Architectural representation : aspiring to the condition of music

Abstract

With our buildings becoming more standardised, sterile and inert, we must look at other artforms for inspiration, particularly in the way their representations are able to communicate emotional qualities. This engagement with other arts will aid to make buildings that move us, inspire us and resonate with us on a human level. Music, over time, has been an art that was always driven by its ability to move its listeners on an emotional level, making its effective representation the ideal artform architecture should aspire to. This connection was investigated in this dissertation through several means, with discussions about the experience of receiving through senses, the context and canvases on which both artforms live, and most importantly, their representations. The plan and the score are both representational tools, which act as the connection and translation from the conceiver’s ideas and their manifestations. With both being visual representations on paper, this sense is given priority over senses when represented, and subsequently given the priority when manifested as architecture. This is not seen in music, because of its temporal nature and its effectiveness in representing emotions on the score, through a number of different methods of articulation. In investigating the difference in emotional representation of both, a code was designed and developed through interviews with architects and musicians. These interviews were conducted with prior knowledge gained from the literature review. This code represents the senses, through a notation of sensory perceptions within spaces as an added layer on the traditional architectural plan. It is suggested as a tool to widen the representational capabilities of the architectural plan beyond a direct relationship to space and include the other senses in the representation of architecture. The representations of these sensorial perceptions would then bring about a representation of the emotions being felt within the space.