Phenomenological Architectural Design Essay

Phenomenological Architectural Design Phenomenology, in general, is the interpretive study of human experience which aim to examine human situations, events, meanings and experiences. Through exploring the phenomenological investigation of how the community experiences the spaces of Kwan Imm Ting with an intimate scale, where any object, event, situation or experience that the people can see, hear, touch, smell, taste, feel, intuit, know, understand or live through. (David Seamon, 2000) In other words, Juhani Pallasmaa suggest that a phenomenological study draws attention to specific phenomenon and point toward more general qualities and characteristics that accurately describe the essential nature of the phenomenon as it has presence and

The hierarchy of Kwan Imm Ting is indicated externally by the different heights of roofs with their curved ridges and upturned ends. (Figure) On each side of the axis, accessed via external side doors, are smaller halls and other function rooms separated by side courts from the central prayer halls. (Figure) It has an open courtyard with the outsized incense burner (Figure) to the left and symmetrical laid out along a central axis. (Badan Warisan Malaysia [BWM], 2005) The front pavilion is an open sided structure which provide protection from the elements when prayers are being offered to the god. The first hall serves as a reception area, leading to the courtyard or as entrance hall, before the main altar hall is approached. (Figure) The effect of the elongated structure is to lead the worshipper ever deeper into the sanctuary until the most venerated shrine of the structure is reached. Lesser deities are placed in the side wings or in a hall further behind. These relate the sense of heaviness and lightness of the elements placed in the temple in relation to the beliefs and tradition practiced by the community. The semi-enclosed prayer pavilion is the traditional space between the material world and the spiritual while the open air courtyards provide the nature elements and tranquility. (Figure) For instance, there is a water feature located

The first of which is rooted in the idea of excessive concentration on the “nearness”, staying mostly “within” and presenting “close-ups” in experiencing the work and details of architecture that neglects the experience of architecture in a macro-level of the temple. Thereby, there comes the phenomenologist Christian Norberg-Schulz’s to criticize Pallasmaa’s terminology as the “fragile phenomenology”, pointing out the weakness of not consider the genius loci of the architectural work. “…it immediately enters the realm of the building and its immediate surroundings, interpreting only the building in detail.” (Norberg-Schulz, 1980) The second weakness in relation of the implementation of Pallasmaa’s fragile phenomenology into Kwan Imm Ting is that, most of the analyses and examinations are partial selections and highlights only particular aspect of architectural experience within the temple. This explained when the senses experienced by the community in Kwan Imm Ting are discussed separately, of touch, of ear, of eye and of feeling, offering evidence only to prove the importance of the senses respectively. Although broad claims of “multi-sensory” interpretation have been presented across the analyses of Kwan Imm Ting in accordance to Pallasmaa’s fragile phenomenology, however,