THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE 1

Assessing the current architects’ heuristic gestation on design process of Architecture

Individual Paper
Author/s: Neil Andre M. Borgador
Mapua Institute of Technology, Manila, Philippines
naborgador@gmail.com

Abstract: Architecture is a multi-sensory art. Humans' diverse capacity of perceiving architecture significantly changes
due to their technological adaptation. Unfortunately, most architects heavily rely on and prioritise visual sense
to emphasise the design and creation of architecture. Nowadays, other senses aren’t mostly utilised or even
pondered during the design process of a structure. As a result most structures that were built don't suffice the
human needs and fulfil its purpose. This paper aims to assess the unisensory phenomenon, the consequences of
disappearance of other sensual qualities from architecture. This encourages changes based on empirical
evidence to restore the quality of architecture being the multi-sensory art. The author emphasises the power of
other senses most especially the haptic sense for the foundation of the design process. In this paper, integral
points are also evaluated whether the architects should continue these trend factors or not in designing and
creating the structure. By doing this, the study hopes to improve architect’s utilisation of multi senses for a
better quality of the built environment in the succeeding generations.
Keywords: CAD, haptic feedback, haptic framework,visual sense, visual communication, writing,

1 INTRODUCTION
Architecture is a multisensory art. Due to humans' reflexive capacity to adapt to technological changes,
Computers have taken over the traditional sketching for creating representational plans of a structure. vision
has also become the dominating sense which degrades architecture as an ocularcentric art and suppresses
the importance of other senses. Technology is the notable cause of humans’ vision predilection, perhaps
visual predilection negatively affects the architects’ creative and analytical thinking through technological
automation of the design process. Curiously enough, visual communication has become an integral mode
for information gathering. As a result, current buildings that were established don't suffice the human needs
and fulfil their purpose, yet it is only intended to look good. In view of this, the paper aims to assess the
unisensory phenomenon, the consequences of suppression of other senses, and evaluate major turning
factors to encourage the restoration of multisensory art in architecture that would yield a better built
environment.

1.1 Computers took over the representational design processing of Architecture

One of mankind’s best inventions was the computer. It is designed to assist humans, make their lives easy,
and be time efficient. Computers have also been used by the architects to produce the best quality
representational of a building. However, most of the buildings that were built today are the product of
computers’ fixed imagination limits. Imagination limits take place when architects let the programmed
computer automize the design of the building. Most humans accept imagination limits to be embedded by
the computer in their body system. Computers have turned the architect’s design process of a building into a
passive visual manipulation, and the process itself is only considered as a retinal journey. Computer’s
programmed images colonise most architects’ standard of building creation through flattening their
magnificent, multi-sensory, simultaneous and synchronic capacities of imagination. The architecture design
process in computers is time efficient, but the quality of the established building doesn’t comply with the
needs of people due to some architects letting the computers automate the representation of the building
based on its programmed artificial intelligence.

Architects shouldn’t let the computer fully control their imaginations in designing and creating a building.
They should still apply sketching to fully conceptualise their imagined structure before making an
illustration of it in the computer. Sketching and even modelling gives an architect a Godlike surreal
experience of crafting a structure using their own hands in designing their building through their
imagination. This experience implies architects’ haptic contacts through crafting the mentally
conceptualised building. In line with this, Sketching was the most suitable method for presenting a quick
illustration for expressing the brainstormed building towards the clients while computer aided design(CAD)
should be used for finalisation of building’s design to improve visual communication and appreciation with
clients that will serve as a reference for constructing a building. Ibrahim and Rahiman(2010) stated that
external representation tools indicate that traditional hand sketching is useful for producing rich, intuitive
designs; tools show concepts, but they are constrained when novice designers need to oversee complicated
design problems. Even if traditional CAD tools are useful for detailed architecture Due to the limitations of
their intuitive ideation, they do limit the designers’ creativity due to their intuitiveness. Nevertheless,
computers are still a beneficial tool for architecture because CAD provides a variety of textured
construction materials. Even if there are a variety of construction materials, they are still limited.
Availability of construction resources should only be the reason for limiting the architect’s creativity and
playful imagination of conceptualising the building, not the architect’s expression of self and design process
on the building. In this way, technological advancement significantly and regularly helps architects to
design remarkable buildings when utilised properly.

1.2 Conducive mechanism of visual communication for architectural

information gathering
Visual communication and oral communication are associated with one another. They are both essential
tools of communication for an architect when proposing a building plan towards the clients. Clients would
be intimately enlightened to the concepts and illustrations of the building if both visual communication and
oral communication are used. Heregersi et al. (2013) asserted that employing open-source interfaces on the
nature of visual communication in the design process in architectural education is based on the premise that
nonverbal visual communication highlights key stages of the design process when communication
effectiveness could be enhanced. The prominence of visual communication shows that humans are highly
engaged in learning architecture when text and visual images complement each other. However, using
Edgar Dale’s cone of learning the combination of two modes of communication has a 90% chance of
retaining the gathered information.
Oral communication and visual communication should be used in moderation, it is upon the architect's
perception on which he or she thinks the applicable mode to use for communication. Writing is an example
of visual communication which is beneficial for remembering the mentioned information through the
process of documentation. Writing is beneficial in architecture for documenting the characteristics of
different construction materials so that each sensory feedback towards the materials are already learned
through reading, using only the sense of sight. Documenting the described emotional effects of colours is
also a benefit of writing in architecture. It can be found that humans maximisation of visual communication
in architecture is for the benefit of mankind to collect immediate information. Therefore, this trend must
continue, but they shouldn’t neglect the other senses to make sure that the perceived information from
visual communication is accurate. An effective use of visual communication in architecture is the building’s
visual appearance alignment to the function of the building.

1.3 Compelling interaction of haptic feedbacks on architectural design

Haptic is the origin of the other senses. People have easily mastered the use of the parent sense(tactile) to
incorporate its different sensory feedbacks to other senses. In architecture, tactile sense and visual sense is
integral for deciphering the space and depth of the structure. Herssens and Heylighen(2008) disclose that
The details we learned about the structures and environments are through our various senses. visual
sensation only relies on two-dimensional data, unlike haptic stimuli that can be perceived as two or three
dimensions depending on the magnitude of the environment. Haptics can be an active, passive, and dynamic
way of perceiving. For example, a person's warmth in the room because of the shining sun; people feeling
the gravity by going up and down on the stairs; and students feeling the weight of the classrooms’ door
through its lockset. And the ultimate information that only sense of touch can purely infer is the texture.
When architects’ start sketching they receive the overview of a building, and during the process architect’s
gain insights on the structure. This implies that haptic perception considers structure and materials as the
most important factor for the design process. Revesz (1995) identifies the three kinds of haptic spatial
impressions whereas haptic space refers to haptics' spatial perceptions; haptic spatial form, representing the
representation of tactile forms; and haptic spatial objects, which the ability of haptics to be recognized by
objects and materials.

1.4 Cardinalizing visual sense to infer all sensory feedbacks towards the
architectural design
Dominance of vision suppresses other senses because people mistakenly use it for inferring texture
feedback. Nowadays, sense of sight has a higher chance of judgement and inferring error. In spite of the
higher chances of error people still consider sight as the reliable source. Most architects use vision to see
the absolute appearance of the building such as the colour and geometric shape of the building. Visual sense
can also be used to identify the applied principles of architecture which are principles of design and
principles of composition. Herssens et al. (2013) enunciates that although vision dominates the evaluation
of other senses overall, it does not always anticipate other senses, especially sense of touch accurately. This
shows that there is a need for elaborating and emphasising the non-visual aspects present in the design
process of the building.

Architects should be highly discouraged for making the vision as the only cardinal factor to consider in the
design process of the building. In fact they should consider all the senses in conceptualising a building.
architects must understand that their mental experience through vision isn’t accurate because each senses
has a corresponding stimuli which is responsible for scrutinising its specified aspects. An example of this
would be identifying the white colour paint, cuboid form, vitality of the openings, and symmetrical balance
of the elements on the hospital. With this, architecture is treated like an image.

1.5 Illustrations

Figure 1 Diagram for haptic and

visions sense comparison (Source:
Herssens and Heylighen)
This diagram shows the differences
of haptic and visual sense from the
sensation process up to the yielded
representation. This can be a reliable
evidence that architecture should be
conceived in multiple senses.
Figure 2 How are computers used in Architecture?
(Source: Shannon, B)

This image depicts that the majority of architects use

computers frequently, whether to create design
concepts or draft construction documentation using
CAD software. The writing of specifications,
proposals, and other papers is done using word
processing software.

Figure 3 Sunlight and ventilation (Source: 07

sketches)

This picture distinguishes the importance of haptic

senses. Person’s skin can only recept the temperature
of the room and the air intensity.

Figure 4 How to change the size of the room using

paint colours(Source: Homechic)

Vision is responsible for determining the colours of

the structure. Most of the time eyes can be deceived
when patterns or series of colours are used to create
an optical illusion.

2 CONCLUSION
For a better built environment, architects must use the senses equally for the design process of the building.
They shouldn’t let the computers manipulate their creative thinking, rather they should control the
computers to create a wonderful and at the same time a functional architecture by taking into consideration
the only limits are the variations of construction materials to be used in designing and creating the building.
Pen and paper should be the second nature of the architect because it is mostly applicable during the
conceptualising and initial plan illustrations towards the clients. Computers should take over the
representational design processing of architecture because it is more detailed when it comes to perspective,
form, and construction materials compared to sketching. However architects must not be colonised by the
automated images of the computers which destroys their analytical and creative thinking of a structure. The
researcher concluded that writing should still remain as the primary media of visual communication as long
as it is used for documentation of characteristics and as supplementary description for the representation of
the building. For this reason, the visual representation of the building would be aligned to its purpose and
function. The stimuli in both tactile and visual perception can both discern the texture, properties of space,
temperature, density, form, place, orientation, length. Architects should understand that vision can’t fully
translate the haptic response. According to Herssens and Heyligen (2013) a haptic design parameter is used
in a design process; the parameter provides a description of a haptic design structure and the behaviour it
produces in the environment. This haptic framework includes a description of scale, space, and substance.
The behaviour in the environment determines the time, motion, and experience. A haptic path, for instance,
can be a path of the house that is easily distinguished by the texture of the materials and adhered to by the
shape it creates. It conveys a feeling of relaxation. The information in these haptic parameters therefore
applies to architectural concepts that were the reaction of haptic behaviour. The only reason why humans
immediately infer other senses' feedback through the use of eyes is their masterful mental experience in
remembering the haptic feedback. In terms of architecture, vision treats buildings as an image by
considering a building as a 2 dimensional object. Indeed, the haptic perception only takes place during real
life occurrence of the person in a structure. Therefore, vision itself is concerned with the building's absolute
visual appearance of the structure while tactile is concerned with texture, the hidden absolute quantity of the
elements in the structure that can only be detected by the skin organ.

REFERENCES

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