The concept of a model of plastic bodily image in architecture

Samara State Technical University, Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering, 194, Molodogvardeiskaya St., 443001, Samara, Russia

^* Corresponding author: s_a_malahov@mail.ru

Abstract

One of the key problems of architectural mastery is lack of acute feeling of the plastic image and bodily self-determination of an architectural object at the initial (and the subsequent) stage when the design model author is trying to see and understand the context where the future object should appear, literally be born out of thin air. This sensuous amnesia is caused, among other reasons, by the lack of experience in “sculptural modeling”, “hand molding” and today’s common practice of facilitated transfer to analytical computer design. The loss of intense bodily experience, mental connection of one’s own body with an imaginary object, has an effect as well. In its turn, it deprives the object of sensuous corporeal nature, transforms it into a mechanistic conglomerate. The article deals with the body concept, bodily and plastic categories in relation to the architectural shaping and suggests the concept of mediator models linking reality and the designer’s imagination integrated into a new typology of “models of plastic bodily images” (MPBI). The principal medium of these models and the procedures for their creation are based on synthesis of form, interpretation of the “bodily experience”, tactile contact with model material, sculptural forming techniques and sensory evaluations of subject-environment interaction. The proposed typology of models has been piloted by the author in numerous educational and conceptual projects. The results of experiments and developed theoretical principles related to models of plastic bodily images will help achieve better results in the course of basic design and special composition training of architects.