Arkhenspaces : composing Nspaces

 

 
spaces 3-dimensional
Nspaces n-dimensional

The nature of mankind must be taken in consideration in architecture because we construct for men.
Men have to live in architecture and even live architecture itself.
Every man is an actor and a spectator in the world.

Forever architecture characterizes the creation of an area in space. Unlike construction, the art of architecture has to stimulate particular feelings to the walker as a spectator of spaces. It has to surprise him, to question his curiosity and to open his senses. It has to invite him to include himself in the work in order to complete it. Serene or dynamic, it must stimulate the spectator, shout at him or, on the contrary, create a vacuum of stimulation.

Spaces from the past are no longer the same as spaces today. The passage from 2 dimensions (frontage architecture) goes to 3 dimensions (concepts of volume and space). Next are 4-dimensional with time intervention and concept of movement in a space (from the beginning of the 20th century). Today architecture is design throw N-dimensional. It organizes and emphasizes links between various current dimensions (public space, private, TV, Internet, virtual connexions…). Thanks to the new individual or collective communication tools and means such as mobile phone, laptop, electronics panels, video screens in the city…, an individual is linked with various real and virtual spaces without being aware of it.
So today architecture can not be satisfied anymore with a 4-dimensional organisation, it must be treated with the complexity of our time: a multi faceted world. It has to propose a work that has impact, creating connections between the individuals in and with these n dimensions [connected]. On the other hand it « extirpates » individuals out of this communication nub [disconnected]. This disconnection has to offer a comeback to a here and now consciousness to men sometimes lost in the incessant data stream: an exchange, from the state of actor in the « Nspaces » to the one of spectator. This step seems to be a starting point for a « regeneration » to keep clarity on our existence in the world, the real world. There, it could then be possible to attract one or several « elsewhere »!
It is necessary to be aware of our bubble to better apprehend others bubbles.

Architecture is both container in a context and content in relation with its context.

Architecture must provoke, produce an impression to the spectator, a sensation in and of the Nspaces matter. It has to speak with its context by organising and taking benefits of the n external dimensions. Architecture can be present and emits new impressions to the spectator who can accept or refuse to receive them. It can be related to the manner of a kitten who chooses to experience space in every directions. Architecture can also « withdraw », creating a vacuum of impression, to offer neutrality. In every case, the user has to appropriate it. Architecture has not to impose a single vision. Each individual, also spectator, has to take part in its completion: to give it life.

The architecture of a building is not abstract because it is always in relation with a context. It is possible to move a work of art such as music, visual art, literature however it is not yet possible, in most cases, to move a building. If we consider architecture as the feeling, the emotion, the resentment, the life of users in this Nspaces then feeling can not disregard the pre-existent or lately modified context. It must continually reinvent itself.

Architecture should not freeze itself anymore. Architecture should be free flowing in Nspaces even more than the reeds. This movement will be done in regards to the context. It will have to live according to the presence of its users and spectators but also independently. It can be compared to the characteristics of the volcanoes or oceans whose life is both due to an interior life, sometimes rough, sometimes calm, and to a life due to the external environment. This is in contrast to the characteristics of the mountain or lake whose life is almost only due to the external environment.

Architecture, when it exists, is the active or passive go-between of man and world. It wraps the individual(s) bubble(s) in a larger group. It protects them while connecting them between others and with other groups in the invisible and visible universes.
It has to propose, as an art, a perception shift, an impression and a new apprehension of and in the Nspaces.

Faced with the bursting dimensions, the architect has to propose to tidy up and to organize the whole of the connections and disconnections. Architecture has to adapt and consider its time, the world and the whole. It has to point out certain primordial elements such as the “to be”, the “there” and “the unity”.

Architecture is perceived through various points of views:

- Artistic: to offer to most people less expected, less monotonous and more original places; single, new, reinvented and regenerated impressions. [“Beauty will save the world.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky]. Beauty may not save the world but lack of beauty will annihilate it.
- Social: engage individuals to get in touch with one another throw multiple spaces, to work for the community, for the well-being and the respect of everyone.
- Technique: Architecture is an art of constraint although physics (gravity…) must still be considered. Beautiful images, bird eyes view projections, must become reality (and not remain virtuality). That is why it is necessary to consider all of the technical elements and the real contextual data. These elements have to be erased and then reappear in the architect’s mind; a non constructible architecture remains on paper. Design must challenge the technical and physical elements in order to advance architecture in a practical way (durability, waterproof ness…).
- Sustainable development: we have to keep in mind that we construct for a better being. This means the future, taking the environment and the respect of our planet into consideration, for it will be the same planet for that of the next generations.

To disturb horizons evidence
To surprise, to disconcert
- overlapped landscapes -
To make contemplate there around elsewhere
To unmake undo
And to propose the experience of a free flowing poem

 

Eric Cassar 2006