Architecture is often analyzed as a series of still images but the greatest mental impact of architecture arises significantly beyond the visual; the choreography of our movements, projection of distinct frames of perception and experience, evoking specific horizons of understanding and meaning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the multi-sensorial stimuli in architecture and how architects of today have effectively engineered sensuous spatial experiences out of the built environment. The dissertation draws upon the works of the architectural practice of Diller Scofidio + Renfro where the notions of architectural qualities of performance and the embodied encounter of architecture are most evident. The discussion begins by laying the foundations for a structured approach to perception in architecture through the rational understanding of human emotions, basic concerns and stimuli. The thesis then examines the artistic principles of DS + R’s installation and performance-based work based on a number of sources from interviews with the architects, their clients and collaborators as well as precedent access to published articles, books and documentaries. Finally, this study concludes by positioning immersive environments as a way to restore the body's participation in the way architecture is perceived.
How do emotions work?
Pieter Desmet created a basic model of emotions for his research (Designing Emotions), which was drawn up on the basis of this definition and on the related appraisal models developed by psychologists such as Roseman, Ortony, Lazarus, etc. Based on the model of emotion in architecture, an architectural feature or built environment (stimulus) evokes an emotion when it is appraised as either inspiring or indifferent to one’s concern. The range of qualities to be examined in an architecture included: sense, form, mass, void, movement, expression of form, material, tension and pressure, scale and proportion, rhythm, light, colour, associations and conceptions. One resides or travels to visit a place with concerns such as the need for prospect and refuge, exploration, enticement, thrill and being in a dramatized haven.
The immersive effect of being surrounded by dense fog, to walk alone or in groups in a cloud, a dreamlike or surreal situation with merely the sound of the nozzles, indeed has something of the dramatic visionary of Victorian novels (Diller, 2002):
“Our architecture is about special effects… Fog is inducing some sort of Victorian anxiety about something that one cannot define.”
An appraisal by Adam Sternbergh (2007, p. 2) highlights eloquently the utopian yet seemingly dystopian aspects of the park:
“The High Line is, according to its converts (and they are legion), the happily-ever-after at the end of an urban fairy tale. It’s a “flying carpet,” “our generation’s Central Park,” something akin to “Alice in Wonderland ... through the keyhole and you’re in a magical place.” It’s also the end-product of a perfect confluence of powerful forces: radical dreaming, dogged optimism, neighborhood anxiety, design mania, real-estate opportunism, money, celebrity, and power.”
