The visible and the invisible: exploring human perception to inform the design of an eye institute

Abstract

According to Juhani Pallasmaa (1994), “a real architectural experience is not simply a series of retinal images; a building is encountered - it is approached, confronted, encountered, related to one’s body, moved about, utilized as a condition of other things...” (p.46). This practicum addresses the notion that space is ‘encountered’ through the exploration of human perception as both a biological process as well as a phenomenological event. The research methods and information gathering techniques that were used included a literature review on two-dimensional and three-dimensional space perception, an exploration of both visual impairment and space perception, and a survey of functional design aspects of eye clinics. The intent of the project is to provide a place that enhances the experience of space such that it brings visible, the invisible nature of being in the world.