Monday, October 28, 2019

The Embodiment of Architectural Space


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: