Site Character

I am still struggling to find an ideal site. Below is what I wrote about the site character that I am seeking. If you guys know of any good site in Brookly or Queens, let me know. Thanx!

Building is not merely a shell that houses programmatically needs. It lives as we do. It is a living entity that cradles our lives as they unfold and play out within it. It shelters and protects us while we live and daydream within it. Long after we are gone, our footprints remain. It is a testimony of our existence and time.

“Architecture is exposed to life. If its body is sensitive enough, it can assume a quality that bears witness to the reality of past life.” (p.26) – Peter Zumthor

However, not all buildings are created equal. Some, more than others, have the ability to live and grow. It is up to the architect to breath life into it through the usage of sensuous materials in very specific ways. Peter Zumthor has a genuine approach in creating a sensitive living architecture:

“The sense that I try to instill into materials is beyond all rules of composition, and their tangibility, smell, and acoustic qualities are merely elements of language that we are obliged to use. Sense emerges when I succeed in bringing out the specific meanings of certain materials in my buildings, meanings that can only be perceived in just this way in this one building…If we succeed in this, materials in architecture can be made to shine and vibrate.” (p.10)

The building that I am seeking to conduct my sensory investigation hence must have the ability to exhibit the process of ageing, weathering and wear. Juhani Pallasmma asserts that such a building will mediate “our relation with the frighteningly ephemeral dimension of time and indulges one to lost oneself in the depth of time and space.” The poetic history of the building will add another dimension into the spatial experience as it actively engages our memories and imagination to dive into the complexity of time and space. Such site will be the ideal context for phenomenological and sensorial experience.