We Shape Our Buildings and Afterwards, Our Buildings Shape Us

4 December 2007 | Category: Architecture Debates
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optical illusion africa african

What did you see? What is above the woman’s head? What element is the backdrop? Researchers showed an identical image to people from East Africa, almost all of those took part in the experiment said the lady was balancing a box on her head, in an African culture where there are few angular visual cues, the group of people is seen sitting under a big tree. On the other hand, Westerners are used to corners and rectangular architecture, thus they are more likely to visualize the group of people in an indoor space and to interpret the rectangular shape above the lady’s head as a window opening.

The studies showed the influence of different culture and environment can have an effect on our visual perception, this theory was first explored by Robert Laws, a Scottish missionary working in Malawi, Africa, during the late 1800’s.

Winston Churchill’s epic statement, “We shape our buildings and afterwards, our buildings shape us,” is a fantastic observation of the architectural phenomenon, illuminating the fact that physical architecture is a static artifact and continues to transform us long after construction.

morumbi sao paulo condo rich city shelter poor

Couple with Churchill’s famous quotes and the illusion above, does a person who comes from a third world has the same creativity in architecture compare to someone whom was brought up in a historically rich city such as Paris?

terrace house property malaysia doric column

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my friend (not an architecture student) last year, we were arguing about the use of Roman / Doric columns in most of the houses in Malaysia, a typical Malaysian trend where these columns are an essential element in every houses, an eye sore. Not only the use of these mini Doric columns are ugly, he was defending the overall design as well, saying it is beautiful.

It is hard to convince them that these houses are tasty for the tasteless.

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7 Comments

What says you? Drop your opinion in the comment box.

  1. cthulhu
    on December 11th, 2007
    1

    Roman / Doric columns ARE an eye sore. Especially when they coupled with wooden houses. It’s like living in an architectural birth defect.

  2. Jonathan Gross
    on February 14th, 2008
    2

    To you they may be anachronistic architectural elements, but to someone from Malaysia, they could be stand-ins for trees–very important in creating a sense of safety.

  3. Shi Ying
    on February 26th, 2008
    3

    Not to forget, to the ‘tasteless’ the diameter of each of the columns are equivalent to their belly size, thus, reflecting how rich they are. That’s why my friend admitted her dad needs 6 roman columns in their driveway.

  4. wakaka
    on September 16th, 2008
    4

    roman column is not a part of malaysian culture. So there’s no reason why we should be proud to have it in malaysian houses.

  5. Abigail
    on May 18th, 2009
    5

    amazing…we have the same problem here in the Philippines…I thought the colonial mentality that western architecture is much preferred than our very own tried-and-tested, sustainable tropical architecture is only a problem found in my country…I see that there is also this type of problem in other places as well…I am an architecture student in the Philippines struggling against this mentality…

  6. Tommy S.S.Eisenring
    on August 5th, 2009
    6

    I am a doctoral candidate in sociology at UNM Makassar, Indoensia. The thesis/ dissertation I am writing is about “social construction by architecture”, which is a part of study of architectural sociology. This article remind me of what Chirchili had ever said 64 last years, in case of debate among parliamentarian about whether they need to build a new building or renovate the parliament building what demand by war: ” We shape the building, but finally the building is shaping us”. Interesting article, cladding

  7. Gabriel
    on December 6th, 2009
    7

    This foto from the slum near a luxury building was taken in my city, Sao Paulo, Brasil. It’s really a classic foto, very often used when talking about social… inequality?! sorry, not very good english…

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