Each members need to pick 1 building in Kuala Lumpur, visit and document how that building perfectly plays with 1 or more human senses.
Architecture built environment does give impact to sense of taste. Normally, taste sense is less tangible than the other four senses. However, designing a place to dine, taste senses considerations definitely can easily set up different expectations to those who can perceive and enjoy taste very well.
Talking on the dining experience with strong taste sensory design can physiologically change one appetites. However, I have selected Sushi Zanmai Restaurant in The Gardens, Mid Valley as case study.
The layout arrangement resembles the outlay of Japanese culture with timber and sakura trees. Before entering the place, you can actually ‘taste’ the sakura (cherries in Japanese) by looking at first sight. Sakura tastes like sweet mochi cake with the fragrance smell of flower.
The entire dining experience has been turned into a journey. Intentionally to orient a person’s mood. The place taste freshness and feel calmness in a forest, allowing you feel healthy, relax, excite and even entertain your patron. Even the greenish texture of the timber can actually remind you the taste wasabi from far before you get to your seat. Tasting real wasabi is like you taste herbs, smoother and cleaner ‘plant-like’ paste. The great ambiance inside has eventually boost up your appetites and makes you stay longer.
While waiting for meal to be served, touching the rough timber texture on your table, imagining yourself sitting under warm sunlight touching on your skin, admiring the beauty of sakura, in fact there is only repetitive timber structure on ceiling. What you actually see is fake sakura under artificial lights. Then, you will keep drinking green tea (steamed from tea leaves) that is almost similar to the fragrance of sakura. However, sense of sound you can only feel noise of chit-chatting and knocking of bowls and plates.
The environment intentionally plays with sensory effects, especially sense of taste, so that your meal will progress from appetizer, to entree and to dessert. Certainly, the lighting makes people feel more appetizing, even feels healthy while having meal on their comfortable seating. Having meal under moderate cold temperature makes you taste fragrance and freshness of food better as if you are in Japan.
However, having exposing sushi making bar can actually feed the sense of taste better through smelling sushi directly from the bar. The best sushi tasting experience happens when the pieces go virtually from the hand of the sushi chef to your mouth. In a piece of nigiri, warm rice, cold fish and the body heat of the sushi chef combine to create body-temperature sushi pieces that are just right for eating. A few minutes later, the pieces are at room temperature, and not nearly as enjoyable. With maki, as soon as the nori and rice make contact, the nori starts to soften and lose its crispness. Basically, there are two different tasting experience sitting in front of bar and tables. Those who sits on tables will have to choose time-sensitive pieces first, but you can enjoy with sushi on belt with greater privacy as compared to those sitting in front of sushi bar.
The designer has the good intention by understanding the taste of food on menu, following by how the person feel the journey within the place, and want the person to see, hear, smell, touch and taste from Japanese culture before they leave. Designing not only looking good for meal, he wants people to feel, especially taste better as if it is being mindfully eaten. The experience of senses evolve, creating healthiness and happiness through strong sense of taste.
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LAI HONG JING
The place we been visited is NEW CHAPTER by The Owl Cafe in Bukit Jalil. The purpose we went to the cafe is just to enjoy a cup of coffee and have a discussion. Why a cafe? A cafe is a gathering point where they focus on people comfort within the space. To achieve human comfort what really considered in architecture is the 5 senses in human body. I will explain the exploration to these 2 major senses I can feel in the cafe. Smell and Sight.
SMELL & SCENT
Once we step in the cafe, we see the cozy contemporary interior design but as we walking toward the coffee bar the coffee aroma give an us a great impact to our sense of smell. The coffee aroma gives us a scent between sweet and bitter which attracted us to order a cup of them.
"The aroma is something more encompassing. It’s not just scent. It’s also the flavor and mouthfeel."
From the sense of smell , I already can identify what is best seller in the house . Smell of the coffee brewer as the waitress travel to serve your coffee which bring the whole cafe surrounded by the aroma of coffee. Other than the coffee , the restaurant also serve light meals. In my opinion , the taste of foods had take over by the aroma of coffee that create a conflict between foods and coffee
As research showing, "smells can impact on almost everything, from dreams and emotions, driving, stress and gambling, to pain, concentration, memory and romance."
SIGHT & VISUAL
The cafe used light color as the main color and mostly timber for finishing and furniture. Combination with low warm color light and mostly natural illumination from the glaze made a great cozy feel yet bright in the cafe.
Another great element bring impact to the people visual is to the outdoor landscape. The greenary landscape give people a peaceful visual in the cafe. The combination of these element cafe give the cafe give us sense of harmony atmosphere which made us spend almost half of the day in the cafe.
In my opinion, the design and coffee of the cafe create a great sensation between smells and visual which made it a new attraction for the community . A great design must take human sense as main consideration to create a great and sensational atmosphere for user.
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Senses trigger emotion & memory.
SIGHT
Sight is the first message that came through our eye that telling our brain what really happening and followed by other
senses. Architecture build environment does considered the sight as foremost important senses, whereby how the sight
telling people what is the building whether is it private or public or is it dangerous or save.
There is this cafe in Sri Petaling, named New Chapther TheOwlsCafe.
It is the first time i went to such cafe. What made it so special is that it’s located in a Church compound. Where what i observed is overall the building is made up of glass facade. So fromhere I sense that the building is open to public because of we able to see what are people doing inside the building.
So I entered the cafe and tried out of of their coffee. What I feel when i entered their cafe is a sense of welcoming. Where our eyes would automatically see their furniture arrangement and how special is that we would want to order a coffee
while we stand at the entrance despite the coffee fragment that attracting me my sense of smell.
Ok so , after i ordered a drink . What I normally do in the cafe is to sketch the idea of my project assignment. It’s how
important that lighting do affect the mood in doing things. A dim or highlight create different sense. In this case,
OwlsCafe provided me with such good natural lighting which trigger a full focus. Not only that, the scenery view along
the curtain wall is a golf pitch. Where we can relax our eyes glaring to the green view. This how important that the
scenery of a surrounding context would affect a person in the cafe.
Next talking about sight of architectural that bringing the story from the building. What i sense is that , Owlscafe did a
very good job in their interior design. I feel very clear, very neat inside. It’s how that the arrangement of furniture also
help improving the sight sensory and not only how the thing is arranged. The color of the furniture also help bringing
out the message. Light brown with a background of white screen and a little green along the layout. What I can feel is our soul is at peace.
Well, I do enjoy doing my works there while thinking of writing this blog too. What i would say is sight in architectural is
so important that it would affect the entire mood of a person in the building. No matter in where, sight will bring the first impression view. How the building will make you feel in the first place and followed by the others senses.
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LIM WINN SERN
The New Chapter by The Owls Café, Bukit Jalil is the building which I found that perfectly plays with those senses which I learnt from the last lesson.
The reason why I picked this café building is because it actually contain these senses which easily me to do analysis and study.
The very first sense I want to present is the sense of sound. Sound can be categorized into few groups like soft sound and noisy sound. Soft sound is the sound which wouldn’t make you feels uncomfortable however noisy sound creates sound pollution which may cause us feeling uncomfortable and stress. In this café building, all the sound is soft which never disturb me and others people to enjoy their tea time over here. One of the sound is come from the machine which to blend the coffee bean. Because of the building volume design, the blending sound never goes so loud and it’s actually a little audible.
Besides that, another source of sound I found out is the communication between people and people. The chit chatting sound produced from the people is actually audible if the table is close to each other while it is inaudible if the distance of the table is not really close. One thing to be positive is the sound of laughing from the people. Because the laughing sound actually bring positive energy to the surrounding.
Last but not least, the sense of sound which brings a little pollution is the sound when the people drop their cup or glass, or the moving or furniture like the table and chair. One of the case study is when two to three group of people moving out in the same time, the sound of all the chairs moving really made the noise and create the pollution.
Lastly, this kind of beautiful sound made the café building alive. Without them, the café would be like a dead place. Therefore, a successful building must consist of the senses of human which not only sense of sound, but also smell, sight, touch and taste.
HWAN CHING SHEONG
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Sense of touch of a building is by the skin of the building ( the building's material). The building I chose as a case study of the sensory of touch is L45, a community library + hostel by TETAWOWE.
TOUCH
Exterior of the building uses the rough concrete surface to allow the climber plant to crawl over the wall. Raw concrete brick fence exposed the rough texture, the naked of material as natural. Trees planted outside and inside the compound of the building, as if bringing you to the forestry space.
Stepping into the compound, 'gsh' the sound of friction between your steps and the gravel. Unsteady steps you take, as you walk around the compound, making you carefully travel around the building. Raw brick paved platform as the texture of the clay and mud, like the ground of the forest.
Reached the entrance of the building, a big white painted door in front, slowly open the heavy door. Inside the box of the rough concrete was a polished concrete, converting a raw behavior into formal, realizing the change of a space. Combines of shellac timber furniture, addition coziness of the space.
Books slotted in between the custom made mesh, uneven surface created by the random size arrangement of the books, soften the texture of the empty mesh. Stepping up on the grating stairs, causing slight vibrates to the steel mezzanine structure, and the sighted bottom space through the gaps of the grating, slow and reduce the movement of ones more careful. Bean bags on the grating soften the seats on grating. Timber ceiling we couldn't reach on the ceiling but the texture we know is cozy.
The design material applied on the building, will make the visitors to behave themselves compared to a huge library. Material that is heavy, unstable, creating sounds makes people to automatically behave when they are in a quiet and formal space. The touch and steps of each material will make them consider their movement.
TAN YEONG EN
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