Perception and Function in Occupant-Space Relationship

Abstract

How can architects improve the relationship between the occupant and the space in regards to offering the occupant and enjoyable experience, which also fulfills their needs and expectations of function? Among many design fields, architecture is the one that has a constant correlation with everyday life, as most people spend a significant portion of their time within a built environment. The direct influence of the quality of space on the quality of occupants’ lives indicates the critical responsibility of architectural design. Recognizing, respecting, and responding to the occupants’ needs and expectations are the necessary steps in a design process that wishes to improve the quality of life. Thus, the consideration of occupants in the process of design will lead to the fulfillment of the occupants’ needs. In this paper, I will focus on two approaches that lead to improvement of the relationship between the occupant and the space: the multisensory experience and the true function. I am looking for approaches to bring both multisensory experience and true function back to architectural space in order to enhance occupants’ daily experiences in the built environment. I propose the ways in which physical senses can be engaged in spatial experience, as well as assessing each sense with related spatial features. My assessments are based on my personal experiences, and other theoretical resources. I discuss function later with an introduction on affordance, a psychological approach to design, and their relation to one another, as well as introducing anti-functionalism and its consequences in frame of a case study