We tend to think of spaces as something outside of ourselves, as external contexts for human existence and event of life. But spaces redefined themselves according to the attributes of the occupants. The judgment of environmental characteristics is a complex fusion of countless factors which are immediately and synthetically grasped as atmosphere, feeling, mood or ambiance. The quality of a space is not merely a visual perceptual quality: space is an image, a mental or neural creation, a singular experience that is fused with our very existential experience and cognition. Experiences in a particular space are bound by the aura of memories: memories which unfold themselves through material, texture, and the atmosphere of the spaces. Yet, space and self, place and I are fused and inseparable, as the notion of space arises through experience. Spaces breathe as we occupy them. Once we have access, inviting and pleasant, or uninviting and depressing, we become attached to the certain settings and remained alienated in other kinds of settings, and both intuitive choices are equally difficult to analyze or alter as experimental realities. Martin Heidegger links space indivisibly with the human condition: “When we speak of man and space, it sounds as though man stood on one side, space on the other. Yet space is not something that faces man. It is neither an external object nor an inner experience. It is not that there are men and over and them space ...” (Martin Heidegger, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking”, Basic Writings). Spatial experience is a kind of an exchange untroubled by desire. As I enter a space, the space enters me, and the experience is essentially a fusion of the object and the subject. Also, in the particular space human interactions seem to have their own dynamics, which are usually beyond conscious control: a minute emotional dissonance, a disruption in desire, can easily shatter a friendly encounter. In this paper, I will explore the impact of various spatial attributes on an individual, its interconnection with the human senses and the question of desire so lacking in the discourse of atmosphere. 








  The abstract is inspired by the writings and theories of Architecture theorist “Juhani Pallasma"

There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting. Consider this utterly commonplace situation: a man is walking down the street. At a certain moment, he tries to recall something, but the recollection escapes him. Automatically he slows down. Meanwhile, a person who wants to forget a disagreeable incident he has just lived through starts unconsciously to speed up his pace, as if he were trying to distance himself from a thing still too close to him in time. In existential mathematics, that experience takes the form of two basic equations: the degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting.

Milan Kundera, Slowness 

Desires are contagious .There is always a hidden presence of others desire in us, even those we have known them briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every moment and at every border we cross. 

 Spaces have their own gesture of silence which we can deeply feel as we encounter them. Silence of a particular space holds memories, memories which expresses themselves in silence. Silence is often the product in experience of an interaction of human being with their environment. I remember an old mosque of my city and its corridor which carries an aura of tranquility, often generates an atmosphere of silence which takes you to the world of reminiscence. Silence in Architecture means what is instilled within oneself, when we are experiencing a space.If the space inspires silence within oneself, then it has succeeded in generating a character of silence.     

     Silence is based on vague, polyphonic and mostly unconscious ways of perception, instead of conscious, focused and unambiguous attention.Unconscious and unfocused creative scanning grasps complex entities and process, without a conscious understanding of any of their ingredient much in the way that we grasp the entities of atmosphere.There are many layers to the word silence, at first it is of a sense of calm or peace, certainly not disruptive. It would be as if enough of our surroundings are controlled so that focus arises to lead our thoughts to sensory deprivation.   

       In dance they say there is one moment to strive for, the moment of silence, when the performance ends and the audience is left speechless for that tiny eternity.The dancer and observe becomes one; the message of the dance shouts in an overwhelming quiet. Silence lives. Silence also lives in architecture details. Details when they are successful, are not mere decoration. They do not entertain. They lead to an understanding of the whole of which they are an inherent part and that whole becomes omnipresent in the conscious mind.  

While returning from my workplace ( ISU dining). I met this guy who was sitting alone in front of Lake LaVerne. He told me he is from Nigeria and doing his under graduation in chemical engineering. I asked him, what is your biggest struggle while living in Ames?
He said “Being away from my Family”
I asked him, what’s your biggest achievement in Ames?
He said “I made my new family here."

The honestly of his words and serenity of this place gave me a new feeling of living in Iowa state university. I greeted him by saying “ I am Another you “