PHENOMENOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE IN MUSEUMS: from design to spatial experience
multisensory experience, geometric shapes, phenomenology, spatial perception
The phenomenological architecture emerged at a time of rupture and transformation of architectural culture. Based on the primacy of psychological analysis of lived experience, the architects who have adopted this new approach found themselves driven to create environments favoring a more personal and sensitive human experience according to the particularities of individuals; places that rescue the history/memory of space and people through an architecture that values the genius loci, and that understands the body as the means for the multisensory apprehension of space. In this context, the properties of the materials, the architectural geometric shapes, and the way in which natural spatial factors such as lighting, temperature, noise, and even odors are manipulated should be capable of eliciting sensations and emotions predicted or desired to some extent by architects. Taking as the object of study an architectural shape and the spatial perception in the Jewish Museum of Berlin, designed by Daniel Libeskind, and the Museum of Ocean and Surf, designed by architects Steven Holl and Solange Fabião, this research aims to understand the phenomenological experience in museums from the analysis of the combination of natural phenomena (light and shadow, water, wind, temperature) and the architectural geometric shapes used in the projects. Specific objectives are (1) to interpret the presence of phenomenology in architecture; (2) identify the presence of cultural, environmental, and sensory aspects in the creation of architectural atmospheres of case studies; and, mainly, (3) identify the correlation between geometric shapes and the emotions and feelings that users have within a building. For this, the work is subdivided into three stages: (i) the theoretical approach through literature review relevant to the topic; (ii) the experience of space, when the author visits the buildings mentioned in order to identify how the space contributes to the sensations felt, based on the aspects identified in the first stage; (iii) analysis of architects' projects and discourse, using plans, sketches and interviews available on the internet or in books. The initial results show that in the chosen cases the sensations are the result of the spatial aspects as well as the expography itself and the interactive resources present in the spaces.