Techtonic Space Out Of Place

Abstract

In a landscape devoid of any predominant style or picturesque sight to orient one’s design toward, where bare necessity is the driving force for intervention, how do we arrive at a successful design solution? Architecture is perhaps the highest form of art in the light that it provides for the dwelling, or actions, of people and gives them shelter in the world. How then should we provide for these actions when humans are able to interact with and impose their own meaning on their environment? The answer may be found in phenomenology. Phenomenology is a perspective that strives to see the world in its most pure sense, aside from theories, abstractions, or symbolic meaning that can be applied to things in the world around us. It is an attitude that is concerned with, for instance, how we experience the passing of time, from moment to moment, speeding up or slowing down in relation to our engagement in the world around us, as opposed to the, necessary, but abstracted objective perspective of time passing as minutes and hours on a clock. Phenomenology, if we adopt it as such, can then begin to reveal truths about the world around us that are clouded in or covered up under layers of imposed meanings and false motives. The essential truth of an object as seen through the purified consciousness then becomes the character of that object. Designing with this perspective in mind may then mean that architects are able to make informed design decisions about how to accent or give light to the character of the object or place that makes it feel at home in its surroundings. For the theme of museums and reliquaries, designing from a phenomenological perspective or drawing certain principles from phenomenology may lead to a successful implementation of architectural form. If this can successfully be accomplished and truth is the goal in this endeavor, the designer must not stop at the interior of the building, but take notice of and respond to the surroundings. What influence do they have on the building and the way the building fosters the dwelling of people? Whether the architect chooses to accent or punctuate the character of its site or whether the building and its surroundings give rise to an entirely new character of its own, the architect must remain truthful toward the form (the materials, shape, color, formation of place, etc.) and its effect on the activities of dwelling that will take place in and about the building. Architecture has the potential to enhance the lives and experiences of the people who use it. Only in a manner truthful to how people essentially experience space will this become true of any element of architecture.