Course Objective: Explore architectural space and form in various cultures.  15 page paper is due May 4, 2018.  The 15 pages should not include cover sheet or citations.  Double space, 12 point and number each page.  You may choose at two cultures to compare/contrast.  You may explore only one.  Whatever you do, please use several or one philosophy of architecture.  Delve into how a culture define space Your final research paper is to analyze the importance of architectural space, exploring how at least two cultures express space and the importance of architectural space.  I read the wonderful discussions that you all wrote about urban space.  Now let us narrow our vision to our immediate space and how we react to space.  Try to keep the paper to no more than 15 pages including citations. OVERALL: Minimum of 15. Introduction. Identify explain how one culture experience space. Compare to another chore to emphasize. Then tell me how you feel about it. The give summary. 187 | SSpace soft architecture. Sensors that trigger the opening and closing of doors and windows, the movement of walls, and even the lowering and raising of floors and ceilings produce the personalized spaces that characterize soft architecture. Theatrical stages have had this capability for some time, and thus have a lot to teach the designer seeking to produce soft architecture. Traditional Japanese architecture is an early version of soft architecture. The ability to change the use and “feel” of a space by simply moving a rice paper screen and rearranging the mats on the floor is a manual, low-tech version of soft architecture. A more recent manifestation of softness was attempted with the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1977) (Figure 93). It was to have an interior in which many walls and floors were movable. Unfortunately that degree of flexibility was unjustified. Consequently the building was renovated in 2000 to increase its capacity and efficiency by “hardening” it. In soft architecture each force applied to it creates content that has form, as “water poured into a vase has form” (Ezra Pound). The water- generated Blur building by Herzog and Meuron poetically illustrates the new frontier of soft or reflexive architecture. The term now refers to any architecture that is not finite or fixed. See also: Blur • Responsive architecture • Flexibility Figure 93 Pompidou Center Space The classical questions include: is space real, or is it some kind of mental construct, or an artifact of our ways of perceiving and thinking? — Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy If architecture can be understood as the construction of boundaries in space, this space must be understood as commonsense space, a space that possesses meaning and speaks to us long before the architect goes to work. — Karsten Harries The ethereal thing about architecture is this thing called “space.” Space, as a central design concern for architects, has the interesting quality of.

1. Course Objective:
Explore architectural space and form in various cultures.
15 page paper is due May 4, 2018. The 15 pages should not
include cover sheet or citations. Double space, 12 point and
number each page. You may choose at two cultures to
compare/contrast. You may explore only one. Whatever you
do, please use several or one philosophy of architecture. Delve
into how a culture define space
Your final research paper is to analyze the importance of
architectural space, exploring how at least two cultures express
space and the importance of architectural space. I read the
wonderful discussions that you all wrote about urban space.
Now let us narrow our vision to our immediate space and how
we react to space. Try to keep the paper to no more than 15
pages including citations.
OVERALL: Minimum of 15.
Introduction. Identify explain how one culture experience
space. Compare to another chore to emphasize. Then tell me
how you feel about it. The give summary.
187 | SSpace
soft architecture. Sensors that trigger the opening and closing of
doors
and windows, the movement of walls, and even the lowering and
raising

2. of floors and ceilings produce the personalized spaces that
characterize
soft architecture. Theatrical stages have had this capability for
some
time, and thus have a lot to teach the designer seeking to
produce soft
architecture.
Traditional Japanese architecture is an early version of soft
architecture.
The ability to change the use and “feel” of a space by simply
moving a rice
paper screen and rearranging the mats on the floor is a manual,
low-tech
version of soft architecture. A more recent manifestation of
softness was
attempted with the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1977)
(Figure 93).
It was to have an interior in which many walls and floors were
movable.
Unfortunately that degree of flexibility was unjustified.
Consequently the
building was renovated in 2000 to increase its capacity and
efficiency by
“hardening” it.
In soft architecture each force applied to it creates content that
has
form, as “water poured into a vase has form” (Ezra Pound). The
water-
generated Blur building by Herzog and Meuron poetically
illustrates the
new frontier of soft or reflexive architecture. The term now
refers to any
architecture that is not finite or fixed.

3. See also: Blur • Responsive architecture • Flexibility
Figure 93 Pompidou
Center
Space
The classical questions include: is space real, or is it some kind
of
mental construct, or an artifact of our ways of perceiving and
thinking?
— Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
If architecture can be understood as the construction of
boundaries in
space, this space must be understood as commonsense space, a
space
that possesses meaning and speaks to us long before the
architect
goes to work. — Karsten Harries
The ethereal thing about architecture is this thing called
“space.” Space, as
a central design concern for architects, has the interesting
quality of being
invisible to the untrained eye. Clients and beginning
architecture students
seldom know what architects or teachers are referring to when
they are
S | 188 Spirit of place
talking about space. For the initiated space is not an abstraction,

4. it has
substance. For the uninitiated, it remains an abstract concept.
Architects
often tout space making as their design objective, yet what that
really
means is seldom examined beyond the level of a slogan. It is
assumed
that everyone at the table lives in the same world of spatial
awareness.
Little is understood about our spatial awareness and
understanding. Only
in extreme cases of pathologies such as agoraphobia or
claustrophobia
is one’s relationship to space overtly addressed. In the early
1970s the
nascent quasi-science of Man–Environment Relations (MER)
attempted
to broach the topic with attitudinal and preference studies. The
notion
of “spatial style” variability among various subsets of the
population
was examined in one study in which this author was a subject.
The study
appears to conclude that geographers preferred horizontality,
whereas
architects preferred verticality. It pointed out that architects do
not
necessary have the same spatial preferences and biases as their
clients
and building users. Unfortunately, architects unconsciously
assume
that everyone inhabits their specialized spatial world. This can
result in
buildings that only the architect can love. The rest of the world
wonders
what the fuss is about.

5. The pleasure of space can not be put into words, it is
unspoken…
it is the presence of absence… leans towards the poetics of the
unconscious. — Bernard Tschumi
See also: Absence/presence • Abstraction • Behavior and
environment
Further sources: Agrest (1993: 173); Certeau (in Ballantyne
2002: 74) Gausa (2003:
561); Harries (1998: 125, 180; Heidegger (in Leach 1997: 122);
Jencks (2007: 174);
Johnson (1994: 383); Sharr (2007: 53); Scruton (1979: 43);
Tschumi (1999: 29, 84)
Spirit of place
Not to be confused with the late Charles Moore’s or Christopher
Alexander’s use of the term “sense of place” – which concerns a
reinforced spatial occupancy or imbuing particularly urban
space with
special meaning – spirit of place describes a more profound
degree of
supernatural awareness. Usually applied to a rural or a natural,
unspoiled
place, its original meaning is embedded in a Roman mythology:
that is,
the concept of every human being having two guardian spirits in
the form
of fallen angels (genii) that give life or spirit to people or
places. Generally
speaking, the modern world has shed such beliefs, and rather
than a
guardian spirit, the term now refers to the distinctive
atmosphere of a

6. particular site. More superficial versions of a contemporary
superstition
of place still exist, such as a flickering of interest in ley lines
and feng
shui.
The development towards assigning a modern concept of the
“extraordinary ability” to a place is complex – invisibly
intertwined in a
cultural weave of folk stories, memories, belief systems, and so
on – but
it seems to have been connected with the idea of “spirit”
through a notion
of “inspiration.” The alternative term for spirit of place, that is,
genius loci,
however, refers back to the original meaning of genius as
“essence.”
Enn Ots, Decoding Theoryspeak, An Illustrated Guide to
Architectural Theory. London and New York: Routledge, 2011:
187,188 ( page section is in attached)
There is a cultural element in creating space. We need to
understand our client:
https://www.ted.com/talks/diebedo_francis_kere_how_to_build_
with_clay_and_community
Residential Unit - Islamic Architecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VYrVF9MCq0The House
of Sugimoto (25:47)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3LzsnyhkI
Ted talk: Francis Kere

7. https://www.ted.com/talks/diebedo_francis_kere_how_to_build_
with_clay_and_community