Intimate Trace: Investigating Traces of Sensory Occupation

Abstract

Within the past two decades architectural discourse has begun to address the sensory deprivation of our contemporary environments. Discourse identifies the primary role of vision in the design process and consequently the suppression of the other senses in architecture. The domination of our visual culture hinders the connection between our sensing body and its surroundings. "Architecture is the art of reconciliation between ourselves and the world, and this mediation takes place through the senses".

The residual traces of our sensory engagement, generated when the body engages with its surroundings, are identified in this research as an area for further investigation within the sensory aspects of interior architecture.

To investigate this a body centred engagement with the traces of sound, time and movement is proposed. These traces are explored through intuitive ideas, installations and spatial testing; allowing design considerations to emerge.

This research aims to produce design strategies that offer an intimate awareness of one’s own occupation. The peripheral spaces are identified as the site due to their detachment from the larger programs of our daily lives allowing a sensory considerations to be fully explored. Three final designs demonstrate examples of sensory enriched peripheral spaces.