Toronto Metropolitan University
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Corporeal architecture: a material response to sensorial experience

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posted on 2021-05-22, 14:06 authored by Michael P. M. Blois
My project began with an interest in sensory experience and the means by which the body engages in architecture. Numerous threads were explored- studying the work of Aalto, Scarpa, Holl, Zumthor and the writing of Pallasmaa; examining the work of artists like David Rokeby and Michael Awad; research about perception and sensation, through Deleuze, J.J. Gibson, Frampton, Frascari...And through personal experience: documenting sites in the city through different seasons, visiting the American Folk Art Museum (and others) in NYC. The project developed into a critique of the critique, referring to the ocularcentric critique. This critique argues that vision has been the focus of architects and designers at the exclusion of the other senses. This critique is a point of departure for my work, which seeks to add a new layer--through a study of the links between the senses (intersensorality) as they occur in the experience of architecture. I have identified a number of key moments in architectural experience that highlight these links and provide a venue for experimentation (moments when a number of the senses are at play). Together with a number of threads and supporting ideas, the design portion of the project tests materials, forms and conditions in order to bring the links between the senses into focus. This design research is contained within my proposed, small addition to an existing branch Library on Queen Street West.

History

Language

eng

Degree

  • Master of Architecture

Program

  • Architecture

Granting Institution

Ryerson University

LAC Thesis Type

  • Thesis Project

Thesis Advisor

John Cirka

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