Sensory and the built environment

The Sense of Touch

The touch sense - immediate receptors, can be found all over our human body, from the skin, membranes, and muscles.  Those receptors allow us to feel the environment physically by touching, and they also offer us the sensitivity to heat gain and loss.  For people who are visually impaired, this sensory is very essential to them, as they communicate with the surrounding through touching things.  In many ways, Architects and Designers plan and build the built environment to connect with our sense of touch.  For example, The Hardness or softness of one’s floorings, changing levels of such floor, the texture of the material used on walls and the comfort of the furniture, they are all details designed for our touch experience.

The picture above shows a bathroom design by Renato Gschwend.  The concept is to provide a comfortable walking experience by using natural materials.  The floor here is covered in pebbles, a material that can absorb water and the temperature varies according to the room temperature. 

Designers can also choose a material for flooring due to the safety aspects.  In Hong Kong, recycled rubber paving is extensively used in children playgrounds.  This material provides the necessary impact and spike resistant required for the children when they are carrying out their activities – if the child falls, this material can greatly reduce their pain and damage sustained (shown in the photo above - left.)  Adding to that, the picture above on the right is an interior shot of a Hong Kong public bus.  In this picture you could clearly see the note “mind your head” printed at the ceiling of the bus.  The designer here rounded off the sharp corners and edges of the bus ceiling, so that if passengers do hit their heads, the chances of cuts can be reduced.

The level of comfort is one of the key elements to look at when designing, depending on the function or the purpose of the space.  There are elements that are usually felt directly such as the furniture and the temperature of the room.  The picture on the left is the Minus 5 Ice Lounge in Las Vegas.  This lounge has a consistent room temperature of -5 degrees, and the entire interior space is made up from ice – from the drinks counter, walls, seating and cups.  In this lounge visitors can happily experience the cold atmosphere without going to the Arctic or North Pole.

For many years, building codes and regulations have set rules and requirements for visually impaired aid designs.  They are very essential for the visually handicaps to navigate through buildings or spaces.  The photo on the left is a scene of a Hong Kong MTR station.  We can see a path made up of a common pattern of TGP to help the visually impaired person to gain a sense of orientation within the station.

Reference –

- http://dornob.com/outside-in-bathroom-exterior-interior-design-idea/

- http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tatonkaplaygrounds.com/images/rubber_tile_system_below_playground_equipment.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tatonkaplaygrounds.com/hosting/products.html&usg=__0PGSb8XqaCaM2cTbu8GvHYJcdpQ=&h=500&w=737&sz=117&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=AfXL6Ds0oahRgM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=183&ei=XT5BTcaxE4L-8AbSi9G0AQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drubber%2Btile%2Bsystem%2Bbelow%2Bplayground%2Bequipment%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1G1SNNT_ENUS397%26biw%3D953%26bih%3D850%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=129&vpy=241&dur=1357&hovh=185&hovw=273&tx=184&ty=114&oei=XT5BTcaxE4L-8AbSi9G0AQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

- http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://annatam.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/IMG_3635.JPG&imgrefurl=http://annatam.com/what-to-note-taking-hk-mtr/&usg=__6b4E0O-qPfseKxeFVnNAeQ-9IlU=&h=600&w=800&sz=175&hl=en&start=41&zoom=1&tbnid=P2BxgpcBxxwf_M:&tbnh=150&tbnw=177&ei=2DlBTYPDIIP_8Abcl7mFAg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhk%2Bmtr%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1G1SNNT_ENUS397%26biw%3D953%26bih%3D850%26tbs%3Disch:10,2500&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=506&vpy=359&dur=2769&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=150&ty=125&oei=jDlBTY36OMT68Aaf04G4AQ&esq=4&page=4&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:41&biw=953&bih=850

- http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/nevada/las-vegas/minus5-ice-lounge

The Five Elements of Interior Environments

Kevin Lynch introduced the five elements of a city – path, edges, district, nodes and landmarks. He was referring these elements in urban design or city planning. Having said that, in our class we were asked to identify these five elements in interior environments and how the architects or designers uses those five elements to help the occupants to sense and response within the interior space.

 

 

 

The first element Path, as defined in “The image of the City” - a book written by Kevin Lynch, “the routes along which people travel.” As designers or architects, they might use a path to direct people from one space and into another. The image above shows a path in a shopping complex, Hong Kong IFC mall. It is a suspended bridge between two departments with a store, confined and defined with light glass boxes of display and railing.

  

 

 

 

 

 Secondly, Edge as described by Lynch “non-traveled lines as cliffs, or escarpments, or the shores of rivers, lakes or oceans.” Edges in an interior environment are sometimes fenced off, as it sometimes represents a dead end. For example, IFC complex of Shanghai in the image above, shows glass railings used to confine the voids within this space also restricting people from falling through the void.

 

District as defined by Lynch “moderate – sized areas that city residents identify as having particular character.” In large areas, having districts can be useful for users to navigate through the environment. Architects or designers can be achieved by using different materials, colors, themes and also differencing the floor levels, all those methods will contribute in breaking up the continuality of one large space. For instead, in the photo above is the wood district in Elements mall of Hong Kong. The designer used different elements, such as fire, water, and wood, to define different zones. Hence the interior design would be based on the element of that zone.  In this case, the designer used wood materials and color tones to decorate spaces within the zone.

 

Lynch defined Node as “well – known points that people travel to and from, often at the junction of important paths, such as key intersections, transit terminals and popular plazas or squares.”  The image above is the new Cathay Pacific lounge in Hong Kong, offering a comfort area for waiting guests .  I have identified the Node in the small image (outlined in light blue), where it sit on the intersection of two paths (highlighted in dark blue.)

 

 The final element, Landmark defined as “easily viewed elements either on grand scale (e. g. the tallest building in town) or on a smaller scale (e. g. a statue or unique storefront).” Landmarks are well known due to its size or uniqueness, therefore they are usually the meeting points or reference points within an interior environment. An example of a landmark would be this gigantic 20 meters tall Christmas tree in Festival Walk of Hong Kong (shown in the image above.)

References -

- http://www.outinhome.com/2010/10/new-seating-system-of-cathay-pacific-lounge-by-foster-partners/

- http://www.elementshk.com/eng/elements/elements.htm

- http://hong-kong-travel.org/

- http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2385/1711155244_3b7aab45bc_o.jpg

The Coca Cola museum

PROJECT TITLE - The World of Coca Cola

LOCATION - USA, Atlanta,121 Baker Street NW

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA OF MID TOWN - 

Population -  11,035

Size -  1.13 square mile

Density -  9,726.67 persons per square land mile

Housing units - 1816

Postal code - GA 30313-1807

Area code - 01

Age group in (%) -

	Male			Female
	% of Males			% of Females
0-9 years:	2.9%			3.6%
10-19 years:	29.1%			39%
20-29 years:	48%			43.6%
30-39 years:	9%			5.5%
40-49 years:	5.8%			2.9%
50-59 years:	2.8%			1.9%
60-69 years:	1.4%			1.7%
70-79 years:	0.8%			1.1%
80+ years:	0.2%			0.8%
All Ages:	Male:	54.2%		Female:	45.8%

Occupation - 

(among employed persons over 16 years old)
Mgt./Professional	37.8%
Service	25.8%
Sales/Office	24.4%
Farm/Fishing/Forestry	1.3%
Construction/Extraction	3.8%
Production/Transportation	6.8%

Photographs of interior

At the very beginning of the Coca Cola journey. 

Coke bottle sculptures.

Guests can enjoy a glass of coke at the end of the trip.

Giant coke machine.

My Thought:

This trip to the coca cola museum was a delightful experience.  The museum was very spacious, guests were arranged into groups, and each group was accompanied by a member of staff.  The journey through the museum was divided into parts.  At the beginning of the trip, a member of staff would welcome the guests and give them a joyful introduction about their journey.  Guests would then arrive at this double heighten space/plaza, where they can have their photos taken with the polar bears, huge coke bottle sculptures, pop art painting from earlier cultures.  I remember this space was full of energy, where guests were moving around, cameras flashing, and it is surrounded by colorful information of coca cola.  Moving on from the plaza and up the grand staircase, guest would then queue up for a short movie in the 4D theater.  It was a delightful experience with the moving chairs, controlled wind and water coming into the faces of guests according to the scenes in the movie.   A staff would then lead the guests through this tunnel of coca cola timeline.  Information such as how the first coke machine looked like, what was the inspiration for the design of coke bottle and how would coke be made nowadays, all this was packed into the journey through the tunnel.  At the end of the journey, guests would have the chance to taste drinks made by the coke company from all those different countries through giant coke machine, hence buy their coke memento at the souvenir store.  For a coca cola collector, this experience would truly amaze them, as they could see, touch and taste although out this journey.






Reference -

http://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/
http://unusuallife.com/2008/06/24/unusual-food-museums/