors.

Key reasons that neighborhoods foster meaningful occupant attachments can stem from design techniques which are seemingly simple — like providing variety, an influx of person-to-person interaction, having different private and public areas, balancing built from with nature, giving individual choice and freedom to create their own “space” within the whole, giving the collective of inhabitants responsibility to work together to make the overall “place” nice, providing spaces for contemplation, for play, for gathering and so on.

In short, all of these design elements are variations that go into the scale of place. And most all of these elements also involve great attention to socialization — whether it is a one-on-one interaction or a group-to-group interaction.

I challenge you to design an architecture that better promotes occupant attachment. It can become a building that is more than a sum of its parts, able to reach out to its inhabitants by bringing them together in new, yet novel, ways.

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: MissTurner | Flickr

Architecture resonates at many scales — the human scale, the building scale, the urban scale, the global scale and the cultural scale. Each building creates a ripple effect beginning with one occupant to ultimately reach its even wider audience which experiences it. Thus, architectural scale is something which you, as an architect, should use instinctively and consciously.

Often, critics might say that a building captures a perfect “sense of scale”, and so often, many architects have trouble pinpointing exactly what they mean and what they did to achieve this. Conversely, when a building does not capture an appropriate sense of scale, what went wrong can be glaringly obvious. Either way, a building always makes (and leaves) an impression.

It seems that, even upon approach, an occupant immediately scans a building looking for ways that they can relate to it. They may find something beautiful, novel or even just plain useful. One thing is for sure though; occupants form opinions about what they like (and what they don’t like), for better or for worse.

Can the Key Be Translation?

Designing a “language” can take you a long way toward achieving a good “sense of scale” in your designs. Take narrative, for instance. Just as a story is made up by chapters, each sentence is made up by words and each letter is made up by a set of geometries which make them readable. One key here can be seen as “translation” — which authors use to capture the best of what scaling can do. Well, architects can do the same.

So, translate from the micro (nano-scale, for instance) to the macro (urban-scale, for instance) and remember that each scale jump may require translation — because what you solve for one occupant’s experience may have an entirely different effect as it compounds its impression upon a larger community.

Design your “sense of scale” as a fabric that links from a human to an entire culture.

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: Adam36 | Dreamstime

Within architectural space it is important to establish a sense of place. This is true not only for the architecture to be good but also for your experience within that space to be memorable. Did you know that your memory and your sense of place are closely linked?(1) Creating an environment involves designing for meaningful experiences — to do this, establishing a sense of place is key.

In the paper Neuroscience and Architecture: Seeking Common Ground, both landmarks and paths are described as important when designing architecture. It seems that both memory and sense of place prominently involve the same part of the brain – the hippocampus. “Our memory of events may depend upon a strong sense of place, and by extension, our sense of place may be influenced by the integrity of the memories formed there.”(1)

A key factor in distinguishing place from space is the ability for humans to interact. This provides occupants with a feeling of belonging to the environment, instead of just “passing through it.” Also, establishing a connection between spaces is important. This provides opportunity for the incorporation of landmarks and other architectural features that can make a place memorable.(1)

Can you remember being in an architectural space that had a strong sense of place? Is your memory of that place linked to an experience that happened there? Odds are that that place also had a strong sense of orientation. As landmarks and other architectural features come together in one’s mental map, your sense of place becomes stronger.

Buildings that guide you through them while providing you with enough information to make meaningful decisions along the way can make for quite profound experiences. Embed within your architecture a succession for a meaningful sense of place – where memories can be shaped and built form can transcend the senses.

(1) Sternberg, Esther M. and Wilson, Matthew A. Neuroscience and Architecture: Seeking Common Ground. Cell 127, Elsevier Inc. October 20, 2006.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Dmitry Maslov | Dreamstime

What makes architecture sacred? That spirituality that a “place” makes you feel often serves to inspire and provoke memory through the senses. By capturing and triggering important memories, architecture can bring people together to unite individual memories into a collective memory. Architecture can allow important moments to live on, sacredly, in this way.

In some regard, all good architecture has a spiritual quality about it. Such architecture triggers our senses to experience in renewed ways. However, sacred architecture can provide for a more spiritual journey as occupants interact and travel through a “space”.

Did you know that when humans look up they often experience a sense of awe? By tuning to occupant senses, sacred architecture can have a profound effect. Sacred architecture can transcend symbols by speaking a universal language that stirs spiritual experience through the senses.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman