Q.NO.

2: Discuss the value of vision, sound and tactility in the

interpretation of built environment.

Ans: Sight, hearing, smelling and touch are the sensory modalities that play a
dominating role inspatial perception in humans, i.e. the ability to recognize the
geometrical structure of the surrounding environment, awareness of self-location in
surrounding space and determining in terms of depth and directions the location of
nearby objects. Information streams from these senses are continuously integrated and
processed in the brain, so that a cognitive representation of the three dimension
environment can be accurately built whether stationary or in movement. Each of the five
senses uses different cues for exploring the environment and features a
different perception range. Touch, smell and taste provides information on the so called
near space (termed also haptic space), whereas vision and hearing are capable of
yielding percepts representing objects or events in the so called for space.

VISION

Already in early times the vision was the leading sense. Plato regarded vision as
humanitys greatest gift. (Plato 360 BC in Jay, M. 1994) Until today, sight prevailed on
top of the hierarchy of the senses and our technological culture has separated
the senses even further. Vision and hearing are now the privileged sociable senses,
whereas the other three are considered archaic sensory remnants with a merely private
function, and they are usually suppressed by the code of culture. (Pallasmaa, J.
1994)As a result architectural design is meant to please this sense. This should not
imply Theas architects focus only on the nice picture of their design but some of them
are just not balanced in terms of the sensual possibilities. Whereas other architects
focused on the visual component of their design but conscious or unconsciously built
architecture that did affect several other senses. Le Corbusier with the statement that
Architecture is the masterly, correct magnificent (Le Corbusier 1959) is a good
example. His statement is clearly leading to architecture for the eye but with his
sculpturing talent and his sense for materiality he prevented his buildings from turning
into sensory reduction.

SHADOWS
Shadows and darkness are essential for the sense of vision to determine the depth and
distance. In great spaces of architecture, there is a constant, deep breathing of shadow
and light; shadow inhales, and illumination exhales, light. Other than in architecture,
shadows also play an important role in the other areas.

A NEWS MODE OF VISION

So there are several methods to dethrone the sense of vision. One opportunity is to
combine the sight with other senses. This is already applied in the same media
that brought the vision to its current status. Visual art, TV and even architecture try to
use the fast created images to stimulate new experiences to achieve what David Levin
calls a new mode of looking. It is a contextual, associative look that stimulates also our
other senses over a visual component. So it uses in fact a combination of senses that
can bring back a sensory balance. (Levin, D.M.88)Like both Merleau- Ponty and
Pallasmaa argue the importance lies in the interaction of the senses to create sensory
architecture in opposition to the prevailing visual understanding of architecture. Open
spaces are a double edge sword for us. Open space gives us a sense of freedom and
on the other hand it can be too noisy for us. Sound is a primary source of our world.
Inside rock walls tend to muffle the sound which isnt a help for us. Brick seems to be a
little better. High ceilings make the rooms sound huge. Wood paneling seems to hold
the noise out. If I am in the laundry room which has a wood wall around it I have a hard
time hearing what is being said to me from the other room. And this is hard to do
because my loved on essay I can hear the grass grow. My preferences are rooms that
arent too small because I feel restricted and enclosed. Feeling trapped is the best way I
can describe it. I like walls with some texture because then I can feel it and get a sense
of what it looks like through that sense. Lighting is very important when designing for the
visually impaired. It depends on the person too much light can hurt and not enough
makes it too dark. Fluorescent lights are glaring and annoying for us. In a utopia each
building would have a plaque describing the building for us. (American Foundation for
the blind)

Some of these descriptions are too detailed for non-impaired people. But some of them
are sensed in the same way. Because of the visual dominance they tend to be
suppressed by the visual impression, but still they are supporting the experience of
the space.

SOUND

Acoustics A buildings soundtrack

Hearing is a very incorporating sense. It is Omni-directional, not focused like vision. A
view at a building will not show the person watching the building but a building will
return the sound of a person walking in it and listening to the sound.

The sense of hearing provides a three-dimensional atmosphere. In the richness of the

oral world, experiences will be furthered enriched. Thus, the experience in the London
underground, the meaning of bells, the problematic of noise, the different approaches of
the privatized soundscape, and the development of sonic architecture will be extremely
interesting.

And still most of the time acoustics remain an unconscious background experience but
in the right places it can create the right atmosphere for almost spiritual sceneries. We
are not aware of the significance of hearing in spatial experience, although sound often
provides the temporal continuum in which visual impressions are embedded.
(Pallasmaa, J. 65)Like a soundtrack in a movie, where music is increasing the tension in
a thriller or the drama in a love story, sounds in architecture can increase the intensity of
its perception.

The dramatic sonic transformation in New York was an excellent example to

demonstrate the challenge of noise that the inhabitants had to handle. The soundscape
in 1930 was totally different than in 1900. The challenge was stimulated not simply by
the noise itself, but also by social and cultural forces at work in urban America. The
image City Noise from the 1930 report of the Noise Abatement Commission of New
York City clearly showed the overwhelming of the new soundscape with mechanical
technologies. (See Fig.) The noise reform was a program to improve overcrowded
areas, avoid outbreak disease, and eliminate industrial pollution. During the 1920s,
scientists had the ability to measure noise with electro acoustical instruments.

Along with the invention of this tool, it had raised the expectation to
solve the noise disturbances. However, it was impossible to simply just change
the public soundscape. Thus, people started to fix the problem by adding acoustical
application in the interior.

HEARING NOTHING
One of the most exciting auditory experiences in architecture is tranquility.
In the past the tool of silence has been used to create great atmospheres. The silence
in the Pantheon combined with the great view to the roof is indescribable. The absence
of sound is actually creating the atmosphere. To name a more current design the Jewish
museum by Daniel Libes kind ( is playing with the same phenomenon. In the museum
complex he designed special rooms called voids in which he installed different
installations. In one copper plates in the shape of faces are laying on the ground of a
very high room. The visitor has to walk over the faces and a noise echoed by the high
walls will fill up the room. The installation is also meant as a reminder to the holocaust
and the sound should make aware of all the individuals that had to suffer. This is a very
dramatic usage but in other simple installations it can still have a nice effect also if it is a
bird song recording in an interior garden or a ground covered with sand and it is
possible to hear the sound of it while walking over it.

TACTILITY

The term tactility is defined as of, pertaining to ,

endowed with, or affecting the sense of touch or in other words perceptible to the
touch; tangible.

Tactility, the haptic sense, produces a touch scape. The skin is our largest
sensory organ, and it is extremely sensitive. The application to the skin of a pressure of
the order of 0.04 ergs of energy can be detected, which is 108 times less than the
minimum energy level detectable by ear or eye (Bouman 1979). with our fingertips we
can pick out grooves etched in glass to a depth of only 0.0025 of an inch. Even in the
most sophisticated sensory deprivation experiments, the sense of touch cannot be
masked; we cannot turn it off. Sensation-rich and information poor, it is the most
primitive and sensuous of all senses. Touch is vital for wellbeing.
Children, pets, and sexual partners depend on touch. We gain information as
well as pleasure by handling things, and for some, as with Doubting Thomas, touching,
rather than seeing, is believing. There is much pleasure to be had from cool sheets,
warm bodies, magnolia petals, and the feel of liquids. We are always in touch with our
environment; at this moment I can feel paper, pen, desk, a sheepskin-covered seat, the
texture of Berber carpet beneath bare feet, the cling of clothes to my body. Indeed
touch, like seeing, is a basic language idiom. Metaphorically, we rarely wish to be out of
touch.
Yet touching with the fingers demands effort. Professional cloth-feelers apart, much of
our experience of texture comes not via the hands but through the feet. Even if shoes
are worn it is possible to distinguish qualities (soft, hard, smooth, rough) and types
(grass, pebbles, sand, boardwalk) of surface. The textural changes of soft mats,
polished wood, grained wood, and heavy paper are characteristic of traditional
Japanese dwellings. In contrast, there is an increasing predominance of concrete and
asphalt in modern cities.
Textural experience, just as with sound and smell, is thereby eliminated or severely
reduced. An increased use of textured sidewalks (gravel, tile, metal, glass, brick, wood)
and Portuguese-style mosaics would greatly enhance the sensuous pleasure of city
walking.
Touch an intimate sense
The eye is the organ of distance, whereas touch is the sense of nearness, intimacy and
affection. The eye observes and investigates, whereas the touch approaches and feels.
So when the light makes space for shadow our other senses are sharpened including
the sensitivity to touch. The sense of touch is the tool to provide information of texture,
weight, density and temperature. One can attempt to become a sculptor, who can
master touch as powerful as vision. The hands of the sculptor are independent
organisms of recognition and thought; the hands are the sculptors eyes.
Touch can also reveal the history and the origin of the matter. A pebble polished by
waves is pleasurable to the hand, not only because of its shape, but because it
expresses the slow process of its formation; a perfect pebble on the palm materializes
duration, it is time turned into shape.

Feeling shape
The sense of touch is the unconscious of vision that also provides three-
dimensional information of material bodies. It is the tool to provide information of
texture, weight, density and temperature. For the blind people, touch can provide solid
information comparing to sound, which is very abstract. For that reason, the study of
tactile and information is important, along with the tactile perception of Braille.

We can feel if a room is brightly lid or if it is dim. In the same way as we can feel
the sunlight on our skin. So light is a good method to address touch in architecture. But
the skin can sense more things. It can read texture, weight, density and temperature of
matte.

By touching material we experience more than by the bare gaze at it. Structures
have a visual effect but by touching them we feel more components of their construct.
Hardness, Depth, Temperature these components can vary in materials that give the
same visual impression. An interesting example of architecture can be the holocaust
memorial in Berlin from Peter Eisenman. The extremely smooth concrete and the
sprayed foam layer just invite to be touched. Though our vision leads us there only the
touch is actually satisfying our curiosity.