Introducing a basis for design that transcends fixed notions of
style and emerging technologies, this book emphasizes feeling,
moving and the experiential. Since the book's initial publication
in 2000, architects and writers have been drawn to a more sensory
approach to architecture. But there is still a need to encourage
and to illustrate the pursuit of design, not as a project, imposing
preconceived ideas upon a situation, but as a process evolving from
the inside - from movement, sensation, surroundings and a dialogue
between architect and client. The authors describe such an approach
that places human life, experience and materiality at the centre of
design and that seeks out opportunities for discovery, growth and
transformation.
Karen A. Franck is an environmental psychologist who has taught for
many years in the New Jersey School of Architecture. R. Bianca
Lepori is a practicing architect in Italy with many years of
experience in designing houses and maternity health care
facilities.
Praise for the first edition:
Franck and Lepori believe [architecture] should be more alive and
take its character from the human body. When similarly designed
from the inside out, rather than being austere and devoid of
sensibilities, buildings would offer spatial sensations that
connect with people.
Beverly Russell, Executive Director, Archeworks
The authors use...contemporary lenses as phenomenology and feminism
to guide us on our journey through buildings. They trace the haptic
qualities of architecture back through the design process with both
daring and documentation.
Deborah Gans, Architect and Associate Professor, Pratt
Institute
This book should be required reading for all architectural and
design students as well as for all those individuals who are
responsible for making decisions that influence our built
environment.
Wayne Ruga, Founder, Symposium on Healthcare Design and the Center
for Health Design.
Author Biography
Karen A Franck is a professor in the New Jersey School of Architecture and the Department of Humanities at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She received her PhD in environmental psychology from the City University of New York.
R Bianca Lepori is a registered architect practising in Rome and London. She received her architecture degree from the University of Genoa in 1975. In her architecture practice she has concentrated on home environments and institutional structures for natural childbirth.
