I have always been interested in psychology and analyzing every different point of view. As every person is different and unique, they feel different sensations, have different reactions and have different thoughts over the ”element” they’re all watching, being the same one for all of them.
Transporting this to architecture, a building created by an architect who designed it with his own feelings and stories, can impact differently (sometimes even totally opposed) on another person.
I find this fact really interesting, so with that base I decided to focus one of my reflections to a little experiment to watch this explanation being shown with real examples. I decided to show the same series of similar pictures to three different people, who then explained how these made them feel, so then I could compare the three opinions with each other.
The first serie of image was inclined to the minimalistic and monochromatic works, clearly having as the main color the white, and being objectively empty. I showed them to the three people and their answers were:
P
These type of work doesn’t instill me anything more than emptiness and loneliness. It feels like entering a totally isolated bunker with no emotion.
M
Mainly these serie makes me feel calm and peaceful, as the first thing I think when I watch them is in the summer, the sun and the holidays. I would say it feels pure, but at the same time it reminds me to really spacious place where a big party can be started.
R
These group gives me a modernity and wealthy ambient, as they seem to be very illuminated. However, they have spacious rooms with a considerable amount of space not being used, so that makes me feel sadness, reminds me of monotony, and also makes me get calm at the same time because of the peaceful color.
For the second group, I choose three pictures that show generally the center of a city, characterized with urban high buildings, gray’s tones and busy streets:
P
It reminds me of fire, the only things I can think about when watching them is in movement and life, lots of bright life. A place full of noise and movement gives me more peace than a quiet one, as they gives me the sensation that I’m alive.
M
These is the kind of environment in which I would think about when thinking in New York, an environment with routine, daily life, full of rich people. The high buildings and the metallic colors seem like everything is happening with speed, and that makes me feel like I’m lonely in an enormous world, even if I’m surrounded by that much population as cities have.
R
This environment feels busy and overloaded, I am not able to see any free space as every element and building is right next to each other, making it cero peaceful. There is too much disturbance and that mixed with the high buildings makes me feel little, so they impose.
Finally, for the third and last group, I showed them these three images, which stand out mainly because of their colorful colors, but also due to the fact that they are less modern than the other two series:
P
It feels mostly calm, like a place where you can relax and think about nothing stressing. It also reminds me to a family environment, probably because it makes me think about my childhood as it looks like a nice place where to grow up.
M
These ones feels like a happiness explosion to my eyes. I would describe them as drama, harmonic, and relaxing, as it shows variety and diversity that connects with each other, forming this liveliness that they transmit, giving me sensations of a confortable environment to rest and be calm.
R
They are more informal buildings in my opinion, as they don’t feel that serious as the other images did. Contrary to the other series, this third one has a happier and warmer atmosphere, close to a mediterranean village where you would be perfectly confortable.
As we can see, in the different series the three members sometimes have different feeling about them even if they are showed the same ones.
I find this an interesting topic, as many of us forget each human is unique and has a different brain and story, making them have different feelings and thoughts. Even if an architect thought about how would their work impact in people, they would always miss some factor about it, and they will always be someone that has a different opinion about that project.