Origins of Architectural Pleasure by Grant Hildebrand
Is it possible that our emotions are influenced by certain architectural spaces? How do we find contentment in them? In this book, Origins of Architectural Pleasure, Grant Hildebrand suggested that the current artificial environment fabricated by human is largely related to the archetypal qualities in natural settings and the human’s needs since the origin of our species.
The book is separated into four chapters and each chapter proposed new terms to describe human’s pleasure in certain settings, which originated from the living habit of our ancestors, and how the feelings are re-created in the modern times through a few architectural precedents.
Before the first chapter, the book begin with a prologue, showing three scenes: nature, integration of nature and architecture, …show more content…
From the earliest time, defenseless humans regard a place of concealment as the refuge, while a place of forage as the prospect, as termed by Jay Appleton. Refuge is compact and ill-lit, while the prospect is extensive and well-lit. Based on these principles, the model of refuge-prospect have been integrated into the built environment, as evident in the precedents given. In results of author’s analysis, light quantities, distance of vistas, ceiling heights, and spatial sizes are the main architectural considerations which define refuge and prospect spaces. The trend in typical modern buildings are designed to be prospect-driven, accompanied with uniform transparency and lightness across the space, therefore this chapter emphasized the necessity of reassuring haven in a man-made
Is it possible that our emotions are influenced by certain architectural spaces? How do we find contentment in them? In this book, Origins of Architectural Pleasure, Grant Hildebrand suggested that the current artificial environment fabricated by human is largely related to the archetypal qualities in natural settings and the human’s needs since the origin of our species.
The book is separated into four chapters and each chapter proposed new terms to describe human’s pleasure in certain settings, which originated from the living habit of our ancestors, and how the feelings are re-created in the modern times through a few architectural precedents.
Before the first chapter, the book begin with a prologue, showing three scenes: nature, integration of nature and architecture, …show more content…
From the earliest time, defenseless humans regard a place of concealment as the refuge, while a place of forage as the prospect, as termed by Jay Appleton. Refuge is compact and ill-lit, while the prospect is extensive and well-lit. Based on these principles, the model of refuge-prospect have been integrated into the built environment, as evident in the precedents given. In results of author’s analysis, light quantities, distance of vistas, ceiling heights, and spatial sizes are the main architectural considerations which define refuge and prospect spaces. The trend in typical modern buildings are designed to be prospect-driven, accompanied with uniform transparency and lightness across the space, therefore this chapter emphasized the necessity of reassuring haven in a man-made