Empathic Space

Book excerpt: In recent years, questions of space have gained renewed momentum inarchitecture and urban design, as adaptation, densification andsustainable regeneration have become an increasing priority. Whilemost computing-based design tends to emphasise the formal aspectsof architecture, overlooking space and its users, the‘original’ computational design approaches firstspearheaded in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s tended to be focusedon behavioural and occupational patterns. Over the last decade, anew generation of design research has emerged that has started toimplement and validate previous investigations into spatialcomputation, aiming to understand how to design spatialconfigurations based on user experiences. This revives an interestin the experiential that was first explored in the early 20thcentury by German and Nordic organic architects, who inventeddesign methods that correlated cognitive responses of buildings'occupants to spatial structure. The current revival ofhuman-centric design, however, represents the first design approachthat synthesises spatial design and algorithmic techniques withorganic design thinking, which could also be regarded as a returnto the ‘first principles' of architectural design. Contributors include: Paul Coates, Christian Derix, Olafur Eliasson, Lucy Helme, BillHillier, Åsmund Izaki, Prarthana Jagannath, Dan Montello,Juhani Pallasmaa, Philip Steadman and Guy Theraulaz. Featured Architects/Designers: Jussi Ängeslevä (Art+Com), Stan Allen, Aedas|R&D,Markus Braach (Kaisersrot), Hermann Hertzberger, Kazuhiro Kojima(Cat), Pablo Miranda and Rafi Segal.