BUILDING EMOTIONS: BUILDING ARCHITECTURE TO WELCOME / UA

WELLCOMING INSTALATION

First contact. Uncertainty.

For the past several weeks, we have been working on our design for the wellcome-installation. We have been exchanging ideas and experimenting with different forms, materials and elements that we would like to present as our project.

Our intention with the project is to make the users feel wellcome at the end by taking the users on a journey through emotions and atmospheric spaces. The spaces and ideas incorporated will take the user into a state of mind that will bring up old memories, and present potential future scenarios created by the users imagination.

We are to create 3 spaces, each of which will attempt to provoke the essence of the sequence of emotions that could be strongly connected to the situation of a meeting/welcome/greeting….. These emotional states of mind are:

- Nervousness/anxiety/uncertainty/unease

- Curiosity/excitement/anticipation/suspense

- Surprise/comfort/warmth/happiness……and finally WELCOME

As inspiration, Jame Turrell spaces make you think that there is something around the corner waiting for you, and make you feel atracted to that space which seems more confortable, friendly and wellcoming.

These emotional states will be triggered by the space and the ambients, so the user could hear and see different combinationations of light, textures, and finishes, and the music will lead the user to the final space.

The specifically chosen and edited music we'll push the visitors from one area to another and will increase the ambient and emotions that each space represents. Furthermore, the relation between user and music will be very intimate as it will be played in each one ears so preventing from outside noises.

The wellcoming space will be the last, and hopefully the most impressive. The space will take the form of a semi-sphere, almost like an igloo structure. The users will have been forced to gradually get down low to pass through the curtain and threshold into the space, the surprise of then entering into the taller space combined with the material change should hopefully be exciting for everyone.

This ‘igloo’ will be the perfect resemblance of a welcoming gathering, or meeting, a space to feel comfortable, to relax and be happy. The igloo is to be constructed out of double thickness cardboard . The cardboard will be cut into one simple triangular template with tabs, and repeated for the entire structure. Once the card is cut, scored, and folded, the face that is to look the inside will be recovered with silvered material, almost like the shiny side of a mirror. This reflective surface will be a total contrast to the last 2 spaces, and hopefully add to the element of happiness and surprise. From the centre of the igloo will be a collection of tea lights hung my silver wire, again at various heights and spacing’s. The flickering of these candles will be reflected onto the shiny reflective surface and have an impressive effect. The group will gather around the central ‘firepiece’, and listen to the last section of the soundtrack whilst drawin about the emotions the have felt. As the song finishes, then be given a nice drink and snack and a time to reflect upon the experience and discuss with each other what they thought.

Each group will pass through each space together and share the experience as a unit. Once they are in the final space, they will be given a pencil and some paper, and they will be asked for drawing/writing what they have felt during instalation time and what emotions have it brought to their mind, as a kind of free-association drawing which is the best way to express emotions according to Sigmund Freud. The drawings will be anonymous so people will feel free to really reveal some secrets about themselves and not be worried about what other will think. Once all the groups have been on the welcoming journey and all the drawings are collected, our group will gather them and create a collection to present to everybody. This way the class will have an intimate reflection on the experience that they had and a time to hopefully appreciate the honesty and revelations of others.