When 'PHENOMENOLOGY' meets 'SUSTAINABILITY'

Phenomenology is defined as the philosophical study of building materials and its sensory properties It is the interpretive study of human experiences, more specifically, lived experiences. In Juhani Pallasmaa's "The eyes of the skin", the interactive dialogue and constantflux between human and architecture through multi-sensory experiences are emphasised, which unfolds the true meaning of experiencing architecture through the full body exposure an dexperience According to Juhani Pallasma, "Experience of architecture is multi-sensory; qualities of matter, space and scale are measured equally by the eye, ear, nose, skin, tongue, skeleton and muscle. Architecture strengthens . one's sense of being in the world, essentially giving rise to a strengthened experience of self"

How do we design an architecture with sensory awareness? In fact, it is difficult to teach designers or more specifically, architects about how to design "experience" or "feeling". It is all about spontaneous reaction of human to the space. It is subjective, everyone has different feeling and different reaction to the space, only we know what we experience. The mixture or judgements, perceptions and transforms emotions transform the "space" into a " place" when everything acts together. Phenomenology, is to evoke the deepest part in human's mind, regardless of the conscious or unconscious mind It is to remind people and to tease out the feeling an experience even from the simplest action of our daily life It is not telling us what to do in architecture but giving a guide for designers about the essence of the spatial quality. Juhani Pallasmaa mentioned that the contemporary buildings have often disregarded the qualities of memorability and sense of meaning to the users. Designers are more biased to visual impact and aesthetically value, which devalued the beauty or architecture. In the contemporary built environment, people tend to appreciate the building of the aesthetic in stead of feeling the architecture in other sensory realms It is essential for a building to have the power to evoke feeling and emotional in human's heart, that awakens the deepest feeling in the heart When there is an interaction and engagement, there is a constant two-way dialogue happening in between human and architecture. The "cultural memory" will then be generated in the mind, building up the memory and connection with the architecture.

When the beauty of the architecture in embedded in the mind, people then have the sense of place, the sense of them being in the place, feeling about the concentration and enclosure of the place, intangible or intangible ways. The multi -sensory architecture facilitates a sense of belonging and integration, stimulating all the sense to experience and understand the design.

Often, people tend to neglect the presence of all senses except the sight in perceptual architecture of senses bring us nearer to the site, or maybe 'within' it, holds us strong Phenomenology is not about viewing from distance, but in fact, applying 'sensory architecture' which bringing the body senses close to things, intimately Phenomenology is that architecture is not only a noun, but a verb, which one focuses one action and movement, in, through and out from the building The question that could be raised here is, how do we design with sensory awareness? There is no definite answer It is all up to every designers' own interpretation and also the programmed of the building. As mentioned before, phenomenology acts as a guideline that leads us to the right path of creating the right and appropriate atmospheric design, to achieve the most emotional and sensational design However, it is important here to remember that phenomenology doesn't fully being applicable to human and architecture ONLY, but also human, architecture and Nature Therefore, it is also vital that the designs are adequate and being engaged with the environment.

As a designer or architect, it is important to achieve of creating a space that possesses the quality of memorability. However, it is also equally essential to achieve sustainability in our design. In fact, there are some connection and linkage in between these two elements sustainability and phenomenology might seem to be two different approaches of designing as one is more tangible than the later one. What is sustainability? It is about reducing the carbon footprint and more green design for the ecology system in a physical way It also includes designing in passive design that creates a space that is thermally comfort for people who are using the space. Therefore, the linkage in between these 2 elements start to appear. As to attain phenomenology, I guess sustainability is the preliminary part of the design process. Creating a space that is comfortable for people and also being able to fit in the environment with the least harm to the nature, the architecture then becomes the medium that connects human to nature and vice versa. A successful architecture will be a good mediator that bring Nature back in man instead of being a physical block that creates a boundary in between human and nature.

It is undeniably that these two major approaches of designing are still not being emphasized in Johor Bahru (JB), or even Malaysia .One of the most common phenomena that is occurring in JB is the designer cafe. It has becoming a trend that people nowadays tend to go to the unique designer cafes, take images and post on social medias This phenomenon in JB is probably the best example of the undesirable situation that Juhani Pallasmaa has described, which is architecture that only has aesthetically value. There are a lot of architecture in JB that are only creating visual impact and impression but not utilizing the beauty of architecture to engage with the people. To generate a successful design, regardless in small scale or urban design, it is important to understand how to people engage, understand and feel a building, also what are the mood of space that is aimed to achieve It is all about implying detailing of light, sound and touch into the building. It could be anything, it could be phenomenology of light, of shadow, of sound, of music, of texture, of movement, of smell, of taste... Phenomenology is definitely a better way of approach for future development, not only for JB, but also for all the architecture of the world. Architecture is only successful when it is constantly in a dialogue with the people.

#phenomenology #sustainability #architecture