Architecture at the Salk
ANFA: The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, at the Salk Institute.
Not since the contributions made by physics at the end of the 19th century (structural design methods, acoustic design formulas, lighting calculations, etc.) has science been so well prepared to expand the knowledge base available to the profession of architecture. Our newly formed Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture is the primary instrument for developing this potential.
For some reason this reminds me of a conversation I had the other day with someone who has at best a bemused interest in music. She listens to it only to fill up the silence while driving. Discovering new music is just an obsessive, snobbish hobby to her. It occurred to me that she sees music the way most of the world sees architecture: she knows it's there, everywhere, with its followers and zealots making up all sorts of criteria, but for her it's just something to be used, invisibly.
This Neuroscience thing makes me think of all the psychologists and scientists studying music and what they've "discovered." From what I gather, no one knows exactly why music is what it is to the human ear. It's fundamentally about subjectivity, acculturation and taste, just like architecture.
Then again, we could develop formulae similar to those used by the music industry (and KLF) to write architectural "hits." Why not? Sven once told me about a classmate at Berkeley who wrote an algorithm that generated Corbu facades. At his final review he pinned up his best generated facade beside real ones. Most of the critics couldn't tell which was the fake.
* Ray, 12/28/2003 01:22:14 PM
