Phenomenology: “Sacred space constitutes itself following a rupture of the levels which make possible the communication with the trans-world, transcendent realities. Whence the enormous importance of sacred space in the life of all peoples: because it is such a space that man is able to communicate with the other world, the world of divine beings or ancestors.”1 Phenomenology is a 100-year-old European philosophical tradition that from its founding promoted the inclusion of subjective experiences into the objective sciences. This greatly pertains to a facility where extraterrestrial life might be found to exist. The impact this finding would have on the human psyche is greatly significant when designing the spatial experience and environment in which people will accept the fact they are not alone in this universe. Phenomenology’s assertion that subjective experience can be objectively applied in philosophical inquiry is pertinent to any discussion regarding the sensory experience of architecture, especially when that architecture will be the vessel in which life changing discoveries will be made. The space from which you will experience phenomenology must have the ability to take the visitor out of the everyday. Through a choreography of space and sequence, light and shadow, the visitor must be brought from the present, and prepared for connections outside themselves. In a setting in which our objective science will be turned upside-down by the discovery of extraterrestrial life, is it not fitting to have that environment designed such a way that you have the ability to subjectively experience that discovery? Having an objective science laboratory viewed from a space that offers subjective experiences could initiate a series of new perspectives and enlightenment one might often experience in a spiritual setting. The early phenomenologists argued that maintaining a distance between subject and object denied the subjectivity that is intrinsic to any cognitive activity and truncated the ability to fully experience (and subsequently understand) the observed phenomenon.2 This viewing environment, that would frame the room where we might discover we are not alone in this universe would inevitably enact deep questions about the origins of life and where we, individually, fit into that picture. This environment will provide the cognitive platform from which to experience the connection between object and subject, and conducive to the inevitable meditative contemplation and discussion. In this environment, there must be a multi-sensory experience. This architecture must engage our senses, make us realize the impact this laboratory we are looking at might have in the future, and lead us into a deeper ontological engagement with the world. It will be a space of more ephemeral, intuitive, and psychic phenomena central to what might be described as a ‘religious experience’.3 The architecture must serve to illuminate our relationship to the universe.
1 2 3
Mircea Eliade, Symbolism, The Sacred and the Arts, p. 107. Thomas Barrie, The Sacred In-Between: The Mediating Roles of Architecture, p.21. Thomas Barrie, p.22.
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