On minimalism in architecture - space as experience

Abstract

Architecture has to be experienced to be understood. The complexity of the experience is seen through a better understanding of the relationship between objectivity (architecture) and subjectivity (our life). Being physically, emotionally and psychologically aware of the space we occupy is an experience that could be described as being present, which is a sensation that is personal and difficult to explicitly describe. Research into experience through perception and emotion positions architecture within scientific fields, in particular psychological disciplines. Relying on the standpoints of Immanuel Kant, the paper considers the juxtaposition between (minimalism in) architecture and philosophy on the topic of experience. Starting from the basic aspects of perception and representation of the world around us, a thesis is presented in which the notions of silence and light as experienced in minimalism (in architecture) are considered as adequate counterparts to Kant’s factors of experience - the awareness of the objective order of events and the impossibility to perceive time itself. Through a case study we verify the starting hypothesis on minimalism (in architecture) whereby space becomes an experience of how the world touches us.