EXPERIENCING MATERIALS IN ARCHITECTURE 29 th Concrete day IMAGINE CONCRETE Lisa Wastiels 22.10.2009 Structure presentation Experiencing materials Material selection in architecture Material information in architecture Experiment: Material perception INTRODUCTION 1/10 1
A space is never about one thing. It is a place for many senses: sight, sound, touch, and the unaccountable things that happen in between. Tadao Ando EXPERIENCING MATERIALS Tadao Ando Hyogo Chapel (Japan) MATERIALS IN ARCHITECTURE MVRDV Ypenburg (NL) 2/10 2
EXPERIENCING MATERIALS MVRDV Borneo Sporenburg (NL) The discipline of architecture goes far beyond structural performance architects know it, material manufacturers know it. How can we communicate ideas? From Het spel der zinnen, de hartslag van beton [infobeton.be] EXPERIENCING MATERIALS 3/10 3
MATERIAL IMPACT STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE TECHNICAL FEELING EXPERIENCE SENSATION EXPERIENCING MATERIALS MATERIAL INFORMATION 4/10 4
polish, mold, manufacturing hand-form, stain, process OBJECTIVE stiffness, density, thickness, roughness, texture, hardness, technical aspects tactile softness, visual warmth, gloss, transparency, color, sensorial aspects formal, friendly, progressive, warm, trendy, flat, soft, aspects of perception nice, pleasing, beautiful, cute, aspects of emotion SUBJECTIVE USEFUL INFORMATION Can we OBJECTIFY the description of sensory and perception attributes of materials to facilitate material choices to ameliorate communication to allow better comparison of materials tactile softness, visual warmth, gloss, transparency, color, sensorial aspects formal, friendly, progressive, warm, trendy, flat, soft, aspects of perception nice, pleasing, beautiful, cute, aspects of emotion From Het spel der zinnen, de hartslag van beton [infobeton.be] USEFUL INFORMATION 5/10 5
Study 6 building materials 116 participants list with 15 attributes 3 sensory test conditions (VIS, TAC, GEN) brickwork concrete steel onaangenaam aangenaam eenvoudig patroon complex patroon niet delicaat delicaat niet druk druk felle kleur fletse kleur * niet fris fris mat glanzend zacht hard niet indrukbaar indrukbaar donkere kleur lichte kleur * niet massief massief opdringerig neutraal glad ruw oneffen textuur plasterwork blue stone wood koud warm vlakke textuur EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT 6/10 6
EXPERIMENT Perception of COLD - WARM Wood perceived as warmest material Steel perceived as coldest material wood COLD WARM blue stone steel General Evaluation (vision + touch) plasterwork concrete brickwork 0 20 40 60 80 100 RESULTS 7/10 7
Influence of VISION No significant difference between general and visual evaluation SO: Minor impact of touch on warmth perception (within context of test) People are guided by vision for evaluation COLD WARM wood blue stone steel General Evaluation (vision + touch) Visual Evaluation plasterwork concrete brickwork 0 20 40 60 80 100 RESULTS Excluding VISION Tactile evaluation significantly different Difference is material dependent COLD WARM wood blue stone steel General Evaluation (vision + touch) Visual Evaluation Tactile Evaluation plasterwork concrete brickwork 0 20 40 60 80 100 RESULTS 8/10 8
PERCEPTION of cold-warm Wood = warmest material in all conditions Steel = coldest material in all conditions Concrete compared to other materials 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 brickwork concrete plasterwork steel 20 blue stone 10 wood 0 General Evaluation (vision + touch) Visual Evaluation Tactile Evaluation RESULTS Conclusion Warmth perception is largely guided by VISION TOUCH leads to very different evaluations Concrete is perceived as being cold visually, but feels rather warm when touching it Experience aspects and physical material properties are correlated material perceptions can be described, and thus be modified: - by intelligent design (using different senses) - by altering the material or its surface properties CONCLUSION and DISCUSSION 9/10 9
Ir.-Arch. Lisa Wastiels PhD Fellow FWO Department of Architectural Engineering Vrije Universiteit Brussel Pleinlaan 2, 1000 Brussel, Belgium E: lisa.wastiels@vub.ac.be T: +32 (0)2 629 13 64 F: +32 (0)2 629 28 40 www.vub.ac.be/arch/ae-lab/people.php CONTACT 10/10 10