An Architectural Investigation of the Haptic Sense: A Material Exploration of the Balance Between Building, Body, and Landscape

Missing from much of civic/public spaces today is the potential choreography between body, imagination, and the built environment. This is often a result of a diminished sensation between ourselves and the coupling of constructed and natural spaces. It is precisely this miscommunication which led to an exploration of the haptic sense and a material investigation of the choreography between our bodies, our buildings, and our landscape. In order to create a memorable space or in the case of this exercise, create place from path, a conservation of the spirit of the players/pieces is necessary. The experience of being in a place occurs in time, is much more than visual, and is as complex as our bodies and as immense as our imaginations. The movement of our bodies traversing a built environment gives value to the spaces we inhabit. Through the investigation of a little league baseball park along the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virgina, a series of haptic patterns with distinct pauses and progressions in which the body and mind responds to the situation presented is created.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Architecture

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Architecture

Department dc:contributor.department

Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Martinson, Jared Lee

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Emmons, Paul F.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Piedmont-Palladino, Susan C.
• Feuerstein, Marcia F.

• Sense
• Building
• Body
• Landscape
• Haptic

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-07172011-175309

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/34045