“The Seller of the Senses”
Project II of Year I
Master of Interior Design
National College of Arts
Client
The client of this project is an emerging Pakistani architect whose work has been noticed by the nomination committee of Pritzker Award for ‘the truth of material’ in her practice. It was a huge surprise for the designers’ community nationwide because the architect’s work was neither grounded in philosophy nor did she use advanced technologies in the construction process. The press-release by the committee stated that the members were compelled to shortlist this architect for the prestigious award because she tapped continuously into ‘all human senses’ through designing spaces and ‘full body’ experiences. Her firm was called ‘the seller of the senses’ by the committee for her mastery over materials and materiality.
The press-release kept bringing tremendous attention of the international community to the architect’s office. As the word spread on, new projects kept coming in, and now the architect wishes to expand her office. She does not want to construct a new building, however. Instead, she wishes to hire an interior designer who could re-envision an existing building that the architect already owns.
Jean Nouvel argues,
“No more corsets, no more ready-to-wear lives! No more architecture by numbers that turns us into numbers! No more cloned cities, global offices, preoccupied homes! Let us love architecture that knows how to focus, that shines like a light, that can let you read the topography, the lie of the land, feel the wind, the skies, the soils, the waters, the fires, the smells, the trees, the grass, the flowers, the mosses.”
Excerpt from the Louisiana Manifesto, 2008
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“Architecture is traditionally about materiality, built objects and systems fixed in space. But can architecture overcome its in-built limitations by actively using the temporal and transient to generate a layered reality of emotional connections or responses that are both universal and personalized? Do sound, light, smell and touch guide architecture? Does an active engagement of all these senses create a more ‘powerful’ architecture that resonates deep within a user's subconscious? How is it possible to aspire for the abstract while rooted in brick and mortar?
In memorable experiences of architecture, space, matter and time fuse into one singular dimension, into the basic substance of being, that penetrates our consciousness. We identify ourselves with this space, this place, this moment, and these dimensions become ingredients of our very existence. Architecture is the art of reconciliation between ourselves and the world, and this mediation takes place through the senses.”
Juhani Pallasmaa
The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture of the Senses
Light and Materiality
Space and Senses
This project required to experiment and investigate interior design for the senses. It propelled to probe the edge between the material and immaterial and how these two apparent opposites can be fused together in time and space. An interior space that teases the memory of a person, is a space that evokes
subtle connections between the ‘static’ (design elements, textures, and details) and the ‘dynamic’ (experience of the light cycles through days and seasons, as well as through human activities). It is an interior space that evokes all human bodily senses. It is a space that can lure you away from your thoughts, and it can also help you bring back your focus.
The Behavior of Material Joinery
Existing Site
Programmatic Diversity
Use of Cobogo Blocks to allow light penetration
We spend most of our days at work, so it seems crucial to develop a space that calls upon your various moods at different points in the day.
