Sensory Deprivation in Indian Temple Design: Enhancing Spiritual Experience
Besides being places of worship, temples in India are feats of architecture that epitomize the rich and profound spiritual traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and other faiths practiced in the country. The most interesting aspects of Indian temple architecture are the use of intentional sensory deprivations to heighten the spiritual experience. The temple designs bring the worshippers into a dimension that looks within and starts to connect with the divine by shielding them from the distractions in the outside world, done by controlling or limiting some of the sensory inputs-light, sound, touch, and even movement. Read more
The Ford Foundation Building
The Ford Foundation Building at 320 East 43rd Street occupies a place of pride among modernist architectural icons and paradigmatic expressions of urban planning. It was designed by Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates in 1968, and not only does it house the headquarters of the Ford Foundation -- it stands as a seminal moment in New York City architectural history (Sutton 1987). The article examines the early and later development of the Ford Foundation Building, its importance in the framework of New York's urban space, and how it related to concepts of urban planning by Jane Jacobs, Robert Moses, and Rem Koolhaas. Read more
Beyond the Frame: Exploring Haptic Space and Movement in Architectural Experience
In static images, architecture is generally reduced to a singular visual plane, abstracted from the living, sensory-rich environment it was designed to embody. In this way, it falls short of communicating the full potential of a building as an experience, obscuring the complicated relationship between movement, touch, light, and emotion that defines our interaction with built spaces. Giuliana Bruno has termed this latter a "haptic space"ᅳa space that is experienced, literally, as touch and thus emphasizes architecturally the need to develop spaces that respond to more than just the eye. Aided by the works of Bruno, Lasansky, and Borden, as well as contemporary architecture videos, this essay takes up the question of how static images do a disservice to dynamic spaces and what nuanced qualities photographs often miss. This essay performs a haptic analysis to reveal how dynamic and interactive engagement brings spaces to life in ways that are impossible to experience through static images alone. Read more