White House smells of Parthenon
Have you ever looked at a soulless plot of land, ready for cookie-cutter development and realized that residential homes have not come very far in the last 5 decades? Well, I have, and it is a sh*^^y sight to see.
You see one problem that I have with current residential architecture is that it is stagnant. Even the very beautiful Victorian homes that grace San Franciscan hills are dormant of creativity because in a way the designers back then were more interested in preserving older concepts than creating new ones. This is felt mostly in the Greek Revival homes that then went out of fashion replaced by Gothic Era, Italianate, and Neo-Classicism.
Yet the one thing they all share in common is their plagiarism of structures that were used to honor deities. In the Greek revival, or Athenian copy and paste era, we see the use of high columns, to create a deep sense of space that is almost overbearing and that's because it was a space designed to honor the gods, to be a holy area, pristine in both appearance and spiritual presence. It is from this type of space that we model most of the western architecture today, and it is actually killing our creativity, our faith, and generally our psychological well being?
That is an opinion that has to be qualified, so what do I mean? I mean to say that an architectural/environmental space actually has an influence on our creativity and our ability to stay psychologically sharp. I can't study well in libraries, I need bright space to think. I used to study in the dorm laundry room with all the lights on, bouncing off whitewashers and dryers who also created a kind of gray noise that helped me focus. Others might go crazy.
I also lived in a geodesic dome for a week, and what I have come to understand is that the shape of a space has an influence on our thoughts, and ability to think. We already know that colors can influence our behavior, which is why fast food places create a disorienting pallet to paint their shops to increase turnover. For Example McDonald's red and yellow color scheme encourages people to eat fast and leave, because yellow reminds us of warmth, and shelter, which provokes hunger, and red is attention-grabbing color that also causes an overestimation of time. Think of that in contrast to a calming blue or green room. You could be there all day.
Whenever I look at houses of the 189th and 29th century I see very little effort, and miniature copies of past designs, with a lack of concern for inhabitant psychology, needs, and gifted affordances. I will enter more at length at another time. Peace
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One of my personal favorite studies on the shape of rooms involves babies and learning localization. Spatial Localization in Infancy: Position Constancy in a Square and Circular Room with and without a Landmark by M. B. Keating, B. E. McKenzie, and R. H. Day, if you're interested.
For further reading on Color Psychology check out Angela Wrights books and research.
Yet the one thing they all share in common is their plagiarism of structures that were used to honor deities. In the Greek revival, or Athenian copy and paste era, we see the use of high columns, to create a deep sense of space that is almost overbearing and that's because it was a space designed to honor the gods, to be a holy area, pristine in both appearance and spiritual presence. It is from this type of space that we model most of the western architecture today, and it is actually killing our creativity, our faith, and generally our psychological well being?
That is an opinion that has to be qualified, so what do I mean? I mean to say that an architectural/environmental space actually has an influence on our creativity and our ability to stay psychologically sharp. I can't study well in libraries, I need bright space to think. I used to study in the dorm laundry room with all the lights on, bouncing off whitewashers and dryers who also created a kind of gray noise that helped me focus. Others might go crazy.
I also lived in a geodesic dome for a week, and what I have come to understand is that the shape of a space has an influence on our thoughts, and ability to think. We already know that colors can influence our behavior, which is why fast food places create a disorienting pallet to paint their shops to increase turnover. For Example McDonald's red and yellow color scheme encourages people to eat fast and leave, because yellow reminds us of warmth, and shelter, which provokes hunger, and red is attention-grabbing color that also causes an overestimation of time. Think of that in contrast to a calming blue or green room. You could be there all day.
Whenever I look at houses of the 189th and 29th century I see very little effort, and miniature copies of past designs, with a lack of concern for inhabitant psychology, needs, and gifted affordances. I will enter more at length at another time. Peace
***********************************************************************
One of my personal favorite studies on the shape of rooms involves babies and learning localization. Spatial Localization in Infancy: Position Constancy in a Square and Circular Room with and without a Landmark by M. B. Keating, B. E. McKenzie, and R. H. Day, if you're interested.
For further reading on Color Psychology check out Angela Wrights books and research.
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