In my architectural
work, I am aware of a number of private ‘instincts’ that I
repeatedly draw upon in reaching design decisions. This has been true
for some time and I have never given it much thought.
Recently however, I
found myself pondering on what these ‘instincts’ amount to and
whether there is a way of thinking about them. A key indicator was
the simple fact that successful designs are frequently those in which
people are presented with spaces that are rounded.
This led me to a
speculative model based on the idea that, when interacting with our
physical environment, our minds continually construct a hope or
expectation that is fulfilled to a greater or lesser extent by
our real world surroundings.
The fruits of these
speculations are contained in a longish essay: The Embodiment of
Architectural Space which I have just published on Medium.
I consider the ideas
I explore to be fairly radical – though naturally, you will
ultimately be the judge of that.
If you have 20
minutes to spare you can read it here: