What Makes Poetic Architecture?

11/25/19, 18:02

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What Makes Poetic Architecture? 11/25/19, 18:02

RESEARCH DESIGNS

What Makes Poetic

Architecture?
FEATURED DESIGN RESOURCES
BY MARIA LORENA LEHMAN

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POETICS: MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

Poetics is that moment in architecture when elements yield more than the sum of their parts.
But what does this really mean? What is it that gets “yielded”? It could be, perhaps, the way
architecture is able to “touch” its occupants on deeper emotional or spiritual levels. It could
also be the way architecture can convey beauty together with meaning that leaves one
feeling more fulfilled.

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What Makes Poetic Architecture? 11/25/19, 18:02

In this article, I am encouraging you to think about what makes your work poetic. Is it the
way you guide your occupants through, as they engage with your architectural features on
their experiential journey? Or is it the way you use and play with light within your work,
where you help occupants to experience it in new ways? Or is there a certain meaning
conveyed through your work — where you use metaphor or symbolism to express a
community or a culture’s sentiment?

Whatever the case, it helps when designing to think about how it may reach poetic heights.
This will call for your architecture to do something more than serve core functional and
aesthetic requirements. It will call for your design to “move” people through deeper beauty
and/or meaning. So, what poetic message does your architecture convey? And does it help
ABOUT MARIA LORENA LEHMAN
those who experience it in some way?

POETIC ARCHITECTURE THAT HELPS PEOPLE

You can “touch” someone deeply with an architectural work to hopefully leave them o!
better than before they first experienced it. So, how does one bring value to occupants
through poetics? Perhaps this means designing a memorial that serves to restore hope for a
people. Or perhaps it means designing a place of worship to help reconnect a community.
Whatever the case, it is good to think about how the poetics of your work will impact those
whom it “touches”.

To help you with this — it is best to delve into what a person, community, or culture needs
before you design. Understand how your built work can serve them as a valuable and needed
asset to their lives. For example, by tying together a community’s need with the purpose
Maria Lorena Lehman is a multi award-
behind your poetics, you can be more confident that its e!ects will be “felt” positively — as it
winning visionary author, designer, and
helps the people with whom it engages. So, think about the value your architecture brings on
educator from the United States. Maria holds a
multiple levels — yes, the functional and the aesthetic, but also, the poetic.
Bachelor of Architecture with Honors from
Virginia Tech and a Master in Design with

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What Makes Poetic Architecture? 11/25/19, 18:02

... Distinction from Harvard University Graduate

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What Makes Poetic Architecture? 11/25/19, 18:02

Maria: I came across your website through a reference in today's

Architect Weekly ezine and am delighted I did. I'll bookmark your site
and check back o!en. I read the first article and then the second and
thirty minutes later realized how much time had passed. I've been
practicing for thirty years and have always missed the stimulation of
academia. I find each of your brief dissertations sort of like a day in
design studio. Thanks for the inspiration.

Ron Ward
AI Group Design

I am excited to see you touch a vein of values in architecture, I have

been chasing myself for years. Your depth of involvement in these very
deep subjects is really beautiful and passionately dealt with and well
written. Sound, color and value, shape, texture, scale, smell.... all
definitive measures of the spaces we should be alert to. [...] I will savor
the rest of your investigation of sensuality in architecture. I'm Glad I
found you.

Dennis McLaughlin
McLaughlin Architect

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What Makes Poetic Architecture?
ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTURE
The Fluidity Of Nature In
Architectural Response
With the continual development of
biomimicry that learns from nature to
create design solutions, it is important
to see the “bigger picture” as well. This
is about more than replicating nature’s
design exactly as it presents itself.
Instead, to embody the fluidity of
nature within environmental designs,
an even deeper philosophical design
awareness is needed. A designer with
such an awareness may ask: How can a
building “breathe” in and out to help
its occupants as they strive to reach
their goals?
CO NTI N U E RE A D IN G
https://marialorenalehman.com/post/what-makes-poetic-architecture
DESIGN PROCESS
How To Expand (And
Sharpen) Your Design
Process
When designing architectural
environments, how do you notice your
creative thinking? Yes, this question
asks how you as a designer can
observe your design process. Why is
this important? When you become
truly aware of your creative process,
you are able to step outside of it to ask
important questions and make critical
decisions to improve and optimize
how you design.
CO N TINU E R EA D ING
11/25/19, 18:02
DESIGN PROCESS
How To Design For Human
Happiness (As DeQned By
Aristotle)
How can environments be designed to
nurture human happiness? How can
environments work to help people
evolve into the best version of
themselves? These are important
questions for which to factor as you
perceive, use, and/or design
environments.
CONT INU E R EAD ING
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What Makes Poetic Architecture? 11/25/19, 18:02

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