Meeting 05 + Possible Museum design

Today's meeting focused on our designs. Richard said that there are many possible arrangments for my museum. It could be that it's spherical, that it has a rotating center where you stand in the middle and go into certain areas that surrounds. Or it could be a long corridoor that takes you through a confusing maze....and he said that perhaps the big idea in my design is that fighting for beauty is stupid, thus an architecture that conveys that emptiness through out it. He also asked about the form and the look of this building and he seemed happy with the idea that it takes no specific form, that it's different from every view, ambigious. However since that talk, i came up with another idea. Here is a part of my email to him:


AFter the research so far, i've discovered that beauty is constantly changing at the rate that we're changing, no matter if its artistic beauty, an act of human skill, natural, human figure beauty- it all depends on where the person or the human race is in time, it's usually whatever we lack, whatever we don't have, whatever that makes us curious, whatever makes us feel at peace- so it's all about contrast. [ the thesis writing would be to investigate this theory through the research on the types of beauty and the types of reasons for those beauty- so the design is like the solution rather than the 3D visualized version i previously said]

So Beauty is not  visual, it's when something embodies a quality. THe visual is for taking in the formatted image, and to recognize it as beautiful  means you are aware of yourself and what you need and who you are. [this is a good explaination for evolution's sexual selection 'theory' but also for things like why do we appreciate a well painted painting? If i know that i could also paint the exact same effect- would i still find it as beautiful?]

So i guess my point is that is that i need to create a place much like Weixin's isolated place- but instead of reconnecting to the sea, it's reconnecting to ourselves- for self awareness, to be taken away from this world into another where you are able to see all the images and challenge one's perception of who they may be- and only then will they be able to understand the reasons as to why they find certain things beautiful and understand what is beautiful.

So like i said today, i want to create a place where one could dwell imaginatively within another dimension or realm- a place one could go to feel a certain way about the world and to better understand it.  So what if i found a site where the buildings and other things on it displays the different types of beauty [human skill, artistic, natural, human faces...] then pull these spaces underground and while keeping them in a way that the person can recognize their real self above ground but stil change them to create the space i desire? So it's like using existing and physical places of beauty rather than creating them within the museum. Im intereted in underground because it's like a placelessness realm that doesn't belong to the surface yet it is an image of the things above. A contrasting theme which seems to be running through my research at the moment.

So i would create a place which takes no exterior form- at least none that the observor could tell and it's thus all about the experience. It doesn't really take place in the real world, at least not in the day-to-day visual world. I will leave it as that for now and wait for his reply. In the meantime i need to do my brief and search up more ideas of the self? so lost

Still trying to figure out what it is that i really want

I’m not trying to disregard Engineers or aesthetics or function, or form or anything, I’m trying to understand from a scientific and a logical perspective of how a person reacts to his surroundings, how he sees and interpret and inhabit his space so that I can understand what triggers emotions of happiness, comfort and total experience, which in my opinion, is beautiful architecture.

While writing notes and reading Architecture and Happiness, i had to write the above down to clarify for myself what it is that i'm trying to do and not trying to do. Assuming the above is well written and can sustain a wonderful thesis, what kind of product design would i end up with? Still feels like that on the way to explaining the above, i would have to produce a lot of research initiated design solutions to convince my reader, to show them. So stuck!

Meeting with Richard Goldie 01 + New proposal

I met with Richard Goldie last thursday morning with Weixin and Joe. 
He was pleased with my proposal but suggested i clarify it. 
I think his main concern is how i plan to tackle such a big and old topic like beauty. I think i may be confusing myself. What i want to do is examine what makes people enjoy buildings- i used the word beauty because of it's vagueness and bigness.
He was displeased with weixins and very happy with Joes.
I'm really worried about my actual design project. it feels like everyone [including the thesis i read] had a very clear idea of what they wish to build then researched into how to build it successfully. I'm taking a route which is technically ideal [from how i understood Goldie]- it's not knowing what the outcome will be and suprising yourself through your research. But that's just risky.
He did say that site picking will be a very crucial part of the investigation...
The design and location of my thesis will be developed through understanding and revealing the topic.

From the first day I was introduced to Architecture I have denied the idea of aesthetics & the need for beautiful architecture, after seeing function and basic sustainability methods being sacrificed for aesthetics I began to lose hope in Architectural buildings. This thesis will challenge my long-term stubborn belief and access how the human brain identifies what 'beauty' is in architecture and how does a ‘beautiful’ architecture form impact our emotions and life. 

This thesis will

- investigate the individual ideas of 'beauty' as understood by numerous famous architects throughout time.

-explore the various intellectual and different cultural movements that inform how people create and look at architecture

-Attempt to understand neurology and psychology- determine how we, as humans, really identify the complex and personal concept of beauty.

Architecture is a multisensory art and requires to be understood on more than just visual terms, it must not only take into account of the other senses but also the effects of being human. Through an understanding of the neurology and psychology, I will attempt to use and manipulate the essence of being human, i.e. emotions, memory, compassion, personality & spirituality within architecture to create a personified, multisensory architectural form with the capacity to affect and reflect the deepest reaches of my existence. 

Critical Question of your thesis      Aesthetically successful architecture often follows certain rules of beauty which have been taught to us over time, but can architecture be challenged to evolve our emotional connections with our surroundings if we understood the neural basis that triggers feelings of appreciation, joy and happiness, i.e. ‘beautiful’ architectural spaces?

Major architectural and architectonic ideas you will be investigating

-        The impact of beautiful architecture on human (The importance of beautiful aesthetics )

-        How architecture speaks to us

-        The culture cause of our understanding and perception of ‘beauty’

-        The scientific cause of our understanding and perception of ‘beauty’

-        Individuality in the perception of architecture

-        How understanding psychology and neurology we are able to design ‘beautiful’ architecture and spaces for the unique individual

-        The definition of beauty

Draft 1- proposal

It's rather difficult to come up with a perfect or near perfect abstract/intro to what i want to do when i've on read a few books, i only know so much, so i can only propose so much. I'm running out of time.


draft 1:


Keywords: beauty in architecture, aesthetics, personality, neurology, different famous architects, different times in architectural history, architecture impact on lives,


 How does the human brain identify what 'beauty' is in architecture and how can 'beautiful' architecture forms express  emotions or moods? 
Architecture is a multisensory art and requires to be understood on more than just visual terms, it must not only take into account of the other senses but also the effects of being human. [ie. emotions, memory, compassion, symapthy]


This thesis will investigate the individual ideas of 'beauty' as understood by numerous famous architects such as Zaha Hadid & Frank Gehry, explore the challeges to the various intellectual and cultural movements that inform how people create and look at architecture, then through neurology and psychology- determine how we, as humans really identify the complex and personal concept of beauty. 
Through this research, I hope to create an personified, multisensory architectural form with the capacity to affect the deepest reaches of my existence. 


hmm...O_O


The proposal seems a bit far fetched. I think i will go with that for now, i have become weary of all the reading, so i thought i'd 'put my foot down' so to speak and write something! I really hope that this can be used as a loose idea that we base our final idea on - [ the idea i hope to derive to WITH a supervisor]

Thesis topics

Still stuck on topics at the moment. I want to write about aesthetics, it's impact on human, but i also want to do something MORE, more real and more practical- which would be sustainability.

So i wanted to connect the two:

Problem: A doom future of peak oil and resource depletion- architecture is only responding to either aesthetics or sustainability at the moment

Therefore: Understand what is BEAUTIFUL in architecture through neurology, how do we see beauty

Final solution: Biomimicry can link beauty/aesthetics to sustainability/function without sacrificing either one for the other. Once we understand what we find beautiful in architecture, biomimicry will answer aesthetics when only attempting sustainability.

So the problem with this is that it touches on too many ideas: Future, neurology, biomimicry, aesthetics vs function. While they're all interlinked, i don't know if i can successfully convince the reader of each element.

The sample thesis i read was simply on 'what makes great architecture' answer: 'the architect, not how the architecture fits into a specific framwork', solution 'create architecture which is best fit for the author'...of course it was written a lot better than that but with such a simplistic proposal, he was able to write sooo much.

Perhaps i should forget the sustainable element- afterall i'm only including it out of hatred towards the lameness of architecture theories.

Second proposal possibility:

Quesiton: What is a beautiful building? What makes it beautiful and successful?

Proposal: Understand beauty through neurology and realise that beauty is subjective, we appreciate architecture depending on our own experiences..

Therefore: 'beautiful' architecture is not subject to aesthetics or function, it's the expression and emotions the building gives out..?!

Final solution: ...?

Or perhaps i could simplify the first proposal so that it does not touch on the future....

Problem/problem: Aesthetics or sustainability? Often new architecture today sacrifices one for the other, having an architecture fit in often proves it self more useful for the architect than a fully sustainable building,

Therefore: Understand what is BEAUTIFUL in architecture through neurology, how do we see beauty? is beauty really limited to aesthetics?

Final solution: Beauty is how the building speaks to us...emotions bla bla. How do we approach the future of architecture? Through biomimicry....create a biometrics architecture which supports the previous ideas proved through neurology and yet opens the door to many new possibilities.

So i need to read more books, feeling very shaky about the whole biomimicry thing, what if i can't find a strong link of the two?

READ
-biomimicry, biometric,

-aesthetics of architecture, beautiful architecture

-Architecture future..

-More thesis