Putting the Pieces Together: Engaging the Part to Create the Whole

Architecture shapes and defines the spaces of our everyday life yet we rarely pay any attention to it. The fact that we are not engaged with our surroundings has been called by some an atrophy of experience caused by technology and, more specifically, by the ever expanding ability to reproduce and distribute images and information on a massive scale.

For some, such as Walter Benjamin, this atrophy of experience is related to the decay of what Benjamin calls the ‘aura’ of a work of art. The aura is what allows us as human beings to connect and relate to the work of art giving it its sense of authenticity and uniqueness. However, with the rise of modern industrial society and the reproduced image the aura has been destroyed causing the ability of an object to catch our attention to diminish. In this sense we are disinclined to pay attention to our surroundings.

The response to this condition in many fields has been the creation of ‘shock’ value. The purpose of this is to jolt us out of our ‘distracted state’ in order to cause us to become more aware of our surroundings. However, the effect of this is merely a superficial effect and it is not the only response possible. For some the aura has not been completely destroyed and if it can be renewed in architecture we can cause the observer to once again feel an affinity with the objects around them leading to meaningful connections. The question then becomes, how do we accomplish this, and does ‘shock’ value have any role in renewing the ‘aura’ of architecture?