Think of a great hotel room. It’s spacious, brightly lit, and filled with thoughtful details. Maybe it has a great view, and a big, fluffy bed. I once stayed in a castle in northern Scotland that had incredible 20-foot ceilings in every room. I felt, quite literally, like a king.
Now think of a terrible hotel room — dark, claustrophobic, festooned with generic “art,” and loaded up with hideous drapes and a flat, lifeless comforter on the bed. I’ve been in more of those than I care to admit (usually in the vicinity of airports) and hated every one. They feel dystopian, absent any mechanism of interest or inspiration.
Great architecture, then, is holistic and unified — meant to both convey something and generate a feeling to those who inhabit it.
This is, at base, how architecture works. It influences actions and emotions, for better or worse. The same effect happens whether you’re talking about individual rooms or buildings as a whole, and in homes, offices, or public spaces. They can make you feel like a contented hobbit, a captain of industry, or a citizen of the world. Alternatively, you can feel like a mere drone, passing through — well, what, precisely? And that’s the thing: the worst architecture defies description and lacks any sort of meaningful, deliberate goal. Thoughtful, deliberate design, on the other hand, generates a real impact on the observer or occupant. Here’s how to tell the difference:
Embrace the totality of architecture. Appreciating architecture really begins with understanding what it is and what it isn’t. When people think of the term, they usually conjure up cathedrals, historic governmental buildings, or quaint old-timey towns. The truth, however, is that architecture is woven into all parts of our lives — in great ways through boldly designed office spaces and cutting-edge modernist residences, but mostly in mundane, half-assed, contractor-designed suburban homes, lazy retail spaces and budget-driven, functional corporate islands. When you look at a building you should be able to tell (or innately feel) in a moment whether it’s a thoughtful piece of design or a straight-up hack job.
Grasp the building’s purpose — and ambition. The key to understanding how architecture functions is simple: awareness. How is the building working? What’s it doing? How well does it do its primary job, and what is the extra je ne sais quoi that it brings to the table? You can spend hours reading up on architectural symbolism and design styles with any significant building, but nothing replaces simply going there and divining for yourself what the building actually does.
“So many factors contribute to this — light, materials, proportions, tactile qualities, and most important, scale,” said architecture interpreter Frances Anderton, who hosts KCRW’s DnA: Design and Architecture show in Los Angeles. “If you walk into Chartres Cathedral, you’re in this marvelous space, and it’s almost a physiological experience. When you go in a museum, it tries to be somehow elevating for the person wandering in the space.”
