‘CAN SUBJECTIVE MICROCOSMOS REWRITE A CITY?’
Kana Arioka English, Gent Fall 2627, Urban Cultures
Reframing Architecture, Unsolicited Architecture, Learning Through Making, Working With, Glocal Encounters
Above: from the book 1/1000000000, Hideyuki Nakayama, 2018 LIXIL Publishing, Below: Umwelt, Jakob von Uexkül
This brief outlines the Master Design Studio ‘CAN SUBJECTIVE MICROCOSMOS REWRITE A CITY?’, which explores the fluid relationship between ROOM, HOUSE, and CITY through an understanding of the perceptual world―UMWELT.
The German biologist Jakob von Uexküll observed that animals live in species-distinct perceptual worlds, which he termed ‘umwelten’ – subjective microcosmos -, carved out of the objective and measurable environment. However, umwelt encompasses more than just the notion of immediate surroundings. Uexküll understood that the perceptual characteristics of living things can even redefine the larger environment – city -.
These three entities ― ROOM, HOUSE, and CITY ― will be boldly interwoven through a behavioural understanding of the subjective microcosmos.
Attitudes, indications, and other faint signals from everyday life are observed and depicted through the intertwined behaviours of humans, architecture, and the environment, ultimately converging to form a new perspective.
- Read the full studio description here (pdf).