Phenomenology in Peter Zumthor’s architecture

Phenomenology is non a b atomic number 18-ass invention, although it became synonymous with upst impostureistic mankindityeuver in the early 1900s. In fact the motif of phenomenology and the sum of life and its numerous consortions became non solely an existential question, further as well a study of reactivity amidst tender macrocosms in the hope that we mogul at a lower getstand why involvements happen and why we be provoke in the style we do. In the accessible eruditions, sociologists such as exclusive Weber wanted to understand this human eachiance amidst valet de chambre and in subterfuge this relationship culminated in the relationship surrounded by the stratagemists and the subject and the inherent ties that argon plain mingled with the two. son of a bitch Zumthor has be bewilder a paragon of his contrivance and his computer computer couturierure is twain(prenominal)thing of a phenomenological stratagemefact and in this case we evidence his architectural morsels at Vals in Switzerland and eau de cologne in Germ some(prenominal). We witness specific exclusivelyy at his pissing hole complex (Therme Vals resort) and his art m designum (Kolumba). We in any case look at the meaning and the system of phenomenology as a represent in the attempt to understand the connection in the midst of Zumthors one-on-oneal standpoint and the political orientation as a whole. We look firstborn at phenomenology as a discipline and its forefathers speckle too looking at the truly first revelations of phenomenology in the humanities.What is phenomenology? How did it come into beingness and why is it such a powerful tool for the arts? Phenomenology is set forth as the study of structures of consciousness as find prohibitedd from the first- someone point of view. (Smith, 2008). What is central to the bringing close together is the intention of the subject, for instance, what does the idiosyncratic intend to do with the interpret? The direction of an bring is adapt towards the object with pertinence to the meaning of the relationship (Smith, 2008).It was apply in the social sciences by masters such as Heidegger, Husserl and Sartre and encompasses quartet major aspects of the philosophy of social science epistemology, ontology, ethics and logic (Smith, 2008). Naturally, these aspects of humanity faecal matternot be beg offed by scientific inquiry al unitary, as the human brain consists of un jar over againstn re follow outs as well as the physiological and observ adequate. This present a problem for social sciences in the sensation that some(prenominal)thing could not be heightenn unless it could be look outd. What we be subject to observe, diely, is interaction, action and response. What we ar not adequate to(p) to observe is the why.Smith (2008) let offs that where conscious experience is concerned the major affect is that we atomic number 18 open to live d unmatched th em and complete them. We atomic number 18 satisfactory to doctor a foregone experience only from our sustain standpoint, ground on how we felt at the examine and in that respectfore we interpret it as it affects us soulally (Smith, 2008). Hermeneutic phenomenology is a branch of the discipline that stems from the informative which post that we atomic number 18 only ever competent-bodied to interpret experiences and relationships on that pointupon and never able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that it is professedly or not (Marcelle, 2005).At present, the genius of phenomenology is changing with the advent of unfermented conversation methods such as the internet (Marcelle, 2005). Indeed, artistically speaking, architecture likewise re main(prenominal)s a means of communicating via its ability to relate a geting or asynchronous transfer mode that is apt(p) to the emotion it wishes to convey. For role model, an art m expenditureum wants to convey a contras tive experience to that of a resort. After we lay down befool experiences, we accordingly pee-pee to analyze them and remove worthy aspects for further observation.Thereafter, phenomenology tries to expand upon different ship management of mentation and understand what type of depending grants that let onicular experience to be interpreted in that federal agency. Empirical experiments attempt to determine the commonality of that experience and whether it can be proved (Smith, 2008). Some hits of phenomenology try to explain these experiences with the added benefit of neurological bangledge which is of course, through empirical observation and scientifically proven (Smith, 2008). Now we know what phenomenology is unless what we pauperization to do it poke into where is it began in terms of representational art and architecture.Upon run into something it immediately invokes some break of wound up connection whether you like it real(prenominal) lots or hate it, there is a reason for this connection. When we view a flower in the open pass well-nigh, some of us may savour expansive and happy amongst the beauty while former(a)s may not be smashingly affect by it. The same is true when view a rubbish heap, save with the black nerve emotion. How we view this experience depends real much on the frame of mind we ar in at the time and the boilers suit mental state or personality.This was apply in early Surrealist art where those such as Salvador Dali essay to relate the internecine subconscious of the self to the viewer. Dali himself utilize architectural type hypercube structures to convey a accredited transcendence of Christ in his ren avowed Corpus Hypercubus (1954) (Fudjack & Dinkelaker, 1999). The utilization of using this 3 dimensional construction was to invoke the spirit not only of transcendence hardly withal omnipotence with the past, present and the future all being present in peerless send off (Barrette, 2007 ).Prior to Zumthors cast and wedged in amongst Dalis was Antonin Gaudi whose post- currentist art nouveau architecture can be seen as both garish and outrageous. Gaudis run was not only intend for a purpose, but was besides riding habit to have specific affect on the viewer. Sagrada Familia was not completed before Gaudis death in 1926 (Schumacher, 1991). Gaudi utilise angularity, columns and vaults in true architectural classicism and combine it with modern-day eclecticism to find a gorgeously outrageous modern Gothic temple.In other lending, he use mosaics and facades to constitute candy-like makes that both pleased the heart and soul and served a purpose. So phenomenology is not a in the raw(a) fancy in the arts and was used with great issuing too by artists such as Rene Magritte and in writing by Roland Barthes. Marcel Duchamps created tho some other dimension to modernistic phenomenology which include a form of cerebral art that made it unavoidable not al maven to view the humans, but to judge s unobjectionablely it and to react to it. For him, it was not so master(prenominal) that you liked the work, but sort of that you fancy roughly it.Duchamps constructed the Three Standard Stoppages (1914-1915) which used found articles such as train and mirror in a wooden box. This section therefore made use of mathematical questions that were of course, not answerable. The purpose of the work was in fact to create for Duchamps his own physical oeuvre (Betancourt, 2003). Roland Barthes created the judgment that what we see is not reality if it is re divulged. Barthes viewed a picture of his mother with the knowledge that although it was his mother in the picture, it was to a fault not his mother. It was really only a representation of her (Barthes, 1980).The question is really, what is the separate experience of the photograph? The experience of the singular is genuinely different depending on whether or not of course, you know the object depicted. We see that phenomenology has been used for many years in the arts and in writing, and now we look specifically at the work of nib Zumthor. Peter Zumthor was born in Switzerland on the 26 April 1943. Zumthor was the son of a console table maker and learnt carpentry early in life. He studied at the Pratt ground in New York and was awarded the Carlsberg Architecture jimmy in 1998 (Spiritus Temporis, 2005).Peter Zumthor in any case wrote extensively about his philosophy for architecture motto that In order to design expressions with a sensuous connection to life, atomic number 53 must think in a flair that goes far beyond form and construction. (Zumthor in Arc infinite, 2009). The phenomenological approach of Zumthors work is clear in this statement as it employs the purpose and necessity of thinking about the work more than merely accepting it as a piece in which we any reside or gather. For Zumthor, the mental synthesis not only has to be facilitat ive, but also be turned on(p)ly or sultrily charged.It is only in this manner that we are able to connect with it on a personal level. The create is itself, and does not have to be representational of anything. In other words, as the Chartres Cathedral is representational of a eldritch artefact, Zumthors work has an groundly concern beyond its representation (Zumthor in Arc put, 2009). The Kolumba artifice Museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne is a coming of elderly and new-made religious art which was meant ab initio to make wiz think about how the two cosmeas intercept (Carrington, 2008). It is described as a museum of think overion (Carrington, 2008).First founded in 1853 by the Society for Christian subterfuge and is home to 2 000 years of religious art. The most most-valuable aspect of this art however, is that it has two gibe histories. The passkey fortifying was almost in all destroyed during orb War II and during the year of 1973, excavations revealed medieval, popish and Gothic remains. All the ruins were used by Zumthor to collaborate the history into cardinal dumbfounding piece of work (Carrington, 2008). Zumthor essentially brocaded the ramparts on cement covered sword columns and embed both sets of historical ruins into the new walls (Carrington, 2008).The result is an amalgamation of grey-headed and new that somehow allows the viewer to notice the old preferably than the new while also providing us with the same vision Zumthor himself had. Upon viewing the structure it seems to be a muddle that is carefully constructed to produce a time-frame continuum. moreover while the build is a paying attention invocation of old and new, it is also milieually considered. It is constructed with filter walls that have a air and light permeable membrane which is spaced between the chapel and the exhibition cortege (Architectural News, 2007).Zumthor collaborated the use of the old mankind stuff and nonsense with brick, mor tar, plaster and terrazzo as a background for the artworks exhibited (Architectural News, 2007). Clearly, if Zumthor wanted to he could have created a modernistic and highly technological piece of architecture like the Sydney Opera House, but his sensitivity as an artist allowed him to produce a dignified and respectful piece of architectural history that is not seen before. Windows place across the entire space of the wall allows light to enter at all directions and also provides changing lights spaces at different times of the day (Architectural News, 2007).There is not a great difference in colour between the old and the new parts of the twist considering the different satisfyings used at any time. The gothic vaults that be along the side of the make are embedded onto plastered and graind walls. The texture however, does not appear directly john the gothic facade, but quite some meters above it. This means that there is no trim backion from the original facade (Figure 1) . Kolumba cheat Museum Figure 1 Markus Bachmann (Architectural News) 2007. The Therme Vals, Switzerland has a wholly different countenance altogether.Zumthor appears to be a master at replacing cured structures with refreshing new ones. The spa reopened in 1996 after it was reconstructed by Zumthor from the original 1960s building (McLaughlin, 2006). Zumthor created a modern bathing complex out of 60 000 local quartzite slabs. The buildings itself appears to be truly new age and almost alien-like, with granite dotted or so geometric and grump sliding doors. In a sense, Zumthor has attempted to internalise the sens backdrop of the exterior of the building, by incorporating the innate light available through cover and clarified glass (Baus, 2007 9).Holes in the sky-lights of the slabs allow raw(a) light into the rooms where the baths are situated. The floor plan reveals lights situated under the piddle in the baths that glow a magical blue in the evening and is a perfect pl ace to reflect upon ones self (Baus, 2007 14). This is of course, the point of a spa, that one is assisted in self exploration. The domes appear to resemble eyes placed upon a shield from which the light is radiated. The purpose of this architecture is therefore not only to prevail and enhance well being, but also to accommodate the natural environment (Baus, 2007 5).The building itself resembles the gentle ebb and flow of the decant that feeds the spa as well as the Alpine mountains that surround it. The interior glass is frosted with yin/yang shaped apertures that allow the light into the building as seen in omen two. One is quickly able to see how the light is utilised to produce an aery and magical area of meditation which is peculiarly classic to the person who is attempting to find emotional help. It is not a palatial and stilted piece as is seen in the art museum, but then the personality of the spate visiting it is not likely to be the same either.Figure 2 interior( a) Vals health spa www. flickr. com/photos/amirkorour/269995495/ Remove frame The divergence of senses is a contributing factor to emotional disruption and the allowance of this building to connect with the beautiful environment palliates the reconnection of the person with the senses whether they be beauty, love, peace or euphoria. Sensory passing is something we have come to tolerate as humans due in part to our fast paced lifestyles and our intense exigency for social airs and graces.In a space such as the Vals Spa, we are able to shed these nuances of life and expect to be move back towards what Zumthor had antecedently explained was a sensual connection with the environment. In an wonder with Zumthor available online the Termae of careen is explained by the man himself. Zumthor states that he wanted the visitors to be able to connect with the environment and to be able to find themselves in spite of appearance the architecture (Zumthor, 2007). Zumthor also wanted the a rchitecture to be a part of the mend process preferably than an face-lift work of art on its own.For this reason it must facilitate the human experience rather than detract from it (Zumthor, 2007). The meaning behind the architecture is that is becomes almost a mythical and ritualistic appearance of cleansing in a very spiritual manner. The spiritual is inherent in the building by virtue of it meaningful vary and by symbolism. Zumthor uses the ritual of removing ones clothing as a part of this stripping of nonmaterial material to reveal the purity of self and of the environment, essentially becoming one with it (Zumthor, 2007).Stone and skin are two of these serious factors as well as the senses being able to experience different temperatures of the water and textural changes in the light and building material. bring together with this is an acoustic effect that tantalises all the senses touch, sound, voltaic pile and savor. There is a clear parallel between the building an d its meaning which is the encumbrance of phenomenology. This was also attempted by discourteous Lloyd Wright many years before at Falling Waters. Zumthor states too that on a formal level everything is simple and un-intrusive, an important aspect of the purpose of a meliorate spa.Part water and part infernal region, the functionality of the material is elemental to the human body which is in the first place water itself (Zumthor, 2007). There is a apposition between the mobility of water and the solidity of stone similar to the opposites visible in the art museum which old and new are encapsulated together. Zumthor distinctly also honors the opposing of various opposite sets as well as the sensualness that theses opposites grant the viewer. For most volume healing entails the requisite for the senses to be wakened and for experience to be reinvented.In a sense, we stop experiencing the humanity around us when we run out of time or are clinging to the need to survive r ather than seeking time for the self and its needs. The idea of a spa is not only the range of treatments that it gives the person, but also a healing form within where the person is able to completely relax. The thoughtfulness of light against the monochromatic consortium floors is the same example used in the artwork Museum at Kolumba where the light allowed into the building illuminates the various pieces differently all the time. wholly natural light can do this, not artificial. For Zumthor, thinking is also important to the individual, because thinking is what makes us different from one another. In the same representation as we do not all think in the same way, light reflections are never the same at any given time. The result is purely interpretive and hermeneutic. The effect is as much psychological as it is physiological and the spa is as much naturalistic as it is modern which is largely thanks to the quartzite slabs Zumthor has used.Zumthor is quick to explain it is h is own idea of the architecture that he wishes to convey and that he takes the liberty of understand the piece the way he sees it (Zumthor, 2007). The idea of the piece is always accompanied by a powerful stove and the ocularisation of the experience (Zumthor, 2007). For Zumthor it is never an abstract idea, it is very clear. The first doubles that Zumthor has upon undertaking an architectural piece are naive and child-like and gradually suppurate into something realistic (Zumthor, 2007).The process of building never loses the initial image even though it is built upon and matured. For him it is a self defining form of architecture and not an abstract, innocent one (Zumthor, 2007). Interestingly this is opposite to the previously mentioned modernist architect Antonin Gaudi whose architecture was outrageously abstract and indulgent. Zumthor has clearly focussed on communication, possible action the mouth of the architecture to allow his image to proceed. Communication is key to the hermeneutic experience, preponderantly because communication is the way we define ourselves and others.It is the way we are able to relate to one another and it the only observable form there is to humanity. Zumthor is therefore also humane in his approach to art and architecture. Jacky Bowring describes how as westerlyers we have become detached from our senses and uses the example of Anthony Giddens that globularisation, westernisation and modernisation are intertwined. This means that the global village is slowly but surely become a horse opera one where sensory deprivation causes the volcanic ebullition of deviant behaviour (Bowring, 2005 81).But western sandwich culture is also dominated by the visual meaning that what is pleasing to the eye is considered pleasing to the soul. However, other cultures such as the Indian and the Oriental employ the use of all the senses and produce an holistic effect (Bowring, 2005 81). For this purpose, Zumthor cleverly escapes th e Westernized jail in which Western society had holed itself and employs the use of other sense that essentially make us humans rather than just non-rational animals (Bowring, 2005 81). Bowring believes that our optical and visual culture has made us disadvantaged of other senses, which is partially true.She states A antipathetical to the one-eyed focus of ocularcentrism is the recognition of senses of place that is found in the philosophy of phenomenology. (Bowring, 2005 82). As a result of this deprivation we have become dislocated and not a whole and functional body, hence the need for multi-sensory architecture and connectivity with our environment (Bowring, 2005 82). For Bowring the problem is that the Western obsession with appearance has caused landscape artists to produce masses of gardens and landscapes that are pretty or stunning but have no other sensory satisfactions (Bowring, 2005 83).Sturich looks at the image as a poetic one, as a hermeneutic experience by which we create images that invoke certain looking atings and for Zumthor the verse line is an unexpected truth (Sturich, 2003 4). The poetic strengthens our relationship between the world or ourselves, make us more able to experience that world for what it really is a culmination of all senses and not merely a material setting (Sturich, 2003 4). Memory is another aspect of the poetic that Zumthor uses as the senses are memory precursors. The senses and the poetic becomes taradiddles by which we build our current worlds, beliefs and experiences (Sturich, 2003 6).For this reason, we associate things we do not like with things that have bad memories or experiences. We may not like thatched signalings because one caught fire once as a child or we may bed the Palace of Versailles because of a sweet cake we indulged in when visiting it. The association of what we enjoy and do not enjoy is base on our experience of it. Zumthors idea of what a kitchen should be is based on his memory of hi s aunts house when he was a child, as obviously he has good memories of it (Sturich, 2003 7).Poetry relates these memories through words, architects relate these memories through their works. Sturich explains that we use buildings as repositories for poetic images that increase our awareness of the world around us (Sturich, 2003 10). So we have the memory and the poetic image as two aspects of the hermeneutic or phenomenological that facilitate creative and healing properties of the human being and the human mind. Davidovici explains yet another enkindle aspect to the phenomenology of Zumthor and that is in the culture of modern Europe.Critically speaking, Zumthor did away with the cultural need for art for arts rice beer and replaced it with a moral concern for the environment (Davodovici, date unknown 1). Herzog and de Meuron were two of Zumthors counterparts, but there idea of architecture was as an artistic vehicle with a motion towards emotive charging of all materials used i n a single building (Davidovici, date unknown 1). The morphology of the building therefore entertained the idea that human-centered approaches were too formal and there was therefrom a need for impersonal and impersonal environs to be banished.Zumthor, in his Kolumba Art Museum gave way to the fact that our memories are embedded in our pasts and that patriotism is a necessary part of national spirit. We see that the use of two to three worlds entwined with the modern gives scarce the right amount of emotive past and sensory present. Zumthor was concerned with creating something that we could know, understand and feel. (Davidovici, date unknown 4). Again, for Zumthor the idea of building and of home base is the same as Heideggers that hearthstone is the personal and identifiable space where people reside as human beings (Sturich, 2003 1).The immenseness of this is that our personal space is a reflection of the self in the same way that it is also impersonal in its creation. I t is the way in which we adorn our personal space that allows the true self to become self-evident. The building itself is built by someone else and very rarely is indicative of the self, but in these cases, sometimes this works as a slate upon which one can paint their own image. We see without doubt that Zumthor has created in the Vals thermic Spa, a place where the individual is able to connect with the self because the surroundings are impersonal.However, it is very clearly natural and down to earth. Compare this for instance to the Hilton Hotels dotted around the Unites States that are overgenerous but also impersonal but offer no real luck to connect with the personal. The same sort of similitude can be made between the Chartres Cathedral and the Kolumba Art Museum where both themes are the religious. In the Chartres Cathedral the purest place of the architecture as a product is itself. The Kolumba, by contrast is that it should understand the slip of the works contained within it rather than the building itself.Zumthor also shows a very important component part reference too in that the main source of his inspiration was not to show himself as being a great architect, but to hold open the past. The gothic and Romanesque arches that Zumthor bear on are beautifully melded into the modern cement walls of Zumthors own interpretation. The interior is also clearly geared towards preserving the art within it rather than being a work of art in itself. The need to preserve the past is also related to the magnificence of memory and the personal relationship both a nation and an individual has.The Vals Thermal Spa on the other overtake is created in an impersonal and natural way so as not to detract from the experience that one is supposed to have. present begins the phenomenological application the experience, the interpretation and the analysis. The first thing one is goaded into at the spa is to experience the multi-sensory application. You are requi red to feel the water, see the reflection, hear the sounds of the water and also taste it. This is important to the personal experience, as every one has different ones. excessively important is the fact that within the water the quartzite is locally mined and is not an anachronism for the person viewing it. The purpose is to reawaken emotion and experience of the world around and you as well as be able to reconnect with the self. We see that phenomenology is concerned with action, reaction and interaction, which is also personally experienced rather than imposed upon the individual. The theory of Roland Barthes was also pertinent to the understanding that what we see visually is not always the realistic, it is often merely a representation.What the other senses do is to make that imagination into a tangible reality. One can see a picture of a something and it excites the visual sense but when we are able to feel it, smell and taste it, it becomes a tangible reality. The baths of Thermal Spa able to be felt, seen, and heard and are therefore real things. Salvador Dali also attempted to make the representational into a reality, he tried to convert the two dimensional into the three dimensional causing the person to optically believe they are able to touch and fell the article or the object.One is able to analyse the feelings one has only from the personal standpoint and never from the third person, hence the personal personality of narratives and novels where the writer places themselves in the position of the character in order to create the person they wish to describe. This means that the poetic narrative is also an inversion in a sense, of the phenomenological even though it is not truly the personal experience the personal experience being of the first person rather than an interpretation of the first person by the third person.The importance of the relationship between the personal and the interpersonal is evident again in the fact that although we can not prove how we feel or how others feel, we are at least able to empathise with what we see and feel around us. Zumthor is clearly wanting us to reconnect with the surroundings, our sense and our selves. In conclusion Peter Zumthor has succeeded in creating an architectural world where there is a good relationship between the past and the present the natural and the artificial and the self and the world.It is not merely based on the visual but also on all the senses. He relates to the human need to embrace the sensual rather than living the life of prescribed society. enchantment science offers us a very distinct set of truths about the world around us, such as that the earth is round and that the body needs water, what it does not do is tell us how we think or why we do what we do. In architecture such as Zumthors, the architect recognises that in human nature very little is formulaic and we are rarely able to predict human behaviour. for sure this cerebral art is a divergence from classical, also formulaic artistic pieces. The thinking architecture is one that is able to produce the self in the its architecture and is able to allow the person to reflect on the environment as well as themselves. The Art Museum is a place where the individual is able to reflect on the persons national past while also allowing us to be able to see the changes over time in the art in question. The Thermal Spa allows the person to reflect on themselves as well as their surroundings, hereby facilitating healing.