Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Geometry and proportion are typically used by architectural designers to develop a building with a unified appearance, however, design-oriented use of geometry fails to address the fullness of experience. Geometrically proportioned architectural environments are not designed merely for constructive integrity or an observer’s attention or to measure the architect’s design prowess. Use of geometry establishes a spatial pattern from the perspective of the user. However, design decision-making often neglects the significance of the perception of built geometric order on the part of the architectural observer, who in everyday life lacks attentive awareness of that geometry but is nevertheless affected by it. This paper develops a progression of thought about the relation of human experience to geometrical proportioning of architectural space that addresses this need. Use of geometry has transformed from positioning the body in Euclidian space to our embodiment conferring a continual spatial relation in the encounter with architecture. James J. Gibson’s ecological psychology considers the physical environment in terms of its geometry giving structured information to visual experience. Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological perspective attributes our engagement with the physical world as a consciousness directly situated in the world in part due to geometry. This re-conceptualized spatial body envelops us in the geometric structure of space as an aspect of perception. This paper demonstrates that the systematic order in architecture available through its geometry informs an occupant through embodied perception in space and thereby provides the significant existential ground for formulation of abstracted representations of that architecture.