The Experience of Architecture
A thought-provoking consideration of how architecture, from a doorknob to a city plan, can influence human behavior

How does the experience of turning a door handle, opening a door from one space into another, affect us? It is no wonder that the door, one of the most elemental architectural forms, has such metaphorical richness. But even on a purely physical human level, the cold touch of a brass handle or the swish of a sliding screen gives rise to an emotional reaction, sometimes modest, occasionally profound.

This book aims to understand how these everyday acts are influenced by architectural form, a concept that is vital for all architects to grasp. It considers how specifically built elements and volumes, taken from a wide array of buildings and settings around the world, can affect our powers of decision. From hand-carved stairs in Greek villages to free-floating catwalks, from the elegant processional steps of Renaissance Italy to Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterly manipulation of form, all provide very different experiences of stepping from one level to the next, and all affect our experience of that space.

Seamlessly integrating text and image, each chapter focuses on a different aspect of our daily interactions with architecture, looking at stairs, floors and paths, moving interior spaces, perception and perspective, transparency and the relationship between a building and its setting. This book is not just for architects and designers engaged in the production of space, but for all those who seek a richer understanding of their place in the built world.

1123506708
The Experience of Architecture
A thought-provoking consideration of how architecture, from a doorknob to a city plan, can influence human behavior

How does the experience of turning a door handle, opening a door from one space into another, affect us? It is no wonder that the door, one of the most elemental architectural forms, has such metaphorical richness. But even on a purely physical human level, the cold touch of a brass handle or the swish of a sliding screen gives rise to an emotional reaction, sometimes modest, occasionally profound.

This book aims to understand how these everyday acts are influenced by architectural form, a concept that is vital for all architects to grasp. It considers how specifically built elements and volumes, taken from a wide array of buildings and settings around the world, can affect our powers of decision. From hand-carved stairs in Greek villages to free-floating catwalks, from the elegant processional steps of Renaissance Italy to Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterly manipulation of form, all provide very different experiences of stepping from one level to the next, and all affect our experience of that space.

Seamlessly integrating text and image, each chapter focuses on a different aspect of our daily interactions with architecture, looking at stairs, floors and paths, moving interior spaces, perception and perspective, transparency and the relationship between a building and its setting. This book is not just for architects and designers engaged in the production of space, but for all those who seek a richer understanding of their place in the built world.

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The Experience of Architecture

The Experience of Architecture

by Henry Plummer
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The Experience of Architecture

The Experience of Architecture

by Henry Plummer

Overview

A thought-provoking consideration of how architecture, from a doorknob to a city plan, can influence human behavior

How does the experience of turning a door handle, opening a door from one space into another, affect us? It is no wonder that the door, one of the most elemental architectural forms, has such metaphorical richness. But even on a purely physical human level, the cold touch of a brass handle or the swish of a sliding screen gives rise to an emotional reaction, sometimes modest, occasionally profound.

This book aims to understand how these everyday acts are influenced by architectural form, a concept that is vital for all architects to grasp. It considers how specifically built elements and volumes, taken from a wide array of buildings and settings around the world, can affect our powers of decision. From hand-carved stairs in Greek villages to free-floating catwalks, from the elegant processional steps of Renaissance Italy to Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterly manipulation of form, all provide very different experiences of stepping from one level to the next, and all affect our experience of that space.

Seamlessly integrating text and image, each chapter focuses on a different aspect of our daily interactions with architecture, looking at stairs, floors and paths, moving interior spaces, perception and perspective, transparency and the relationship between a building and its setting. This book is not just for architects and designers engaged in the production of space, but for all those who seek a richer understanding of their place in the built world.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780500343210
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Publication date: 11/15/2016
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 7.40(w) x 10.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Henry Plummer is Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his M.Arch from MIT, studied light-art with György Kepes, and was a photographic apprentice to Minor White. He is the author of numerous books on the art of light in architecture, including The Architecture of Natural Light and Nordic Light.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Places of Possibility 6

1 Floors of Agility 20

The Docile Effect of Flat Ground 24

Vernacular Stairs and Footpaths 25

Gravitational Currents 31

Acrobatic Staircases 35

The Sprightly Japanese Floor 42

Vertiginous Edges 50

Sky Cities and Residential Eyries 53

The Graceful Flight of Ramps 59

Catwalks: From the Eiffel Tower to Arne Jacobsen's Stairways 61

2 Mechanisms of Transformation 66

Interplay and Discovering the Self 69

The Red Herrings of Machine Architecture 73

Modest Sliding Screens of Japan 74

Simple but Rewarding Vernacular Devices 79

Genealogy of Modern Kineticism 87

Mechanical Marvels of the Maison De Verre 94

The Poetic Mutations of Carlo Scarpa 102

Tom Kundig's 'gizmos' and Steven Holl's 'Hinged Space' 110

3 Spaces of Versatility 116

Ambiguity 121

Double-Perspective in 20th-Century Poetry and Painting 123

The Freedom of Elbow Room 125

Composite Staircases 129

Italian Piazzas, Both Grand and Intimate 132

Wright's 'sovereignty of the Individual' 136

Polyvalent Forms of Herman Hertzberger 140

Maurice Smith's Spatial Collages 146

Giancarlo De Carlo's Participatory Architecture 150

The Binary Values of Aldo Van Eyck 152

4 Depths of Discovery 158

Secrets of Residual Space 162

Japanese Grilles and Blinds 164

Forest-Like Ventures 167

The Mystery of Shadows 169

Fogged Images in Translucent Walls 176

Intricacy and Patina 179

Tiny Immensity 182

Spatial Elasticity of Sir John Soane 187

Enigmatic Details of Carlo Scarpa 189

The Primorial Journey 191

The Compelling Glimpse 198

Enfilades and Receding Thresholds 201

5 Fields of Action 206

Painterly Images of a Pervious World 209

Under Construction and in Ruin 211

The Field of Forces in Science and Art 215

Open-Form Cities 217

Stone Forests 221

Interlaced Webs of Iron and Glass 224

Interfolding Space from Wright to Kappe 230

Construction of Holes 240

Three-Dimensional Habitable Fields of Maurice Smith 253

The Japanese Spatial Lattice 259

Notes 272

Bibliography 278

Photo Credits 281

Index 282

Acknowledgments 287

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