Case study: Views House. Johnston Marklee and Diego Arraigada
Critical reading: Mark Wigley, “The Architecture of Atmosphere”, in Daidalos 68, July 1998, pp. 18-27
Both case study and critical text investigate the atmospherical interaction between buildings and nature.
Case study: the view house designed by Johnston Marklee and Diego Arraigada tries to establish a relation between the living experience and its surrounding landscape.
For this purpose the architects have introduced the time as dynamic variable developing an internal staircase which leads to a roof deck. This architectural element allows the users to enjoy the nearby views on all sides in a dynamic and changing spiralling path that would engage an interaction among users and nature.
Critical reading: the Wigley’s essay speculates about the concept of atmosphere, defining it as a theatrical effect, intangible and personal. According to the text, trying to capture and control the atmosphere, architects often deceive themselves drawing perfect environments and thinking that they -the environments- can be controlled.
A tangible problem of intangibility: The idea that architect and architecture can control the nature creating the exact atmosphere they conceived is an illusion, especially because atmosphere is imperceptible and really subjective. Moreover the environment evolution is frequently unpredictable and it could compromise the architects aim.
In the view house, for example, Johnston Marklee and Diego Arraigada try to create an interaction system between architecture and its surrounding. However the architects cannot control the environment and, as result, now the windows frame the neighbourhood houses, compromising the owner privacy as well as the main project feature.
Wigley seem to believe that there is no way to learn how to create atmosphere. The intangible ambience cannot be designed or predicted. The writer finally assert that architects as special effect producers should learn that the drawing they produced and the atmosphere in architecture are distinct.
Nevertheless I believe that the introduction of new digital tools as well as the use of virtual and augmenter reality could help architects to better understand the natural environment in order to produce more controlled and accurate projects, well suited to the morphological and climatic environment conditions.
Personal research: Personally I am really interested investigating the relation between architecture and its surrounding environment. In particular I would like to analyze how the natural conditions could modify an architectural project and how the introduction of the technology are helping architects to design better buildings as well as cities, redefining the architectural process.
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