UL-9005 | ARCHITECTURAL PHENOMENOLOGY INSTITUTE

API dedicates its research to the study of architectural phenomenology. The goal of this project is to create life situations that transmit meaning and give an existential foothold in the world. By focusing on he psychological effects of architecture rather than its more practical aspects but never losing sight of the interrelationship between them), the institute promotes understanding of the qualitative dimension of architecture.

Under the sway of abstract scientific theories, architecture has lost its connection to the concrete experience of space. Theoretical models derived from the natural sciences tend to overlook significant characteristics of the physical environment and their effects on human occupants. Often, technologies are imagined to fulfill human needs that remain, in fact, completely unsatisfied.

The character of an environment is determined by the interplay of event, geography, gender, culture and time together with material substance, shape, texture, light, sound, and smell. These are the aspects of architecture that govern its meaning. We must therefore think of a place as a qualitative, total, existential phenomenon. Existential space: this is the basic relationship between man and his environment.