PHENOMENOLOGY

This safety shutter of the elevator at The Majestic Hotel, Ipoh, with its remarkable surface history, is a fine example of the phenomenological experience of the place.

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ks: Phenomenology claims that human's other 5 senses, are stronger than visual sense

ks: touch, smell, taste, hear, and what [har]?

YeongChwen: visual la

ks: anyway

ks: it claims that these senses other than vision, are as important or more important for people to experience space
ks: it is because architectural appreciation nowadays are too inclined to visual, form, look

ks: Phenomenology says that we should put more attention to materiality, tactility

ks: and let people have closer interactions with architecture...

ks: And that architecture should be able to change with time, like it can be weathered, it can become old, but STILL appealing
ks: as this aging process goes on, materiality n tactility gets stronger, and then there's the sense of time as well, memories of a place

ks: [sorry say until i pun duno where am i liao...] it's quite complicated

ks: For example, in Ipoh, old buildings, burnt buildings, or the palimpsest thingy (marks of old building profiles on the side wall of new modern buildings)
ks: they carry memories of the places, it's phenomenological as well

ks: Old Town coffee smells, are phenomenological

ks: the sound of flowing river at Kinta (river) bank, is phenomenological to some group of people (esp. citizens lived along the river for decades)

ks: to include these in your presentation, you put in photos, and captions or brief explanations

ks: in short, it's all about the sensitive feelings you have with(in) the site, not too much about visual sensation

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For more examples of phenomenological architecture, look up on Peter Zumthor, Kevin Mark Low & some others...

- by ks