How Perception influences Design

How Perception Influences Design A fresh perspective on the works of Renzo Piano

Micailah Cialella 1

4. TEXTURES 2. TOO OBVIOUS 1. INTRODUCTION • Perception • Association

• Vulcano Buono • Auditorium Parco Della Musica • Tijaboo Cultural Center • Zentrum Paul Klee

3. IT’S A STRETCH

• California Academy of Sciences • Central Saint Giles • Brique Apparente Terre Cuite

• Auditorium Aquila • High Museum of Art • Centro Botin

Table of Contents

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Introduction

“A perception, sudden as blinking, that subject and object are one, will lead to a deeply mysterious understanding; and by this understanding you will awaken to the truth.�

-Huangbo Xiyun

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Perception

It is possible for two people to look at the same thing and each see some thing completely different.

Ink blot pictures are perhaps the most well-known type of “optical illusion,� that deciphers someones psyche depending on what they percieve in the images.

Same picture, two different Perceptions

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Association

Association is more direct than perception, but the two go hand in hand. An architect or designer sometimes takes an image or shape thats familiar to us or that we associate with something and uses it to influence our reaction to the design.

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A few examples of this technique are Frank Ghery’s Binocular building (top left), the Bread Basket building (bottom left), the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall (top right), and Playthings’ Etc. (bottom right).

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2.

TOO OBVIOUS

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“It’s strange how knowledge changes perception.”

-John Dear

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Il Vulcano Buono

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You don’t have to have taken Italian in order to understand the intent of this design. “II Vulcano Buono” literally translates to “good volcano,” not the name you’d expect the people living in Naples to truly believe.

At least Renzo didn’t name it Vesuvius II. Because of it’s given name, the first thing you should associate the structure with is a volcano, however, after taking a second look you may see a crater on the moon or even the rear end of a jet engine.

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Auditorium Parco Della Musica

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This musical auditorium may have been intended to host musicians who play music, but viewers can unintentionally be reminded of a different type of play.

The shape and urve of the design greatly ressembles that of a computer mouse.

Another perception one might have is that the three structures ressemble a group of beetles. Unfortunately, there would need to be four in order o make a proper joke.

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Tijaboo Cultural Center

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Renzo Piano’s egg-celent design for this center can be associated with a Princess’ tiara from one side or some sort of hybrid nest and egg from the other.

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Zentrum Paul Klee

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You won’t wanna wave goodbye to this build anytime soon after you see it. The form follows the pattern of soundwaves, diving under the ground and arching back upwards.

This curvy building has the physique of a fit camel as he makes his way through the desert. If camels had three humps that is!

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It’s A Stretch

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“There are things known and there are things unknown, and between are the doors of perception.”

- Aldous Huxley

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California Academy of Sciences

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You may have to use your imagination a little for this one, but the mounds that make up the top of the California Academy of Sciences are reminiscent of my early childhood memories.

Can’t you just imagine a tellytubby choosing to live here?

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Central Saint Giles

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It’s not so much the design of this building, but the color of it that makes it stand out above the rest. For most people colorful buildings remind them of all the colofrul lego structures they engineered as a child.

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Brique Apparente Terre Cuite

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The columns and rows that make up this design might make passersbye a little hungry. The grid-like pattern mimics the classic KitKat or Hershey’s candy bar.

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4.

Textures

“Perception is reality.”

-Lee Altwater

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Auditorium Aquila

The finely layed texture and colors of this building remind me of a colorful woven tapestry.

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High Museum Of Art

R O O F T O P

Can you spot the difference?

Me neither.

P R I N G L E S

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Centro Botin

The texture of Centro Botin is POPPIN’ quite literally. The smooth, circular molecules that wrap around the building are quite similar to that of bubble wrap.

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Works Cited

• Buchanan, Peter. Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Complete Works. Phaidon Press, 1993.

• Buchanan, Peter. Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Complete Works Volume One. Phaidon, 1993.

• Buchanan, Peter. Renzo Piano Building Workshop; Complete Works Volume 3. Phaidon, 2000.

• Piano, Renzo, and Kenneth Frampton. Renzo Piano : the Complete Logbook, 1966-2016 . Revised and expanded edition., Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2017.

• Piano, Renzo, and Luis Fernández-Galiano. Renzo Piano: Building Workshop. Arquitectura Viva SL, 2017.

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