Touching the world: Lived space, vision and hapticity

Abstract

Architecture has predominantly been taught, theorised, practised and critiqued as an art form of the eye. The hegemony of the vision has been strengthened by countless technical inventions that enable us to see inside matter as well as into deep space. However, in creative work, a powerful identification and projection takes place; the entire bodily and mental constitution becomes the site of the work. Touch is the sensory mode that integrates our experiences of the world and of ourselves. An architect or artist works in an embodied manner, a sense of success or failure are sensations of the body rather than products of cognitive knowledge. “Life-enhancing” art and architecture addresses all the senses simultaneously, and fuses our sense of self with the experience of the world. The tendentiously visual culture of our times, and its subsequent optical architecture, has led to a search for a haptical and multisensual architecture, an architecture of invitation.