Moments of absence

Architecture perception in modern societies is concentrating towards the surface appearance rather than the content meaningfulness. The inquiry and urgency of how to understand and create architecture in a deeper significant way are emphasized. Pallasmaa mentioned, “The timeless task of architecture is to create embodied existential metaphors that concretize and structure man’s being in the world” . Perception – “physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience” is presenting the connection between spaces and mind. Experiencing architecture through the characteristics of light and shadow, texture, color, volume of spaces, and crafted details imprint more vivid memories and evoke thinking. Meaning arrives when we encounter these moments – where our “everyday life” has been translated into atmosphere and presenting in front of us. Architecture stands in between man and the life world as a mediation allowing people to see through the surface, and shining the “everyday life”. By analyzing our built environment and engaging into it, we not only receive what is manifested in front of us, but we also enrich the meaning by interpreting with individual experience, memories, and thought. Specifically, we explore how architecture embraces “the everyday life” and transcends into building language for people to communicate.

The challenge of the thesis is to discover and illustrate the interplay of foreground and background relationships from the site, historically, physically, environmentally, and social-culturally, analyzing its logic and association with sensation, therefore to translate and transform perceptual passages into design, and to enhance the experiential space character.