The changes in perception that architecture brought in did not happen in a single day. It was a slow yet steady process. With time the way I looked at the world was through the lens of architecture. This lens allows me to see through the building. How a building shapes the lives of people, how the building itself becomes the people living in it. And I realized a building is not a single entity. It’s the people, the trees, the air, the light. People make buildings and later the building makes their life.
Entering into architecture also changed the focus from people to buildings. The character of buildings and spaces became more visible than that of people. Every time I walked through a street it was the buildings that spoke while the nonchalant noises of people blurred into the background. And suddenly it was as if the buildings had personalities. Some goofy, some mysterious, some vibrant, and so on. Some spaces are so welcoming that it’ll tempt you to take a peep while some are so moody that you just want to step out. This also makes one wonder whether the personality of buildings is a reflection of that of the people or is the building that defines the people in it. Both possibilities seem convincing.
For instance when we walk into a building, one might often feel like a different person. It is as if the building imparts its character to us. Sometimes we get a sense of belonging and sometimes completely alien but either way, we’ll eventually blend into the character of the building. Say you enter a grand palace, initially, you might feel overwhelmed by the grandeur but later chances are that you might feel like a king and you would find yourself picturing your life as one. Here it’s the building that is making you feel a certain way. But who gave the palace its character, undoubtedly the King who lived in it. It reflects his taste, likes and dislikes, and his lifestyle. So it’s safe to say that it is the king who gave the palace its personality. The palace then defined the lifestyle of the people in it.
Building and its soul
Now I can see that buildings have a soul too and that they are not just brick and mortar but a whole bundle of emotions and feelings disguised as walls and floors. Every time the sun shines into the window, every time a breeze flows through the corridor I see the building come to life and the soul speaks. It yearns to tell the stories it has seen of the people who lived in it. The laughter of the children, the yawn of the uncle, the smell of the kitchen when the mother was cooking, and the tiny climbers that the daughter decorated the walls with. With every little detail, the soul grows and as it grows it has a lot more to say.
With time one would also be able to see that there is this connection between the soul of a building and that of a person. It is when this connection is established, that the person finds comfort in that space.
How spaces can affect one’s mood
As one starts the architecture journey, one would also start noticing the effect a space has on people. The scale. form, and proportion all have a huge influence on our mood. Though it’s not ideal to generalize how different spaces make us feel, common observations can be made. Tiny spaces could make one feel suffocated, and large airy spaces give a sense of peace.
Architecture thus makes one see what was already there, the hidden details, the beautiful forms,the culture, the civilisation. It gives one just the right amount of patience to listen to whispers of a space. It makes one think beyond what is seen.
A building is the result of endless effort
For me it was a journey from seeing to observing, complaining to solving, hearing to listening, thinking to analyzing. Just as much I see the soul of a building, I see the hard work behind making it too. The time it might have taken to design it, to build each floor, to reinforce, to paint and so on. Now I know that a building is the result of endless effort, sleepless nights, and hard labor.There is a newly developed respect for those who create a building, the architect, the engineer, the layman, every single person who worked to make the building what it is. Now I see not just the result but also the process. The process of creation. From ideation to execution, it is like a man made metamorphosis. They say doctors save lives, I would say architects make life better.
