Making Sense: Space, Technology, and the Body

Challenging our traditional “ocularcentric” understanding of architecture, this seminar explores the overlapping relationship among sight, sound, and touch. Seminar discussions based on required readings treat this subject from a socio-historical perspective, examining how prevailing cultural assumptions about the human body shape and in turn are shaped by the design of the built environment. The seminar considers the impact of technology on the senses. Since the nineteenth century, new inventions—from gramophones to iPods—have transformed the human sensorium, profoundly altering how we perceive and interact with the designed environment. After charting these historical developments, the seminar speculates about the future: How can architects harness new materials and technologies to craft new ways of synthesizing multi-sensory experiences in space? How can we devise new representational strategies that convincingly portray our sensory experience of space? Limited enrollment.