10.54103/ai/18166
The paper presents the theoretical assumptions and the way of conducting an experimental course on the Phenomenology of Space designed for architects and interior designers.
The course made use of virtual reality to allow students to directly experience the perceptive and cognitive effects induced by the forms of space, colour, the texture of materials, and light. Virtual reality was also the medium that made it possible to translate certain philosophical concepts related to the phenomenology of space into an experiential and applicative field close to the sensitivity and spatial culture of the designers.
The themes addressed gave rise to a progressive development that allowed students to develop an increasingly complex project and experiment with increasingly complex issues. The course began with the phenomenology of thresholds, and continued with the analysis of field and synesthesia, the phenomenology of atmospheres, and the analysis of orientation and mind maps. In each of these areas of research and experimentation, the common thread remained the relationship between the body and space. The article also presents the exercises proposed to the students and an overall assessment of the teaching experience.
application/pdf
2785-7433
18166
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en
Matteo Vegetti
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433]
Education
Phenomenology of space and virtual reality. An experimental course for students in architecture
Text.Serial.Journal
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2022-07-03
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2023-04-17
AN-ICON
Matteo Vegetti
2022/12/20
10.54103/ai/18166
Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana, Università della Svizzera Italiana
2785-7433
II
Education
en
Verlag, 2006).
Phenomenology of space and virtual reality. An experimental course for students in architecture
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/download/18166/17780
1
               Phenomenology
               of space and virtual
reality. An experimental course
for students
by Matteo Vegetti
                 in  architecture
           Phenomenology
                    Virtual reality
                    Achitecture
                    Philosophy
                    Education




                                  Issue №2 Year 2022
                                  → Just an illusion? Between simulation,
                                  emulation, and hyper-realism
                                  Edited by Pietro Conte
                                  and Lambert Wiesing
Phenomenology of space and
virtual reality. An experimental
course for students in
architecture
MATTEO VEGETTI, Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana, Università della Svizzera
Italiana – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5149-8609
https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/18166

Abstract                        The paper presents the theoretical assumptions and
                  the way of conducting an experimental course on the Phenom-
                  enology of Space designed for architects and interior designers.
                                The course made use of virtual reality to allow stu-
                  dents to directly experience the perceptive and cognitive effects
                  induced by the forms of space, colour, the texture of materials,
                  and light. Virtual reality was also the medium that made it pos-
                  sible to translate certain philosophical concepts related to the
                  phenomenology of space into an experiential and applicative
                  field close to the sensitivity and spatial culture of the designers.
                                The themes addressed gave rise to a progressive
                  development that allowed students to develop an increasingly
                  complex project and experiment with increasingly complex is-
                  sues. The course began with the phenomenology of thresholds,
                  and continued with the analysis of field and synesthesia, the
                  phenomenology of atmospheres, and the analysis of orienta-
                  tion and mind maps. In each of these areas of research and
                  experimentation, the common thread remained the relationship
                  between the body and space. The article also presents the ex-
                  ercises proposed to the students and an overall assessment of
                  the teaching experience.
Keywords          Phenomenology                          Virtual reality                 Achitecture
                  Philosophy                             Education
To quote this essay: M. Vegetti, “Phenomenology of space and virtual reality. An experimental course for
students in architecture,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2 (2022): 184-
229, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/18166

MATTEO VEGETTI                                     184                                          AN-ICON
                          Presentation of the course

                           Virtual reality (VR) holds educational potential
             of great interest for all disciplines that deal with spatiali-
             ty, and even more for those, like architecture, that have a
             privileged relationship with lived space, that is to say with
             the interaction between the body and its environment. I at-
             tempted to demonstrate this thesis through the conception
             and development of a course on Phenomenology of space
             that makes use of virtual reality to study the perceptual
             effects of architectural design.
                           The course began as a research project funded
             by an internal call for proposals in the Department of en-
             vironments, construction, and design of the University of
             Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUP-
             SI-DACD, Mendrisio, Switzerland) dedicated to digitization.
             From the outset, its implementation required the formation of
             a small interdisciplinary research team. It included, alongside
             myself, philosopher and professor of spatial theory Pietro
             Vitali (architect and professor of the degree course in inte-
             rior architecture), Matteo Moriani (architect and assistant
             for the course developed by this project), and Marco Lurati
             (interaction designer and lecturer). In contrast to what often
             occurs, the collaboration between different areas of exper-
             tise in our case had a material character. The task of taking
             care of the content and educational aims of the course fell
             to me, as philosopher, while that of dealing with questions
             related to more strictly architectural aspects fell to the de-
             signers, who then guided the students in their design work.
             The interaction designer, finally, had the task not only of
             making the course possible through the development of
             the technology and the necessary programming, but also
             of teaching students how to carry out design in VR and the
             relevant programs (Twinmotion in particular). As is clear, no
             member of the working group could have proceeded without
             the aid of the others. The final goal was to create a course
             in phenomenology applied to architecture with the help of
             Oculus Quest 2 headsets. In other words, rather than just
             learning theories, the students would need to sharpen their
MATTEO VEGETTI                      185                             AN-ICON
              spatial sensibility by experimenting with these theories in
              a virtual environment. The challenge was thus double: on
              one hand to offer a course on applied philosophy, and on
              the other to introduce virtual reality into a theoretical course,
              making it the tool for the application of theory.
                           In addition to this, in an almost unconscious,
              seemingly instrumental way, the students would need to
              learn sophisticated programming languages, a skill that is
              also useful from a professional standpoint.

                                Background

                            Virtual Reality has recently emerged in archi-
              tecture and the arts as novel means for visualizing different
              design solutions and for building up the design model and
              its virtual environment.
                            Similar to these applications, VR is commonly
              used in architectural education in the design process, as it
              provides the designer with an image to create the spatial
              and topological relationships of a project. Although the use
              of VR for teaching purposes is not yet widespread in archi-
              tecture faculties (in Europe at least), its pedagogical effec-
              tiveness has been clearly documented.1 Several studies on
              the pedagogical function of VR in architectural studies have
              shown that the use of VR increases the awareness of de-
              signer during designing in terms of the structural properties
              and component assembly of a structural system,2 helps stu-
              dents’ way of thinking, critical thinking, and problem-solv-
              ing activities,3 creates the possibility to “feel like being in
              the place,”4 strengthens the memory and awareness of the

      1 F. Kharvari, L.E. Kaiser, “Impact of extended reality on architectural education and the
      design process,” Automation in Construction 141 (2022): 1-19, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
      autcon.2022.104393.
      2 W.A. Abdelhameed, “Virtual reality in architectural design studios: a case of studying
      structure and construction,” Procedia Computer Science 25 (2013): 220-230, https://doi.
      org/10.1016/j.procs.2013.11.027.
      3 F. Kharvari, L.E. Kaiser, “Impact of extended reality on architectural education and the
      design process.”
      4 T. Chandrasekera, K. Fernando, L. Puig, “Effect of degrees of freedom on the sense of
      presence generated by virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display systems: a case study on the
      use of VR in early design studios,” Journal of Educational Technology Systems 47, no.4 (2019):
      513-522.

MATTEO VEGETTI                                186                                         AN-ICON
              spatial configuration,5 augments “spatial abilities” in stu-
              dents,6 trains the capacity to switch naturally from a planar
              representation of space to a 3D representation of the same
              space.7 To cite a concrete experience, Johan Bettum, pro-
              fessor of architecture at the Städelschule, has used virtual
              reality in the master degree studio Architecture and Aes-
              thetic Practice at Städelschule Architecture Class (Frank-
              furt) as a laboratory for spatial inquiries in relation to sub-
              jective experience, the construction of reality and the role
              of images in regimes of representation. These experiments
              consisted in designing immersive environments where ar-
              chitecture has been explored through the computerized
              representation of forms and spaces. According to the inten-
              tions of the course, this digitally produced realm of images
              supplemented and often supplanted the traditional role of
              drawing in the contemporary design process.8 A second
              research experiment on the integration of VR in the cur-
              riculum at architecture schools, took place at the College
              of Architecture and Planning (CAP) of Ball State University.
              For three years in a row, the CAP created a design virtual
              environment for 2nd year students, making use of an HMD
              (Head Mounted Display). The CAP VR Environment aimed
              to support the actual architectural design process, therefore
              aiding the process of learning how to design, rather than
              limiting its use as a visualization tool. In the practical terms,
              the immersive simulation of an actual design project (the
              lobby of a small hotel) was intended to enable students to
              recreate the architectural characteristics of the space, elic-
              iting an appraisal of their architectural spatial experience.
              According to the author, the ability to navigate through

      5 A. Angulo, “Rediscovering virtual reality in the education of architectural design: the
      immersive simulation of spatial experience,” Ambiences. Environment Sensible, Architecture et
      Espace Urbain 1 (2015): 1-23, https://doi.org/10.4000/ambiances.594.
      6 T. Chandrasekera, S.Y. Yoon, “Adopting augmented reality in design communication:
      focusing on improving spatial abilities,” The International Journal of Architectonics, Spatial
      and Environmental Design 9, no.1 (2015): 1-14, http://dx.doi.org/10.18848/2325-1662/CGP/
      v09i01/38384; M. Schnabel, T. Kvan, E. Kruijff, D. Donath, “The first virtual environment design
      studio,” 19th eCAADe Conference Proceedings. Helsinki (2001): 394-400.
      7 J. Milovanovic, G. Moreau, D. Siret, F. Miguet, “Virtual and augmented reality in architectural
      design and education. An immersive multimodal platform to support architectural pedagogy,”
      17th International Conference, CAAD Futures 2017, Istanbul, Turkey.
      8 J. Bettum, Architecture, Futurability and the Untimely (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2022).

MATTEO VEGETTI                                  187                                          AN-ICON
              the simulated lobbies turned out to be key to capture the
              architectural spatial experience and perceive the aesthetic
              emotion and/or symbolic meaning embedded in the proj-
              ects.9
                             A further type of studies attempted to demon-
              strate, through an experimental design that also involved
              students from a design class at the Milan Polytechnic, the
              possibility of recreating complex spatial qualities through
              VR, for example investigating how multisensoriality (scent
              in particular) affects the realism of the experience contrib-
              uting to increase the users’ sense of presence in the virtual
              environment.10
                             Although in some ways apparently akin to the
              case studies cited, it must be borne in mind that the course
              we experimented with differs first and foremost from them
              for the basic reason that it does not fall within the scope
              of architecture, but of philosophy applied to space (a phi-
              losophy with a phenomenological orientation). The aim of
              the pedagogical experiments conducted is therefore not
              related to design, but to the understanding of the body-
              space relationship, with a specific focus on the modalities
              of sensory perception. In other words, thanks to virtual re-
              ality, the students were able to experiment in various ways,
              according to a number of controlled possibilities, how the
              manipulation of certain variables (positions of openings,
              colors, scales, relationships between objects in space, arti-
              ficial lights, sequences of spaces) impact the spatial expe-
              rience on a perceptive and cognitive level. The aim was not
              to obtain a realistic representation of space, nor was it to
              learn about and visualize certain spaces and construction
              processes through VR. The aim was rather to verify with
              one’s own (virtual) body the perceptual effects induced by




      9 A. Angulo, “Rediscovering virtual reality in the education of architectural design: the
      immersive simulation of spatial experience.”
      10 M. Carulli, M. Bordegoni, U. Cugini, “Integrating scents simulation in virtual reality
      multisensory environment for industrial products evaluation,” Computer-Aided Design &
      Applications 13, no. 3 (2016): 320-328, https://doi.org/10.1080/16864360.2015.1114390.

MATTEO VEGETTI                                 188                                         AN-ICON
             certain design choices, and to develop a method to derive
             generalizable knowledge from experience.
                         Although the aforementioned studies have
             provided the course with useful information and a set of
             important examples regarding the didactic use of VR in
             architecture, there is - to the best of my knowledge - no
             previous use of VR in phenomenology of space.

                         Theoretical framework

                           Phenomenology is undoubtedly the theoret-
             ical orientation most closely related to the intelligence of
             architects, who are accustomed to thinking about space
            “live,” so to speak. Among the characteristic abilities of
             the architect are the capacity to consider the relationship
             between spaces and bodies, to imagine the atmosphere
             of environments and the way in which shape, color, and
             spatial scale influence our experience of them, and to or-
             ganize solids and voids, exteriors and interiors, the visible
             and the invisible, light and shadow, volumes and matter, as
             though they were elements of an aesthetically expressed
             spatial language. It is precisely this sort of sensibility that
             the course sought to thematically develop, strengthening
             students’ awareness of and ability to design perceptual (i.e.,
             not only spatial) environments imbued with cognitive and
             emotional meanings. To best realize the desired encounter
             between philosophy and architecture in this pre-categor-
             ical level of spatial experience, I found it useful to refer to
             phenomenology broadly defined, broadly enough to include
             Gestalt psychology and some elements of behaviorist psy-
             chology. Before giving a synopsis of the thematic contents
             of the course, it will be necessary to evaluate the contribu-
             tion that virtual reality can offer to the encounter between
             phenomenology and architecture, mediating between their
             languages. VR’s potential consists in its particular quali-
             ties as an immersive medium, or more specifically in its



MATTEO VEGETTI                      189                             AN-ICON
             capacity to insert perception into an immaterial, interactive,
             and programmable Umwelt.
                           The first aspect is perhaps the most important.
             If there is a single quality that the spatial intelligence of the
             architect must necessarily develop during the course of
             study, it lies in the capacity to move from an understand-
             ing of space based on plans—made up of lines, symbols,
             numbers, and so on—to a subjective understanding, ideally
             placed in the space that those signs represent abstractly.
             The passage from an objective and external gaze (the one
             that reads the plan) to an internal, embodied one, capable
             of bringing the signs to life in a volumetric space and cor-
             porealizing them, is normally entrusted to the imagination.
             But given the complexity of this mental operation, it is al-
             ways necessary to turn to a plurality of media: sketches,
             models, photographs of the models taken from the inside,
             rendering, etc.
                            None of these tools, however, is capable of
             physically including the subject, who thus continues to
             have a distanced and disembodied understanding of space.
             Given the importance of the role that the body plays in
             spatial experience, it is clear that the value of virtual reality
             lies in the possibility of transferring the subject inside of the
             space of representation, in such a way that allows them to
             have a direct, aesthetic, and even synesthetic experience.
             Thanks to VR, the architect can jump in and out of the rep-
             resentation: he or she can “enter the plan,” making it into an
             immersive experience, and then exit, modify the design on
             the basis of this experience, and finally return to the virtual
             space to check the outcome of the operation. This move-
             ment in and out of the space of representation provides
             the intelligence of the architect with a new medium; this is
             not, however, virtual reality, but rather his or her own body
             as an “analogical” tool, one that provides an analog to em-
             bodied sensory experience. On the one hand, virtual space
             replicates the intentional structure that the world presents
             to us: space moves with me, shows itself and hides itself
             in relation to my gaze, and declares its secondary qualities
             (for example, showing itself to be narrow and oppressive,
MATTEO VEGETTI                       190                              AN-ICON
             or disorienting —all qualities that are related to a certain
             kind of subjective experience.). On the other hand, even if
             they are “embedded” in a virtual environment, the subjects
             still maintain an interior distance, a remainder of objectiv-
             ity; they know that they are in a representation, just like at
             every moment they know that their own body is only an
             analogon of the sentient one, which allows them to have
             a mediated, self-observed experience, and to register its
             effects. If virtual space is a distant relative of the sketchpad,
             the body that explores virtual space is a distant relative of
             the pencil that draws in the sketchpad, or more precisely
             of the manual intelligence involved in that experience.
                            The risk of virtual reality causing the architect
             to lose an authentic relationship to space, or to “authentic
             space,” is, when taken from this point of view, less serious
             than one might fear—and all the more so due to the fact
             that VR does not by any means claim to substitute itself for
             the traditional forms of mediation, translation, and repre-
             sentation of space, but rather to integrate them into its own
             capabilities. Furthermore, VR remediates within itself many
             media to which we have long been accustomed, from the
             drawing pad to the cinema; from this perspective, rather
             than eliminating all mediation, it entails a deep and layered
             media culture. This is also confirmed by the educational
             usage of VR, given that in order to adequately use it, the
             students will necessarily continue to move through the rep-
             resentational languages of different media (from manual
             design to CAD, as well as the photos and films that can be
             made within virtual reality). They can also share their visual
             experience externally, since what they see within the virtual
             environment can be simultaneously projected on a screen
             connected to a projector. This, if we consider it closely, is
             no small thing. Two separate and autonomous (although
             co-present) environments—two different parallel Umwel-
             ten—can be connected in real time. Making it possible to
             show the outside what one sees as one sees it, VR makes
             ocular experience shareable, albeit through two different
             media (on one hand the projected film and on the oth-
             er the immersive reality.) The VR viewer transforms vision
MATTEO VEGETTI                       191                              AN-ICON
             into a full-fledged medium: it transmits, communicates to
             the outside, shows, and makes what it manifests public in
             real time. The virtual experience is, in effect, “replicant” by
             nature. In it, technological reproducibility has now caught
             up with the perceptual experience linked with one’s own
             body: today sight, tomorrow touch, and then who knows.
                           The alienation of one’s own body, if we can
             call it such, may have slightly disturbing aspects for those
             who want to project it into dystopian future scenarios, but
             within the context of more modest educational ambitions,
             it holds enormous potential, given that it makes the lived
             experiences of others shareable and evaluable. As will by
             now be clear, the course was nothing like a normal design
             workshop, nor did it aspire to be. It was more like a virtual
             gymnasium where, through a series of guided experiments,
             the perceptual and psychological dimensions of space
             were exercised; a gymnasium that allowed for the easy
             modification of space and the experimental verification of
             its effects.

                         Aims of the program

                          To be concise, the use of virtual reality in the
             architectural context can be summarized in four points.
             These, as we will see, were developed in the course through
             a series of exercises.

             1)           VR allows for the modification of space at will,
             and for the verification of its effects on perceptual, emotion-
             al, and cognitive levels (depending on what one is interested
             in determining) in an immersive environment.
                          For example, the height of a ceiling is, from
             one point of view, objective and mathematical, identical in
             any space. It is what it is, regardless of other spatial vari-
             ables like color and depth. Within the perceptual dimen-
             sion, however, things proceed very differently, since all of
             these variables intertwine and influence one another in a
             manner so clear that to define it as subjective would be
             misleading. The depth of space modifies the perception of
MATTEO VEGETTI                      192                             AN-ICON
             height in direct proportion to its increase. This can easily
             be experienced in virtual reality precisely because it only
             applies to a sentient body, which on paper does not ex-
             ist. Experiments of this type can examine the relationship
             between color and spatial perception, the modification of
             an environment through light (or shadows) depending on
             the hour of the day or the season, the perception of one’s
             center of balance in space, the relationship between differ-
             ent scales, the relationship between different volumes and
             shapes, synesthesia, and many other analogous situations.
                           VR offers the opportunity to examine all of these
             aspects not only through vision, but also from a practical
             point of view, that is to say, through the study of the behav-
             ior of the users that interact with the organization of a given
             space: how they move, what they understand, what they
             remember, and how they describe a certain environment.
             All of this provides a way to test design solutions (whether
             realistic or experimental), or to verify theories developed
             in the existing literature.

             2)           VR allows for the implementation of phenom-
             enological variations and the experiencing of their effects
             on different levels: aesthetic, psychological, ontological.
                          The use of phenomenological variation within
             the context of the project meant the possibility of varying
             one or two special elements, altering in a controlled way
             their position, breadth, depth, and other characteristics.
             One can, for example, modify the perception and geometry
             of an entire environment by changing where the entryway is
             located, thus deforming the environment in relation to the
             observer’s center. Depending on the breadth or depth of
             the entry, the experience of entering, and of the relationship
             between outside and inside, is modified. Depending where
             the two entries in a room are located—given that these es-
             tablish between themselves, on a perceptual level, a recip-
             rocal connection, a sort of invisible corridor—space will be
            “sliced” by that connection in different ways, redistributing


MATTEO VEGETTI                      193                             AN-ICON
             internal space and generating areas (compartments) of vari-
             able shapes and dimensions.
                          This method requires experimenting with a lim-
             ited and controlled number of variations, and that the results
             be recorded from a perceptual and even ontological point
             of view. The dimensions of a window can be varied in such
             a way as to produce significant aesthetic discontinuities,
             but beyond a certain threshold of size the window changes
             in nature, becoming, for example, a glass door (if it alludes
             to the possibility of transit, taking on the potentiality of an
             opening-threshold), or a glass wall, where wall and window
             meet, each giving up one of its intrinsic potentialities (in the
             case of the wall, the possibility of visually separating spaces,
             and in the case of the window, that of connecting an inside
             to an outside atmosphere). The exercise of variation can
             take on many forms, all useful for testing a wide range of
             spatial effects with aesthetic, symbolic, or even ontological
             significance. To give a final example, which highlights the
             possibilities of VR, we might think of the effect of all of the
             possible variations applied to the height of a small room,
             from the minimum or even insufficient measurement to a
             generous one, say of 3 meters, up to a decidedly out of
             scale measurement of 10 or 20 meters. This modification
             allows for the discovery through intuitive evidence of the
             discontinuous relationship between stimulus and percep-
             tion, or of the differential thresholds that punctuate the
             qualitative passage from one psychophysical condition to
             another (claustrophobic, comfortable, roomy, oppressive,
             etc.). The qualitative thresholds can also cause a change
             in the sense of space itself. For instance, a space in which
             the ceiling is too low will not be perceived as inhabitable.
             Habitability is a spatial quality that requires a certain min-
             imum height, even if it is still a claustrophobic one. But if
             one exceeds this measurement greatly, one enters into a
             new context of meaning, for example that of an artistic
             installation, and space takes on a poetic significance that
             it did not have before. But this is not all. The exercise of
             phenomenological variation calls for the capacity to de-
             scribe, or better, to verbalize lived experience, developing
MATTEO VEGETTI                      194                              AN-ICON
             an appropriate (specific), effective (figurative), and meaning-
             ful (persuasive) language. From perception to expression: a
             continuous two-way transit that helps students develop a
             degree of spatial awareness that they do not normally pos-
             sess. Naturally, the exercise becomes progressively more
             complex depending on the number of variables one choos-
             es to introduce. The preceding case, for example, could
             be made much more complex simply with the introduction
             of one further variable, such as materials (say, concrete or
             word) or the presence of a light source (for example, an
             opening onto a natural light source from above).

             3)            VR allows for the firsthand study of relationships
             between form and meaning.
                           Here, I turn to the field of Gestalt psychology,
             and more particularly to the possibility of simulating and
             studying phenomena of orientation and mental maps (at
             the base of which lie the tools of the psychology of shapes).
             To once again in this case offer some examples, one might
             think of virtual space as a site in which to experiment with
             different strategies for functionally dividing up space, for
             grouping families of objects on the basis of the principles
             of “figural unification,” for generating rhythms, for anticipat-
             ing the sense of space (directions and meanings), and for
             inducing motor responses. Within this field of experimenta-
             tion also lies the possibility of giving symbolic significance
             to a certain element of the environment (for example, the
             main entrance, the most important painting, the state room,
             etc.) as well as that of articulating in various modes the re-
             lationship between voids and solids, distances, or objects
             with different shapes and sizes.

             4)            VR allows for experimentation with the consti-
             tutive factors of atmospheres.
                           This fourth point is the result of the interac-
             tion between all of the preceding spatial components and
             their relative interactions, and thus cannot but appear last.
             Experimentation with the constitutive factors of the atmo-
             sphere becomes explicit when attention is shifted to the
MATTEO VEGETTI                      195                              AN-ICON
             holistic aspects of the environment, the emotional impact
             that the space has on us, and the moment of encounter
             with an atmosphere and the way it can be an object of
             design. The usefulness of virtual reality in respect to the
             phenomenological analysis of atmospheres is clear: pre-
             cisely because an atmosphere is in itself an immersive and
             synesthetic phenomenon, it can only be observed through
             bodily presence. One is always inside an atmosphere, to
             the point that the very presence of a certain atmospheric
             connotation defines, when perceived, the confines of an
             interior (the interior of a work of architecture, of a certain
             city or neighborhood, or of a particular culture, etc.). VR
             thus shows itself to be extremely effective as a tool for the
             analysis of the psychological aspects of atmosphere, fa-
             cilitating an applied atmospherology. The various aspects
             that comprise the atmosphere of a place, that is to say its
             social and emotional characteristics, can become the ob-
             ject of critical analysis and can be used for the revision of
             designs. Within this field of experimentation there is also the
             possibility of observing space from any desired perspective
             and of moving, even if in a limited way, in a manner that
             unites visual and synesthetic experience.
                           In addition, VR offers the possibility of introduc-
             ing natural sounds, background noises (for example, chatter,
             whose intensity depends on the number of people that we
             decide to put into the space), sounds of footsteps (which
             change depending on the surface being tread upon), and
             music (which can be diffused into space from a preselected
             source). It is not yet possible, however, to introduce tactile
             experiences, while olfactory ones are difficult to manage
             and a bit artificial.

                          Structure of the course and workflow

                         The course took place during the first semester
             of the 2022 academic year, and was divided into 12 lessons,
             each lasting an entire day.
                         Excluding the first introductory lesson and the
             last one, dedicated to the presentation of final exercises,
MATTEO VEGETTI                       196                              AN-ICON
             five units were offered to the students, each one compris-
             ing two lessons. Each unit dealt with a different theme, but
             always built on the themes discussed in the preceding units.
             The course thus followed a gradual development through
             units. The typical organization of the units followed this
             order: a theoretical lecture (Matteo Vegetti); presentation of
             the exercise; discussion; presentation of programing tools
             and the use of Twinmotion for the given exercise (Marco
             Lurati); design work by students under the guidance of the
             course assistant (the architect Matteo Moriani, with the
             invaluable volunteer contribution of the interior architect
             Victoria Pham). Each unit was concluded the afternoon
             of the second lesson with a group review of the exercises.
             Since these were carried out by students in pairs, the pre-
             sentations took place as follows: one student explained the
             design choices and the outcomes of the experimentation,
             while the other, from within the virtual space, showed the
             spaces in question (thanks to a projector connected to
             the Oculus, or rather to the computer supporting it). Each
             pair of students worked on a space of a different scale
             (2.5x2.5; 5x5; 10x10; 20x20; 2.5x5; 5x10; 10x20). In this
             manner, the phenomenologically significant issue of scale
             was indirectly present throughout the course, presenting
             numerous opportunities for reflection. Given that the same
             exact exercise presented difficulties of different types de-
             pending on the scale, each group of students necessarily
             had to offer a different design solution. The differences be-
             tween scales were of course also evident in the exercises
             based on variations.
                          In what follows I offer a descriptive brief of the
             subjects dealt with in each unit and in the corresponding
             exercises. The latter held a fundamental importance in the
             overall economy of the course, given that they connected
             theory with practice and formed an educational pathway
             that began from a few basic elements and then became
             progressively richer and more complex.



MATTEO VEGETTI                      197                             AN-ICON
                                 INTRODUCTION and UNIT 1

“I ask a young student: how would you make a door? With what
 dimensions? Where would you place it? In which corner of the room
 would you have it open? Do you understand that these different
 solutions are the are the very basis of architecture? Depending
 on the way that one enters into an apartment, on where doors
 are located in the walls, you feel very different sensations, and the
 wall that you that you drill likewise takes on very different charac-
 teristics. You then feel that this is architecture.”11
                             The first introductory lesson of the course dealt
               with the relationship between body and space, bringing to
               light some of the fundamental issues in Merleau-Ponty and
               Heidegger’s phenomenological approaches.12 Through the
               definition of these concepts and the relationship between
               them (space as correlate of the activity of a living body, as
               environment, as site, as a felt, perceived, lived space, in-
               vested with meanings), the course established a theoretical
               basis sufficient for understanding its aims.
                             Then, a first approach to virtual reality, and
               a first intuitive test of the ideas learned, was carried out
               through the use of the Gravity Sketch program, which of-
               fers its users the possibility of creating space through the
               movements of their hands, and to choose from a vast rep-
               ertoire of creative resources (lines, shapes, surfaces, colors,
               materials, transparencies, etc.). Each pair of students ran-
               domly selected an aesthetic/perceptual theme (unknown to
               the others) to give form to. Once a pair of students created
               theirs in VR, the rest of the class was invited to visit it and
               provide a brief description of it. Based on the comments
               received, it was easy to tell if the students had succeeded




       11 Le Corbusier, Precisions on the Present State of Architecture and City Planning (1930)
       (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2015).
       12 M. Heidegger, M. Corpo e spazio (1964), trans. F. Bolino (Genova: Il Melangolo, 2000); M.
       Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (1945), trans. D. Landes (Abingdon-New York:
       Routledge, 2012).

MATTEO VEGETTI                                 198                                         AN-ICON
               in conveying the theme that they were tasked with inter-
               preting spatially.
                            In a small way, this first contact with virtual
               reality reproduced the characteristic transposition of theo-
               retical themes into an “applied” dimension that would char-
               acterize the course as a whole. Most importantly, Gravity
               Sketch is an effective tool for becoming familiar with VR,
               and more particularly with the possible functions offered
               by the Oculus.

                                 UNIT 1 - Phenomenology of thresholds

                            The first unit was dedicated to the theme of
              thresholds, or rather to the diverse configurations of the
              divide between interior and exterior that make the experi-
              ence of space as a place possible (the possibility of “en-
              tering” or accessing that only the crossing of a threshold
              allows). Experimenting with the different thresholds that
              comprise space and mastering their rhetorical significance
              means knowing how to articulate space like a complex
              text, full of caesuras, connections, leaps, transitions, and
              transformations. Each threshold represents a critical point
              in space because it is called upon not only to manage the
              different practical and symbolic functions of the environ-
              ment, but also the relationship between seemingly irrecon-
              cilable opposites: interior and exterior, public and private,
              the familiar and the foreign, the inside and the outside. The
              phenomenology of thresholds thus aimed to show through
              numerous examples how the threshold could be designed
              and conceived of in different ways depending on goals and
              intentions (aesthetic, symbolic, practical).
                            The lesson took its impetus from an anthropo-
              logical reflection on the significance of the threshold/door,
              13
                 to then move towards more philosophical14 and phenom-
              enological15 questions. Here, as elsewhere, Ching’s im-

      13 J. Rykwert, The Idea of a Town (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 1988).
      14 G. Simmel, “Bridge and door,” Theory, Culture & Society 11 (1994): 5-10.
      15 P. V. Meiss, De la forme au lieu (Lausanne: Presses polytechinques et universitaires, 1986);
      A. Moles, E. Rohmer, Psychologie de l’espace (Paris: Casterman, 1998).

MATTEO VEGETTI                                 199                                          AN-ICON
              ages and insightful observations were very useful in ac-
              companying the discussion.16
                           The lesson was also the occasion to thematize
              the threshold between “front” and “back,” between “stage”
              and “backstage,” or rather between the public and private
              dimension, through a series of different frames. Here, I use
              the language of Erving Goffman to allude to the importance
              of the frame in defining, on the basis of its specific material
              or formal qualities, the type of situated social situation that
              one wishes to obtain: the degree of visibility, of separation,
              of privacy (or of porosity, contamination, or transparency)
              that one wants to establish between the respective domains
              of “front” and “back” in order to strengthen or weaken the
              public valence of the place and the relationships that take
              place there.17

                                Expected outcomes:

      ■      Understanding the symbolic value of the entering a space
      and the way in which the threshold manages the relationship
      between interior and exterior.
      ■      Experimenting with the perceptual effects generated by
      the different positioning of a door-opening in the same identical
      space.
      ■      Experimenting with the connection that is created between
      two door-openings within the same space, and the modification
      of spatial relationships that this connection brings about.
      ■      Understanding the significance of the center as what or-
      ganizes space and its distortions.
      ■      Understanding the language of the window-opening through
      different typologies.
      ■      Experimenting with the concept of “frame.”
      ■      Analyzing the way in which an object (in this case, a work
      of art) reacts to space based on its position, size, relationship to
      light, and to its own “aura.”


      16 F.D.K. Ching, Architecture: Form, Space, and Order (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2015).
      17 E. Goffman, Behavior in Public Places (New York: Free Press, 1966); and Interaction Ritual
      (New York: Pantheon, 1982)

MATTEO VEGETTI                                 200                                         AN-ICON
      Fig. 1. Beyond a certain limit, an opening ceases to be an enclosed area and becomes
         a dominating element: a transparent plane bordered by a frame. From F.D.K. Ching,
                                Architecture: Form, Space, and Order (Hoboken: Wiley, 2015).




          Fig. 2. An opening situated on the plane of a wall will appear to be a luminous form
     against a contrasting background. If it is centered on the plane, the opening will appear
        stable and will visually organize the surface around it. If it is decentered, it will create
       a level of visual tension with the sides of the plane towards which it has been moved.
                                     From F.D.K. Ching, Architecture: Form, Space, and Order.

MATTEO VEGETTI                                     201                                             AN-ICON
                          Exercise

                           Each pair of students works on a space of dif-
             ferent scale, with a square or rectangular base (2.5x2.5;
             5x5; 10x10; 20x20; 2.5x5; 5x10; 10x20).
                           A) Create three spaces with equal dimensions.
             In one of these spaces, place a door-opening in three differ-
             ent positions, and note how the space changes perceptu-
             ally, writing a description of it from within the virtual space.
                           B) For each of the three spaces, create two
             door-openings placed in different ways (but on the same
             wall). Describe the result: how is space modified? Where
             is the center?
                           C) Place a rug of shape, dimension, and mate-
             rial of your choice in each space.
                           D) Place a window-opening in each space. The
             openings must be central, zenithal, and angular (size and
             shape are up to you).
                           E) Modify the dimensions and shape of the
             window-openings, increasing their width or height freely.
             Describe the result.
                           F) Place into one single space a combination
             of four of the entry-doors or windows created earlier (4
             total: this could be 2 doors and 2 windows or 3 doors and
             1 window, etc.) Describe the result.
                           G) Connect in a sequence four of the spaces
             created earlier. Give these environments a hierarchy and
             connect them with a path that joins the entrance and the
             exit. Design the main entrance into the space from a rhe-
             torical standpoint. Try to convey the hierarchy between
             different environments through the use of different kinds
             of thresholds. The thresholds must anticipate the sense
             of the space being entered, and must convey the relation-
             ship between the spaces that they connect (you can use
             frames, stairs, boxes, ramps, partitions, false ceilings, dif-
             ferent thicknesses for the walls, and the form and dimen-
             sions of the thresholds can be modified. In this phase, the


MATTEO VEGETTI                       202                             AN-ICON
               threshold can become a volume). You may not, however,
               use any elements of décor.
                           H) Place a sculpture in one of the environments
               in such a way as to enhance the latter.
                           I) Design a threshold/separation (a frame) that
               creates a private space within one of the rooms that you
               have already made.
                           J) Make a 30-second VR film of these environ-
               ments and describe the created space (2000 words). The
               description should be written subjectively (“I advance and
               see on my right…;” “the light from the window is illuminat-
               ing the threshold that I am about to cross…”)
                           K) Take 3 photos of the interior that illustrate the
               design choices (that is, representative views of the interior
               space generated through experimental solutions.)

                                 UNIT 2 - The power of the field

“By emphasizing the generated field in addition to the architectural
 object, one raises once more the problem of space, but in different
 terms by giving the concept a different value. In traditional criti-
 cism space is a homogeneous structure, a kind of counterform
 to the mural envelope, indifferent to the lighting conditions and to
 its position in relation to the buildings, whereas the notion of field
 stresses the continuous variability of what surrounds the archi-
 tectural structures.”18
                           The second unit, which clarified some of the
               theoretical elements already present in the first, analyzed
               the principles of field theory, or better, an ensemble of the-
               ories based on the shared presupposition that a space
               occupied by volumes does not coincide with their physical




       18 P.P. Portoghesi, cited in R. Arnheim, The Dynamics of Architectural Form (1977) (Berkeley:
       University of California Press, 2009).

MATTEO VEGETTI                                  203                                         AN-ICON
               space, but extends beyond it, without however being in-
               dependent of the originating form.19
                             The field thus coincides not with the borders
               within which everything is enclosed, but with a certain ar-
               rangement of forces and vectors acting in space. Space
               thus becomes an active and reactive environment: a field
               of psycho/physical forces. Every volume present in the field,
               by virtue of its mass and its shape(s), changes the field’s
               appearance. The field generated through design deeply
               affects our perceptual schemas through the play of forces
               that act within it. But within the concept of field, the concept
               of center, already encountered in the previous unit, plays
               a fundamental role. While geometrically a center is simply
               a point, perceptually it extends as far as the conditions
               of stability that it is based on will permit. Of course, the
               center may or may not be indicated. In architecture, it can
               be indicated (or suggested) by a ceiling lamp, a mobile, a
               decoration, or a mosaic. Or, it can be an empty space at
               the center of two diagonals or of the geometry dictated by
               the positions of the thresholds. Normally, however, there
               are multiple centers at work in each field, each of which
               attempts to prevail over the others. The lesson thus brought
               attention to the problem of the interaction between fields of
               different shapes and strengths, suggesting the possibility
               of making corrections to one’s designs by working on the
               centers, the directions of the volumes that generate the
               field, or their distance from one another.
                             This illustrates the concept, well known to phe-
               nomenology and cognitive psychology, that space is born
               as the relationship between objects. On the basis of this
               idea, shifting attention from the shapes of objects and their
               interaction to the void that separates them, the lesson then
               also discussed the concept of “interspace,” and along with
               it the fundamental law of attraction-repulsion: “Objects that
               look ‘too close’ to each other display mutual repulsion: they
               want to be moved apart. At a somewhat greater distance

      19 R. Arnheim, The Dynamics of Architectural Form; P.P. Portoghesi, V.G. Gigliotti, “Ricerche
      sulla centralità. Progetti dello studio di Porta Pinciana,” Controspazio 6 (1971); A. Marcolli,
      Teoria del campo (Firenze: Sansoni, 1971) and Teoria del campo 2 (Firenze: Sansoni, 1978).

MATTEO VEGETTI                                  204                                          AN-ICON
              the interval may look just right or the objects may seem to
              attract each other.”20
                            The final theme concerned the typical fields of
              basic shapes such as the circle, triangle, and square. This
              discussion was then applied to bidimensionally-perceived
              spatial forms, such as the shape of the window in respect
              to the wall in which it is placed.
                            Finally, it bears noting in relation to point “C”
              of this unit’s exercise that VR does not exclude interaction
              with physical objects. Virtual and material reality can in fact
              overlap, generating a significant enhancement of spatial
              experience. In the present case, it was sufficient to place a
              real table where the virtual table designed by the students
              was, in order to allow a group of four people to share the
              same situation from different perspectives. The members
              of the group sat around the same virtual table (sharing the
              same design simultaneously in multiple Oculus viewers),
              but could at the same time establish a tactile relationship
              with the table around which they were seated in real space.
                            The lesson made wide use of examples taken
              from architecture as well as city planning in order to explain
              how field theory adapts to each scale.




      20 R. Arnheim, The Dynamics of Architectural Form.

MATTEO VEGETTI                               205                     AN-ICON
                         Expected outcomes:

      ■      Understanding and experimenting with the influence of the
      center and the relationship between centers.
      ■      Perceptually experimenting with the field in terms of scope
      and shape of irradiation, as well as the relationship between fields
      in terms of interference, conflict, or harmony.
      ■      Perceiving the language of voids in relation to solids in
      terms of visual balance and variable density (compression and
      decompression of the spaces between elements).
      ■      Testing the symbolic/perceptual power of fire (that of a
      fireplace) in establishing a center and a space.
      ■      Observing the dynamics of the field together with the other
      students, developing a suitable language.
      ■      Putting the dynamics of the fields into the form of a graphic
      representation.




                            P. Portoghesi, Field Theory. Space as a system of places, 1974.

MATTEO VEGETTI                       206                                         AN-ICON
                 Fig. 4. Modification of forces internal to a rectangular field based on
                  the positioning of the door-openings. From P. V. Meiss, De la forme
                   au lieu (Lausanne: Presses polytechinques et universitaires, 1986).

MATTEO VEGETTI                 207                                            AN-ICON
                                                   Fig. 5. “Irraggiamento spaziale.”




                         Exercise

                          Beginning from the final state of the work un-
             dertaken in the previous exercises, inserting objects and
             volumes in space, we will analyze the force fields that these
             create.
                          A) Begin the exercise by observing and analyz-
             ing the space already created on the basis of field theory.
                          B) Among the four volumes from the previous
             exercise, we have one that already contains the sculpture.
             In the three remaining, place:
                               a) A fireplace and a table for 4 people
                               b) 5 monochrome volumes (1 cylindrical,
             1 cubic of 1x1, 2 parallelepipeds of 1x1x2, and a column):
             create a harmonious field out of these volumes, which may
             not touch the wall (the volumes can be sized in respect to


MATTEO VEGETTI                      208                                   AN-ICON
               the space that hosts them). Describe the fields that you
               think you have generated.
                                   c) In the third room, place a painting and
               a mirror on one of the walls.
                             C) Sit in a group of four at the table, and to-
               gether analyze the space with the fireplace from inside of
               the simulation. Improve the previous solutions by changing
               the placement of the volumes, or try an alternative solution.
                             D) Now, enter the space with the geometrical
               volumes and analyze the field/fields generated. Improve the
               previous solutions by changing the position of the volumes,
               or try an alternative solution.
                             E) Analyze how the spaces change at different
               hours of the day due to natural light and shadows. Create
               a film of 30 seconds, based on a narrative strategy, that
               shows how the fields are modified by natural light at differ-
               ent times of the day. Walk through the entire space, back
               and forth, at three different times of day: morning, afternoon,
               and twilight.
                             F) Now, enter into the space with the geomet-
               rical volumes and analyze the field/fields generated. Im-
               prove the previous solutions by changing the position of
               the volumes, or try an alternative solution.
                             G) From inside the space, take three photo-
               graphs representative of the perceptual/visual experience
               of the field.
                             H) Extract the building plan from Archicad
               (1/100) and draw the fields, centers, and vectors that you
               think you have generated within the space.

                              UNIT 3 - Multisensoriality and synesthesia

“...every architectural setting has its auditive, haptic, olfactory, and
 even hidden gustatory qualities, and those properties give the
 visual percept its sense of fullness and life. Regardless of the
 immediate character of visual perception, paradoxically we have
 already unconsciously touched a surface before we become aware

MATTEO VEGETTI                            209                              AN-ICON
of its visual characteristics; we understand its texture, hardness,
temperature, moisture instantaneously.” 21
                           The third unit was carried out in collaboration
              with Dr. Fabrizia Bandi, researcher in the “AN-ICON” group
              led by Andrea Pinotti, who was a guest of the course thanks
              to the SEMP international exchange program. The aim of
              the unit was to guide students to the discovery of the uni-
              verse of synesthetic effects attributable to sight and hearing.
                           Fabrizia Bandi, an expert in the thought of Mikel
              Dufrenne, introduced the students to elements relating to
              synesthesia in the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, Pal-
              lasmaa, and Dufrenne.22 The lesson insisted on the im-
              portance of understanding the multisensorial character of
              perception since, whether one likes it or not, space com-
              municates with bodies in this way, through the intertwining
              of different perceptual faculties.

Synaesthetic perception is the rule, and we are unaware of it only
because scientific knowledge shifts the center of gravity of expe-
rience, so that we have unlearned how to see, hear, and generally
speaking, feel, in order to deduce, from our bodily organization
and the world as the physicist conceives it, what we are to see,
hear and feel . . . The senses intercommunicate by opening on to
the structure of the thing. One sees the hardness and brittleness
of glass, and when, with a tinkling sound, it breaks, this sound is
conveyed by the visible glass. One sees the springiness of steel,
the ductility of red-hot steel, the hardness of a plane blade, the
softness of shavings.23
                            By relativizing the predominance of sight in the
              structure of perception, the theorists of synesthesia invite
              us to discover the persistence of “unauthorized” sensory
              registers (like sound and temperature in colors, or touch in
              something perceived visually), which condition experience

      21 J. Pallasmaa, The Embodied Image (Hoboken: Wiley and Sons, 2012): 51-52.
      22 M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception; J. Pallasmaa, The Embodied Image; M.
      Dufrenne, L’oeil et l’oreille (1987) (Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Place, 2020).
      23 M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception: 266-267.

MATTEO VEGETTI                             210                                      AN-ICON
              in mostly unconscious and unconditioned ways. The many
              examples referring to the field of architecture had the aim
              of leading the students to a decisive point: given the origi-
              nal complicity between body and space, to design means,
              perhaps before anything else, to organize a complex per-
              ceptual environment in which each element not only has
              multisensory potential in itself but also inevitably relates
              with that of the others. By experimentally testing the synes-
              thetic effects of the designed space in virtual reality, inter-
              twining their own bodies with it, the students had a way to
              determine the results of their choices on multiple perceptual
              levels. These could work towards creating syntonic or dys-
              tonic effects, or could play with the composition of different
              synesthetic qualities within the same element, for example,
              combining a given material with a color that contrasts with
              it in temperature, or background music of a certain kind, for
              example, soft and enveloping, with an environment imbued
              with the opposite synesthetic characteristics (cold, sharp,
              shrill). The general goal was to create a perceptually rich
              and coherent environment. Here, it is important to note that
              it is possible to import images of any material, including
              photographs of existing surfaces, into the Oculus.
                           This unit also allowed for the development of a
              discourse straddling the border between the phenomeno-
              logical aspects of multisensory experience and the findings
              of the neurosciences.24




      24 For example N. Bruno, F., Pavani, M., Zampini, La percezione multisensoriale (Bologna: il
      Mulino, 2010).

MATTEO VEGETTI                                 211                                         AN-ICON
                          Expected outcomes:

      ■      Cultivating sensitivity to the multisensory aspects of ma-
      terial and texture.
      ■      Developing a language capable of translating synesthetic
      experience and allowing it to be shared with others.
      ■      Studying the possibilities of using multisensoriality to de-
      sign and compose different perceptual environments in logical
      sequences.
      ■      Experimenting with the encounter between the synesthetic
      aspects of music and those of the designed environments.
      ■      Verifying the efficacy of the desired perceptual effects
      through a questionnaire.

                          Exercise

                            Beginning with the previously-created space, gen-
             erate four different perceptual environments, working with ma-
             terials, colors, and sounds. The environments must create an
             ordered sequence, a perceptual-synesthetic path imbued with
             meaning.
                           A) Work with tactile perception: use textures on
             different parts of the environment (floor, ceiling, objects pres-
             ent in the room, etc.) while also modulating the qualities of the
             materials (transparency, opacity, reflectiveness, etc.) to create
             an effect that induces a multisensorial/synesthetic sensation.
                            B) Use materials and colors to elicit a specific
             sensation (hot/cold; rough/smooth; sharp/soft; enveloping/
             repelling; lightness/oppression, etc.)
                           C) Work with sound: test the impact of the sound
             of footsteps, introducing different numbers of people into the
             space based on its size as follows:
                               • 2.5x2.5: 1 person, 5 people, 20 people
                               • 5x5: 1 person, 10 people, 40 people
                               • 10x10: 1 person, 20 people, 80 people
                               • 20x20: 1 person, 40 people, 400 people
                               • 2.5x5: 1 person, 10 people, 40 people
                               • 5x10: 1 person, 20 people, 80 people
                               • 10x20: 1 person, 40 people, 400 people
MATTEO VEGETTI                       212                              AN-ICON
                           Once the highest number of people within the
             space has been reached, add voices. Finally, walk through
             the space and test the sounds of your footsteps in different
             environments.
                           D) In an environment of your choice, introduce a
             sound effect (natural or artificial) or music that reinforces the
             synesthetic character of the space.
                           E) The environments must create a percep-
             tual itinerary. Through the characteristics that you give the
             environments, try to construct a pathway that will make a
             hierarchy apparent, with the clearest possible succession.
                           F) Describe in writing the synesthetic effect that
             you think you have generated in each of the fourenvironments
             (without sharing the responses with the rest of the class);
                               a) How can the environments that you have
             created be defined as multisensory?
                               b) What type of sensation did you want to
             make emerge from the different spaces?
                               c) What is the relationship between the
             choice of materials/sound and the sensation that you wanted
             to transmit to those within the space?
                               d) How did the choice of sound relate to
             the choice of materials and colors?
                           G) Take one photo in each environment.
                           H) Shoot a video of the four environments, lasting
             24 hours (with all natural light). Compress it into a film of 2-3
             minutes.
                           I) During the morning of the second day, each
             group will visit the rooms created by the others and respond
             in writing to some questions aimed at verifying the effect pro-
             duced by the space on its users:
                               a) How do the spaces visited constitute an
             example of multisensoriality? Which factors contribute most?
                               b) What sort of sensation emerges from the
             different spaces. Try to describe which elements caused this
             sensation.
                               c) Was the sound particularly significant in
             your experience of the space? Why?

MATTEO VEGETTI                       213                              AN-ICON
                                 UNIT 4 - Light and color: phenomenology
                                 of atmosphere

                             The fourth didactic unit was dedicated exclu-
              sively to the topic of light and color. The reason for this
              choice resided primarily in the importance of these two
              factors for spatial perception (in various ways: from colored
              light to the relationship between natural light and materials
              that reflect it). Furthermore, light and color play a decisive
              role in the connotations of atmospheres. In dialogue with
              various others, from Goethe25 to Conrad-Martius,26 from
              Sedlmayr27 to James Turrel,28 the lesson highlighted both
              aspects: the perceptual dimension and what Conrad Mar-
              tius calls “the character” of light, or rather the way in which
              a given property of light is intermittently given expression.
              Light is undoubtedly a special atmospheric agent, since
              temperature and color can give space a very clear emotion-
              al timbre. But it can be used—as in the phenomenological
              art of James Turrel and Robert Irwin—to change the form
              of space, up to the point of distorting it and erasing its
              borders.
                             VR is a unique instrument for testing how light
              reacts to surfaces, their textures, and their colors in the
              widest range of different conditions (for example, depend-
              ing on the time of day, and also by adding natural light to
              artificial light sources).
                             It is also useful, though, to create spaces and
              spatial languages linked to the psychology of shapes. Five
              possible functions of light capable of perceptually altering
              space in respect to different design aims: illumination, indi-
              cation, division/unification, connection, creation of rhythm.
              Of course, each of these functions raises specific questions
      25 J.W. Goethe, Theory of Colours (1810) (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 1970).
      26 H. Conrad-Martius, “Realontologie,” Jahrbüch für Philosophie und phänomenologische
      Forschung 6 (1923): 159-333; H. Conrad-Martius, “Farben. Ein Kapitel aus der Realontologie,”
      Festschrift Edmund Husserl zum 70. Geburstag gewidmet (Jahrbüch für Philosophie und
      phänomenologische Forschung) 10 (1929): 339-370.
      27 H. Sedlmayr, La luce nelle sue manifestazioni artistiche, ed. A. Pinotti (Palermo: Aesthetica,
      2009).
      28 J. Turrell, Extraordinary Ideas-Realized (Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2018). See also M.
      Govan, C.Y. Kim, eds., James Turrell: A Retrospective (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County
      Museum of Art, 2013).

MATTEO VEGETTI                                  214                                          AN-ICON
              (the type of light source and its temperature, the shape and
              position of the light sources, the relationship between light
              and darkness, background and foreground, etc.), but in a
              theoretical sense, the exercise aimed above all to demon-
              strate the potential applications of a complex theoretical
              framework like the one mentioned above.
                            Finally, the discussion turned to the phenom-
              enological theme of atmospheres, a field that, as already
              noted, could only appear last, once the basic elements for
              an analytic understanding of the body-space relationship
              had been acquired. With few exceptions, “atmosphere” is
              a concept used in a very intuitive way by architects, yet
              is central to their specific form of spatial intelligence. It is
              here that VR perhaps offers its greatest contribution: it is
              one thing to introduce students to the thought of the usual
              authors on the subject, such as Böhme,29 Norberg-Schulz,30
              Schmitz,31 Ströker32 or Zumthor,33 and quite another for
              them to have the chance to analyze atmospheres from
              within, to study their perceptual effects, and to modify their
              factors in the desired (often experimental) way. Describ-
              ing the extraordinary power of atmospheres to influence
              our mood is much simpler and more effective when one
              has the possibility of interacting with a virtual environment.
              From within these environments, variation in light can be
              understood atmospherically in all of its significance. The
              capacity to design an/the entrance as a tool to understand,
              expand, or focus an encounter with a given atmosphere
              can be carried out in all possible ways, giving life to the
              theoretical hypotheses learned through the creativity of the
              designed. The symbolic and potential connotations of an
              atmosphere—which are often an involuntary outcome, but

      29 G. Böhme, “Atmosphere as the subject matter of architecture,” in P. Ursprung, ed., Herzog
      and de Meuron: Natural History (Montreal: Lars Müller and Canadian Centre for Architecture,
      2002) and Atmosfere, estasi, messe in scena. L’estetica come teoria generale della percezione,
      trans. T. Griffero (Milano: Christian Marinotti, 2010).
      30 C. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (New York:
      Rizzoli, 1991).
      31 H. Schmitz, “Atmosphärische Räume,” in Atmosphäre(n) II. Interdisziplinäre Annäherungen
      an einen unscharfen Begriff (München: Kopaed, 2012).
      32 E. Ströker, Investigations in Philosophy of Space (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1987).
      33 P. Zumthor, Atmospheres: Architectural Environments, Surrounding Objects (Basel:
      Birkhäuser Verlag, 2006).

MATTEO VEGETTI                                215                                          AN-ICON
             nonetheless entirely controllable, through the composition
             and interaction of the conditions present in a given space,
             and at times even a result produced by a “heterogenesis
             of ends”—can finally become the objects of direct experi-
             ence, which would otherwise be impossible. I think these
             examples are sufficient to illustrate a field of research that
             goes far beyond virtual reality’s capacity to change one
             floor into another, in order to find which one best suit the
             environment.
                          For architectural professionals, though, this as-
             pect should truly not be underestimated. VR offers them
             a precious medium of communication with their clients,
             who often lack the ability to imagine the design solutions
             being proposed, or to read plans and “visualize” them in
             three dimensions. But even if bridging the gap between the
             spatial competencies of architect and client may sooner
             or later prove to be the main use of virtual reality, it is not,
             however, the most important for, nor does it lie within the
             specific aims of the course.




MATTEO VEGETTI                      216                              AN-ICON
                               Expected outcomes:

      ■       Experimenting with environmental effects of lighting.
      ■       Experimenting with the semiotic and Gestaltic use of light.
      ■       Testing the atmospheric effects relating to light and color.

                               Exercise

                           A) Use artificial light to strengthen the synes-
              thetic connotations of the environment in an atmospheric
              way.
                           B) Use light to unify a part of the space and
              the objects within it.
                           C) Use light to generate a threshold.
                           D) Generate variations in the temperature, in-
              tensity, and type of artificial light, and observe how the
              colors of surfaces and the texture of materials change.
                           E) Analyze how the spaces change under the
              different variations of artificial light.
                           F) Modify the color of the materials through the
              effects of variations of artificial light.
                           G) Using a narrative strategy, make an atmo-
              spheric film of 30 seconds that shows how the spaces are
              modified by different types of artificial light. If necessary,
              you can animate the space with the movement of a virtual
              character.

                               UNIT 5 - Orientation and legibility of
                               space

                          The final didactic unit dealt with the theme
              of spatial orientation on the basis of the line of research
              opened up by the work of Kevin Lynch.34 At the basis of
              this choice are two assumptions. The first is that Lynch
              has given us a scalable methodology, which can also be
              effective when applied to interior spaces. The second is

      34 K. Lynch, The Image of the City (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 1960). See also L.
      Letenyei, J. Dobák, eds., Mental Mapping (Passau: Schenk Verlag, 2019).

MATTEO VEGETTI                               217                                        AN-ICON
             that such a methodology, based on psychology of shapes
             and on a study of mental maps that we might say are akin
             to phenomenology, places itself in continuity or in dialogue
             with the content already explored in the preceding units of
             the course. The formation of mental maps takes place in the
             interaction between subject and environment. On a cogni-
             tive level, for Lynch the maps reveal the constant presence
             of five elements, which we can also define as structures,
             in the sense that they structure the experience of (urban)
             space by connecting it back to a universal mental schema.
             Such irreducible elements, even if they are not necessarily
             always co-present, are the path, the edge, the district, the
             node, and the landmark. A space’s degree of comprehen-
             sibility, or rather our own capacity to orient ourselves in
             space and to have a clear mental image of it, depends on
             the form, character, and composition of these structures.
             The capacity of design to give spaces identity, structure,
             figurability, and meaning is fundamental in fostering a pos-
             itive interaction between subject and environment, or even
             to induce emotional well-being. This gives us the capacity
             to anticipate how space will be understood, to support our
             spatial awareness (and hence our confidence in the space),
             and to develop a positive identification with spaces.
                           All of this holds for any interior space, even if it
             is clearest on a large scale (for example that of a museum).
                           Each interior indeed presents us with paths,
             both introverted and extroverted nodes, helpful or disori-
             enting edges (like walls, partitions, or anything that divides
             space), landmarks (prominent aesthetic elements), and
             even districts, since the term designates first and fore-
             most for Lynch whatever distinguishes the characteristic
             atmosphere of a place.
                           To demonstrate and test this hypothesis, the
             students had to empty out the spaces they had created up
             to this point, multiply them by four, and connect them in a
             freely-chosen sequence. Using only the spatial language
             of the five fundamental elements and working in syntony
             with the principles of the psychology of shapes that make
             space recognizable and possible to remember (uniqueness,
MATTEO VEGETTI                       218                               AN-ICON
              formal simplicity, continuity, preeminence, clarity of con-
              nection, directional differentiation, visual field, awareness
              of movement, rhythm) the students were asked to give
              their design a high cognitive value for the users. In order
              to test the result obtained, each student visited the design
              created by the others in virtual reality, and at the end of the
              visit drew a mental map for each.
                           The study of the maps, finally, allowed sever-
              al problems linked to the understanding of space to be
              brought into the discussion: errors in the reconstruction of
              the shape of the space, missing places, unclear dimensions
              and hierarchies, and incongruencies and hesitations of var-
              ious types. The critical evaluation of the most problematic
              spaces (and, on the other hand, of those that almost al-
              ways elicited a clear representation) allowed the students
              to rethink their design, seeking effective solutions. VR is a
              very useful tool for studying phenomena of orientation and
              environmental image. Its usage, however, can be extended
              to other psychological aspects related to the design of the
              environment, as for example to the concept of affordance,
              which in Gibson’s language refers to the physical qualities
              of objects that suggest to a subject the appropriate actions
              for manipulating them.35 The greater the affordance, the
              more the use of the tool becomes automatic and intuitive
              (a passage to cross, a door to open in a given direction,
              a switch to turn or press, etc.). Another possible use of a
              virtual space with “public” dimensions, like the one created
              in the last unit, is the study of the rules of proxemics.36 This
              can be accomplished through the possibility of inserting a
              number of virtual people, who move according to estab-
              lished or casual paths, interacting in various ways, into the
              scene.




      35 J.J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979) (New York: Psychology
      Press, 2015).
      36 T.E. Hall, The Hidden Dimension (New York: Anchor Books, 1990).

MATTEO VEGETTI                               219                                        AN-ICON
                          Expected outcomes:

      ■     Experimenting with the principles of Lynch’s theory from the
      perspective of design and develop a sensitivity to the cognitive
      structure of space.
      ■     Learning the method of mental maps.

                          Exercise

                           A) Return to the basic space in its starting con-
             dition, taking away all of the elements aside from the open-
             ings (doors and windows). Multiply the space you created
             before by four times. Then generate a sequence of twelve
             connected environments.
                           Four spatial elements must be present in the
             design: pathways, edges, introverted nodes, extroverted
             nodes, and landmarks. Design the entrance and exit of the
             building. The goal is to create a fluid and figurable space. To
             achieve this goal, plasterboard walls can be taken away or
             added (also to change the shape of the space); or you can
             redesign them in such a way as to weaking or strengthen
             the frame (the edges) to create visual and auditory connec-
             tions, light effects, or transparencies.
                           Each room can have a landmark (painting, stat-
             ue, mirror, geometric volumes).
                           In order to orient the user on the path and to
             support the figurability of the space you can use: colors,
             materials, lights, sounds, and frames.
                           You may not, however, use symbols or signs.
                           B) Make a film of the space.
                           C) Once it has been designed, the space will
             be visited by other groups for a set period of time. These
             visitors will then be asked to draw a map of the space as
             they remember it. On the basis of these mental maps, try
             to understand the strong and weak points of the designed
             space through a synthetic map.
                           The project will be evaluated in respect to the fol-
             lowing categories: uniqueness/originality, formal simplicity,

MATTEO VEGETTI                       220                               AN-ICON
             hierarchical continuity, clarity of connections, directional
             differentiation, scope of vision, awareness of movement.
                          The maps will be collectively discussed. We
             will try to understand why certain spatial elements were
             forgotten, misunderstood, and memorized with difficulty.
                           D) Change the space in order to modify it on the
             basis of the suggestions that emerged from the discussion.

                         Technical specifications

                           There are dozens of 3D and VR software pro-
             grams specialized in various types of applications. The
             criteria that guided our choice were the following: possibly
             free software, so that the students could continue to use
             it as professionals, simplicity of the interface and usage,
             simplified workflow, and the capacity to model in 3D and
             have VR visualization and navigation functions.
                           Based on these criteria, we chose Twinmotion
             (https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/twinmotion), a soft-
             ware specifically designed for architecture and interior ar-
             chitecture based on the Unreal motor; the VR experience
             is native “out-of-the box,” with features allowing for the
             real-time modifications of materials, time of day, etc.




                                            Fig. 6.


                          The interface is very simple, but on a deep-
             er level allows for all of the necessary modifications of

MATTEO VEGETTI                      221                            AN-ICON
             parameters. It can also simulate sounds in the space when
             one moves through the VR scene.
                          Twinmotion has an internal library of 3D models
             (animated and otherwise) that can be added to the scene
             one is working on in a very intuitive way, but does not allow
             for the creation of new 3D models from within.
                          The solution to this problem was to use the
             Twinmotion plugin, which allows for the importation from
             various 3D modelling programs such as Rhinoceros, Ar-
             chiCAD, or 3DS Max, of 3D objects with a simple transfer.
                          This solution was ideal insofar as the students
             were able to use ArchiCAD for 3D modeling and then to
             synchronize it with Twinmotion for VR and rendering.
                          Also, the main design remained in ArchiCAD,
             where various sections and plans were designed as usual.
                          The VR viewer market has developed in inter-
             esting ways in the past few years, moving from solutions
             with fixed stations (with the viewer connected to the com-
             puter by cable and external sensors to map the area of the
             game) to mobile ones, with integrated sensors that function
             independently, without a cable and the need for an external
             computer to function.
                          The main need of the project was to have a
             quick working process with the fewest possible number
             of intermediate steps. The product chose was the Oculus
             Quest 2 (https://www.oculus.com/quest-2), a “standalone”
             viewer with an integrated graphics processor, which can
             also function as an external viewer for a computer when
             connected via cable. The price and the image quality were
             important factors in the final selection.
                          The possibility of using the students’ own lap-
             top computers was quickly rejected, due to the issue of
             the computing power of graphics cards, different operating
             systems, and the installation of necessary programs that
             use a large amount of disc space (at least 30 GB).
                          To solve these problems, Windows laptops with
             the latest video cards (Nvidia RTX 3070), with all of the nec-
             essary programs installed (ArchiCAD, Oculus, Twinmotion)
             were acquired.
MATTEO VEGETTI                      222                            AN-ICON
                                 Discussion and recommendations

                           The structure of the course proved to be effec-
              tive and engaging, and gained very positive evaluations
              from the students, confirming in its own way the positive
              effects on VR learning already cited.37 The strongest point
              was the integration of theory and practice, two dimensions
              that normally are clearly separated and, despite good in-
              tentions, mutually indifferent.
                           This also signaled a danger and a difficulty: un-
              fortunately, the results of the course could not be measured
              by looking at the end outcomes —as would take place in a
              design workshop— because the design, in our case, was
              the means and not the end.
                            Furthermore, some of the starting conditions
              (for example, the position of the door-openings) can seem
              absurd from an architectural point of view, and are incom-
              prehensible if one is not aware of the specific educational
              goals of the course.
                           The attention dedicated by the students to cer-
              tain environmental, spatial, compositional, formal, percep-
              tual, and atmospheric factors definitely produced surpris-
              ing results, which were also appreciated by our architect
              colleagues, but in order to avoid misunderstandings it was
              always necessary to strongly reiterate the theoretical/phil-
              osophical specificity of the course and its objectives. From
              this point of view, even the spaces that were seemingly less
              successful from an architectural standpoint could have a
              positive significance in regard to what interested us: the
              essential was not in fact in the results in themselves, but
              in the process that led to them, in the experimental inten-
              tions of those who made them, and in the documentary
              traces that recorded and commented on the experience
              on a theoretical and critical level. The essential, in short,
              was the degree of awareness developed by students in
              each phase of the course and their level of understanding

      37 F. Kharvari, L.E. Kaiser, “Impact of extended reality on architectural education and the
      design process.”

MATTEO VEGETTI                                 223                                           AN-ICON
             regarding the ways in which certain spatial factors impact
             our relationship with space on conscious and unconscious,
             and cognitive and perceptual levels.
                          However, in view of the Academic Year 2022-
             2023, in order to better distinguish the intentions of the
             course from those of the project work, we decided to mod-
             ify the course.
                          In particular, we have attempted to simplify the
             exercises and standardise them so that the results are com-
             parable. In addition, we placed emphasis on experiment-
             ing with spatial variants of an element (e.g. the threshold/
             door) to allow students to test the most significant per-
             ceptual changes between the choices made. Finally, we
             required the students to present the experiments they had
             tried, a selection of the most interesting results, and writ-
             ten descriptions of their experiences in a common layout.
             Redefined in these terms, the first point of the new exer-
             cise relating to the first unit asks the students to place a
             gap-threshold in the starting space, to experiment with dif-
             ferent solutions capable of generating a meaningful spatial
             experience; to describe in writing the criterion used, the
             most paradigmatic solutions, and the quality of space de-
             termined by these solutions. The same method, based on
             the study of variations, was applied to the composition of
             the rooms, the shape of the threshold/windows, the posi-
             tion of the sculpture, etc. Overall, the course has become
             much more analytical than before, and somewhat more
             phenomenological.




MATTEO VEGETTI                     224                            AN-ICON
                   Fig. 7.




                   Fig. 8.




MATTEO VEGETTI   225         AN-ICON
                                                    Fig. 9.




                                                    Fig. 10.




                                                    Fig. 11.




                                                    Fig. 12.


    Figg. 9-12. Four pictures related to the exercise on the thresholds: projects of Elmira Rabbani and
 Gabriele Luciani, Giada Pettenati and Michelle Rosato, Giorgio Ghielmetti e Mattia Buttinoni. Bachelor
                                                                 of Interior Architecture, SUPSI, DACD.



MATTEO VEGETTI                                   226                                         AN-ICON
                                                 Fig. 13.




                                                 Fig. 14.




                                                 Fig. 15.




                                                 Fig. 16.


                   Figg. 13-16: Four pictures related to the exercise on light and colour. Projects of
                 Sandra Burn and Asia Camoia, Elmira Rabbani and Gabriele Luciani, Jessica Corti
                               and Silvia Zehnder. Bachelor of Interior Architecture, SUPSI, DACD.



MATTEO VEGETTI                                227                                           AN-ICON
Unità 1               es.1 -         Diversi modi di inserire un varco/soglia nello spazio



spazio analizzato: 3 x 4.5 x 2.5m


Dal momento che il nostro parallelepi-
pedo è di base rettangolare abbiamo
iniziato ad analizzare le sperimen-
tazioni in cuiNun varco viene posto
sulla facciata più lunga, ossia 4,5 m.
Abbiamo sperimentato varie possibilià
di soglie utilizzando i seguenti criteri:
locazione, altezza e larghezza.
Inizialmente abbiamo posto la soglia
al centro della facciata e abbiamo
osservato come variava la percezione
cambiando l’altezza (1.60m, 2.10m,
2.50m) del varco e in seguito cambian-
do la larghezza (0.50m, 0.70m, 1m,
1.50m, 2m, 2.50m). Successivamente
abbiamo decentrato la soglia, ed infine
abbiamo fatto lo stesso procedimento
anche per la facciata più corta, os-
sia 3m. Dopo aver sviluppato queste
svariate possibilità ne abbiamo selezio-
nate alcune che secondo noi sono più
significative:

1.1:
- Apertura minima
- Si fa quasi fatica a passare
- Non si è invogliati a varcare la soglia
- Luogo molto riservato
1.2:
-Le senzazioni elencate precedente-
mente vengono accentuate decentran-
do la soglia
1.3
- Forte collegamento interno-esterno
- Luogo arioso
1.4:
-Le senzazioni elencate precedente-
mente diminuiscono decentrando la
soglia
V1.5:
- Sorge la domanda se si tratta ancora
di una soglia
1.7:
- Non è vivibile
- Quasi non ci si rende conto che si
tratta di una vera e propria soglia
1.8:
- Altezza standard
- In correlazione con i cambiamenti di
larghezza sperimentati non influisce
granché
1.9:
- Direzionalità: dona verticalità allo
spazio


AIS200 Fenomenologia dello spazio_2022-23                                                                                     Zoe Togni e Silvia Pedeferri    Fig. 17.


Unità 1               es.2 -         Varianti migliori



spazio analizzato: 3 x 4.5 x 2.5m


orem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit. Suspendisse lobortis
urna id velit tempor, in gravida est hen-
drerit. Mauris vestibulum facilisis erat
sit amet consequat. Curabitur ullamcor-
per eros enim, eget interdum dolor
feugiat at. Etiam viverra orci ac quam
lobortis, ac posuere turpis ultricies. Sed
facilisis dictum turpis eget venenatis.
Nunc vehicula augue enim, at viverra
turpis ornare vel. Phasellus vel mollis
augue.

Curabitur luctus, erat ut bibendum
bibendum, lacus nisl molestie eros, sed
cursus turpis magna quis nibh. Sed ac
volutpat magna, id mattis risus. Fusce
ipsum neque, placerat ac posuere at,
sollicitudin in nulla. Maecenas ege-
stas nibh ac ultricies laoreet. Integer
tristique fermentum neque, sit amet
vehicula sapien. Morbi condimentum
consequat turpis a rutrum. Proin nec
dolor eu purus ultrices rutrum.

Ut rutrum semper dictum. Morbi sapien
lacus, feugiat sit amet commodo et,
feugiat ut felis. Mauris tellus justo,
laoreet ut quam in, molestie ultrices
sapien. Sed tincidunt, augue ut inter-
dum cursus, lorem dui laoreet augue,
in semper urna dolor sed tellus. Su-
spendisse molestie urna id commodo
pretium. Ut non dui tincidunt, dictum
justo in, posuere sapien. Sed non est
at purus fermentum tincidunt vulputate
id libero. Etiam mi ante, rutrum a libero
vel, feugiat pharetra sem. In volutpat
metus arcu, eget fringilla ipsum soda-
les ac.




AIS200 Fenomenologia dello spazio_2022-23                                                                                     Zoe Togni e Silvia Pedeferri
                                                                                                                                                              Fig. 18.
                                                                      Figg. 17-18. Examples of the layout used in the course 2022-2023 (first point
                                                                                   of the Unit 1 exercise). Students: Zoe Togni and Silvia Pedeferri.


MATTEO VEGETTI                                                                               228                                                             AN-ICON
Unità 3             es.G -          Fotogrammi video




        obiettivi   Il nostro obiettivo è di creare un’atmo-                                                scelte   Ci siamo focalizzate principalmente          con tutte le pareti in clacestruzzo, ma
                    sfera che metta in contrapposizione                                                              sull’utilizzo di un materiale base, quale    questa volta laccate, in modo da dare
                    una sensazione di apertura e leggerez-                                                           il calcestruzzo, che abbiamo adopera-        ancora l’effetto della leggerezza e del
                    za con una sensazione di chiusura e                                                              to in primo luogo, su tutti i pavimenti,     freddo, ma creando un climax con la
                    pesantezza, tramite l’utilizzo di texture,                                                       e successivamente sule pareti tre            prima stanza.
                    coliri e materiali che possano aiutare                                                           stanze.                                      La terza stanza, caratterizzata da
                    ad enfatizzare tali emozioni.                                                                    La prima stanza è caratterizzata da un       pareti in calcestruzzo grezzo, invece,
                                                                                                                     pavimento chiaro, con tonalità azzurra-      ha come colorazioni un grigio scuro,
                                                                                                                     stre e pareti in alluminio riflettente per   che introducono un effetto sinestetico
                                                                                                                     creare un effetto sinestetico che ricor-     di pesantezza ed oppressione.
                                                                                                                     dasse il freddo e la leggerezza, qualità     L’ultima stanza, invece, è caratterizzata
                                                                                                                     innate del metallo.                          da un pavimento blu scuro, notte, e da
                                                                                                                     La seconda stanza, invece, è valoriz-        pareti e soffitto rivestite da pietra nera.
                                                                                                                     zata da una colorazione, sempre sulle
                                                                                                                     tonalità dell’azzurro, ma più calde,




        riscontri   Attraverso l’utilizzo del visore abbiamo     La terza stanza è particolarmente
                    constatato come le le nostre iniziali        tangibile e concreta. Crea un netto
                    ipotesi non fossero del tutto errate.        contrasto con la stanza precedente,
                    Nella prima stanza, ci si trova in uno       trasportandoci in un’atmosfera pesante
                    spazio freddo, quasi fantascientifico        e reale. La sensazione che si prova è
                    e irreale, ma a differenza di come           quasi di calma e tranquillità.
                    pensavamo, si ha una sensazione di           Il contrasto con le due stanze prece-
                    maggiore chiusura rispetto alla secon-       dente viene inoltre accentutato dall’ul-
                    da stanza.                                   tima stanza che è buia, opprimente
                    Proseguendo la stanza successiva             e quasi soffocante, da non riuscire a
                    ci trasporta in una relatà anch’essa         stare al suo interno per troppo tempo.
                    fredda, nella quale si crea un gioco
                    di colori che nasconde il fatto che sia
                    stato utilizzato lo stesso colore su tutte
                    le pareti.



AIS200 Fenomenologia dello spazio_2022-23                                                                                                                                                                       Anna Bolla e Camilla Tosi    Fig. 19.

                                                                                               Fig. 19. Examples of the layout used in the course 2022-2023 (Unit 3,
                                                                                               synoptic view of tested variants). Students: Anna Bolla e Camilla Tosi.




MATTEO VEGETTI                                                                                                                 229                                                                                                          AN-ICON
AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON.
The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan.



                                                                                           1 / I                                                                              AN-ICON
