In Jeff’s article about the Nelson Atkins Museum designed by Steven Holl, he introcduces “three ways in which architecture can say something about the world: intellectual, social, and phenomenological.” The first two are easier to understand than the third.
Jeff claims that Steven Holl is “strongly inclined toward the phenomenological.” In hopes of trying to better understand the term, I searched some of Steven Holl’s works and realized I had actually visited one before–Simmons Hall at MIT. I was able to relate some elements of the phenomenological approach to my experience touring Simmons.
First, we can consider the environment in which it is situated. Simmons is isolated, with a football field separating it from the rest of the dorms on that side of campus. Its isolation and sheer size (it is one of the larger halls as well) puts it “on the pedestal.” Holl, from dealing with location and placement alone, is already able to have viewers perceive a special quality about the place. (In a way, I think Holl is upstaging some of the other buildings, but on a campus with such a variety of interesting architecture throughout, he must do this in order to have his building stand out. I’m not so sure how standing out would improve the building’s function as a hall though.)
Next, we consider the design and materiality of the building, and what sorts of feelings and perceptions they instill in the viewer. The metal used throughout and the hard floors gives the building a cool, echoing effect that also suggests detachment. It plays on the senses of sound and our ears’ sensitivities to silence. Just as how an echo would trigger feelings of “meditative solitude” in a cathedral, the play on sound in Simmons creates an atmosphere of focus. The windows also adds a feelign of focus, with light concentrated in certain areas and forming contrast with other darker, shadowed parts. Holl’s sensitivity to what the viewers perceive and executing what he wants viewers to perceive is what I understand to be attention to phenomenology.
Interior of Simmons Hall, effects of lighting
Exterior
WHAT IS AN ARCHITECTURAL IDEA? 