Architecture of Seven Senses

How do we experience architecture? Is it a total body encompassing experience, sensed by the seven senses? Or are we losing touch with this body – space relationship due to the fact architecture is often experienced as a flattened image as the result of a photograph.

“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.”

This quote is interesting, as it defends the argument that to experience all that architecture has to offer emotionally, one must actually be present in the space. It’s interesting that while many things in our world today can be simulated, the experience of architecture is not one. According to Juhani Pallasmaa architecture is sensed by sound stimulating imagination, odor stimulating memory, touch connecting one to history, the bodily shape of man, the body’s relationship with space, the oral experience, and sight. When all of these senses combine, the full experience of architecture is successfully achieved.

“As buildings lose their plasticity and their connection with the language of wisdom of the body, they become isolated in the cool and distant realm of vision.”

This quote explains that the experience of architecture becomes heightened when it involves more than just the sense of sight. When all the senses are engaged, one can experience architecture to its full potential. In my opinion, this is true, as one will have a more powerfully emotional experience when the whole body, and all the senses are engaged in a space, rather than just the sense of sight.