Atmospheres

An architectural domain that I am interested in is the creation of atmospheres, in particular by the use of light. Instantly, a building that caught my mind when thinking about this was the Dominus Winery by Herzog and de Meuron where light was manipulated to create dynamic spaces. The Dominus Winery consists of a gabion wall façade which is used to create a dappled light walkway around the perimeter of the building. As the position of the sun changes, so do the atmospheres of the spaces, animating them with interesting patterns of light and shadow. What I find most interesting about this example is the simplicity and modesty of the design. If the Dominus Winery was realised with more complexity then the same affect may not have occurred. However, this does not mean to say that complexity is a bad thing and in the right context could lead to equally interesting atmospheres. If you look at the work of Gaudi, form wise, the spaces that he crafts are very complex however they produce just as seductive atmospheres as that of the Dominus Winery.

All of this raises an interesting question for me, how can a person’s interactions affect and create atmospheres? I am not promoting the creation of spaces that alter atmospheres by playing a happy song when you are feeling down as that would be irritating. Rather, can architecture react to the way we feel? If we feel too hot, can the architecture shift and change to create a more comfortable environment, providing a more interesting approach to the somewhat beige approaches to sustainability that litter the architectural journals like BD. Alternatively, could these changes in atmosphere be representative of events and situations? You can now sculpt 3d models in grasshopper from Twitter feeds so, how can this then transform the space around us?