Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Volume 30 Article 9
1-1-2008
Recommended Citation
Hughes, Howard C. (2008) "Thoughts on Haptic Architecture By a Perceptual Psychologist," Oz: Vol. 30. https://doi.org/10.4148/
2378-5853.1458
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Thoughts on Haptic Architecture
By a Perceptual Psychologist
Howard C. Hughes
Like most people, I do not know much objects and their spatial arrangement; materials, the uniformity of illumina-
about architecture, but I spend a great the sensing of imperfections and dirt tion” and other salient aspects of many of vision is not an accident or a wrong
deal of time in buildings. I was there- on the surfaces of objects; the examina- modern architectural works leads to turn taken during the development
fore both intrigued and a little intimi- tion of internal organs of the body by of modern human culture. It is not a
dated when I was asked by the editors palpation…, and the moment of iner- of experience.” However, I do not be- choice that we can choose to make
of Oz to write an article on “haptic ar- tia of hefted objects…For humans…it lieve that any architecturally-induced
chitecture.” In expressing my thoughts contributes much to social and sexual stupor is properly attributed to the hegemony of vision is the result of over
and reactions, I will tread lightly and communication, to individual develop- “hegemony of vision.” It is, I think, 200,000 years of human evolution. As
with some trepidation, because I am ment, and to the aesthetic appreciation more appropriately attributable to such, it is much better to understand
not accustomed to addressing topics of both art and daily life. (Loomis and a failure of architectural designs to the power of human visual perception
on which, unlike my audience, I have Lederman, 1986). provide the richness of color, texture, than to view it as a regrettable mistake
no particular expertise. form and depth that resonate with the that should somehow be corrected. I
If this is what is meant, haptic archi- mechanisms of human vision. No one suggest that the solution to any per-
Let us begin by considering the use of tecture has indeed set a lofty goal for who studies human perception would ceived ills in modern architecture is
the word “haptic” in haptic architec- itself. According to Pallasmaa (2000), consider, much less lament, the “he- not to resist the dominance of vision
ture. Reference to any dictionary tells
us that haptic refers to the sense of “hegemony of vision,” which he appears
touch. For perceptual psychologists, it to attribute to a failing of modern so-
usually refers to active touch—a form ciety, and perhaps a failing of modern
of exploratory touching in which the architects to resist succumbing to so-
hands palpate an object in order to
get the richest possible representa-
tion using touch alone. Used in this I believe likewise that many aspects of
sense, the haptic system is really a the pathology of today’s architecture
multimodal system that combines can also be understood through a cri-
information from cutaneous recep- tique of the ocular bias of our culture.
tors (a variety of sensory receptors in As a consequence of the power of the
our skin) with information from our eye over the other sensory realms,
kinesthetic system, which provides architecture has turned into an art
information about our posture, move- form of instant visual image. Instead
of creating existential microcosms,
gravity and the masses of objects we embodied representations of the
manipulate. However, it seems that the world, architecture projects retinal
proponents of haptic architecture have images for the purpose of immediate
something more in mind. Something persuasion. Flatness of surfaces and
akin to a characterization of haptic materials, uniformity of illumination,
perception includes: as well as the elimination of micro- viewing of a series of visual scenes. Yellow areas indicate regions of greatest activity, red areas indicate