Dome Symbolism, kinæsthetic CX design strategies
The View from Below and Perspectives of the Sky Rim
I’ve been to three places where the architecture of the ground—the footprint of the structure—is remarkable, but the study of the built sky above it is far more compelling. Why, one would ask, is this relevant?
In my experience, working as a trade+mark-focused designer, that work crosses from two dimensional brand-related expressions to three dimensional synæsthetic considerations—I contemplate the wider arc of the enterprise, all of the points of touch and their kinesthetic sensation. That is: “in thinking about a brand, think in circles—as in 360º spans of consciousness.” Think about the prismatic array, the spectacle. And the minuscule.
You might imagine it like this: you’re walking into a place, and instantly something happens in your sensational response to your environment.
What is that, that’s happened?
There is a word for it.
When you’re in a space, everything will, as you become acclimatized, reveal the degrees of experiencing the feelingness of the space—it will become a place. Because you’re in it. Spaces are unoccupied, places have souls in them. In which way you’d like to interpret it.
When I think about this experience, in the symbolism of architecture and built environments, the dome could be a metaphorical expression. The dome’s history extends into primitive framings of supporting substrate structures and mud-based domical assemblies and stacked characteristics. To that study, I became a kind of student of the dome, over time. When I was in college, as I’ve alluded earlier, this was something that I was particularly focused on, architectural symbolism—and, during that time, that allowed for an investigation of two books—W.R. Lethaby’s Architecture Nature and Magic, and Robert Eisler’s German study, Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt
[online versions are linked above for your review]
The core theory both of these books, in one volume, and two volumes in Eisler’s case, is that architecture is a kind of cosmic map—the building and its construction—are emblematic are cartographies of the universe, as it was understood. That would be the square of earth—the four quarters and the circle of the sky, the dome of heaven—the sky rim.
Below, 1972, a college thesis, entirely handwritten—a book summarizing that exploration.
The dome would be the best expression of that ideal. Another volume speaks to this study—as an array of design and philosophic integrations.
More to read.
This approaches the design tactics of construction less from a cosmical perspective but more to the history about the progressions of the dome as a design challenge.
Later, in Firenze and Istanbul I walked into the work of two designers that continue to inspire me in the holism of experience portrayal.
The Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul 1550 AD
In Istanbul, that would be Sinan, the greatest of Ottoman architects. His particular skill was the complex massing of domes in a succession of staggered arrangements, clustering the fantastic weight of this masonry into supporting walls, and the structured sequencing of the stone work to support the domical qualities in the arc of its construction.
Being in one of his places plays a degree of experientiality that is almost overwhelming—the height and expanse of these arrangements—an awesome inspiration. This notion of experientiality we refer to as a link between holistic experience strategy and storytelling—sensation and narrative. To a brand designer, this would be thinking large—and ever larger—and considering the delicacy of the tinier details—that, as everyone knows—plays out to the integrity of how everything synthesizes narrative and built place.
Processionally, these are profound complexities in scale, and journey-making into the majestic interiors of these astonishments.
A book on Sinan?
Another—the second inspiration.
Untrained architectural design thinking—by a goldsmith and sculptor—in the invention of Il Duomo, Firenze—in this instance, the design innovations of Filippo Brunelleschi who won a competition in 1418 to design the biggest dome in the world—without buttresses. And, perhaps to his jewelry and sculptural experience, he ideated a girding chain, which acts as a constricting belt to hold the mass of the dome as a self-contained bell.
Standing for 600 years.
Learn more of the story here—a strikingly inspired tale.
And, getting back to the beginning, three points of experiential inspiration—
the holism of placemaking kinaesthetic exemplars—look up, look out, look around—and sense the spectacular presence of the wonderment in the moment.
The patterning of placemaking, as an expression, could be in another form of detailing, the long pillars reaching to the ceiling in the arched geometry, a supporting form of curves.
I choose a simple structure, built by the community—at the remarkable pace of 55 years—in Barcelona, Spain—St. Mary’s of the Sea, dedicated to the shipwrights, sailors and maritime merchants, begun in the 9th century. The striking character of the experience, which is the most spaciously constructed of all cathedrals in Europe—the broadest internal footprint is nearly double of the size of cathedral standard dimensions. There is very little imagery in the place, which focuses the vision skyward—looking up the knave, from one end of the place to the farther vista.
With a graceful arching interplay,
the arc of the knave splays like a mystical forest.
Shooting from the floor, skyward—my misted lens—the structure
forms a narrative pattern—like the tendrils of branches.
As a person that contemplates the power of a place, and the movement through that place—its potential symbolic and allegorical character—and feelingness, it’s on the designer to be thinking about the import of what everything imparts to the visitor.
And this ranges from the most extraordinary structures, to the styling of the simplest installation. Think about the meaning, and the implications of memory.
You, consider the curves of being—in places that are well-made.
And you, what do you remember in a placemaking development?
And, to my constant question—what does it mean?
We can help you find it.
Tim | GIRVIN | Strategic Brands
Digital | Built environments by Osean | Theatrical Branding | Destination Brands
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The Western Mandala—a maze-like journey—the viewer circles the patterned narrative, a contemplative labyrinth, returning once again, to the beginning.
