Architecture That Constitute To The Mood Philosophy Essay

Architecture That Constitute To The Mood Philosophy Essay The character of a space or place is not simply a visual perceptual quality, as is usually assumed. The judgement of the character of an environment is a complex combination of numerous factors which are immediately understood as an overall mood, feeling, ambiance, or atmosphere. Peter Zumthor, who is one of the architects who has acknowledged the significance of architectural mood, says â€Å"I enter a building, see a room, and in a fraction of a second have this feeling about it†. The experience is multi-sensory in its very essence; however it also involves judgements beyond the five Aristotelian senses. The immediate judgement of the character of a space calls for our entire, embodied and existential sense. It could be perceived in a subtle and peripheral manner, rather than through precise and conscious observation. The aim of this dissertation is to identify the factors in architecture that constitute to the mood of a place or space; and also if the factors are universal to all the arts such as music, film, paintings and sculpture. The question sought to be answered is: What are the constituents in a space or place that contribute to the creation of a mood? The majority of the work produced by the three architects selected revolves around this phenomenological field of study. By assessing their individual relevant literary and architectural works, and extracting the common and overlapping qualities, a more profound understanding of this mood is expected to be acquired. Acknowledgments Introduction John Dewey a visionary American philosopher, who already eight decades ago grasped the immediate, embodied, emotive and subconscious essence of experience, articulates the nature of this existential encounter: â€Å"The total overwhelming impression comes first, perhaps in a seizure by a sudden glory of the landscape or by the effect upon us of entrance into a cathedral when dim light, incense, stained glass and majestic proportions fuse in one indisting uishable whole. We say with truth that a painting strikes us. There is an impact that precedes all definite recognition of what it is about.† (Dewey, Art As Experience, page 151) In ancient environmental moods there exist interpersonal moods such as cultural, social, family, work place, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. The mood of a social situation can be supportive or discouraging, liberating or repressing, inspiring or dull. We can even speak of specific moods in the scale of cultural, regional or national entities. We can indeed speak of the mood of the place, which gives it its unique perceptual character and identity. Dewey explains this unifying character as a specific quality as he writes: â€Å"An experience has a unity that gives it its name; that meal, that storm, that rupture of friendship. The existence of the unity is constituted by a single quality that pervades the entire experience in spite of the variations of its constituent parts. This unity is neither emotional, pract ical, nor intellectual, for these terms name distinctions that reflection can make within it.† (Dewey, Art and Its Significance: An Anthology of Aesthetic Theory, page 206) In another context the philosopher reemphasises the reintegrating power of this experiential quality when he writes â€Å"The quality of the whole permits, affects and controls every detail.† As we enter a space the space enters us, and the experience is essentially an exchange and fusion of the object and the subject. Robert Pogue Harrison, the American literary scholar states â€Å"In the fusion of place and soul, the soul is as much of a container of place as place is a container of soul, both are susceptible to the same forces of destruction.†