Therapy through Tactile Sense
Personal Info
Name: Soseh Khachatryan
Nationality: Armenian
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sosehrene/?hl=en
-HONOURABLE MENTION of Non Architecture Award Competition | Category: Architecture
Inspired by “the eyes of the skin” by Juhani Pallasmaa
Through digital media, our culture is becoming increasingly visual and narrowly focused. However, we are essentially multisensory beings. The existential nature of architecture arises from the fact that it is fused with our experience and sense of life. In fact, architecture is our primary instrument in relating with the world, space and time, giving it a human measure. The task of architecture is to mediate and articulate our relations with the world. It needs to be designed for experience rather than merely for appearance.
The project aims at exploring the experience of architecture through tactile sense, as well as emphasizing the physical and sensual dimensions of architecture over intellectual and conceptual.
Realizing that buildings direct and guide our behavior and are able to affect the mental and physical state of its users, the project aims at stimulating the tactile sense usually neglected in the urban life. The therapy center is more like a contemporary spa at the same time employs a programmatic layout similar to roman thermal baths. Those were served as social centers, though the Therapy Center provides environment more conducive to personal retreat and rejuvenation, emphasizing tactile sense over visual.
The building is a regular element in an irregular terrain as human footprint in the wild nature. It finds harmony with the nature through contrast where nature and the program are under the same roof. Approaching to the building one sees a concrete square rooted in the mountain. The walls block the view and make the visitors to concentrate on other senses, and only in pool area, as final point, have the breathtaking view of the mountains.
Project Type: Therapy Centre
Jury Comments
– Studio Muoto
The fragmentation of the plan, provoked by its modularity, is an interesting way to contrast with the environment it integrates. It is clear in its geometrical implantation, and curious in the definition of interior/exterior spaces. The works becomes a sort of microcosm, treating various scales from the territory to the detail. Associating a diverse range of spatial and sensorial experiences, it creates an interesting succession of rooms with different meanings in which visitors become aware of their senses.
