I try to pay as much attention as possible to how I feel when I am in a building or in a space. It is in the feeling, the unquantifiable,… the immeasurable…., that the magic of Architecture is to be found!
Stepping into a space can make you feel a certain way. It can make you feel better or worse, than the time just before you moved into it. A space can communicate without words to evoke emotion and feeling in the person moving through it. Music can do the same thing to the person listening to it; speaking directly to the heart. Communicating the feeling, the emotion, in a way that words struggle to do.
We moved offices last week; less than a kilometre from our previous space in Cape Road; but the feeling of the new neighbourhood is quite different. The office we moved out of was a converted Victorian house. The one we have moved into is the third floor of a small, 1970’s mid spec office block. What feels most different however is the street or the urban quality. Our new office block is located on the corner of Clyde and Lawrence streets in Central. People walk up and down the pavement all day. It overlooks a small green park , there is a corner store just over the road and coffee around the corner in Parliament Street. I suppose it feels like a place where people belong and are meant to be. Our Cape Road office was on a busy street, cars rushing past. A very different character. Not nearly as suburban as the offices in Newton Park or Walmer, but still dominated by the Motor car. It did not feel as comfortable as this new space seems to feel.
It fascinates me that by arranging forms in a particular way; (walls, windows, pavements, park benches and kerbs), that people can be made to feel better or worse for passing through them. It fascinates me because to understand this magic, is to know good design. To own this knowledge is my dream.
