Ritmos musicales como puente entre el arquitecto y el usuario

Ponència presentada a: Session 5: Del diseño a la construcción. Sostenibilidad (temas de diseño ambiental) / From design to construction. Sustainability (environmental design issues

Juha Leiviskä : una aproximación fenomenológica a su arquitectura

The interest in the impact of architecture on its inhabitants and their perception of space lead to question how the spatial experience is considered during the project phase to understand the influence of project decisions on the experience of inhabiting. In this point lies the main motivation of this thesis, whose main objective is to analyze architecture from a phenomenological approach, through three significant works of the architect Juha Leiviskä, considering sensory parameters and the haptic experience of his architecture. Thus, this research uses the local and cultural context of Finnish architecture, based on the work of Juha Leiviskä and Juhani Pallasmaa’s writings about phenomenology, to establish a dialogue between architectural theory and practice. From there, three fundamental concepts are proposed from a phenomenological approach to the architecture: place, spatiality and its phenomenon, and time. On one side, the place characteristics with its physical, cultural, and social context that allow us to explore architect’s intentions. While the analysis of built space, with its design feature, considers the phenomena that are perceived by the different senses in architecture: such as light, matter and sound; among other attributes of the projects such as geometry, the space syntax, the relationship with history and formal and stylistic aspects. Finally, time allows us to understand the perception, experience of the users, how architect’s intentions are manifested in the inhabitant’s experiences, and a more interpretative and hermeneutic conclusion of the works. In that order, the three architectural works of Juha Leiviskä that are analyzed: the Männistö Church, in Kuopio; the library, kindergarten and housing complex in Vallila; and the Bethlehem cultural center, in Palestine. Three specific works to understand his architectural process and how his architecture affects daily experiences. These projects are in two countries and in different cultures, in Finland and Palestine, which allow us to understand how the architecture adapts to different realities and different physical and socio-cultural contexts, always valuing the memory of the place and its historical relationship. Based on these projects, themes such as the relationship of architecture with the urban- or landscape- scale, with history and vernacular architecture are approached. This research also considers interdisciplinary influences, such as music and abstract painting, on the Juha Leiviskä’s architecture. The analysis of these three works has allowed to identify elements and architectural intentions that are repeated, and to verify that the creation of different atmospheres is highly related with the genius loci. Juha Leiviskä’s architecture shows a high level of sensory complexity, recognized by his mastery of natural light, the sensibility to sound and the exploration of materials, so that the analysis of his work has allowed to value the corporeal experience in architecture and the importance of considering special phenomena from the design process. This investigation concludes that Juha Leiviskä’s design process is based on a dialogue between dwell and living, between the inhabitants and the architect, in a continuum process. In addition, the phenomenological point of view of architecture can be translated to a way of educating and making architecture from spatial phenomena, to build sensitives architectures, with positive influences for our dwelling.El interés por el impacto de la arquitectura en sus habitantes y la percepción del espacio por estos lleva a cuestionar cómo se tiene en cuenta la experiencia espacial desde la fase proyectual con el fin de entender la influencia de las decisiones de proyecto sobre la experiencia del habitar. En este punto reside la motivación principal de esta tesis, cuyo objetivo fundamental es analizar la arquitectura a partir de una aproximación fenomenológica, tomando como referencia tres obras significativas del arquitecto Juha Leiviskä, teniendo en cuenta parámetros sensitivos y la experiencia háptica de su arquitectura. De esa forma, en esta investigación se usa el contexto local y cultural de la arquitectura finlandesa, a partir de la obra de Juha Leiviskä y los escritos de Juhani Pallasmaa sobre fenomenología, para establecer una dialogía entre la teoría y la practica arquitectónica. En consecuencia, se proponen tres conceptos fundamentales desde una postura de aproximación fenomenológica a la arquitectura que son: el lugar, la espacialidad y sus fenómenos, y el tiempo. Por un lado, las características del lugar con su contexto físico, cultural y social que permiten explorar las intenciones del arquitecto. Mientras que el análisis del espacio materializado, con sus rasgos proyectuales, tiene en cuenta los fenómenos que son percibidos por los varios sentidos: como la luz, la materia y el sonido; entre otros atributos de los proyectos como la geometría, la sintaxis del espacio, la relación con la historia y otros aspectos formales y estilísticos. Finalmente, el tiempo permite entender la percepción, las vivencias, cómo se manifiestan las intenciones del arquitecto en los habitantes, y una conclusión más interpretativa y hermenéutica de las obras. En ese sentido, las tres obras del arquitecto Juha Leiviskä que se analizan son: la iglesia de Männistö, en Kuopio; el conjunto de la biblioteca, guardería y habitación unifamiliares en Vallila; y el centro cultural de Belén, Palestina. Tres obras concretas para entender su proceso de proyecto, y cómo su arquitectura afecta las vivencias cotidianas. Estos proyectos están ubicados en dos países y en culturas diferentes, en Finlandia y Palestina, lo que permite entender la adaptación de su arquitectura a realidades y contextos físicos y socioculturales distintos, valorando siempre la memoria del lugar, y su relación histórica. A partir de estas obras se abordan temas sobre la relación de la arquitectura con la escala urbana o del paisaje con la historia y la arquitectura vernácula. A su vez, esta investigación tiene en cuenta las influencias interdisciplinares de la música y la pintura abstracta en la arquitectura de Juha Leiviskä. El análisis de las tres obras ha permitido identificar elementos e intenciones proyectuales que se repiten y que la creación de diferentes atmósferas está altamente relacionada con el genius loci. La obra de Juha Leiviskä manifiesta un alto grado de complejidad sensorial, reconocido por su dominio de la luz natural, la sensibilidad al sonido y la exploración de la materia, por lo que el análisis de su obra ha permitido valorar la experiencia corpórea en las vivencias arquitectónicas y la importancia de considerar los fenómenos espaciales desde el proceso proyectual. Esta investigación concluye que el proceso proyectual de Juha Leiviskä parte de un diálogo entre el construir y el habitar, entre los habitantes y el arquitecto en un proceso continuo. Además, la perspectiva fenomenológica de aproximación a la arquitectura muestra en esta investigación una forma de pensar y analizar la arquitectura que se puede trasladar a una forma de educar y hacer arquitectura a partir de los fenómenos espaciales, con el fin de construir arquitecturas sensibles con influencias positivas para nuestro habitar.Postprint (published version

Ritmos musicales como puente entre el arquitecto y el usuario

Ponència presentada a la sessió

New theories of urban forms and their impact upon architectural education, urban design and social behavior on cities

Our research group has been working in the last twenty years on the theoretical frameworks involved in the architectural and urban design practices of research on architectural and urban design, and we have produce el lot of publications in different international academic books and magazines (……………) In this article we will start with some considerations about the situation of the morphological classical schools of thoughts until 2000th(Anne Vernez Moudon, 1997). After, we will analyze the theoretical impact of the new digital tools, mainly space syntax, in order to uncover the theoretical innovations by David Kirsh ,Rainer E Zimmermann, David Seamon ,Karl Friston, Jan Gehl, Jonas Langer, Ole Moystad and others. The theoretical confrontation between space syntax and social phenomenology by Bill Hillier himself since 2005 on, will be the best guide for our argumentation and also the work by David Kirsh on social cognition. We will focalize our attention into the significance of all these innovations in relation the way architects, urban planners and designers think in order to improve the quality of design practices in a lot of new interdisciplinary ways.Finally, and in order to make more explicit the practical dimension of those theories, we will present some research examples pointing out to clarify the cognitive qualities of architects, urban planners and designers in relation to the understanding of the morphologies of the cities

Spatial Syntax and the Poetic Spatial Link in Architecture and Planning

Can Space Syntax uncover the poetic spatial link in architecture and planning? In Lisbon in 2017 we uncover one emergent interest upon the not clear interrelation space syntax configurative structures, the design prefigurative power of architecture and the social science refigurative studies about of the environmental behavior of social human groups or cultures, (Ricoeur, 2003). Following Bill Hillier himself this interrelation is significant from the Space Syntax understanding and for architectural planning analysis (Hillier 2014: 214): «Cities appear to us as patterns of activity related to patterns of space. (...) But theoretically it is not like that, and this is not how cities become as they are. This is why good city form can adapt easily to new patterns of use.» Thus, according to Hillier the physical space is a link both between the type of activity that that takes develops in the urban scenarios, and social co-presence shaped by the physical space itself. This constitutes a key critique to Alexander’s pattern language. The present contribution shows an example in downtown Barcelona of the feedback between prefiguration, configuration and refigurative surveys (Authors). Methodologically, ethnographical surveys in the Raval neighborhood analyzed by Space Syntax tools confirm the need for the horizontal red lines by dwellers. Findings show that the proposal by Clotet, which was partially implemented, disregarded these accessibility links in contrast to the past and present situation. This is a poetic combination of morphological (Space Syntax) and ethnographical simulations linked by design processes

Semiotics and Architecture: How Can it Become a Fruitful Coactive Relationship?

Architecture has always been a difficult subject matter for semioticians. On the one hand, space is not easy to formalize in any way, and, on the other hand, architects have not helped at all, on the contrary, they uncovered a lot of problems and never found solutions. The excellent research work made by the IASS coordinated by professor Pierre Pellegrino, and also the PHD program in the School of Architecture in Tunisia, thanks to the late professor Alain Renier, are two examples of endured effort, that were very often not recognised by universities and professional institutions. The situation is slowly changing, at last, and a surprising impulse is coming from the design by computer processes, since now architects need more theories in order to justify their new expertises. My contribution will show how these new processes can increase the coaction between semiotics and architecture, starting from the probabilistic epigenetic model defined by the late professor Gilbert Gottlieb. This coaction between architecture and semiotics, demands a better clarification of the deep relationships between cognitive construction and cognitive communication, both in architecture and in semiotics, an old topic that can today be revisited. From this point of view, some cognitive anthropological recent developments (E, Hutchins, D. Kirsh and others) can show the right way to go. Then, following the last work by Professor Alva Noe, architecture and semiotics could follow their own developments, hand by hand, in a similar way art and philosophy can interact. They can be two different ways of organization of our lives, without the subordination of one by the other. Some examples of this coactive interaction between semiotics and architecture constitute the conclusions of this communication

The Emergence of Cities, in Between the Urban Morphological Studies, the Design Poetic Achievements and the Ethnometodological Social Surveys

The morphological studies about the transformations of cities have been made in the last fifty years following different «morphological schools» according to countries, cultures and theories. We will present our own theoretical and practical view points, based upon a socio-physical dimension of architectural design following architectural and planning ideas by Spiro Kostoff, Alberto Magnaghi, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul Ricoeur, Bill Hillier, Rainer E. Zimmermann, and others, in the sense that, in between the design poetic prefigurative act, the morphological configurative studies of cities and the anthropological refigurative surveys of the users, specific emergent powers develop in the making of the cities, in a socio-physical and space-time structural chronotopic manner. Instate of a confrontation in between the prefigurative poetic views of architects and planners with the configurative outputs of the morphological studies or with the refigurative analyses of the social behavioral and cognitive social sciences, their dialogical interplays will help the three different spatial viewpoints to observe the city as a common study case. We will analyze some study cases in different countries that have been studied in recent PhD dissertations in architecture or that they are now investigated in this way. This chronotopic and dialogical holistic perspective opens new ways to a more refined human engagement, where the local to global confrontations can achieve in a positive emergence not always predicted, neither by the morphological studies nor by the ethnometodological social survey

Critical Pedagogies and the Design Methods in Architecture and Planning: their Retroactive Research Impacts on the Social and Natural Sciences Jointed Evolution

There is a holistic scientific evolution in our times. The Social Science, Cognitive Science and Physical sciences work together in order to build a better future for the humanity. The climate change is a good example, but there are other situations. The architectural research group GIRAS has been working in the last twenty years, to analyze how architecture and urban research produce retroactive research impacts

Ritmos musicales como puente entre el arquitecto y el usuario

Ponència presentada a: Session 5: Del diseño a la construcción. Sostenibilidad (temas de diseño ambiental) / From design to construction. Sustainability (environmental design issues