First structure history thesis

The theme of my history thesis will be: the evaluation of the blind institute throughout the years, looking from the perception of Merleau-Ponty's "body" in the architecture. After two weeks of research I narrowed the search down to the evaluation of the almshouse which linked Blindness with mental patients. In these times blindness was thought off as a blindness of the mind or 'ate' (greek word for blindness and later on for mental blindness). The people who weren't lucky to be helped by family or neighbors came to temples and monasteries who had place for helping the sick and the poor. Later on this evolved in the almshouse. Around 1700 the first blind institutes started to appear. These institutes evolved from small initiatives (mostly in already existing buildings) to the modern institutes we have today.

The structure for the history thesis will be for now:

Explore Lab 9 Fascination!

PROBLEM STATEMENT : How can literature enrich architecture with an phenomenological understanding of space?

RESEARCH // The first part of the project will consist out of two researches. First I start to research Literature as an tool for architectural design. By using the methodology a writer possesses to construct a narrative (like perspective, character, time, description, etc.) and using the freedom writing provides in designing, I’m capable of looking through the eyes of the users and see possible futures for the design.

The second research topic will be about phenomenology and more precise about the body in architecture. Using the theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and other philosophers of phenomenology, I’m trying to find the influence the body (and with it the senses) has on architecture. This topic will be combined with my history thesis. For this thesis I’m searching for the development of the body in architecture throughout history.

The results of these two researches will deliver a framework and the basis of information for the design in the second part of the project.

DESIGN // The second part of the project is the design part. After reading ‘the eye of the skin’ from Juhani Pallasma I started to question the dominancy of the eye over the other senses. According to the book, the eye is the only sense that can keep up with the speed of our modern technological world. This is clearly seen in contemporary architecture, where all the cities starting to look like the same image. But also in our everyday live we see the importance of the image over everything else. Just think of the fashion world where the ‘I’ is thought of as ‘how we appear’.

Because of my critique on the dominancy of the eye I‘ve decided to put more attention on the other senses. To do this I choose to take away the eye in the form of designing a institute for the blind.