Delight in Architecture

Delight in architecture is probably the most complex and diverse component of architecture to both create and understand for it involves how architecture engages our senses, how it shapes our perception and enjoyment of/ or discomfort within our built environment. This is partly true because it involves subjective responses, which differ from individual to individual. It has become even more complex, as Western architects from 1910 to 1960 preferred to believe that delight in architecture had no independent existence but came into existence automatically by merely maximizing functional utility and the exposure of structure. These advocates referred to as the International Modernists argued that function and structure equaled delight. As you look at the environment around, see how many buildings seem to follow that rule. However, since about 1965 or so, critics, architects and historians have suggested that there can be delight in architecture and that good architecture is indeed delightful as well as functional and structurally sound. Since whatever pleasure, we derive from architecture is based on visual and sensory perception, we must understand the psychology of vision and sensory stimulation. The most fundamental component is the understanding that the human mind is programmed to seek meaning and significance in all sensory information that the mind receives. The mind always interprets information; even random vision or aural phenomena are given a preliminary interpretation by the mind on what information has been stored. What we perceive is based on what we already know. How the mind interprets forms and patterns is referred to as the subject of “gestalt psychology” (from the German Gestalt, which means “form” or “shape”). The mind when faced with random or unknown visual information organizes this information with certain built-in preferences; these preferences are:

 a. Proximity

 b. Repetition

c.  Simplest and Largest Figures

d. Figure/Ground Relationship

e. Proportion 

f. Scale g. Rhythm

h. Texture

I. Light and Color

j. Ornament

Document, how your special places uses the elements above to create

“ Delight in architecture”.

Due: March 15^th on the Blog