Essay on Sensing Spaces

Submitted By serenays
Words: 560
Pages: 3

Sensing Spaces review:

Most people’s perception of architecture is that they are purely visual, usually displayed through pictorials, sketches and plans, but this exhibition challenges those views. It shows spaces as places that we make connections with other people, some bring back memories of a different time, and also that the lighting plays a vital role in providing the overall experience. The big aim of Sensing Spaces is to change the way the city thinks about and engages with architecture, bridging the gap between space and people. At the show's core is a series of space-changing installations.
Some installations make a big statement like the Pezo von Ellrichshausen’s four wooden cylinders structure that confronts you the moment you enter the exhibition. From afar, it looks like industrial-classical temple that towers the entire gallery space. In each of these cylinders consists of spiral stairs that leads you all the way up to the top where you find yourself high up in the gallery, getting a good view of the architecture of the existing gallery space and the glass roof lights. It allows you to see the whole of the existing gallery from another closer perspective. It makes what was there before that we were unable to see, visible a whole lot more, elevating the presence of the room even more. It allows us to discover the existing architecture in a new form. Like their quote, their emphasis is not on the structural properties of the installation itself but on the properties of the room. The structure compliments well with the gallery itself.
The material of a particular structure evokes different emotions within someone and heightens the sensory experiences. Like Kengo Kuma’s installation, his structures are made out of bamboo infused with familiar Japanese scents that engages with the audience. It’s a simple concept of minimising materials but maximising the senses. Some of the spaces are made so that we physically have to go through them and in turn they become much more than a container. They become a place of