Emotional Architecture

情感の建築 / 1953- / Style / Modern Architecture

Building that raises unbroken walls as sculptural mass and works on feeling through color, direct sun and stillness alone. Goeritz gave it the name in the 1953 manifesto he wrote for El Eco, against the functionalism of his day.

Emotional Architecture — Casa Luis Barragán (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) · © Francesco Bandarin
Casa Luis Barragán (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) · CC BY-SA 3.0 igo · © Francesco Bandarin
Emotional Architecture — Casa Gilardi (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © TSolange
Casa Gilardi (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © TSolange
Emotional Architecture — Torres de Satélite (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © ProtoplasmaKid
Torres de Satélite (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © ProtoplasmaKid

At a glance

Visual cues

  • A single large wall left without windows
  • Surfaces painted through in one flat color
  • Planes of shadow cast by direct sun
  • Mass read as sculpture rather than as building

Best used for

  • Giving a white modern building strong feeling through local color and light
  • Making stillness in a hot climate house with courtyards and water

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Dictionary entry

Type
Sink signage into the wall color and let shadow make it readable
Composition
Close the outside with thick walls, opening only to courtyard and water
Material
Rough plaster in one vivid color, with the hour's light calculated in
Caution
Painting walls in vivid color without designing openings and shadow makes the color glare evenly, giving loudness instead of the intended stillness.
Further study
Luis Barragán / Oscar Niemeyer / the 'architecture of emotion'

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https://indexstyle.org/styles/emotional-architecture
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