Phenomenology in Peter Zumthor’s architecture

Phenomenology is non a clean invention, although it became synonymous with mod trick in the primordial 1900s. In fact the stem of phenomenology and the import of life and its numerous connections became non solely an existential question, but similarly a study of reactivity betwixt humankind creations in the rely that we might deduce why things happen and why we be feed in the behavior we do. In the social sciences, sociologists such as Max weber cheri shake to understand this birth between humans and in artisanic reapingion this relationship culminated in the relationship between the artists and the subject and the inherent ties that argon visible between the deuce.Peter Zumthor has beat a paragon of his art and his computer computer architecture is something of a phenomenological artefact and in this case we examine his architectural particles at Vals in Switzerland and Cologne in Ger many an early(a)(a)(prenominal). We look specific altogethery at his spa tortuous (Therme Vals watering place) and his art m accustomum (Kolumba). We a standardized look at the nitty-gritty and the theory of phenomenology as a depicted object in the attempt to understand the connection between Zumthors mortalal standpoint and the ideology as a whole. We look first of tout ensemble at phenomenology as a discipline and its forefathers darn excessively looking at the really first revelations of phenomenology in the arts.What is phenomenology? How did it come into organism and why is it such a powerful official document for the arts? Phenomenology is described as the study of structures of consciousness as undergo from the first-person point of view. (Smith, 2008). What is central to the topic is the intention of the subject, for instance, what does the psyche intend to do with the cause? The direction of an live on is ge ard towards the object with pertinence to the centre of the relationship (Smith, 2008).It was utilise in the social scie nces by masters such as Heidegger, Husserl and Sartre and encompasses four major vistas of the philosophy of social science epistemology, ontology, morality and logic (Smith, 2008). Naturally, these aspects of humanity tramp non be explained by scientific inquiry al unrivaled, as the human brain consists of un substantiaten reactions as vigorous as the physiologic and observ commensurate. This posed a problem for social sciences in the sense that something could not be proven unless it could be observed. What we argon qualified to observe, cl advance(prenominal), is interaction, action and reaction. What we be not open to observe is the why.Smith (2008) explains that where conscious experience is interrelateed the major affect is that we be able to live by means of them and perform them. We ar able to join a past experience only from our bear standpoint, base on how we felt at the conviction and thitherfore we interpret it as it affects us personally (Smith, 2008). Her meneutic phenomenology is a branch of the discipline that stems from the interpretive which means that we are only forever able to interpret experiences and relationships thereupon and never able to prove beyond near doubt that it is unbent or not (Marcelle, 2005).At present, the nature of phenomenology is changing with the advent of impudently chat methods such as the internet (Marcelle, 2005). Indeed, artistically speaking, architecture likewise remains a means of communicating via its powerfulness to relate a palpateing or atmosphere that is liable(p) to the e doubtfulness it wishes to convey. For example, an art museum wants to convey a opposite experience to that of a spa. subsequently we feature interpreted experiences, we then have to analyze them and remove celebrated aspects for further observation.Thereafter, phenomenology tries to expand upon dissimilar ways of thinking and understand what emblem of thinking allows that particular experience to be interp reted in that way. empirical experiments attempt to determine the commonality of that experience and whether it buttocks be turn up (Smith, 2008). Some forms of phenomenology try to explain these experiences with the added benefit of neurological knowledge which is of course, through empirical observation and scientifically proven (Smith, 2008). Now we know what phenomenology is but what we privation to do it examine where is it began in terms of figurative art and architecture.Upon viewing something it directly invokes some sort of emotional connection whether you like it in truth such(prenominal) or hate it, there is a reason for this connection. When we view a flower in the open air, some of us may feel euphoric and happy amongst the beauty tour others may not be greatly affected by it. The analogous is true when viewing a rubbish heap, but with the opposite emotion. How we view this experience depends real a great deal on the frame of mind we are in at the clock time and the overall mental state or personality.This was use in early Surrealist art where those such as Salvador Dali attempted to relate the internal subconscious of the egotism to the viewer. Dali himself used architectural type hypercube structures to convey a authorized transcendence of Christ in his famous Corpus Hypercubus (1954) (Fudjack & Dinkelaker, 1999). The mathematical function of use this 3 dimensional construction was to invoke the sense not only of transcendence but excessively omnipotence with the past, present and the future all being present in whiz picture (Barrette, 2007).Prior to Zumthors acetify and wedged in between Dalis was Antonin Gaudi whose post- innovativeist art nouveau architecture can be hearn as both garish and fearsome. Gaudis install of work was not only intended for a purpose, but was besides employed to have specific affect on the viewer. Sagrada Familia was not completed before Gaudis death in 1926 (Schumacher, 1991). Gaudi used angul arity, columns and vaults in true architectural classicism and combined it with modern eclecticism to break a gorgeously outr senesceous modern gothic temple.In other works, he used mosaics and facades to scram candy-like structures that both pleased the eye and served a purpose. So phenomenology is not a new idea in the arts and was used with great achievement also by artists such as Rene Magritte and in writing by Roland Barthes. Marcel Duchamps named yet another dimension to modernistic phenomenology which included a form of cerebral art that made it inevitable not just now to view the tack on, but to think to the highest degree it and to react to it. For him, it was not so important that you liked the work, but quite that you thought active it.Duchamps constructed the trine Standard Stoppages (1914-1915) which used found articles such as string and reverberate in a wooden box. This piece therefore made use of mathematical questions that were of course, not answera ble. The purpose of the work was in fact to create for Duchamps his own physical oeuvre (Betancourt, 2003). Roland Barthes created the idea that what we see is not verity if it is reproduced. Barthes viewed a picture of his mother with the knowledge that although it was his mother in the picture, it was also not his mother. It was really only a copy of her (Barthes, 1980).The question is really, what is the individual experience of the photograph? The experience of the individual is very 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 Peter Zumthor. Peter Zumthor was born in Switzerland on the 26 April 1943. Zumthor was the son of a cabinet maker and learnt carpentry early in life. He studied at the Pratt Institute in impertinent York and was awarded the Carlsberg Architecture Prize in 1998 (Spiritus Temporis, 2005).Peter Zu mthor also wrote extensively about his philosophy for architecture saying that In order to design edifices with a sensuous connection to life, hotshot must think in a way that goes far beyond form and construction. (Zumthor in Arcspace, 2009). The phenomenological approach of Zumthors work is clear in this statement as it employs the purpose and necessary of thinking about the work more than further accepting it as a piece in which we either reside or gather. For Zumthor, the build not only has to be facilitative, but also be emotionally or sensually charged.It is only in this manner that we are able to connect with it on a personal level. The make is itself, and does not have to be representational of anything. In other words, as the Chartres Cathedral is representational of a religious artefact, Zumthors work has an existence beyond its representation (Zumthor in Arcspace, 2009). The Kolumba Art Museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne is a culmination of gray-headed and new religious art which was meant initially to make one think about how the two institutions intercept (Carrington, 2008). It is described as a museum of reflection (Carrington, 2008). initiatory founded in 1853 by the Society for Christian Art and is home to 2 000 years of religious art. The most important aspect of this art however, is that it has two parallel histories. The original building was almost solely destroyed during being War II and during the year of 1973, excavations erupted medieval, Roman and Gothic remains. All the ruins were used by Zumthor to collaborate the record into one astounding piece of work (Carrington, 2008). Zumthor essentially raised the walls on cement covered steel columns and introduce both sets of historical ruins into the new walls (Carrington, 2008).The result is an amalgamation of old and new that somehow allows the viewer to notice the old alternatively than the new while also providing us with the resembling vision Zumthor himself had. Upo n viewing the structure it appears to be a patchwork that is carefully constructed to produce a time-frame continuum. Yet while the building is a thoughtful invocation of old and new, it is also surroundingsally considered. It is constructed with filter walls that have a air and salubrious-off permeable membrane which is separated between the chapel and the exhibition rooms (Architectural News, 2007).Zumthor collaborated the use of the old cosmea material with brick, mortar, plaster and terrazzo as a backdrop for the artworks exhibited (Architectural News, 2007). Clearly, if Zumthor cute 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 named across the entire space of the wall allows light to enter at all directions and also provides changing lights spaces at differe nt times of the day (Architectural News, 2007).There is not a great unlikeness in colour between the old and the new parts of the building considering the different materials used at any time. The gothic vaults that appear along the side of the building are embedded onto plastered and graind walls. The texture however, does not appear directly behind the gothic facade, but sort of some meters above it. This means that there is no detraction from the original facade (Figure 1). Kolumba Art Museum Figure 1 Markus Bachmann (Architectural News) 2007. The Therme Vals, Switzerland has a completely different countenance altogether.Zumthor appears to be a master at replacing former(a) 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 around geometric and internal-combustion engine sliding doors. In a sense, Zumthor has attempted to internalise the mountain backdrop of the exterior of the building, by incorporating the intrinsic light available through cover and clarified glass (Baus, 2007 9).Holes in the sky-lights of the slabs allow natural light into the rooms where the baths are situated. The tale plan reveals lights situated under the water system supply in the baths that glow a magical blue in the evening and is a perfect buttocks 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 enthroned upon a casing from which the light is radiated. The purpose of this architecture is therefore not only to harmonise and enhance well being, but also to accommodate the natural environs (Baus, 2007 5).The building itself resembles the gentle ebb and flow of the stream that feeds the spa as w ell 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 public figure two. One is ready(a)ly able to see how the light is utilised to produce an ethereal and magical area of meditation which is particularly important to the person who is attempting to find emotional help. It is not a palatial and sentimental piece as is seen in the art museum, but then the personality of the flock visiting it is not likely to be the same either.Figure 2 Interior Vals Spa www. flickr. com/photos/amirkorour/269995495/ Remove frame The loss of senses is a impart factor to emotional disruption and the allowance of this building to connect with the dishy environment help oneselfs the reconnection of the person with the senses whether they be beauty, love, peace or euphoria. Sensory wish is something we have come to tolerate as humans due in part to our fast paced lifestyles and our intense call f or 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 previously explained was a sensual connection with the environment. In an interview with Zumthor available online the Termae of Stone 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 within the architecture (Zumthor, 2007). Zumthor also wanted the architecture to be a part of the ameliorate bear on quite than an abstract work of art on its own.For this reason it must facilitate the human experience rather than detract from it (Zumthor, 2007). The means 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 change and by symbolism. Zumthor uses the ritual of removing ones clothing as a part of this stripping of extraneous material to reveal the purity of self and of the environment, essentially becoming one with it (Zumthor, 2007).Stone and scratch are two of these important factors as well as the senses being able to experience different temperatures of the water and textural changes in the light and building material. Coupled with this is an acoustic nub that tantalises all the senses touch, sound, sight and perceptivity. There is a clear parallel between the building and its meaning which is the essence of phenomenology. This was also attempted by Frank Lloyd Wright many years before at Falling Waters. Zumthor states too that on a formal level all(prenominal)thing is candid and un-intrusive, an important aspect of the purpose of a healing spa.Part water and part match, the operableity of the material is elemental to the human body which is mainly water itself (Zumthor, 2007). There is a juxtaposition between the mobility of water and the solidity of s tone similar to the opposites visible in the art museum which old and new are encapsulated together. Zumthor clear also enjoys the opposing of various opposite sets as well as the sensuality that theses opposites grant the viewer. For most good deal healing entails the motive for the senses to be reawakened and for experience to be reinvented.In a sense, we stop experiencing the world around us when we run out of time or are clinging to the need to survive rather 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 reflection of light over against the monochromatic pool floors is the same example used in the Art Museum at Kolumba where the light allowed into the building illuminates the various pieces differently all the time.Only natural light can do this, not artificial. For Zumthor, thinking is also important to the individ ual, because thinking is what makes us different from one another. In the same way 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 launch 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 his own idea of the architecture that he wishes to convey and that he takes the liberty of interpreting the piece the way he sees it (Zumthor, 2007). The idea of the piece is always accompanied by a powerful date and the ocular image of the experience (Zumthor, 2007). For Zumthor it is never an abstract idea, it is very clear. The first images that Zumthor has upon undertaking an architectural piece are naive and child-like and gradually mature into something realistic (Zumthor, 2007).The process of building never loses the initial image even thoug h it is reinforced upon and matured. For him it is a self defining form of architecture and not an abstract, stray one (Zumthor, 2007). Interestingly this is opposite to the previously mentioned modernist architect Antonin Gaudi whose architecture was abysmally abstract and indulgent. Zumthor has clearly focussed on communication, opening the mouth of the architecture to allow his image to proceed. Communication is key to the hermeneutic experience, predominantly 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 practice there is to humanity. Zumthor is therefore also humanistic in his approach to art and architecture. Jacky Bowring describes how as Westerners we have become detached from our senses and uses the example of Anthony Giddens that globalisation, westernisation and modernisation are intertwined. This means that the global colony is slowly but surely become a Western one where s ensory expiration causes the volcanic outburst of deviant behaviour (Bowring, 2005 81). hardly Western 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 the 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 deprived of other senses, which is partially true.She states A counter 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, thereof the need for multi-sensory architecture and connectivity with our environment (Bowring, 2005 82). For Bowring the problem is that the Western fixing 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 feelings and for Zumthor the poetry is an unannounced truth (Sturich, 2003 4). The poetic strengthens our relationship between the world or ourselves, fashioning us more able to experience that world for what it really is a culmination of all senses and not that a material set (Sturich, 2003 4). Memory is another aspect of the poetic that Zumthor uses as the senses are retrospect precursors. The senses and the poetic becomes tales by which we build our current worlds, beliefs and experiences (Sturich, 2003 6).For this reason, we associate things we do n ot like with things that have bad memories or experiences. We may not like thatched houses because one caught fire once as a child or we may enjoy 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 his aunts house when he was a child, as evidently 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 interesting 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 sake 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 in a single building (Davidovici, date unknown 1). The morphology of the building therefore entertained the idea that humanistic approaches were too formal and there was thus a need for achromatic and neutral surroundings 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 field spirit. We see that the use of two to tierce worlds entwined with the modern gives exactly the right amount of emotive past and sensory present. Zumthor was relate with creating something that we could know, understand and feel. (Davidovici, date unknown 4). Again, for Zumthor the idea of building and of dwelling is the same as Heideggers that dwelling is the personal and identifiable space where people reside as human beings (Sturich, 2003 1).The importance 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. It 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 Thermal 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 lavish but also impersonal but offer no r eal opportunity to connect with the personal. The same sort of comparison 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 direct the character of the works contained within it rather than the building itself.Zumthor also shows a very important character filename extension too in that the main source of his inspiration was not to show himself as being a great architect, but to stay fresh the past. The gothic and Romanesque arches that Zumthor preserves 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 importance of memory and the personal relationship both a nation and an individual has.The Vals Thermal Spa on the other hand is created in an impersonal and natural way so as not to detract from the experience that one is supposed to have. here(predicate) 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 required to feel the water, see the reflection, date the sounds of the water and also taste it. This is important to the personal experience, as every one has different ones.Also 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 sight into a tactile 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 perceive 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 go bad the feelings one has only from the personal standpoint and never from the ordinal person, hence the personal nature 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 cannot 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 man-made 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 animateness the life of prescribed society. While 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 key 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 seldom able to predict human behaviour.Certainly this cerebral art is a departure 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.