PROGRAM OVERVIEW

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, SPAIN

Santiago de Compostela will be our first location, where we will pursue two themes:

PORTO, PORTUGAL

Porto will be our second location. Here we will engage the following themes:

The architectural profession needs to bring the full-blooded human being into its very core. In Santiago de Compostela we will face this challenge using a new perspective that emerges in the rapidly evolving collaboration between architecture and human sciences such as cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience, among others. These disciplines have developed notions of the person and the environment that are starkly different from one another, using first-person and third-person perspectives. Designers need a framework capable of integrating concepts and methods developed by different disciplines. On Day 1 we will begin exploring this integration in a series of lectures and discussions dedicated to the interface of natural sciences and humanities. On Day 2, we will look into how such integration can be facilitated by grounding this inquiry in the local environment: the landscape, the local culture, its history and traditions. In the workshops held during field trips on this day, we will delve into regional culture, visiting multiple works of architecture, guided by local builders, artists, and craftsmen. On Day 3, we will attempt to synthesize this knowledge by exploring how different human sciences could contribute to understanding the phenomenon of place and regional culture.

Santiago de Compostela is a destination of pilgrimage. The St.James’ Day (Apostolo) is the most important local holiday of the year, when pilgrims arrive at the Catedral Basilica de Santiago de Compostela. This context will help us to frame our theme of dynamics of experience. Day 4 is a free day. On Day 5, we will continue investigating the theme of experience of place through several lenses, in particular those of phenomenology and neuroscience of perception by a moving person. We will study how places shape one’s behavior and how experiences arise in the interaction of sensory and motor systems of the person. On Day 6 we will hold workshops in which we will study the experience of movement and analyze several works of local architecture, including the Galician Museum of Contemporary Art, Bonaval Park, and the School of Journalism by Alvaro Siza. On Day 7, we will continue exploring the city of Santiago de Compostela. Walking its medieval streets we will study how physical objects can facilitate thinking and imagination: the notion called extended mind. This day and our visit to Santiago will conclude with a roundtable discussion of how thinking about movement and time can help to develop new strategies for architectural and urban design.

Porto will set the stage for concentrating our study on how the built environment engages the senses. On Day 1 we will study how urban experience is always mediated by multiple senses. We will investigate how architectural atmospheres are created by the interaction of seeing, hearing, haptics, and olfaction, and also the senses that register one’s own posture, balance, and movement. On Day 2, we will hear a lecture by the project architect, who worked in the office of Alvaro Siza on the construction of the Santa Maria Church in Marco de Canaveses and make a bus trip from Porto to experience the church.

The concept of architectural atmosphere blends sensory and emotive aspects of experience. Having explored the sensory side of atmosphere in previous days, now we will concentrate on the emotive side. On Day 3 in Porto, we will study the intricate relationship between emotions and cognitive faculties, and how this relationship is fundamental to experiencing architecture. This study will take us to investigate how insights from the objective, third-person perspective of the sciences can be integrated into design. On Day 4 Alvaro Siza will give a lecture about his work, followed by a field trip to several of his built projects including the Serralves Museum of Art, Boa Nova Restaurant, and the Swimming Pools in Leça da Palmeira. We will hold a workshop dedicated to the analysis of sensory and emotive aspects of Siza’s architecture. We will also continue our exploration of how architectural atmosphere can be captured by different methods of architectural representation. In the morning of Day 5 we will study how emotive aspects of experience are incorporated in the process of architectural representation and design.  In the afternoon, we will bring together many ideas that will have emerged from this journey, and will collectively imagine the tools and strategies arising from the collaboration between architecture and human sciences. The day will conclude by a farewell dinner with fado music.

Tours