The book 'Eating Architecture' enticed me from one of the dark libary bookshelves - it's title beckoned with it's combination of my passions. Taste and architecture as a subject is hard to find, so this seemed to be a rare book.This was an interesting series of essays but probably won't form the main mix of ingredients for my project.
However, a drawing by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects in the introduction did capture my attention..
The Lay of the Table - an architectural ordering of place, status and function. A frozen moment of perfection. This is how architects see...
The Meal - use begins to undermine the apparent stability of the architectural order. Traces of occupation in time. The recognition of life's disorder.
The Trace - the dirty tablecloth, witness of disorder. A palimpsest. This is the reality of domestic life.
This is then translated into a plan (9 Stock Orchard Street, London) of Sarah Wigglesworth's house. Clutter filling the plan, domestic difficulties interrupting the order of the grid.
See these links for more on this.
See also Architectural design 68, issue 7, 1998 pg:31
Semiotica ab Edendo
Frascari, Marco. "Semiotica ab Edendo, Taste in Architecture." In Eating Architecture, edited by Jamie Horwitz and Paulette Singley, 193-1203. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 2004.
The chapter by Marco Frascari describes the relationship between taste and tactility, following Frascari's assertion that,
Frascari concludes with a discussion of deductive versus inductive versus abductive reasoning, that is:
The chapter by Marco Frascari describes the relationship between taste and tactility, following Frascari's assertion that,
'...contemporary architecture is almost entirely tasteless...This has, I think, resulted in a meaningless architecture.'This relationship is demonstrated linguistically. The word 'taste' in Greek and Latin (gustus, sapor) is related etymologically and semantically with the act of generating knowledge. The highest form of knowledge, sapienza (wisdom) is related to taste (sapor) as outlined in a quote he provides from Isidore of Seville:
"The word sapiens (a wise man) is said to be derived from the word sapor (taste) for just as the sense of taste is able to discern the flavors of different foods, so too is the wise man able to discern objects and their causes since he recognizes each one as distinct and is able to judge them with an instinct for truth."The childhood phase of development when objects are interpreted only via oral satisfaction - a desire to learn though a form of cannibalism - is discussed in the context of surrealist Salvidor Dali's descriptions of edible buildings being a new poetic dimension of architecture. To eat the object of one's desire.
Frascari concludes with a discussion of deductive versus inductive versus abductive reasoning, that is:
- deductive reasoning = application of a general rule to a particular case to obtain a result
- inductive reasoning = inference of a general rule from specific cases and results
- abductive reasoning = inference of a case from a rule and a result, for example a chef understands when a piece of meat is perfectly cooked (a case) by inference from rule and results (practice)
- abduction is a productive inference and an instinctive activity
The reading was interesting in its discussions of 'taste' but not terribly useful though I did think some more about the distinctions between the different types of reasoning. That has led to my ability to articulate more easily my scepticism about evidence-based design being the cure for all. That is, evidence-based design and research results from environmental psychology texts are in the deductive and inductive reasoning realm, whereas the architecture I want needs to use more instinctual responses (abductive).
While the rest of the essays were interesting, I doubt they will add to the mix of ingredients in my project...
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