The Senses
TOUCH, SEE, SMELL, HEAR AND TASTE. Our five senses help us interact with our surroundings everyday, it is how we communicate how we feel, what we do, what we think - the list goes on. Considering how using the sense within architecture will work to see how we can consider our surroundings more than we do and how we feel and interact from space. With the idea of using the senses within architecture I felt that I want to draw from all I have learnt this year and use this to create the project. I feel as an interior architect I appreciate space and the considerations behind it a lot more now from what I have learnt over the year. I feel also from research the idea of looking at how we feel and react within a space will create an interesting outcome. With this concept in mind I began to look at how the space could be organised to look at each of the senses and add an element of this into the development of the design. Further research in this blog looks at the use of smell, sight, touch and sound to create unique restaurant spaces.
Architecture and the Senses
Heston Blumenthal, Dinner
Heston Blumenthal is a chef known for pushing culinary boundaries with this food. His is all about the customers experience and how they react to the schemes he develops. He uses his dishes to play with the senses of the dinners - for example providing headphones for his guests to listen to sounds of the sea whilst eating a fish dish. Along with the textures and creating this feeling of the unexpected Blumenthal looks at how he can do this through senses and food - i want to take this concept and apply it to the design of the building space.
Dans Le Noir Restaurant
Dans Le Noir Restaurant is a building which overs its dinners the unique experience of eating in complete darkness. Described as a sensory experience the space looks at the reactions of dinners when their sense of sight is moved heightening their other four senses to help them interpret what they are doing and eating which would otherwise be done through the use of eye sight. The concept works through guests arriving into the bar/entrance area of the building which acts as a briefing area where guest are able to order food and drinks before being led into the dark restaurant space which seats 60 people. At this point guests are unable to see anything. Mixed together the space aims to encourage people to mix and interact with those around them - with the light removing any preconceptions of people.
The video below describes the restaurant space, the concept behind the building and how the concept works.
The Expected
The concept of the project looks at what people would expect when within a restaurant space - and looking at how this can be altered but not totally removed to create the element of how the user would question the space they are within. Through this blog I will further look at how the idea of altering the scent, the touch, the sight and the sound of a space will have an impact on how we feel within a space.
Initial concepts within the development of the design look at altering the angles of the floor space. Just slightly doing this will create this idea of perspective without the design becoming uncomfortable. This idea of this not being expected would work to get the customer to question their surrounding.
Other concept development was to the existing structure of the building to create an unexpected surrounding, removing the expected elements of the design such as not entering through the front door and not being able to access all of the spaces within the building. The idea of removing these expected elements makes the experience of the dining space different from others. The addition of using different scents to those other than the smell of cooking will also remove this expected atmosphere from the building as soon as guests arrive - usually you would hear noise and smell food but adding building elements that remove this will again cause the customer to question their space.
Initial concepts within the development of the design look at altering the angles of the floor space. Just slightly doing this will create this idea of perspective without the design becoming uncomfortable. This idea of this not being expected would work to get the customer to question their surrounding.
Other concept development was to the existing structure of the building to create an unexpected surrounding, removing the expected elements of the design such as not entering through the front door and not being able to access all of the spaces within the building. The idea of removing these expected elements makes the experience of the dining space different from others. The addition of using different scents to those other than the smell of cooking will also remove this expected atmosphere from the building as soon as guests arrive - usually you would hear noise and smell food but adding building elements that remove this will again cause the customer to question their space.