The Most Beautiful Feeling

A friend of mine asked me this question today...

"What is the most beautiful feeling that you've ever felt in your life?"


I paused and pondered for a while.
"The feeling of achievement."  

To me, it's the best feeling ever. You work hard for something and getting reward for your hard work is the best feeling you can ever have. 
If I can get something without putting a lot of effort into it, I probably won't appreciate it that much.

The point is...
The feeling of achievement is something I cannot get all the time. In order to achieve something, I had to go through and experience all the other feelings, which I would say negative feelings. Stress, depression, anger, and impatience are some of the negative feelings that can't be avoided. 

Maybe we don't have to have happy thoughts and tranquil feelings all the time. We need to experience other negative feelings, so that we can appreciate the positive feelings. Maybe this is what a balanced life is.

As cliche as it sounds,
You need to experience sadness in order to understand the true happiness.


I just needed to jot this down before I forget. It might not really relate to my thesis, but at least it relates to emotions so.... 

Inspiration

I listened to this podcast for several times.

Every time I listened, I learnt something and heard something that I didn't catch up the last time.
Thanks to Aaron Anderson for sending me this podcast and sharing his insight with me.


If you are researching on healing spaces or how human being responds to spaces, this podcast will really help you understand what healing means.

Side note : It didn't work on my computer, you can either use your Ipad or mobile phone to listen to this.

http://reader.mac.com/mobile/v1/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.onbeing.org%2Fsites%2Fonbeing.org%2Ffiles%2Fxml%2Fpodcast.xml

Visual Illustrations

I had a hard time trying to illustrate emotions graphically. Emotion really depends on individuals and our backgrounds. Here are some quick illustrations.

The first diagram is abstract illustration of chaos transforming into order. The rectangles represent the city blocks. The overlapping and the intersection of those blocks imply the chaotic situations within the city and it begins to transform into lines that fades away as it moves towards the right direction. This diagram is to represent Burma’s chaos turning into order. You can read further in the draft that I posted below.

The second illustration is explaining the history of what Burmese people went through. The gradient represents the darkness transforming into light.

For the third illustration, I picked out some basic shapes and forms that we are familiar with. It is amazing how these spaces trigger our emotions in different ways. Further explanation can be read in draft two.

Draft Two

I was raised in Yangon, Burma, a country that has experienced constant conflicts, and under extreme control. I have always experienced and seen the obstacles and the struggles of Burmese people have encountered. People are restricted to think or act freely. The lives of people function in a disorderly manner due to the continual chaotic situations in the city. The quality of life that the military government provides for the people in the city is very limited.

There is a lack of tranquility within the city after the government had put people under control. The peace of mind that all Burmese people long for does not exist in the city anymore. The built environment that we live in deteriorated our emotions and our lives. Burma has approached its turning point. Transformations have started to take place in the country. In Yangon, the financial and commercial capital of the country, the dramatic changes are undeniably occurring.

How can we be creative as architects to heal the emotional pains of Burmese people, and how can architecture fix the broken dreams and revive the moment of tranquility that they long for?

            Why is emotion a critical factor in creating a piece of architecture that can enhance people’s lives? This question gets asked often. Man-made space can refine human feelings and perceptions. A well-designed space can define and control the actions of people who are in it.

Ergo, the emphasis of my research will be about the reactions and the emotions we have for defined spaces and forms of buildings, and how our built environment enhance the lives of people who reside in it. Why do human beings respond differently to different spaces? The different reactions we have for spaces are dependent upon the individual and our cultural backgrounds. The built environment has either positive or negative effects on our lives and our memories of those places.

Architecture creates a set of experiences and those experiences involve the brain activity of remembering, recalling and comparing. The emotional activities we experience in built environments are based on subjective memories, and other brain activity coupled with new sensory inputs.

The major five senses are linked to the brain by the nervous system, while awareness perceives the five senses and memory recalls the five senses.  Therefore, five senses, memories, and awareness are all interconnected. Awareness in its multiple definitions and iterations enables human beings to feel the emotions that buildings provoke and how they begin to form connections and attachments with various building spaces and forms through our psychological, philosophical and cultural ties.

My research will emphasize on why and how awareness affects our emotions triggered by built spaces. In addition to spaces, the use of materiality, colors, lighting and construction within the space are also critical factors to delineating emotions we garner from experiencing architecture, both real and virtual. The quality of the materials, colors, light, and the type of construction contribute to our awareness of the of inhabited spaces, whatever the time or use thereof.

According to John Zeisel, “the ultimate meaning of any building is beyond architecture; it directs our consciousness back to the world, and towards our own sense of self and being. Significant architecture makes us experience ourselves as complete embodied and spiritual beings” (Zeisel). Therefore, if we understand how brains and minds work or how they function in different spaces and how they develop over time to respond to our built environment, we as architects, should be able to deliver the intent of our designs and provide the quality of space that can help to improve people’s lives.

Studying the human brain and its response to different spaces, materials, geometric shapes, forms, colors, and light will assist me in designing a space that could satisfy the albeit momentary needs of people and potentially mitigate their psychological and/or pains enhancing their lives for that moment, and the memory thereto.

First Draft

The emphasis of my research will be about the reactions and the emotions we have for defined spaces and forms of buildings, and how our built environment affects us in our daily lives. Consciousness in its multiple definitions and iterations enables human beings to feel the emotions that buildings provoke and how they begin to form connections and attachments with various building spaces and forms through our psychological, philosophical and cultural ties.

 Why do human beings respond differently to different spaces? The different reactions we have for spaces are dependent upon the individual and our cultural backgrounds. The built environment has either positive or negative effects on our lives and our memories of those places. The emotional activities we experience in built environments are based on subjective memories, and other brain activity coupled with new sensory inputs.

The usual five senses take varied parts in creating memories - a sense of touch, a sense seeing, a sense of hearing, a sense of smell, and a sense of taste. Five senses, memories, and awareness are all interconnected. Awareness is an important factor in remembering and creating memories of places. The reactions, and the emotions human beings have for certain spaces and certain forms of the building are based on the memories stored in our brains and the five senses that took part in creating those memories.

My research will emphasize on why and how awareness affects our emotions triggered by built spaces. In addition to spaces, the use of materiality, colors, lighting and construction within the space are also critical factors to delineating emotions we garner from experiencing architecture, both real and virtual. The quality of the materials, colors, light, and the type of construction contribute to our awareness of the of inhabited spaces.

According to John Zeisel, “the ultimate meaning of any building is beyond architecture; it directs our consciousness back to the world, and towards our own sense of self and being. Significant architecture makes us experience ourselves as complete embodied and spiritual beings” (Zeisel). Therefore, if we understand how brains and minds work or how they function in different spaces and how they develop over time to respond to our built environment, we as architects, should be able to deliver the intent of our designs and provide the quality of space that can help to improve people’s lives.

 Studying the human brain and its response to different spaces, materials, geometric shapes, forms, colors, and light will assist me in designing a space that could satisfy the albeit momentary needs of people and potentially mitigate their psychological pains enhancing their lives for that moment, and the memory thereto.

Books to read for this week...

Note to self:

"Weight, pressure, and resistance are part of our habitual body experience, and our unconscious mimetic instinct impels us to identify ourselves with apparent weight, pressure, and resistance in the forms we see." - Body Memory and Architecture

Favorite Quote

"Architecture moves us. It can comfort us or intimidate us; it can enlighten us or mystify us; it can bring joy or tear at our hearts. Architecture moves us by touching three layers of memory. Through primal space it can touch our deepest emotional core; evoking shadow memories of the womb, the cave, the forest, and light. It can recall memories of culture, or our place in the historical world. Personal memories add overlays of subjective meanings, as buildings are associated with events in our lives."

-Christopher Egan, Architect

The Beginning of the Last Step

Four years have gone by so fast. This is my fifth year at NSAD. I created this blog to record my architecture journey throughout my thesis year to have dialogues with architectural peers.

Constructive feedbacks are warmly welcomed.