Shaped Touches

The 17th Venice Architecture Biennale

Curated by Hashim Sarkis with Gabriel Kozlowski and Roi Salgueiro 

Architecture’s shape is a negotiation between the control of our environment and the body’s ability to perceive that information. As our bodies increase their range of sensorial abilities through advancements in healthcare and access to wearable technologies, climate change is simultaneously redefining our expectations of future environments.  Architects are in a position to foreshadow the opportunities and implications these pressures will have on our shared public spaces. ‘Shaped Touches’ offers an option for how architecture will define its shape and the relationships of people and communities sharing that space. The project provides a prototype experience for one such space.  

Through the use of a multi-player video game platform, the project illustrates the opportunities and implications for the public spaces of our cities. The game installation is on a three-minute cycle, restarting each time for a player to explore the design space. As each game begins, that player is randomly provided three changes to their existing sensory perception. This could include the ability to see within the near infrared spectrum of light, hear low frequency sound or even lose access to an existing sensory perception.  As these new senses are provided, so are the correlating environments; designed lighting in infrared, the ability to hear plants communicate in low frequency and an inability to hear common sound frequencies. As each game resets, the base architecture takes on additional material variables and design. Other players in the game from around the world cross your path, experiencing different sensory abilities and architectural spaces than you. You and the other players share the same space, but you are each experiencing unique architectures. Shared public space has fragmented. A built prototype within the exhibition space demonstrates the materiality of the design simulated in the video. 

Architecture is a ‘shaped touch’ between the body and the array of information in which the body interfaces with. Architecture’s shape is less of an objective form shared by those with physical access and more of a spectrum of sensorial shapes for those with varying access to these increasingly available materials, shaped by architects.

Photograph by Giorgio Lazaro
Photograph by Giorgio Lazaro
Photograph by Giorgio Lazaro

Sponsors: 

This work was supported in part by a University of Illinois at Chicago Award for Creative Activity and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. 

Complete production credits: 

Game Development: Louis Lettry – Fruits of Yggdrasil Sàrl  

Interactive Design Consultant:  Adetokunbo Ayoade 

Lighting Fabrication: Radiant Architectural Lighting 

Lighting Consultant: Lux Populi