Spatial Diagnosis and Media Treatments By

Spatial Diagnosis and Media Treatments by

Marianthi Liapi

Submitted to the Department of Architecture on May 19, 2005 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Science in Architecture Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT:

Contemporary approaches toward the renovation of existing spaces are mainly driven by functional requirements and aesthetic purposes. While this design approach is valid, the purpose of this thesis is to develop a methodology for architects to analyze and evaluate the quality of existing spaces on a periodical basis and improve them with the use of digital media. The first part of this thesis project has a diagnostic purpose where the architect investigates historically and empirically the physical structure as well as the users’ perceived imagery of the examined space. The second part uses the diagnosis’ findings as a mapping device for the application of specific digital media, deemed appropriate for the task, and the orchestration of time-related events and information flows. The goal of this thesis, which focuses solely on public spaces for the extent of this research, is twofold. On a design level, it seeks to increase the quality of space and its potential to communicate with the users through a synergic, adaptive approach. On a research level, it seeks to bring together three diverse but not distant disciplines, those of architecture, cognitive psychology and information technology, suggesting a multi-disciplinary avenue for a retrospective design inquiry.

Thesis Supervisor: Terry Knight Title: Professor of Computation, MIT Department of Architecture

Acknowledgements

Scripta Manent, Verba Volant…

To Prof. Terry Knight, my true mentor,

To my thesis readers, Prof. William J. Mitchell and Prof. John R. Stilgoe for believing in me and for inspiring my work,

To the people from the MIT Archives, the MIT Facilities and the MIT Museum, especially to Nora Murphy, Maryla Walters, Ron Catella, Gary Van Zante and Jenny O’Neil, and to all those who provided me with the material necessary to continue my research,

To Prof. William L. Porter for his continuous support in my life at MIT, and to Edith Ackerman for her inspirational brainstormings,

To the Fulbright Program in Greece for making my stay at MIT possible through a fellowship for the academic year 2003-2004, and also to the MIT Department of Architecture for supporting financially my studies during the second year,

To my friends for being there for me at all times: Lina, Thalia, Marianthi, Costis, Maria, Stefanos, Panos, Wendy, Han, Philippe, Nikki, Akira, Nick, Jimmy, Leo and Susanne, (in order of appearance in my life)

To my family, my father Constantine, my mother Dimitra and my brother Leonidas for their unconditional love,

I wholeheartedly THANK YOU.

I want to dedicate this work to my partner in life, in love and in crime, my Kostis, for teaching me how to fly and then giving me the wings. [E G η L]

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION [09]

2. THESIS PHILOSOPHY 2.1 Architect, Space and People: The Design Trinity [13] 2.2 Architecture and Representation: Ascribing Meaning to Space [17] 2.3 Architecture and Communication: Challenging the Impression of Space [21] 2.4 Hypothesis [27] 2.5 Goals [29] 2.6 Contribution [33]

3. SPATIAL DIAGNOSIS 3.1 Overview [37] 3.2 Background Research o General Guidelines [39] o Lobby 7 Case Study [43] 3.3 Empirical Observations o General Guidelines [79] o Lobby 7 Case Study [81] 3.4 Cognitive Mapping – Questionnaire o General Guidelines [93] o Lobby 7 Case Study [99] 3.5 Diagnosis’ Findings and Conclusions [129]

4. MEDIA TREATMENTS 4.1 Overview [139] 4.2 Lobby 7: Design Directions [141] 4.3 Lobby 7: Design Goals [145] 4.4 Digital Media: Tools for Treatment [147] 4.5 Digital Media: Patterns for Treatment [155]

5. EPILOGUE [161]

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY [167]

7. APPENDICES [171] o Questionnaire - MIT COUHES Letter of Approval - Letter of Informed Consent o Sketches of Lobby 7 from the study participants o Lobby 7 Plans 1938 o Lobby 7 Renovation Proposals - Plans 2001 o Media ‘Spices’

Introduction

The impetus driving this research project is the curiosity and the eagerness of my trained architectural mind, "cursed" to continuous observation -within its capabilities- of life in the surrounding built environment, to explore the potential of space to go beyond its sheltering function and to approach an active state of communicating with people. The desired level of communication can be achieved through the synergy of the design trinity, the architect, the space and the user, pointing the way toward an architecture of participation. The vocabulary to communicate was found within the field of cognitive mapping. The notion of impression and its ability to create connections between people and space through mental images offered a fertile ground for the development of a methodology that wishes to bring the relationships formed within the trinity on a new level.

The purpose of this thesis is to diagnose the spatial characteristics, physical and perceived, that affect the experience of people in space and then propose the appropriate [digital] media treatment that will increase the quality of the examined space. The diagnosis is heavily based on the physical characteristics of space, which are investigated both historically and empirically, as well as on the users’ perceived imagery that is examined through cognitive mapping techniques. The treatment proposes the application of an add-on immaterial layer, produced by digital media, for the manifestation of time-related events and information flows.

The proposed methodology is triggered neither by functional nor by aesthetic needs but by the potential of achieving “immaterial” renovations of space. The purpose of those renovations is to reinforce the mental links that people create with space by targeting their impression. The goals of this research, which can be evaluated through their potential to improve the relationships between the architects, the people and the built environment, are: to create architectural products that have a greater, in effect and duration, impression on the users, to provide architects with a methodology for continuous, low cost renovations and, from a wider point of view, to open up the way toward thinking and practicing a participatory, synergic design process.

The validity of the diagnostic part of the proposed methodology was successfully tested within an existing public space at MIT, the lobby of the William Barton Rogers building. The part of the methodology that refers to the media treatment was based on theoretical research and upon the examples of multiple digital media projects. Testing the validity of the treatment part on actual grounds will be my next step after this thesis.

Thesis Philosophy

12 [Architect, Space and People: The Design Trinity]

"Throughout history we have lived in different spaces and architects, using different alphabets, have given them form: informal space, gestural and primitive, pre-Miletus (or pre-alphabet); the space arterialized by the Greeks and the Romans; the sacred and mystic space before Giotto; that perspective space of the Renaissance; the industrial and mechanical, analytical and non-perspective space after Cézanne. Each new space on arriving has required new principles and new alphabets that have been created through difficult, exhausting, rough but exciting processes."1

Architecture has a discreet but powerful influence on the human mind. Geometric forms and spatial relations, regardless of their complexity, gradually unfold to become evident to the thinking eye.2 Ideally, this revelation opens up the way toward evaluating the built environment. It seems though that there is something missing from this process. Neither form nor the enveloped space are enough to justify a building as a utilitarian space. Unless space is saturated with people it is not in the position to offer the architect a clear perspective of its potential as an architectural product.

The term “architectural product” per se carries a multitude of attributes. Deep into its core stands the Vitruvian3 maxim guarding the function, the structure and the beauty of the building. The attributes emerging from the core follow a hierarchy that relies solely on the architect and the way that s/he chose to utilize the tools of architectural knowledge and the technology at hand. Contemporary architectural practice reveals that the top ranks of this hierarchy are occupied by formalistic and spatial “beauty” issues rather than human-factor concerns like social

1 De Kerckhove (2001), p. 6. 2 Paul Klee, The Thinking Eye. (Documents of Modern Art). 3 De Kerckhove (2001), p. 11. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century B.C. He is the author of De Architectura, the first written work about the architectural discipline known today as The Ten Books of Architecture. In Vitruvius work, buildings are presented as "spectacles, not as places where comfort, communication, social interaction, health or other physiological considerations dominate." (…) "Vitruvius included many considerations about proportionality among the volumes and the geometry of structure, but the overall perception of the building is dominated by visualizing its façade. In other words, the building is quite literally a theory, something to look at, a theatrical construction."

13 interaction, communication, memorability4 and experience. Moreover the over-sophistication of the form for purely aesthetic reasons enters only into the realm of art.5

Despite the evolution of the design tools and the construction methods today and regardless of the development of a theoretical infrastructure that urges for a fluid, interactive design, architects today, as judged through their products, remain faithful to traditional spatial concepts. They use digital design tools as “smart” rapidographs to produce a variety of (r)evolutionary forms out of which they choose one variation that best fits a more-or-less standard building program. The proclaimed multi-dimensional design approach is nothing more than a digital translation of a multitude of factors to form.

Form itself has a “frigid” relationship with the users, solely based on numbers –for example, the number of people that will use the building- that determine various aspects of the structure. Moreover, the static nature of the built environment gradually alienates it from people. The relationship between architects and the public is also “cold” since during the design process architects seldom if ever imagine the produced space with people inside.6 Space exists only in the mind of the architect who is the only one to virtually occupy and mentally experience it prior to materialization. The architecture that people see in the end is merely a snapshot of the whole design process that fails to encapsulate wishes other than those of her creator.

Assigning gender to architecture is a much-discussed topic that will not be analyzed in depth here. However, there is a relative point that I would like to make. In both the Greek and the Latin grammar the word “architecture” is identified as a female noun. If one could stretch this argument theoretically, the approach would bear the conceptual idea that architecture is “fertilized” with ideas and consequently gives “birth” to the most potent ones. Unfortunately some of her “children” are only given the ability to perform the basic functions in order to survive and they persist to that knowledge without ever going further to understand and reach their full capabilities. For someone who sees the potential in architecture’s “children” to escape tradition and enhance their “nature,” their present state looks inert. It is like being in a state of coma, where the building is “alive” but incapable of communicating or responding to exogenous

4 The term memorability here is used to describe the degree in which the user conveys and communicates memories of the building. In Weiss & Boutourline (1962), p. 86, the term is used as “one of the most important evaluative dimensions” and describes the “extent at which an individual carries away from the Fair [the building in our case] the memory of a particular aspect or feature.” 5 Abercrombie (1984), p. 7. Abercrombie makes here a counter argument to this concept by claiming that architecture is the most familiar of all arts – but its very familiarity obscures our vision of it as an art, since we cannot escape the burden of all the aesthetically irrelevant information about architecture. “Architecture is the unavoidable art” we not only see it, too often, but we also use it. 6 Exception to the rule maybe the “dummies” placed in renderings at the structure’s hotspots.

14 factors. It only grows older as time goes by. It is an inert shell that unfortunately cannot feel its surroundings or the energy that runs through it.

People are the energy unit for the building. During their existence they use space and through space they exist.7 This relationship defines space as it is conceived at present. Without people a building is like a machine lacking the power to operate (or a non-efficient machine or a very bulky one like the first computers) or even exist. It is a variation of the philosophical notion of what does really exist if people are not there to experience it.8 Without people the building fails to achieve its prime principal to shelter human activities; it is not “working”. It is inanimate.

The paradox though is that this feeling of inertia remains even when people actually occupy space. The “liveliness” of a building is the direct effect of the people’s actions in it. The actual building does not make anything by itself,9 unless an external factor –people– move its elements (like the puppeteer moves the inanimate puppets). From the first steps of the conceptualization in the mind of the architect the building is also inert. It could be argued that after a stage of fluidity during a form-finding process the intent is to “freeze” and produce something inert. To continue the argument, the deliverable of the design process is the materialization of a mental image generated in the mind of the architect with the most promising form to fit a building program.

Within this frame, the produced form is intended to express the architect’s metaphors and subsequently to impress the people rather to be occupied by them. This practice is valid for an art piece where there is not everyday exposure to it and the initial impression lasts in memory. But for a building, being just a snapshot of the architect’s design performance can trigger only a temporal interest in the mind of the users (suitable though for buildings that are addressed to ephemeral users like museums). The duration of this first impression is intimately linked with the elaboration of the form and the decoration.10 The more interesting the form and the decoration are, the longer this first impression will last. But this is an ephemeral glory. After the users realize that there is nothing else to see, nothing to engage them longer with space, they cease

7 Norberg-Schulz (1988), p. 193. "As 'existence', man is evidently something more than a thing among things. He is also in the world as 'mood', 'understanding,' 'discourse' and as 'being-with' others." (…) The term "mood" is used to describe the immediate state-of-mind with which man identifies his environment. The word "understanding" describes the cognitive mechanisms with which man orientates in space. The word "discourse" denotes the communication of meaning with which man expresses the spatial characteristics of a situation. The term "being-with" refers to the structures of social interaction that a man shares with other people. 8 It is somehow like the tree in the forest concept. Does it make a sound when it falls if there is no one there to hear it? 9 Automatic doors and climate control systems may be considered as activities of a building. 10 After the Modern movement the word ornamentation was detached from architecture. It acquired a new name, decoration, and associated its meaning with the idea of personalizing one’s space.

15 to “pay attention” to the building itself. They move it conceptually in the background as a fixed, familiar stage for their everyday activities, while they save memory and energy for computing other aspects of everyday life.11

Does this mean that people become blind after multi-use? Or does this mean that architects design only for that first impression? What is the characteristic of space that creates in the first place the plateau to facilitate people’s impressions? The answer lies in the notion of representation.

11 Milgram (1970), pp.1463-1464.

16 [Architecture and Representation: Ascribing Meaning to Space]

If one attempts to reintroduce the dimensions of architecture, then representation would be one of them. The primary element of architecture, its first "dimension," is function: architecture must shelter human activities. In the simplest image that the human mind recollects, a building must stand up, protect from the elements and provide spaces that people can use for their daily needs.12 When this condition is satisfied, the architectural creation must meet further needs, determined by the society within which it is produced; it must elevate its importance from something “acceptable” to a masterpiece. As societies became more advanced and sophisticated over the centuries, those needs increased and a continuous elaboration of form and decoration emerged, affecting human memory and experience through a process of representation. This constitutes the second dimension of architecture.

Representation is an add-on layer in architectural design that creates landmarks in space meant to convey messages, passively, to the human user. The form of the structure transmits more abstract messages and it aims toward an overall impression. Decoration has a more personalized nature since it is usually closer to the human scale in size and moreover it encompasses a multiplicity of details that can “tell” a story to each one of the users. Decoration bears a direct meaning, that of impression, and it is able to deliver it because of its scale and proximity to the actual user.

The importance of built space as a representational medium can be traced back into the history of architecture. By researching the period between the Medieval Ages and the early 20th century one will come across a cycle in the representational manifestations with which architecture chose to convey messages, directly or indirectly: from the undecorated spirituality of the medieval times, to the cornucopia of the Baroque, to the undecorated functionality of Modernism.13 The interesting aspect of this cycle is the twofold character of representation revealing a tension between the material (appealing to the physical world of the body) and the immaterial (appealing to the virtual world of the mind) nature of architecture.

The material nature of architecture is connected with the logic of structures, their exact form and the metric relationships between their components. It assigns order and properties to space and it is responsible for producing a functional environment. The immaterial nature of architecture is connected with the general form of structures, their symbolism as well as with the feeling or

12 Liapi, Marianthi (2005). “Representation and Space: the Quest for the Total Medium.” Paper submitted at the MIT CMS.801 class “Media in Transition.” 13 Ibid.

17 overall sensation that their spatial elements produce: the sense of height, the sense of width, the sense of light, the sense of comfort, of awe and so on. It assigns character and qualities to space and it responsible for facilitating memories and experience.

The aspect of representation that is connected with the material nature of architecture is responsible for creating a very simple but very definite environment where "what you see is what you get." The message at this point is clear, being formed by metric and functional values, and thus providing people with very specific and commonly identifiable points of reference. The immaterial nature of architecture provides people with multifarious stimuli and consequently with diverse, more personalized points of reference. The greater the multiplicity of a space (eg. Baroque architecture), the greater the possibility for people is to identify themselves with diverse points of reference, rendering the environment legible, familiar and secure. Furthermore, the abundance of signifiers leads the mind to an explorative loop through them, a fact that increases the period of interest in space.

From the beginning of the 20th century and onwards, the dogma of the Modern Movement gave an unprecedented impetus to the functional role of architecture. The Modernists’ movement, expressed through the theories of the Deutscher Werkbund,14 tried to cope more pragmatically with the idea of progress in society towards industrialization and the beautiful simplicity of the machine, the clarity and dynamism of physics and the dynamic social movements that declared unification and equalization for all. In general, modernism dismissed the notion of decorative elements15 and tried to represent abstractly the aforementioned beliefs with clear, dynamic, interlocking forms, with priority to function. The core ideas of the movement were revolving around the clarity of the form, adaptability and the abilities of a well-formed construction.16,17

Louis Sullivan’s dictum "form follows function"18 guided architects to the design of functional, useful forms as the only means capable of communicating a clear message. Simplicity

14 Risebero (1979), p. 230. “In 1907, the Deutscher Werkbund was formed in Germany by an association of architects, designers and artists concerned with the application of higher design standards to industrial products and of industrial techniques to building design. The need to come to terms with the industrialists evoked a more cautious architectural approach." 15 Decoration was considered a symbol of the aristocratic era poised to visualize the social gap. 16 Risebero (1979), pp. 258-260. 17 Modernism tried to drive back the romanticism of the pre-scientific era. It was broadly accepted because after the World War II classical and pompous design was considered a tool in the hands of oppressive regimes while modernism was rooted to democratic beliefs. This “democratic” design though never let down the deterministic nature of design. People were not participating to it; they were represented in the architects’ mind as part of the building program. Architects still made the decisions for them. 18 Risebero (1979), p. 219. “Louis Sullivan’s famous dictum 'form follows function' (…) means that honesty of expression is an essential pre-condition in the creation of a beautiful building.”

18 prevailed, while ornament became a crime.19 The "hard" line though that was promoted by Modernism20 and the evident lack of "meaning," degraded its influence.21 People longed for a more personalized and intriguing space, accusing the modern for covering everything in rugged concrete. Criticism rose and so did Post-Modernism, presenting an agenda to reinstate the lost dimension,22 but met little success.23 With a few exceptions, architecture witnessed the degradation of its representational value and gradually stepped back in the background, allowing for the "worship" of the object.24

Architects joined this impetus from an early start with their involvement in designing furniture. Contemporary tendency in the creation and possession of objects is directly traced to the attributes that these products have, developing the sense of indispensability if one possesses plenty of them. They can be autonomous and they can engage their users by connecting them with places outside “the space around the body.”25 Objects gradually became essential for a standard way of living that appreciated those qualities.

The modern movement may have “suppressed” architects’ appetite for decoration, but on the other hand, it gave architecture a new direction to perceive and treat her products as machines. It is a fact that people have always been demanding regarding the machines they use during their everyday life activities –computers, cars, household appliances and so on. It is also a fact that the respective companies that produce those machines are putting a huge effort into making their products “better” in quality both in terms of aesthetics and of function. The reason: to keep their customers “happy” and “satisfied.” The customers are the users of the products and the most important source for the companies to derive evaluations from. Through a

19 Rybczynski (1986), p. 199. In 1908, Adolf Loos, a functionalist architect wrote a manifesto titled "Ornament and Crime" where he "advocated the abolition of all ornament from everyday life, including from architecture and from interior decoration." "He equated the urge to ornament with primitivism" in a modern world where industrialization prevailed. 20 Norberg-Schulz (1988), p. 17. "This attitude is clearly expressed in Hannes Mayer’s words from 1928: ‘everything in this world is a product of this formula (function times economy); all art is composition and therefore unfunctional; all life is function and therefore unartistic.’" 21 Norberg-Schulz (1988), p. 13. 22 Norberg-Schulz (1988), p. 181. Post modernism mainly wanted to be free from the strict code modernists had imposed. 23 Kotsiopoulos (1985), p. 217. The main view of today’s critics is that the “dogmas of modernism impoverished architecture.” Contemporary architectural practice and theory should try to oppose these principles by re-discovering meaning. Personally, I understand meaning as the missing element of architecture in order to become more powerful in the representational value. 24 People love objects because they feel engaged to them. They carry meanings and memories while they have the unique ability to render an impersonal space familiar upon their placement in it. 25 Tversky (2003), pp. 70-71. “(…) the space around the body is conceived-of three-dimensionally from a reference frame based on extensions of the three major body axes, head/feet, front/back, and left/right.” The head/feet and the front/back axes are faster to perceive and relate objects, while the left/right one is the slowest.

19 continuous loop of design – estimation – production – use – evaluation – feedback – reproduction (…), product design demonstrates successfully not only how users get priority in the process but also how their participation is for the benefit and the evolution of the product.

What about the architectural products? How could people communicate their demands for a better quality of space? Do they aspire only for a protective, functional space? Is there a pedagogic attempt for the people to learn or get familiar with what they could expect from their space?

20 [Architecture and Communication: Challenging the Impression of Space]

My personal experience provided me with a plateau where I could start to organize those thoughts and try to isolate and identify the gap. As a person strongly attached to the concept of communication, soon I realized that this could be the third dimension of architecture: an unhindered flow of communication not only between the users and the architects but also between the users and the space itself. I started to cultivate this idea ever since my first year at MIT. During the SMArchS Colloquium I tried to frame a research hypothesis in my own manifesto:

“Human life is expanding. Not because medicine has extended our life span. The impetus that generates this expansion is the streaming flow of information in the surrounding environment. People today are subjected to multiple and multifarious stimuli that increase their "input" and therefore amplify the amount of their lived experiences. We live "more" and we learn "more" than our forebears did in the same period of time. Paradoxically architecture has only been a passive spectator in the twofold (in quality and quantity) "upgrade" of the human nature. Architecture did not expand. Even though engineering has improved the construction methods. The impediment that causes this stagnation is the inert character of the emerging space. Architecture, beguiled by the form “candy” and the trends of a retinal society, is producing inanimate shelters that remain lifeless unless we charge and customize them with our own emotions and memories.”26

Communication is the key element toward an architecture of participation. On the one hand, the word communication is pointing toward a synergic design process where architects and users engage themselves in a productive loop of spatial renovations. On the other hand, this third dimension embodies the missing element that would dynamically bring architecture out of its comatose state by providing space with the vocabulary to communicate with its users. Communication is by definition an interactive process that could definitely render space more intriguing for its users, challenging their interests and impressions constantly.

26 Liapi, Marianthi (2003). “Manifesto.” Paper presented at the 2003-2004 SMArchS Colloquium at MIT.

21 Being intrigued by the idea of having a “live” surrounding that could communicate with me and inspired by the engagement that digital art installations and computer games could achieve with their spectators, I began to investigate the possibilities that would get me closer to this approach. I decided for a start to get out of the designer’s domain and for a while to observe spaces as a demanding user that wants the quality of the spatial surroundings increased. The spaces I chose for this preliminary approach were MIT’s Infinite Corridor and the Lobby of MIT’s Building 7. Their unique nature as multicultural plateaus of everyday activities gave them a special fascination that actually proved to be a “rich” information field. In the process I begun to share my observations with other people, fellow colleagues as well as non-architects, and soon it became evident that we were all having different points of view even though our objective points of spatial reference were the same.27 Although this is a well-known fact in the domain of cognitive science, in my research it meant to be one of the key elements for the pursuing of my goals.

Going deeper into the domain of cognitive science, one would discover that in order for our mind to comprehend what the body is involved with, it must extend28 a mental virtual projection from a central point, a "nullpunkt,"29 around a space that is reconstructed into the mind through points of reference that are considered either important (because of their scale) or meaningful (because of their context) or both. These “landmarks” give stimuli to the human senses and to the human intellect and help people to begin their immersed exploration of "their" world. Those points of reference constitute conceptual beacons that in total participate in the creation of our unique mental images. Architecture has always been the catalyst in this process, as it constitutes the medium that provides space with structured points of reference through its second dimension, representation.

27 Virilio (1996), p.7. “Everyone knows that for human beings, as for every living species, the ability to communicate is the indispensable condition of being in the world, that is, of survival. It is an innate ability that normally enables us to distinguish between our immediate environment and the representations we make of it, our mental imagery.” 28 Bergson (1988), p. 245. For Bergson, "extensity is the most salient quality of perception." It is the creation of an abstract space related to consciousness that can "unfold a series of changes of which the relations and the order exactly correspond to the relations and the order of our representations. In this ‘space’ we visualize our action and in return we get reconstituted images from affective sensations." According to Bergson, after the spatial surroundings are perceived, we reconstitute meaning and memories through the extension of our cultural background. The memories we construct are the vague images from the translation of the seen objects. A rich visual environment is charged with meaning that will leave a long lasting impression and subsequently a more meaningful memory or sensation. A high representational architectural space succeeds, in this manner, in delivering its message with the proper acquaintance to the customs of the society that produced it. 29 Jormakka (2002), p. 76. According to Husserl "the body is always the Nullpunkt, the zero point of space: ‘Thanks to the body, I am the center of things, an Ichzentrum with a body unlike any other, a Nullkörper.’”

22 It was clear from the conversations I had that we all performed a different cognitive mapping30 in our mind inside the same physical structure of space that deployed in front of us, and shared some common landmarks31 that could be identified as the objective spatial points of reference. These points could be characterized as being imprinted in our mind, connected with a certain space and being the first thing that pops-up when this space is mentioned; a “caricature” of the actual space, an impression.32 Cognitive structures are actually responsible for the creation of this impression of space. In the human mind, space does not really exist with the actual, objective dimensions of its form but instead it is recomposed conceptually with subjective dimensions perceived through experience.

This description brings to mind the process behind the work of the impressionists33 during the late 19th century who were deeply concerned to capture on their canvases the personal and subjective sensations that a landscape produced through the passage of time rather than reproduce the exact image of the landscape for its own sake. The definite form of a finished structure is only in the position to create an one-time sensation to its users that will gradually wear out with continuous exposure to it. What will it take for the architect to remain true to that sensation of the building? How can architecture maintain an engaging impression for a longer period of time?

The domain of contemporary art installations is replete with examples of projects created with digital media that focus more on the impression created in the human mind rather than the actual form (or non-form) of the art piece. Movement is an intrinsic part of those art pieces, either it is manifested mechanically or graphically on a display. The discreet difference in the case of digital art installations that distances them from architecture is that, on one hand they are like parasites within the building organism, that crave to steal all the attention from the surrounding space rendering it a dull, unimportant background, and on the other hand they hinder the actual usage of space by creating anomalies and singularities creating “traffic”. The

30 Freundschuh & Kitchin (2000), p.1. According to the work of Downs and Stea, (1973) “cognitive mapping is a process composed of a series of psychological transformations by which an individual acquires, stores, recalls, and decodes information about the relative locations and attributes of the phenomena in his everyday spatial environment.” 31 Tversky (2000), p. 26. In any actual environment, certain elements are more prominent than others, perhaps because of perceptual salience or perhaps because of functional significance. These elements are called “cognitive reference points.” 32 Descartes in his Optics talks about the “sensory awareness of the soul” claiming that the feeling, the impression of an object is more important for people than the actual image of it formed in their minds. “The problem is to know simply how [images] can enable the soul to have sensory awareness of all the various qualities of the objects to which they correspond.” 33 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism

23 challenging objective would be to plan and design the mutation of those parasites into symbiotic organisms that would act in favor of the hosting spatial environment. Art and architecture could become intimately linked for on more time34 with the transition from art installations to architectural applications.

Having a defined objective and a potential medium to reach it, I decided to go deeper into exploring my impressions of spaces around me, try to organize them concisely and perform a sound research. In order to be able to evaluate this preliminary research, both quantitatively and qualitatively, I narrowed my focus inside MIT’s Lobby 7. The Institute’s entrance on 77 Mass. Av.35 was the first space I experienced when I first came to MIT. It was a huge though impressive lobby, looking over to me. I scanned it thoroughly; read the inscription, stared at the patterned ceiling, the skylight, the balconies, and the glass façade. That was the entrance to MIT, my entrance. My memory of that first time though lacks completely the presence of people. I have a feeling of other people’s presence but it is very vague. It was my personal moment of pride and excitement lived through an architect’s eyes; scanning the form, observing the spatial elements, creating connections for my psyche.

I tried to recall all of these connections for the sake of my observations. They were my personal links with Lobby 7, without space actually doing something particular to foster and preserve them. The only element from Lobby 7 that remained alive in my memory is the glass façade. It has this distinct feature of tracing the passage of time through the movement of shadows that follow religiously every day of the year the trajectory of the sun. The shifting images of the shadows on the floor are a form of primal communication between the space and me. Soon I realized the repetitiveness in the message with some slight variations due to seasonal changes in the position of the sun. But that wasn’t an issue. A revelation was lying on the floor of an inanimate space. The combination of time and movement formed a key to unlock the potential of space to communicate with its users. This becomes more evident during the night when the momentary and transient aspects of sunlight are no longer there to feed my impression. Lobby 7 is standing still, lofty but empty of life, longing for the next day to come.

There is one more thing lying between the lines of this narration. It has to do with the rest of the Lobby 7 space that does not get animated by the changing qualities of light. That space is almost invisible in the products of my mental process. As a result of a continuous, unchanging

34 Risebero (1979), pp. 134,146-7. During the Baroque period, the need for expressive flexibility marked the necessity for the merging of architecture with the arts. Discoveries of findings from the Antiquity, which exhibited the elaborate ornamentation the ancients used to express their cultures, strengthened all aspects around this merging. 35 That would be 77 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA, the official address of MIT.

24 exposure, its spatial characteristics are being taken for granted. The absence of movement and time-related events has gradually placed it in the background. The mind doesn’t have to perform any more calculations about it since it is a well-known, fixed entity. Movement, therefore, seems to be the catalyst for a spatial characteristic to be inscribed in the books of human memory.

26 [Hypothesis]

The purpose of this thesis is to propose a methodology for architects to diagnose36 the spatial state of an existing building structure and then suggest the appropriate [digital] media treatment that will increase the quality of the examined space by adding on it an immaterial layer. The diagnosis is heavily based on the physical characteristics of space, which are investigated both historically and empirically, as well as on the users’ perceived characteristics that are examined through questionnaires and other cognitive mapping techniques. The part of the methodology identified here as “treatment” proposes the application of digital media37 for the actualization of the add-on layer and the manifestation of time-related events and information flows in space. The intervention is carefully planned so as to respect the initial design intent without imposing on the existing architecture of the examined space. Any type of building that is being used by people, regardless of its architecture, has already acquired significance in their minds that should be well thought-of and respected during the suggested renovation process. The highest objective of the media treatment is to help space reach its fine-tuning potential, by engaging the users and the building in dialectic relationships, while maintaining their interest at increased levels.

Some might argue that architects have by education and by “professional expertise” the ability to evaluate the spaces that they design. By studying and practicing the production of space, they are trained to process all the pieces of information involved in the design of a new spatial environment. From this point of view, the evaluation is a process that runs parallel with the design process, as the architects turn down ideas and proceed determined with the application of the most potent ones. In my opinion, this parallel process can be better identified as “estimation” rather than “evaluation,” for architects are not in the position to evaluate their own products because of their connection with them. They can only estimate and strive for a successful result. Once space is produced, its most potent evaluation body is that of its users once they start to occupy the building. The word ‘design’ embodies the definition of the word ‘estimation’ in the sense that architects balance the weight of the information by using their own unique data-scale. The precision of this data-scale is getting better with time and experience but it could never reach the perfection of a similar data-scale modeled right after the users’

36 http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=diagnosis Diagnosis (from the Greek words dia = by and gnosis = knowledge) is the act of identifying a problem by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic procedures. The conclusion reached through that process is also called a diagnosis. 37 The idea of using digital media here is inspired by a multitude of facts, the most important of which refer to their abilities to be fully controlled by a single computer, to be programmed for time-related events, to communicate messages and to adapt to various spatial conditions inexpensively.

27 evaluations. Of course architects can evaluate, better than other professions maybe, but only as users.

Architects ‘estimate’ by using various techniques, in different stages of the design process, based on the decisions that are to be made. A list of those techniques includes visualizations like rough sketches, 2d and 3d drawings (plans, sections, elevations, perspective and isometric views), scale models, photomontages, computer renderings and animations as well as samples of the actual building materials. Even if one agrees that the architect has initially imagined the complete building structure as a whole with all the details, still the aforementioned visualization techniques are distant from reality and therefore not enough to justify the presence of the word ‘evaluation’ in the initial design process. Even in the next stages of design, where the architect can actually experience space and observe its relations with the people, still the approach will be viewed as ‘estimation’ since it cannot reach the maturity of a synergic approach that incorporates the users. There will always be a gap that can only be bridged with the valuable input from the users who derive information directly from memory and experience of the physical built space. It is imperative here to clarify the fact that the architect will always be the one to take the final design decisions by balancing and processing all the bits and pieces of information at hand.

28 [Goals]

The objective of this thesis is to go beyond the formalistic approach of design in contemporary architecture and propose a methodology for a holistic, synergic design38 approach that aims toward the ‘celebration of the body and the contentment of the mind’ and not just the ephemeral pleasures of the retina. The desirable design approach will be participatory in the sense that both space and users will be in the position and also will have the means to provide the architect with the feedback necessary to proceed to adaptive loops.

Those loops resemble the process of continuous production-evaluation employed in the product design domain. In the case of architecture, these loops would follow a pattern like this:

[the beginning] Conceptualization and design of space –

Architect’s estimation –

Construction

[loop 01] Users’ evaluation of space –

Feedback to the architect from the users –

Architect’s own empirical observations –

Retrospective design –

Architect’s estimation –

Renovation: “immaterial” intervention with the use of digital media

[loop 02] Users’ evaluation of the new intervention –

Feedback to the architect from the users –

Feedback to the architect from space (through digital media) –

Architect’s new empirical observations

…

[loop v] …

38 http://www.m-w.com. Synergetic or synergic (syn- + ergon work): from Greek synergein, that is to work with, to cooperate.

29 These loops describe the process of a retrospective design inquiry where the architect adopts a new approach toward renovating existing buildings. The proposed renovations are triggered neither by functional nor by aesthetic needs but by the potential of “immaterial” interventions, the solid purpose of which is to nurture and enhance the positive impressions of people about space while eliminating the negative ones. The possibility for the architect to get feedback, prior to the intervention, from both the space (indirectly with research and empirical observations) and the people who actually utilize it (directly through interviews/questionnaires) secures the result of the renovation for all the parties involved. Renovations, as they are planned today, only “shake things up” temporarily until everything returns to its initial inert state. It is like throwing pebbles in the sea. For a moment one can see that all the fish are gathering around them, thrilled by the idea that something happened, waiting for something new, until they realize that it was only a disturbance in the placidity of the water surface.

Initially, the proposed methodology is targeted for spatial interventions in existing building structures. It is a synergic design approach where the very ideas of collaboration and participation take effect in continuous loops of adaptive interventions that aim to increase the quality of space and consequently the quality and duration of the experience of people in it. By “definition” the methodology is intimately linked with the users of the building, valuing them as the most important source of the diagnosis’ cognitive findings. So unless the building is materialized and the users move in and occupy it for a period of time, this methodology cannot take affect.

The suggested type of renovation can become a tool in the architects’ hands and help them design not only the form but also the impression of it on people and consequently their experience in space. Preliminary research indicated that the best mediums to employ for this design inquiry are digital media, for they are the most promising means toward the following goals:

1. Create architectural products that have a greater impression on the users. Digital media in this case can assist in rendering space more intriguing for the people and thus increase the time that they spend in their surrounding environment before they get used to it.

2. Achieve a participatory, synergic design process. Digital media, in the form of art installations, indicated in the first place the way to approach the human user, the spectator in their case, by knowingly aiming to the creation of impressions rather than being “self-absorbed” with their own form.

30 3. Provide a method where continuous renovations can be realized for a very low cost. Based on the hypothesis, in order to change space the architect could just change the impression of it in people’s minds. Since the best means toward creating and consequently manipulating impressions are digital media, the proposed “immaterial” renovations can be achieved at a much lower cost than that of a physical renovation39 of the material elements of space.

4. Open up the way for thinking and practicing design as a series of adaptive loops. Based on the abilities of digital media to be programmed and to store information, the designer will be in the position to retrieve diagnostic data from the add-on media layer installed into the examined space. This diagnostic data could give feedback not only about space but also about the people in space through tracing and other semiotic methods.

Since the proposed methodology is rendering an adaptive design process, after architecture adopts and initiates its implementation, it is my belief that some of the diagnosis’ problems will start to appear constantly in diverse cases. That could form a recommendation for architects to provide solutions for those problems from conceptualization, and bring that way their design practice to an advanced new stage.

39 This statement is targeting renovations that aim to please the feelings of people in space. It excludes of course cases where physical renovations are taking place in order to fix the protective layer of space.

32 [Contribution]

The methodology described in this thesis was inspired by the idea of architecture acquiring and utilizing the dimension of communication. The first step toward an architecture of communication is to be taken by the architect. The story behind the diagnosis is that the design process is never fulfilled. It should not end with the materialization of the building but it should continue to take place in the form of adaptive sequences. What this thesis is suggesting is that architects should help their discipline to get rid of its self-appreciated image and get connected with the public that utilizes its products. By appreciating the lessons of a consumerists’ society, architecture should emulate the communication skills of the market and get in touch with the users. People are the energy unit of the building that needs to run through its spaces, like electricity runs through machines, and render them alive. How is it possible that architecture still maintains the idea of incorporating the users in the design process only as numbers? Why do architects facilitate the users’ opinion only in certain stages of the initial design process?

The desire to go beyond those impediments impregnated the idea of the diagnosis process in the first place. The result is that people become intimately linked with the evolution of the building by participating with their memories and their experience of the examined space in continuous renovations. Their cognitive mapping of space informs the architect of spatial characteristics and problems that s/he didn’t think of initially. The architect is facing the opportunity to learn more about both the space and the people for whom space is designed.

The paradox around the proposed renovations is that they can be achieved immaterially. Since the objective is not to change the form but the impression of the form in people’s minds, the solution lies in the use of digital media technologies. Audio and mainly visual applications will be placed in strategic positions indicated in the first place during the diagnostic part by the user’s perceived imagery and the architects’ own observations. Although the domain of information technology is still overwhelming for the architectural practice, the proposed methodology can be used as a tool for a controlled application of digital media.

There is also the pedagogical aspect of this thesis that targets the users in an attempt to show them how to be more conscious about the built environment that hosts their everyday activities. People should learn what to expect in terms of the quality of space and how they could help the architect get closer to a point of fine-tuning it.

By bringing together the three diverse, but not entirely distant, disciplines of architecture, cognitive science and information technology in a continuous, adaptive design process and by

33 establishing the presence of the human user in the mind of the architect, I am confident that this thesis provides the plateau for the development of a vocabulary with which space will be in the position to communicate actively –not through representation only- with people. It is time that architecture ceases to suffocate into her comatose state of inertia. “By incorporating multiple dimensions, architecture will expand in all directions, create “lungs” and finally breathe at the sight of a new communication era.”40

40 Liapi, Marianthi (2003). “Manifesto.” Paper presented at the 2003-2004 SMArchS Colloquium at MIT.

Spatial Diagnosis

36 [Overview]

The concept of the diagnosis in general describes a process employed upon the emergence of a problem in order to identify it, understand it and confront it. It involves researching the history of the problematic situation, examining the present state for signs and symptoms around its occurrence and formulating a hypothesis on how to deal with it. It is a fluid process that adapts every time to the information revealed.

The concept of the spatial diagnosis seeks to examine and understand all the aspects around the problematic relationship between the space, the architect and the user that has direct consequences on their communication. The objective is to form a hypothesis on how to restore communication on the best level possible, affecting at the same time the nature of the relationship.

The process in this case is deployed in the form of a methodology that involves three stages of investigation. The first stage is about examining the history of the space, from conceptualization, to implementation and up to the present state. A research on the architect’s background will provide the investigation with important information that may or may not be found in the history of the building. The second stage involves the empirical observation, from the part of the researcher, (who may or may not be the architect) of the examined space. The researcher works in-field and observes the effect that time and people have on the examined space. S/he also observes the actions and the behavior of people in space through time. During the third stage, the researcher investigates through interviews and/or questionnaires how people experience and remember the examined the space.

The proposed methodology was tested on actual grounds and in particular inside Lobby 7 at MIT.

Painting of MIT’s Lobby 7 by Tim Moore. It was featuring on the MIT homepage on March 17th, 2005.

38 [Background Research :: General guidelines]

The first step of the diagnosis’ process is to learn more about the background of the examined space. The findings are crucial in the sense that they are part of a process that structured the building’s identity in the first place. During the building’s “life-time,” the original design intentions, along with a record of significant events, load the spatial characteristics of the building with ‘meanings’ that are forever imprinted in the mind of its users.41 Usually, as a (logical) rule of thumb, the older a building is, the more complex and interesting its identity would be. Regardless of that, people and their activities in space are after all the catalyst that will turn a space into a “place,” and not the intervention of an architect.42 It would be safe then to say that the identity of any space today is a mutation of the architect’s original design intent, which was initially affected by the needs and desires of the clients and ever since the materialization of the structure, by the actions of the users in it. The objective of this research is to unveil the stages of this mutation.

Every building has its own distinct features that must be researched through appropriate paths. The architect proceeds in this research with resources generally found in libraries and archives as well as through the Internet. Interviews with the people involved with the design and the construction process (if possible), as well as reviews on the building written by users or by other researchers, form a good inventory toward the creation of an up-to-date narrative for the examined space. In the case of old buildings with historical significance, the approach requires the support of additional bibliographical references, anecdotes and regional traditions that would cover all aspects ever recorded about the building. Input from more than one generation of users in this case will enrich the researcher’s findings toward a more eloquent narrative.

It would be scholar though to avoid isolating the research in a framework around the history of the building. In order to create a complete “building profile” it is recommended that the researcher investigates biographical information for the architect as well as information around the client that may have produced a certain image in the local society or, as in the case of MIT, globally. Regarding the architect, it is important to explore the personal and educational background, the environments s/he was exposed to, the influences s/he received in the

41 There is a specific column, for example, inside the Hagia Sofia temple in Constantinople that has a hole in it, created by the last Byzantine Emperor during the fall of the city to the invading Turkish army. This specific column acquired an elevated significance for the people who have visited the temple ever since, as they all touch it and put their fingers inside the hole. 42 Lawson (1999), pp. 230. As Aldo van Eyck puts it, the process of rendering a space as a place “is done not so much by architects as by the people that inhabit space with their activities.”

39 formation of a design philosophy as well as conceptual and realized projects. Information on the aforementioned categories could provide with a reliable understanding of what directed the architect toward end-decisions. It is quite important in this process to try and reconstruct (for an old building) or identify (for a new one) the spatial “vocabulary”43 of the architect in order to decipher and consequently to understand the design. This category of findings are crucial for the treatment phase of this methodology as they provide the researcher with design guidelines to respect the existing architecture of the examined space and moreover, to help the users “read” the building on a more sophisticated level than they did before. The investigation around the story of the client should be mainly directed towards understanding the reasons that led to the commission of the project in the first place.

The architect(s) and the client(s) are the first people to participate in the creation of any space. They are the “parents.” The story behind the background research is to try and find out which one of them the building “resembles” more, meaning whose ideas prevailed in the design process. Rarely though the initial design is realized without a variable number of alterations. This process should be investigated thoroughly since it provides the final form of the actual space. Usually an abundance of data exists that describes the final product. There is also the formal and informal correspondence between the involved parties, as well as records of the reaction of the public. The same process should be repeated in the case of renovations that affected the present state of the ‘place.’

As it was pointed out earlier, the space created by the architect, the client and the constructor, gradually evolves into a ‘place’ through the activities of people in it. The examination of this slow-pace procedure, that resembles a fermentation process, is the final stage of the background research. With this effort, specific characteristics of space emerge that can be considered as “historical” landmarks. These special elements will be combined with the “mental” landmarks that will be identified in a later step of the diagnosis in order to create a map with the specific signifiers that turned the space to a particular ‘place’. This path will lead the researcher to the recording of the present state.

From this point on, the elements that constitute space will be identified and described in the traditional architectural way and that means “frozen” and isolated from the immediate presence of people. It is a process where structural, decorative, and other elements of space are numerically and objectively recorded to form the platform upon which the diagnosis findings are

43 All architects eventually develop a language to communicate and a syntax to convey their design ideas. Peter Eisenman, for example, published a book called “Diagram Diaries” to help people understand his diagram-based approach to architecture.

40 built. The critical element of time and its traces on space will be examined thoroughly in the next stage of the diagnosis process, the empirical observation.

An example of how this research can be conducted is deployed in the following section.

42 [Background Research :: Lobby 7 Case Study]

[The story of the architect]

(happiness is) “…The state of mind of a man who has found something great to lose himself in...”

William Welles Bosworth44

Lobby 7, or to be more precise, the William Barton Rogers Building, was built in 1938 by William Welles Bosworth, the same architect who designed the main building complex of MIT in 1916.

Bosworth was a prominent figure of his era, distinguished throughout his lifetime for both his architectural and his social services, especially in France. He was awarded the French title of the Commander of The National Order of the Legion of Honor and the French Cross of the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (one of the few Americans ever to receive such honors). For several years he served as the secretary-general of the Franco-American Society for Portrait of William Welles Bosworth (1868 – 1966) the Restoration of Monuments and during World War II, [_source:_http://libraries.mit.edu/archi ves/exhibits/pageant/portraits.html ] he was the chairman of the Paris Committee of the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

He was a member of the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Mayflower Descendents, the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects and numerous French architectural organizations. He was also the recipient of the National Academician Gold Metal of the Pan American Exposition of 1928.45

44 Source: Letter from W. W. Bosworth to the President of MIT Dr Karl. T. Compton, October 7, 1936. [Collection AC4, B16, F5. “Architecture Building, 1936-37,” MIT Archives]. 45 Sources: [1] Jarzombek (2004), p. 58. [2] Announcement from the office of Public Relations, MIT, June 4, 1966, p. 4. [Folder: MIT Cambridge Campus, Building 7, MIT Museum]. [3] Hess (1965) [MC162, B1, F4/5 (77-93), “Clippings with Bosworth,” MIT Archives].

43 [Education]

Bosworth received his early training at the Marietta Academy in Ohio. In 1889, he graduated from the MIT Department of Architecture, having formed a design approach that was “close to the neo-medievalist and arts-and-crafts style.“46 The same year he was employed by the Frederick Law Olmsted office.47 In 1896, he moved to Europe were initially he spent several months in the British Museum in London studying classical architecture. According to Marc Jarzombek, it was there where he met the Dutch-born, Victorian classical painter Lawrence Alma Tadema, whose influence was evident in Bosworth’s future work. The same year Bosworth entered the École des Beaux Arts in Paris where after three years, at the age of 20, he received both the M.A. and the LL.D degrees.48

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Spring. 1894. Oil on canvas. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, USA.

46 Jarzombek (2004), p. 58. 47 http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/hli/pioneer1.htm 48 Source: Announcement from the office of Public Relations, MIT, June 4, 1966, p. 1. [Folder: MIT Cambridge Campus, Building 7, MIT Museum].

44 [Projects]

Upon his return to the United States in 1900, Bosworth was employed by the Carrère and Hastings firm, which in 1901 participated in the design of the Pan American Exhibition in Buffalo and in 1905 designed the NY public Library.49 In 1906, Bosworth was introduced to John D. Rockefeller Jr., an acquaintance that skyrocketed his career. Bosworth became Rockefeller’s personal architect, a position that secured him the commission of notable projects, including the headquarters of the American Telephone and Telegraph Building (AT&T) in NY in 1911, as well as the MIT main building complex in 1916.50 After World War I, Bosworth was commissioned to supervise the Rockefeller-funded reconstruction of the Palace of Versailles and the restoration of the Rheims Cathedral in France. His portfolio also includes the design of the Rockefeller- supported Egyptian Museum in Cairo (a never-realized museum for Egyptian antiquities), the American Students Social Center for the American Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1935), many private residences, as well as the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills and the family’s residence in New York.51

The American Telephone and Telegraph Building (AT&T), 195 Broadway, NY. [_source: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/LM/LM069.htm ]

49 Jarzombek (2004), pp. 60-61. According to Jarzombek, Bosworth was made responsible for the general layout of the exhibition in Buffalo. “With its broad inverted T-shaped central court, it was a forerunner of [his] design for MIT.” 50 Jarzombek (2004), pp. 65-69. 51 Hess (1965) [Collection MC162, B1, F4/5 (77-93), “Clippings with Bosworth,” MIT Archives]

45 [Vocabulary, language, syntax and influences in Bosworth’s design]

One would expect that Bosworth’s design approach would be imbued with the Beaux- Arts principles that he studied and the Greco-Roman classicism that he adored. This Beaux-Arts Classicism was characteristic of the American architects of the Beaux-Arts generation who combined classical Greco-Roman models with Renaissance ideas.52 The result was usually a massive, grandiose composition with a stone finish and with a monumental classical interior of coupled columns, decorated wall surfaces and figural sculptures. The design was always characterized by functional clarity. The symmetrical façades had stairways and classical columns (Ionic or Corinthian) to mark the entrance. The interior was user-friendly, avoiding disorienting ambiguities. Due to the size and the grandiosity of the buildings, the Beaux Arts style was mostly used in the design of public buildings like libraries, museums, railway stations, banks, courthouses, and government buildings. Three of the most notable examples of the Beaux-Arts tradition in the United States are the Grand Central Terminal in New York (1913), the New York Public Library (1905) and the Boston Public Library (1895).

Bosworth though was gravitating more toward the simplicity of the classic style than to the ornateness and the flamboyancy of the Beaux-Arts school.53 In 1937, he wrote to Dr. Karl T. Compton, President of MIT at the time: “Rest assured I am no believer in elaboration or ornamentation. I base everything on form and proportion (…).”54 For Bosworth, proportion and order did not only present architecture with design guidelines. They were for architecture what good grammar is to the speech: the best means of communicating with others.55 The influence of classical antiquities on Bosworth’s design, product of Tadema’s reverence for them, is evident not only in the typology of his buildings but also in many of the elements that he incorporated in them. Arrays of columns, domes, stairways and sculptures are some of the features in Bosworth’s design inspired by the mausoleum in Halicarnassus, the Pantheon, the Acropolis, the Erechtheion, the Villa Madama and Roman Temples.56 Later in 1947, in another letter addressed to president Compton, Bosworth elaborated more on the aspects of his design

52 Also referred to as Academic Classicism or as Classical Revival. Chronologically it can be placed between 1885 and 1920. “The "White City" of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago was a triumph of the movement and a major impetus for the short-lived City Beautiful movement in the United States.” [sources: http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-beauxarts.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaux-Arts_architecture] 53 Jarzombek (2004), p. 69. 54 Source: MIT office of the President Record 1930-1959. [Collection AC4, B16, F5 “Architecture Building, 1936-37, MIT Archives] 55 Jarzombek (2004), pp. 132-138. Professor Jarzombek included in his publication the lecture that Bosworth gave at Columbia University in 1911 titled “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano” (a sound mind in a sound body). 56 Jarzombek (2004), pp. 60, 106.

46 philosophy while manifesting for one more time his enduring admiration for Ancient Greece: “The great traits of all that has been called beauty, as commonly admitted in the works of Phidias, are Softness, Reserve, Elegance and Serenity. (…) I would go so far as to say that any structure which can lay claim to those four qualities (after satisfying the practical things) will be admired, even loved, by the human beings who live with it.”57

Bosworth wanted to create “shelters for the art of living” with a design style that would give to anything “an expression appropriate to its use.”58 He wanted his buildings to be functional and artistically pleasing. This belief is clearly rendered in the following quote by Wallace K. Harrison that Bosworth used in one of his letters to President Compton: “Any plastic treatment which exalts our daily environment and renders it more attractive and palatable to human beings is both rational and functional.”59

“The White City.” North façade of the Agriculture building in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. [_source:_http://www.thewhitecity.info/pics.htm ]

57 [Collection AC4, B33, F10, “Bosworth Welles, 1947-51. MIT Archives]. 58 Source: Letter from Bosworth to McCord, January 20, 1949. [Collection AC4, B33, F10, “Bosworth Welles, 1947-51. MIT Archives]. 59 Source: Letter from Bosworth to Dr. Compton, January 6, 1947. [Collection AC4, B33, F10, “Bosworth Welles, 1947-51.” MIT Archives].

47 [The client]

The main MIT building complex in 1916. [_source: The Technology Review. November 1937, p.35. ]

When the MIT corporation selected William Welles Bosworth to design the main building complex of the university in the newly acquired site along the Charles River, the prevailing thought was that the composition ought to be “a grand and timeless design, central to its purposes, favorable to its growth, flexible in its mobility and symbolic of the aims and accomplishments of the Institute.”60 Bosworth’s design was materialized in 1916 providing space for 2000 students and allowing for future expansions that would preserve the architectural unity of the campus. According to Professor Jarzombek, the result was a seamless integration of Beaux-Arts design with advanced steel and concrete construction and novel engineering features that emerged from the cooperation between an architect, W. W. Bosworth, and an engineer, J. R. Freeman. MIT wanted to provide a “rewarding human experience for faculty and students and a degree of representation deserving of the aspirations of a major American institution.”61 Bosworth, after successfully importing many of Freeman’s factory-like design ideas, delivered a “representative imagery that summarized and glorified corporate achievement.”62 He delivered to the MIT campus a grand classic composition, harmonized with the setting overlooking to Charles River, and to the Boston cityscape “an important link in [a] chain of great neoclassical buildings,”63 reinforcing the city’s image of the “Athens of America.”64

60 Source: Announcement from the office of Public Relations, MIT, June 4, 1966, p. 3. [Folder: MIT Cambridge Campus, Building 7, MIT Museum]. 61 Jarzombek (2004), p. 78. 62 Jarzombek (2004), p. 84. 63 Jarzombek (2004), p. 19. In this part of the book, one can find an extensive record of all the grand classical buildings placed along the Massachusetts Avenue both in Cambridge and in Boston. 64 http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/wbr-visionary/index.html

48 In 1936, the corporation approached Bosworth again for the design of a new building for the Department of Architecture65 that until that time remained in the old Rogers building on Boylston Street in Boston. The executive committee that was formed to carry out this task was “anxious that any addition of a building for architecture to [the] main educational group [of 1916] should be in keeping with the rest of this group but (…) it should also be a distinctive example of the architect’s art.”66 The committee decided to locate the architects in a building that was to be placed along the Massachusetts Avenue line, in the gap that was left between buildings 3 and 11. They wanted a special architectural treatment as a main entrance to the entire group to replace what was then probably the most unattractive aspect of the building. Bosworth accepted the new commission with great pleasure, not only for the challenge of designing for architects but also because he would have the chance to complete and improve the image of the Massachusetts Avenue façade and round out the existing group of buildings.67

The Executive Committee had initially agreed to spend up to $1,000,000 for the new building. In one of the letters that President Compton sent to Bosworth, he clearly stated the committee’s decisiveness that the money should be spent on efficiency, as in the case of the existing buildings, rather than on decoration of the interior. The only place that Bosworth could be a little more elaborate in his design approach was the Massachusetts Avenue entrance: “We can afford to be somewhat more elaborate in providing an effective entrance on the Massachusetts Avenue side, and I should think we might plan to make the entrance lobby and the main corridor of communication on the first floor, where the great bulk of visitors will pass, with a more decorative finish than the rest of the building."68

Bosworth was also approached by the MIT Alumni Association, the members of which suggested that the new building incorporated features from the old Rogers building in Boston “with appropriate marking to show that a memento of the first real MIT building is being preserved.”69

65 It is worth mentioning here that MIT was the first American university to establish in 1866 an independent course of architecture. The first head of the Department, William R. Ware, referred to the École des Beaux-Arts principles in order to develop the course of studies. [Source: Lawrence (1981), p. 23. MIT Rotch, T171.M423.R68] 66 Source: Letter from Dr. Compton to Bosworth, September 28, 1936. [Collection AC4, B16, F5. “Architecture Building, 1936-37,” MIT Archives]. 67 Source: Letter from Bosworth to Dr. Compton, October 7, 1936. [Collection AC4, B16, F5, “Architecture Building, 1936-37.” MIT Archives] His exacts comments on the committee’s decision were: “It is to me a joyous prospect that the architectural department may be united to the main group in Cambridge. (…) Architecture may be ‘the mother of the arts’, but it is certainly deeply involved in civil engineering and business instruction, not to mention many of the other things taught in the main group. My feelings have always been harassed by the thought that the Massachusetts Avenue façade has not been closed up.” 68 Source: Letter from Dr. Compton to Bosworth, June 25, 1937. [Collection AC4, B16, F5. “Architecture Building, 1936-37,” MIT Archives]. 69 Ibid.

49 [The architect’s design intent]

The directions that Bosworth received from the Executive Committee for the new design project on the Massachusetts Avenue were clear. The client wanted a building to shelter the department of architecture that would be in harmony with the rest of the group, both in efficiency and in appearance. Moreover, the new addition was meant to function as the main entrance to the MIT campus from the Massachusetts Avenue. The requirements rendered a lobby that would be modest in decoration yet monumental in appearance and equal to the MIT academic character.

Bosworth had already an idea in his mind that was “loosely modeled on the [1920s] design of the [unbuilt MIT] chapel.”70 The fact that the new building would function as the introduction to the MIT campus opened up the way for the design of a rather spacious vestibule, knowing that a “cramped” space “would be very hurtful to the impression of the institution as a whole.”71 Initially, Bosworth saw this space as “circular or octagonal [running] from the main floor up to a skylight, with galleries running around at the upper story levels.”72 Through time, his vision of the lobby became more specific: “I now see a portico of columns, without a pediment but with a flat panel above, and a low curved dome behind them, preparing the mind, as it were, in minor degree, for the main portico and dome in the great court. Not, of course, making a smaller edition of the same, which would be bad, but merely indicating a member of the same family on a subordinate part of the same building. This feature would head up the whole faced on Mass. Av. instead of creating a gap, and ought, I think, to be strong and fine. (…) As to plan, the vestibule under this flat dome would announce the important services of the Architectural Department and various communications leading out of it."73

70 Jarzombek (2004), pp. 112-113. Bosworth also made architectural references to his design for the AT&T building and to his unbuilt project for the Cairo Museum of Antiquities. 71 Source: Letter from Bosworth to his former MIT classmate Frank Hart, June 10, 1937. [Collection AC4, B16, F5. “Architecture Building, 1936-37,” MIT Archives]. 72 Source: Letter from Bosworth to H. J. Carlson, Associate Architect in the Building 7 project, April 16, 1937. [Collection AC4, B16, F5. “Architecture Building, 1936-37,” MIT Archives]. 73 Ibid.

Bosworth’s drawing of the MIT chapel along the Memorial Drive.[ Source: Jarzombek (2004), p. 112. Original photo: MIT Museum. ]

Original sketch of the Massachusetts Avenue façade drawn by Bosworth in 1937. [ Source: Letter from Bosworth to President Compton, May 27, 1937. Collection: AC4, B16, F5, “Architecture Building, 1936-37,” MIT Archives. ]

Bosworth’s drawing of the Massachusetts Avenue façade in 1937. [ Source: The Technology Review, November 1937, p. 33. ]

52 The promising magnitude of the design drove Bosworth to also think outside the fixed spatial elements of the vestibule and to imagine sculptured figures placed in key positions in space. He deeply believed in the power of sculpture to enrich human life, for it embodied and visualized so eloquently the “idea of things.” The statues were “the surest way to make students take in and remember.”74 He envisioned them standing lofty in niches at the four corners of the vestibule, “representing the spirits of Drawing, Modeling, Geometry and Calculation, these being to

[Bosworth] the essential things that an architect needs to know."75

Bosworth’s drawing of the interior of Lobby 7. [ Source: The Technology Review, November 37, p. 32 ]

Even though Bosworth was familiar with the overall MIT typology and aesthetics, since he was the one to determine them with his design decisions back in 1916, he seemed to be rather worried about the design outcome for the Lobby 7 building. This is evident in one of his letters to President Compton where he takes pride in the fact that he submitted his designs for the new building to eminent architects in France, prior to sending them to the MIT Executive Committee,76 and received their approval.

74 Source: Letter from Bosworth to MIT President Killian, February 13, 1955. [Collection AC4, B33, F11. “Bosworth Welles, 1952-57, 1966,” MIT Archives]. 75 Source: Letter from Bosworth to Dr. Compton, April 7, 1937. [Collection AC4, B16, F5, “Architecture Building, 1936- 37.” MIT Archives]. The story of those statues runs parallel with the story of Lobby 7. More on this story will be presented in the coming chapters. 76 Ibid. The French architects who reviewed Bosworth’s design proposal for building 7 were “the dean of all architects, Monsieur Victor Laloux, (…) Bigot who, in [Bosworth’s] opinion, [was] the best of all the teachers in Paris, (…) Pontremoli, who had just been retired as director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and finally (…) Chaussemich, who was [Bosworth’s] “patron” when [he] was a student, and an excellent critic.”

53 Bosworth’s approach was a form of eclecticism oriented toward the combination of spatial elements that would strengthen the classical character of the building. Those elements were chosen not only for their architectural significance but also for their representational abilities. The Greek Ionic columns,77 placed in both the façade and the interior of the building, were used to represent wisdom78 while the Roman, Pantheon-like dome was chosen to act as “a symbol of the unity of knowledge.”79 The overall design was unavoidably fuelled with ideas emerging from the Beaux-Arts tradition. As Bosworth would reveal some years later, this “organic classicism”80 was meant to “please the sensitive and informed intelligence.”81

77 According to Professor Jarzombek, Bosworth had in mind the columns in the temple of Athena Polias in Priene. 78 According to Vitruvius, each of the three orders represented an idea; the Doric order represented power, the Ionic represented wisdom whereas the Corinthian represented beauty. 79 Jarzombek (2004), p. viii. 80 Jarzombek (2004), p. 100. 81 Source: Letter from Bosworth to McCord, writer of the book “About Boston.” January 20, 1949. [Collection AC4, B33, F10, “Bosworth Welles, 1947-51.” MIT Archives].

The Pantheon in Rome, painted by Giovanni Paolo Panini. [_Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon%2C_Rome_]

56 [Materialization]

“In 1938 Bosworth designed the William Barton Rogers Building82 that completed the great square begun in 1916. Bosworth planned the new building (to continue north from Naval Architecture) as an impressive entrance on Massachusetts Avenue that should proclaim the dignity, the scale, and the academic character of the Institute. Capped by a dome subordinate to the great central dome and enriched with a deep portico, the Rogers Building provides a stately introduction to the grand classic style of the main buildings. [The] Rogers [building] is faced with limestone so that all three buildings on Massachusetts Avenue appear as a single unit. A broad flight of steps leads to a colonnade of four massive Ionic columns and a parallel row of four engaged columns set between the entrance doors and the grillwork façade. Within the building, the formal character of Rogers is intensified by the size and simplicity of a lobby whose height extends more than four floors to the dome. This lobby is surrounded with six83 tall Ionic columns that emphasize its spaciousness, for the area has been left completely free of details that would reduce its monumental effect. Main corridors extend east and south to the older buildings that are all joined to the later additions in unbroken sequence.”84

Photograph showing the construction process of building 7. [_Source: MIT Technique, 1939, p.286._]

This is a very concise description of Lobby 7 published in 1954 inside volume 56 of the Technology Review magazine. The author, Caroline Shillaber, managed to encapsulate in it the design philosophy of the architect as well as the design directions of the client.

82 The original drawings that Bosworth created for Building 7 can be found at the MIT Department of Facilities. Please refer to the Appendix of this volume for a small “taste” of how Lobby 7 looked on a 2d drawing back then. 83 Obviously Shillaber here does not include in her counting of the columns in the interior of Lobby 7 the two columns on the side of the glass façade. The paradox with these two columns is the fact that “towards the portico side, the columns are fluted, whereas on the inside, toward the lobby, they are smooth.” [Jarzombek (2004), p. 113.] 84 Shillaber (1954), p. 324.

57 The construction of Building 7 finished in 1938, reaching the cost of $1,420,000. Bosworth was assisted by the architect Harry J. Carlson, while the contract for the construction was signed with the Stone and Webster Company. Bosworth wanted to take responsibility for the aesthetic aspects of the building and leave to Carlson the responsibility for the architectural engineering features, including structural heating, plumbing, electrical drawings and so on.

The building carried on the pilaster treatment of the rest of the buildings.85 Its façade was covered in limestone with a warm tone to reduce the sun’s glare. The interior was all made of cast-stone (mainly columns and walls). The floor was made of marble, while the ceiling was made of plaster (the medallions) and colored glass (the skylight and the dome eye). The dome was capped with copper to seal out the winder winds of Boston. Technologically speaking, there was one passenger elevator and on the front façade there was the first (or at least one of the first) automatic doors in the world.86

On December 12, 1938 the building opened up its doors to the public with a grand reception inside Lobby 7. Guests entered the reception space from the Building 5 entrance. The Reception Committee decided to have a five-piece orchestra placed on the top balcony to entertain the guests with “soft but not continuous”87 music. Refreshments were served on the forth floor that could be accessed with the passenger elevator. The Department of Architecture made sure to place exhibits in various places within the lobby space.

The new classical entrance of MIT successfully projected the character of the institute. Upon entering the space, one could read that it was “ESTABLISHED FOR THE ADVANCEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE, ITS APPLICATION TO INDUSTRY, THE ARTS, AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE.” The inscription was placed on the frieze in the interior circumference of the dome, revealing not only the MIT ethos but also Bosworth’s belief in the power of lettering to render architecture live.88 Bosworth saw in the inscription the potential to communicate with the people. He also saw the same potential in sculpture, especially in “connection with architecture.”89 Unfortunately, his proposal for the four sculptures90 in Lobby 7

85 [Folder: MIT Cambridge Campus, Building 7, MIT Museum]. 86 The doors operate with a pneumatic device that is located beneath the floor. 87 The acoustics were found problematic and the committee tried to offer ephemeral solutions by placing “rugs and a shell of plantings” to absorb part of the echoing sounds. [Source: Collection AC4, B16, F6, MIT Archives]. 88 Source: Collection AC4, B33, F11. “Bosworth Welles, 1952-57, 1966,” MIT Archives].

58 was never materialized, leaving the space on the four pedestals empty. The Executive Committee did not grant the expenditure, describing it as a luxury, and suggested that the money should go for the materialization of new buildings in the evolving MIT campus.91 They would have granted the money, had Bosworth’s proposal carried a timeless meaning and symbolism with “some exceptional quality of outstanding art.”92

Building 7, 1938. Lobby. [ Source: Building 7, 1938. [_Source: Collection CC-07-304, MIT Museum. ] Collection CC-07-305. MIT Museum._]

89 Source: Letter from Bosworth to Miss Schillaber, author of the article on the MIT Architecture in the April volume of the Technology Review. [Collection AC4, B16, F6, “Architecture Building, 1938,” MIT Archives.] 90 [Source: Collection AC4, B16, F6, “Architecture Building, 1938,” MIT archives.] Going through Bosworth’s correspondence with the MIT President Compton one can trace the various changes in the decisions of who or what those four sculptures should represent. Compton wasn’t sure from which epoch to pick the distinguished representatives. The initial proposal from Bosworth suggested that the statues should represent the spirits of Drawing, Modeling, Geometry and Calculation, since they are ideas that are most closely connected to the architectural discipline. Compton’s proposal tried to unify all the schools that were fostered at the time under the umbrella of the Institution. He suggested the statues of Socrates, representing the Humanities, of Archimedes or Leonardo Da Vinci for the School of Engineering and Faraday or Isaac Newton or Galileo for the School of Science. He wasn’t sure of who would best represent the School of Architecture. Around 1950 Bosworth and Dr J. R. Killian Jr., the new President of MIT, decided upon representing the “Four great precursors of modern learning,” as taught at MIT at the time: Aristotle for the Liberal Arts, Archimedes for Engineering, Socrates for the Humanities and Ictinus and Callicrates for Architecture (one with his arm on the other’s shoulder looking at the plan of the Parthenon). 91 [Source: Collection AC4, B16, F6, “Architecture Building, 1938,” MIT archives.] Bosworth was left with a bitter feeling. He tried to raise the money himself by approaching the Rockefeller family and other potential sponsors but without any success. In the end, frustrated by the outcome of his efforts, he decided to offer the money to MIT by stating in his will that if all the members of his family passed way (himself, wife and two girls) $300,000 would go to the MIT “to be used for architectural embellishments of the buildings and grounds,” specifically including “the four Statues in the Rogers Vestibule. 92 Letter from MIT President Killian Jr. to Theodore Miller, May 22, 1957. [Source: Collection AC4, B33, F11, MIT Archives]

59 [Renovation]

The first restoration of Lobby 7 since its materialization in 1938 took place in 2001.93 Discussions for a change were initiated long before, starting in 1972.94 In 1984, the Committee on the Visual Arts at MIT invited Siah Armajani, an architecturally trained sculptor, to make a proposal on the nature and future of Lobby 7.95 The dysfunctional aspects of Lobby 7 were summarized by the committee as following:

} “(Welcome) Lobby is dark, cold, windy [and] fumy. [The] pedestals are bare.

} (Orientation) [The] campus map is hard to find, [since it is] placed on [an] inappropriate wall. [There is] no provision for expanded, possibly computer-driven, touch-sensitive information system.

} (Information) Locations and foci [are] disorganized, overcrowded. [The] current drop posters add a welcome handmade touch but [they] are fire hazards.

} (Newspapers) [The] black boxes are unsightly [and] inadequate.

} (Donut stand) [It is] unsightly [and] occasionally it interferes with [the] circulation; inadequate counter space, power, storage, trash disposal.

} (Seating) [The] class gift oak benches and furniture [are] inappropriate to space.

} [The] intervention should maintain [the] flexibility of space, provide for attractive, efficient functioning, while not ‘filling it up with things.” Space should maintain its potentiality [and] continue to be a ‘host, a process for events.’ [The] ‘Master plan’ should be understood as more fluid than static.”96

93 The project group for the restoration of Lobby 7 had the following members from the MIT community: Kathryn Wilmore, Gayle Gallagher, Lawrence Gallagher, Ron Catella, Tim Blackburn, Ted Johnson, Joe Coen, Lee Corbett, Francine Crystal, Suzana Lisanti, Wellington Reiter and Bill Mitchell. The companies that were involved in the process were: Einhorn, Yaffee and Prescott (architects for the restoration), A. J. Martini, Inc. (general contractors), Andrea Gilmore (building conservation), Urban Instruments Inc. (Information display systems), Available Light (lighting installations), Tektonics (campus map) and Exhibitgroup/Giltspur (interactive wall) [source: MIT Facilities]. 94 The records found during this research indicate that during the months of March and April in 1972 there was a big debate regarding the “permanency and the dignity” of Lobby 7, as it was initially introduced by Bosworth on the one hand, and the “expression of academic freedom” inside an institution like MIT on the other. The debate was inflated by the fact that the main entrance of MIT was replete with students’ interventions in space, that were either identified as “rubble, litter, pop art and specious political circuses” or as students’ initiatives for “public discourse.” The debate ended with a proposal for transformation and maintenance. [Sources: Correspondence between Jerome Wiesner, Head of the department of Architecture in 1972, who advocated for the freedom of students to express themselves in public, and Jane McNabb, who was seeking for a more respectful treatment of the place. [Folder: MIT Cambridge Campus, Building 7, MIT Museum]. 95 Source: Summary of Lobby 7 Project Meeting, September 7, 1984. [Collection AC205, B26, F4, MIT Archives.] 96 Source: Summary of discussions with Siah Armajani on the nature and future of Lobby 7, November 16, 1984. [Collection AC205, B26, F4, MIT Archives.]

60 The master plan that the artist had in mind would “incorporate the Lobby’s multifarious activities: entrance and orientation; circulation; information (map, posted and electronic); morning coffee and doughnut and meeting place for performance and special events.”97

Lobby 7 before the restoration. [_Source: http://graphics.csail.mit.edu/ ~ifni/lobby7.html._]

It will be interesting at this point to make a quick reference to the type of projects, events and performances that have taken place within the Lobby 7 space through the years of its use. For many the lobby is like a huge theatrical stage longing for protagonists and for an audience to fulfill its purpose. Concerts, choral and dance programs have filled-in space with music many times. Performances have been planned by the Lobby 7 Arts Stage, by courses in the MIT Visual Arts program, by the Dramashop and by other traditional and non-traditional performance venues that wanted to entertain and educate the public. The ‘stage’ has been hosting annual memorial themes like the celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Holocaust Remembrance Day. Students have also used the space to protest or to place installations that would increase the awareness of people for victims of unfortunate events around the world. This rough listing of events in Lobby 7 could not finish without a mention to the hacking culture that has been cultivated within the MIT community for years.98

97 Source: Summary of Lobby 7 project meeting, September 7, 1984. [Collection AC205, B26, F4, MIT Archives.] 98 For an extended reference to the hacking culture at MIT you can refer to the following publications: [1] Peterson, T.F. (2003). Nightworks. A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. [2] Leibowitz M. Brian. (1990). The Journal of the Institute for Hacks, TomFoolery and Pranks at MIT. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Museum.

Demonstration against the Vietnam War (1969) Students’ banners in Lobby 7. [ source: Johnson (1999), p. 152 ] [_Source: Collection CC-07-643. MIT Museum._]

MIT Women’s Collective Promote Issue Awareness (1997) [ source: Csanyi Gabor, The Tech, V117, N45 ]

64 At some point, a suggestion was made to uncover the skylight that was painted during World War II, but the cost of such an intervention was prohibited. The planning office of MIT had also identified a physical problem in the existing space of Lobby 7: the winter wind infiltration.99 Unfortunately, the proposed solutions jeopardized both the harmony of the Massachusetts Avenue façade and the architecture of the interior space. The planning office was determined to guard any future proposal and make sure that any intervention would respect the character of the space and the original design intent of the architect. They had to make sure that Lobby 7 would continue to function as the major circulation route to the main campus, as an assembly area for the start of campus visitor tours and for concerts, as a display and welcome area for special events and constructions and exhibitions, as the critical mid-point for the twice annually observed Sunset celebration, as a meeting place and as an information point.100

Proposal for an airlock installation on the main entrance doors. [_Source: MIT Department of Facilities._]

99 Source: Memorandum to Katy Kline from James Gary Cronburg, September 10, 1984. “Building 7 Lobby Master Plan and Doughnut Stand.” [Collection AC205, Series IV, B26, F4, “Building 7 Lobby plan, 1984-1985]. 100 Ibid.

65 The renovation in 2001 was guided by a simple motto: “clean and restore.”101 When space was unveiled, people saw the results of a $1 million “facelift.”102 The skylight was repaired, the lighting was improved and all surfaces were cleaned. As part of the project, the glass façade, the limestone facades, the lettering and the exterior surface of the dome were also fully restored to their original appearance. Moreover, there was provision for a new café facility and information displays that gave the promise for a more functional and welcoming space.103

During the initial phase of the renovation, both the laylight (the colored glass visible from the interior of the lobby) and the skylight were uncovered. They were painted over during World War II, “due to fears that light coming through the glass would make a target for bombings along the Charles River.”104 Restorers replaced the old glass bricks in the skylight and repaired the laylight, some original pieces of which had to be remade based on drawings found in the MIT Archives and Special Collections office. Between the two glass structures, the restorers placed bright theatrical lights and connected them with a clock and a solar-cell reader.105 The idea was to have the laylight illuminated at all times; on a sunny day, it would be illuminated by the natural light, while during a gloomy day, the bright theatrical lights would be activated to give the same impression.

Laylight and skylight during the restoration. The result after. [ Source: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/construction-1024.html ]

101 Source: Interview with Ron Catella from the MIT Department of Facilities, Senior Project Manager in the Lobby 7 renovation. 102 Krishnan (April 6, 2001). 103 Please refer to the Appendix of this volume to view a series of drawings proposed to the restoration team by the architectural office that was commissioned the project. 104 Robinson (January 16, 2002) 105 Source: Interview with Ron Catella.

66 The second challenge that the renovation team faced was the cleaning of the ceiling on the interior surface of the dome. The original material was “an exceptionally hard plaster, meant to look like the limestone on the outside of the building.”106 To avoid removing the original coatings, craftsmen tested several cleaning methods to remove the stains. In a scene reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel interior, they carried out the conservation task with a successful result.107 The cleaning strategy also involved the restoration of the marble floor as well as the removal of all color stains from the stone surfaces of the columns and the interior walls. Furthermore, the green railings on the terraces and all the metal doors were painted so that they look like bronze despite the fact that they are made of aluminum.108

It is worth mentioning here that the restoration team was also concerned about the ambience in Lobby 7 created by light. It was evident that the “antique lighting system” in the lobby needed a rejuvenating touch.109 The restorers renovated the lighting around the base of the dome and on the balconies as well, enhancing that way the dramatic effects of the area. The result received the 2003 Radiance Award for Excellence by the International Association of Lighting Designers as “a very fine example of lighting design excellence.”110

The refurbishment of Lobby 7 continued with the design of a café that replaced the function of the former doughnut stand. The café, which was named after Welles Bosworth, was tucked into the eastern corner (according to the building orientation) of the lobby with its tables and chairs being arrayed along the wall. That way it offered a sitting area to the lobby that wouldn’t hinder the flow of people. The shop, described as "upscale and contemporary" by its planners,111 consisted of a free standing elliptical structure carrying an LED sign to display community messages posted by the MIT Information Center. The Information Center, which lies right across the café space on the southern corner of the lobby, was also renovated.

Before the renovation of 2001, the media that the students used to communicate with the rest of the people in Lobby 7 were mainly huge, handmade drop posters, hanging from the balconies. Although those posters were capable of displaying updated and reliable information with high visibility, their “looks” were considered to be incompatible with the new “polished” look of the

106 Robinson (January 16, 2002) 107 Source: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/construction-1114.html 108 Robinson (January 16, 2002). “Painters repainted the aluminum, first with a coat of paint to look like new bronze, then with layers of green paint containing purple and brown flecks so that it would look like naturally aged bronze.” 109 Ibid. 110 Source: http://web.mit.edu/facilities/about/awards/awards.html 111 Brehm (Feruary 5, 2003).

67 space.112 Their multiple presence in the prominent area of the lobby was creating a “visual noise” with too much information for students to absorb. Moreover, they were regarded as a passive means of communication.113 Therefore, the renovation team decided to seek out for a more technological answer to the question of information display. Their criteria were focused on both the medium and the message that would be projected. Their decisions can be summarized as such:114

} The new mediums should be capable of displaying the same information in multiple locations.

} They should reveal the Institute’s advancement in technology while avoiding an extravagant image.

} They should not be distracting.

} They should be easily maintained.

} The projected information should be a product of the MIT character: “simple, efficient and productive.”

} It should convey “excitement, energy and diversity.” 115 } It should be constantly updated.

} It should be controlled so that to avoid being overwhelming.

} It should somehow maintain “the size and scale of the drop posters.”

} It should help “convey the sense of community on the campus.”

} It should be directed not only toward the MIT community but also toward prospective student, parents as well as casual visitors.

One solution to the problem of informational displays came with three portable, triangular- shaped kiosks, created from left-over construction materials. Their task would be to gather together informational pamphlets, newspapers, and other handouts that were previously distributed casually within the lobby. The new kiosks had an “aluminum and stainless steel vocabulary” that the restorers deemed appropriate to the architectural features of Lobby 7. Simple in their aesthetics, the kiosks offered nine surfaces for information displays, either made of aluminum or perforated aluminum, as well as stainless steel newspaper containers. One of

112 The majority of students did not welcome the replacement of the drop posters as they saw it as one form of control of student expression by the administration. Shulman (January 30, 2002). 113 Notes from the General Display discussion, initiated by the company that was commissioned the project. January 25, 2002. [Source: MIT Facilities] 114 Ibid. 115 The renovation team was also counting on the power of the MIT webspace as a means of communication for the MIT community.

68 the kiosks also carried a mirror construction, allowing people to have views of the dome above without actually looking up. Apart from the kiosk-triad, the renovation team was planning to install three more information systems in Lobby 7: an interactive map wall, that was to be placed next to the entrance of the Building 7 staircase, an information wall, that was to be placed next to the Infinite Corridor entrance and a laser/media-show installation that was to be placed on the four vacant pedestals.116

Digital mockup of the three aluminum The three aluminum kiosks. kiosks. [ Source:Panos Chatzitsakyris ] [Source: Brian Hemond for The Tech. V123, N28 ]

Sequence of images showing a view of the dome through the mirror system of the kiosk.

116 Source: Interview with Ron Catella. The interactive map has been manufactured and is scheduled to be installed in the lobby area during this summer. One of the key features of the installation is that someone can type in a location and print out the exact directions. The rest of the two projects still remain on a conceptual design level.

Renderings from the laser show on the Lobby 7 pedestals. Each pedestal would represent a different aspect of time. The two pedestals on the Infinite Corridor side of the lobby would display the current time and date along with events of the day. The other two pedestals would display future events along with MIT achievements in various scientific areas. [ source: http://www.urbaninstruments.com/html/empty_pedestals.html ]

72 [Present state]

The image that Lobby 7 projects today is the image it acquired after the 2001 renovation. Nothing changed during the past couple of years. Space looks almost Spartan, devoid of accessories that would disturb its majestic spaciousness. Crowned by a bright skylight, the polished surfaces refuse to reveal the buildings real age. The classical protocol is implied by the ionic order of the columns in the interior and by a dome built to emphasize the intersection of the building’s circulation paths.

Folk wisdom proclaims that an image is a thousand words. The following 3 collages were created with the intent to depict as eloquently as possible the present state of Lobby 7. The collages were structured based on spatial characteristics only, excluding deliberately the presence of people. Their purpose is to present space alone, as an empty theatrical stage waiting for the performers to come. How do the performers re-act in that space? The answer is the subject of the next step proposed for the diagnosis process, the empirical observations.

Lobby 7: present state: plan of the ground floor with visual landmarks.

Lobby 7: present state: section with visual landmarks.

78 [Empirical Observations :: General guidelines]

The findings from the background research weave thread by thread the history of the examined space, following records of past events that affected the design as well as the materialization of the building. The information at hand from the first part of the diagnosis process can be described as a canvas of an unfinished painting representing an objective reality of space. What is missing from this painting? The answer lies in the fact that when someone examines space, what is there to be researched and observed is not just a reflection of space but also a reflection of the people’s relationships in and with it.

The goal of this part of the diagnosis is to observe the examined space in the passage of time. This requires the observer to be on-field, into the examined space, and to keep track of the changes in the objective reality of space as time goes by. The forces that cause those changes to happen are generated by the people who occupy space (eg. interaction) as well as by the passage of time (eg. light). The observer’s task is to record the traces of those changes in space, preferably in a visual form, like that of a sketch, a collage or a conceptual diagram. The only medium that is not recommended for this purpose is the photographic camera, for it is unable to incorporate in its function the aspect of time. The instances depicted in photographs have a limited potential to translate any form of activity in temporal terms. Video-clips on the other hand have been proved to be very useful, especially for off-field retrospection.

Observing people’s activities in a public space can be a very educational experience for an architect. And an entertaining one too. The keypoints that guide these observations can be based on the mobile-stationary dipole. People’s mobility in space can be recorded in terms of flows, both on horizontal and on vertical axes, in terms of density of the flows and in terms of speed. Apart from the people’s movement, what also needs to be noted down in this case are the spatial characteristics (landmarks) that either frame the paths and/or determine the existence of those paths in the first place due to the significance that people ascribe to them. It will also be useful to identify which of those landmarks are permanent features of the building and which are part of the furniture added on a later time.

In the event that the examined space offers sitting areas, what the observer needs to do is to note down how much time people spend in them. The activities during that time are also important and they can be recorded either as social (two or more people sitting together) or as single. One more thing that can be identified here and that could be very helpful for the diagnosis process in general is for the observer to figure out where do people look at in space when they are sitting down. What are the viewpoints from that area and what spatial elements

79 do they incorporate? How much time do people spend looking at them? The results will be added to other, similar in task, observations that seek to identify the active and the inactive zones of the examined space. Active are those areas that have the ability to attract people’s attention, whereas inactive are the “dead” areas that are conceptually insignificant and thus placed in the background.

The process described here can achieve a high level of detail only if the observer marks the changes in different times during the day (or during any other temporal cycle that was deemed appropriate for the case study). That way s/he will be able to extrapolate information in order to describe a timetable of use of the examined space. The fascinating aspect around the timetable is that it reveals the “prime time” of the examined space, which is crucial information to bear in mind for any future intervention.

The effect of time on the examined space can be traced through both material and immaterial means. The material means are basically the accessories of space (eg. benches, chairs, tables, paper or other analog media, receptacles and so on). What the architects look for is to see how people interact with those accessories, how they move them about space and how they position their bodies in relation to them. Light on the other hand is immaterial but at the same time it can have a remarkable effect on how space looks during the day. If the examined space is illuminated by natural light then the games of the shadows on the interior surfaces are worth recording.

It will be very interesting to see how all this directions can be applied to the Lobby 7 space.

80 [Empirical Observations :: Lobby 7 Case Study]

Lobby 7 is a very active and busy place, occupied by a diversity of people that either belong to the MIT community or not. Their presence activates the space, the knowledge and the history embedded in it. The space itself serves three basic functions; it is MIT’s front door that manifests the MIT excellence; it is a hub for gathering and dispersing people from MIT as well as people visiting the Institute;117 as such it is a place where someone can get (or expects to be able to receive) information.

Observing Lobby 7 was a fascinating experience. If one could compress time and make an animated representation of what has been observed, the result would most probably look like a multi-colored nebula levitating within a fixed surrounding. People are highly mobilized within Lobby 7 moving toward every possible direction that features an entrance/exit to another space on the same level or to a space on a different floor,118 or outside the lobby. The spatial elements that intervene with the flow of people are the three aluminum kiosks, for they do not have a fixed place to stand within the lobby and furthermore because they attract attention with their add-on layers of information. The columns, although fixed, also affect the flow of people who move toward the building 7 and the building 5 hallway doors.

The speed of the movement was intimately connected with the time of the day. Lobby 7 is constantly occupied by people with its peak hours being observed between 10:00am-1:00pm and 4:00pm-6:00pm. During the 10:00am-1:00pm time zone people walk pretty fast, a fact that presumably coincides with the majority of the class-schedules. The pace slows down as the evening hours come, resulting to a slow (or no) movement during the night hours. There wasn’t any significant difference between movement upon entering and movement toward exiting the space. The above facts were observed during weekdays while during the weekend the pace was definitely slower.119

117 According to data from the Information Center located in Lobby 7, nearly 13,000 people take the MIT campus tour each year. The tour begins from and ends in Lobby 7. 118 It is worth mentioning here the fact that both the elevator and the stairway that lead to the upper levels of the lobby area are hidden. Someone outside the MIT community will have a problem finding either of them. This can be combined with the fact that the other two visible levels facing the lobby area are not as brightly lit as the ground level. It is almost as if there is a conscious effort to keep the attention of people (especially of the visitors) on the ground floor only, while leaving the rest of the levels to those who “know.” 119 It wasn’t possible to identify a pattern in the movement rate during the weekend.

Flow representation in Lobby 7_ 01.

Flow representation in Lobby 7_ 02.

First attempt to identify active and inactive zones within the Lobby 7 area based on observed viewpoints. In the following step of the diagnosis, people will be asked to identify those viewpoints, directly or indirectly.

88 The most popular sitting area in Lobby 7 is the one of Bosworth’s café. The chair-and-table setting seems to attract a lot of people that like to observe and be observed in this public space. Some students also seem to enjoy sitting on the four pedestals.120 The people who sit down in the café area usually stay there for as long as a coffee cup lasts. The percentage of the people sitting alone is almost the same with those who sit in groups. They usually work on a laptop or read or observe the Lobby 7 area or just chat on the phone or with someone present. The viewpoints from the café tables scan the central space of Lobby 7, right under the dome. The people who stand on the pedestals have a wider viewing area, but still the central space attracts most of their focus.

There is one more thing observed under this light and it has to do with spots inside the lobby area where people chose to stand. People’s placement in those spots is ephemeral and lasts for as long as the call on the cell phone lasts, or until the person whom someone is waiting for arrives or for the duration of a friendly greeting. Usually those spots are close to spatial elements upon which one can lean on while standing.

The effect of time on Lobby 7 can be observed through the great glass façade which offers a daily spectacle to the interior space of the lobby: moving, changing shadows. Regardless of the seasonal changes, this game of tracing the time on the floor has a great impact on the image of space. This is evident especially when compared with how the same space looks during the night. The only other element that has a time-related connection with the space is the furniture of the café, since it is removed and stored into the café space everyday before closing time, around 5:30, to be placed back in the same location the next morning.

The findings that emerged from the empirical observations add-up color to the canvas created from the previous research step of the diagnosis. The presence of people magically energizes space. But does space responds to that or is it reticent or mute about its spatial characteristics? How do people perceive those characteristics? How are those characteristics in turn being experienced and remembered? The path to answering those questions shall be outlined in the next chapter, where people are actually brought into the diagnosis process through a survey. Their participation and their input are the ingredients that will render the canvas alive and ready to communicate its message to its creator.

120 Tourists were climbing up the pedestals only to be photographed on them.

People love to climb up on the pedestals and get photographed.

The shadow spectacle in Lobby 7.

92 [Cognitive Mapping - Questionnaire :: General Guidelines]

A questionnaire is a very effective means to acquire information directly. “Asking questions is perhaps second only to observation as the way people acquire information.”121 It can also be viewed as “a learning device,”122 especially for architects who are accustomed to working in solitude, detached from the users that will eventually “experience-proof” the products of their design process. In the case of the proposed diagnostic methodology, the questionnaire is the best medium for the researcher to approach the users of the examined space. A series of questions unfold, filtered within seven thematic areas, targeting information about both the physical and the cognitive relationship of the respondent with the examined space. The questionnaire is based on the potential of all study participants to provide the researcher with valuable information about the present state of space as well as with design proposals or solutions to an acknowledged problem.

The first task of the researcher, prior to structuring the questionnaire, is to define the general profile of the study participants. In a series of questions, identified also as demographic questions, the researcher seeks to find out about the participant’s gender (different cognitive filters of exploring the world), age (different levels of experience), nationality (different cultural backgrounds), education and field of study (a second filter for different levels of experience). The responses to these questions aim toward the creation of sub-groups within the general group of the respondents that will provide the researcher with different statistical profiles for the comparative analysis of the responses.123

The second task involved in the preparation of the questionnaire requires from the researcher to conduct a couple of preliminary interviews with a few respondents in order to test the structure of the questions and their potential in acquiring the “right” answers. The test is also helpful for the researcher to practice interviewing other people. One important precondition for the researcher before administering the questionnaire is to have knowledge of the general categories within which the answers are expected to fall. This will be of great help during the next step where the responses will be collapsed to general groups and analyzed.

121 Peterson (2000), p.1. 122 Ibid., p.2. 123 Ibid., pp.81-91.

93 The first thematic area in the proposed questionnaire is titled “Time-related knowledge of the examined space.” The questions placed here aim to “warm up” the respondents by activating indirectly a memory mechanism that will “walk them” virtually from a familiar place to the examined space. This mental itinerary is triggering the respondents’ memory to bring on the surface their mental image of space.

The context of the questions in this area should directly focus on retrieving information about the following subjects:

} Peak hours of use of the examined space. Responses will reveal a TV “prime-time” equivalent schedule that will affect the treatment proposal time-wise.

} Preferred time of the day for the respondent to visit the space. Responses will reveal when and why space is more attractive to its users. They should be crosschecked with the findings from the empirical observations.

} Age of the building. Responses will check whether the building reveals its age and its era. They should be crosschecked with the findings from the background research.

} Spatial elements that reveal the age of the building. Responses will help the treatment proposal to focus on “correcting” the impression that people have about the age of the building by bringing it closer to the original design intent.

} Interest of the people to learn more about the history of the building. The important thing here is to figure out who wants to find out more by comparing answers within the respondents’ sub-groups. Did the design intent have a specific target group?

The second thematic area in the questionnaire is titled “The language of the examined space.” The questions in this area aim to record the vocabulary that people use in order to describe space and their actions in it. The goal is to get a first indication of the people’s overall impression of space and of the activities they are engaged in when they spent time in it.

Those types of questions are usually open-end. Once the researcher gathers the responses, s/he should organize them in large groups that would indicate trends. The second step will be to compare those trends with the architect’s original design intent and decide which ones should be augmented and which should be reduced in the treatment step. The researcher should be able to identify later in the questionnaire which elements of space evoked those responses.

94 The third thematic area is under the title “Using the examined space.” The questions in it ask people to evaluate the functionality of space in different categories. The design directions are pretty obvious in this case since if a certain function is not successful, it should be “treated.”

The general categories into which the questions should be directed are:

} Function. A direct question should be addressed to the respondents here about the functions that they identify in the examined space.

} Signage. The study participants are asked to evaluate both the quantity and the quality of information displays in three important sub-categories: 1. Navigation 2. Information on activities 3. History of the examined space The researcher actually examines the ability of space to transmit legible and intelligible messages as well as the extent of any possible deficiencies in the transmission system. S/he should also leave space for an open-end question for the respondents where they will be asked to make their own suggestions around the signage issue. The benefit in this case is that the respondents get to participate, indirectly, in the design process. The fact that it is done through an open-end question leaves the door open for proposals that the researcher hadn’t thought of before.

} Representation.

As an introduction toward identifying the landmarks of the examined space, the researcher asks from the study participant to draw a 15sec sketch.124 An easy way to do that is to ask people to draw where they would meet someone in the examined space. A sketch can reveal the following information:

1. Personal choices of spatial elements (landmarks). 2. Best spots to show to someone 3. The most visible spots for someone to see 4. Other parameters: the viewpoint used (as an indication of an inner positioning system), forms and shapes perceived, details, paths, lettering and so on.

124 A sketch is the most straightforward approach to a cognitive map. It is an information rich method for measuring people's understanding of spaces

95 } Cognitive relationship – resemblance.

This question asks from the respondents to “cut and paste” the examined space into a different building function. The researcher should identify the spatial characteristics of the proposed spaces and keep them as reference for a better application of the treatment method.

The fourth thematic area is called “User(s)-space experience” and it seeks to find out how people schematize the overall space in their mind. It is the first step toward creating the mental image of the examined space “verbally.”

The questions in this area should be directed toward retrieving information about the following spatial characteristics of the examined area:

} Shape. The intention is to find out from the responses how people perceive space. 2d (flattened) or 3d?

} Floor levels. The responses would actually verify or reject the previous ones.

} Scale of space, compared to the human scale. The researcher will be able to determine the qualities of space based on the vocabulary used. The responses should be collapsed in two basic groups: to those that refer to actual dimensions and sizes and to those that are based on impressions.

} Dimensions of the mental image: surface and height. People are asked to choose one from the answers provided. Their responses will provide the researcher with the perceived limits of the examined space.

} Lighting conditions.

} Predominant color.

} Predominant Sound.

} Predominant Smell.

} Materials. The researcher should connect the responses to this question with the landmarks of space.

} Tangibility of space. This question will give information about the perceived and the haptic landmarks of space and the people’s familiarity with them.

} What is the overall feeling of the examined space? An open-end question that “begs” for conclusive remarks. The researcher should check whether the answers correspond with the previous ones given.

96 } What could make that feeling more memorable? The researcher here asks directly from the respondents to participate in the design process by projecting their mental image of the examined space into their desired future. If there is a large number of responses involved then the message is that, in people’s minds, the space has a greater potential that no one is taking advantage of at the moment.

The fifth thematic area is called “Imagery,” and as it is probably understood from its title, it continuous to act within the field of mental mapping. Its main purpose is to focus on the predominant elements, the landmarks of the examined space and find out which of them are represented in people’s minds and which are just placed in the background. The questions should make sure that the respondents would think of the same space in a more personalized way before they answer.

Prior to organizing this thematic area, a complete list of all the elements that actually exist in the examined space should be made. In the event that the researcher has an increased interest in any of those elements, then s/he should form questions that would basically try to define the level of detail in which these elements exist in the memory of the respondent.

Within this field, the researcher can also find information about the viewpoints that people use to observe the examined space. The responses here will be crosschecked and combined with the findings from the empirical observation in order to determine the active and inactive zones that would affect the way the treatment will be applied.

The sixth thematic area is called “User(s)-space communication.” At this point, the questionnaire should be reaching its end. Through that journey, the respondents have thought of and remembered various aspects around the examined space, either positive or negative. This means that they are ready to make a greater reflection and describe how they link themselves with space and with the rest of the people in it. The goal is to conclude the investigation around the impression that people have of the examined space.

The proposed questions for this area ask people to:

} Compare the examined space with similar spaces.

The respondents are asked to contemplate the potential of the present state of the examined space and link it through knowledge and experience to similar spaces where the have been. The people’s descriptions of the “other” spaces will provide the researcher with one more set of design directions.

97 } Connect themselves with other people in the examined space.

} Connect themselves with the examined space.

One of the goals of the treatment should be to make both these connections stronger.

} Describe what is missing from the examined space.

The respondents here are asked again to participate in the design process by identifying the missing elements that would render space more attractive.

The seventh and final thematic area bears the title “Imagination.” Here the question should direct the study participants toward describing a futuristic image of the examined space, an image that they would really like to see or even experience.

The aforementioned thematic areas were assembled together in order to outline a research path for architects to approach the mental images of people for existing spaces. The approach is heavily based on the impression that space creates in people’s minds without of course neglecting the actual physical elements of space that nurture and maintain this impression. The suggested approach was tested within the grounds of MIT’s Lobby 7, the prototypical space that has been used as a case study for the purposes of this research.

98 [Cognitive Mapping - Questionnaire :: Lobby 7 Case Study]

[Structure of the questionnaire]

For the development of this questionnaire, I used the seven thematic areas presented in the previous section as the infrastructure and then I elaborated on them based on the findings from the two previous steps of the diagnosis process. The result was further enriched with details that came up as I continuously tested the questionnaire with friends and colleagues. When I reached a finalized version,125 I submitted it to the MIT COUHES, that is the Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects and on 03/10/2005 I received their letter of approval to carry on with my research.

[Interviews and recruiting]

The goal was to reach a number of 30 respondents, from which 15 should have an architectural background while there was no limitation in this direction for the rest of the respondents. The questionnaire was administered in the form of a personal interview with the study participants. I was the one to keep notes and write down their responses. In terms of positioning, I was standing either in the Infinite Corridor, at the space in front of the Student Services Center, or inside the corridor of Building 5, in front of the Hart Nautical Gallery or sometimes in the corridor of Building 7. In some cases, I used the Steam café area on the forth floor of Building 7, mainly for my interviews with the architects.

Regarding the demographics of the questionnaire, 11 of my study participants were women and 19 of them were men. Their ages spanned from 20 to 50 years old, with the majority being observed within the 21-30 age-group. 96% of the respondents had received higher education, holding a Bachelor’s, a Master’s and/or a PhD degree. When I tried to frame their cultural background by asking where they came from, their responses placed them mainly in North America (including the US), Europe and Asia.

125 Please refer to the Appendix of this volume for the complete version of the questionnaire.

99 [1] Time-related knowledge of Lobby 7.

In the beginning I wanted to make the respondents feel comfortable with the questionnaire and get rid of any possible nervousness. Through a series of 6 questions, I guided them through a “virtual tour” within the MIT campus:

}"How long have you been at MIT?" {close-end Q.}

[6/30] Tourist - [5/30] New user - [12/30] Short-term user - [7/30] Long-term user

}"From where do you usually enter the MIT campus?" {open-end Q.}

Either from the Kendal Square T-stop [23.3%] or from the 77 Mass Av entrance [66.7%]

}"What is your destination?" {open-end Q.}

[19/30] Close to Lobby 7 (eg. 5, 3) - [8/30] Distant from Lobby 7 (eg. E15) – [3/30] No opinion

}"Do you use any (other) area around MIT’s Lobby 7?" {close-end Q.}

Yes [56.7%] - No [13.3%] - No opinion [30%]

}"What floor?" {close-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

[17/30] Responded with an answer [4/17] Basement [11/17] Ground floor [10/17] 2nd floor [2/17] 3rd floor [10/17] 4th floor [13/30] No opinion

:These responses gave me a first indication of vernacular movement within Lobby 7.

The objective was to bring their memory inside the Lobby 7 area. When the narration finally brought them inside the lobby space, my goal was to find out how often they spent time in it.

100 }"How often do you spend time in Lobby 7?" {close-end Q}

Never 0

Once 3

Rarely 9

Sometimes 5 : The answers reveal how long and how Frequently 13 often the respondents have been 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 30/30 respondents exposed to the Lobby 7 environment.

}"What time of the day do you usually visit Lobby 7?" {close-end Q. – multiple responses accepted} The responses revealed that the peak hours in Lobby 7, or else the “prime time” of Lobby 7, are from noon to evening.

}"Do you have a preferred time of the day to visit Lobby 7? Why?" {close-end Q. – multiple responses accepted} [14/30] Responded with an answer - [16/30] No opinion

The responses revealed that the preferred time of the day to be in Lobby 7 is from noon to afternoon. It is more important though in this case to note down that 53.3% of the people came back with a “No opinion” answer.

: We can infer here that for those people the space is flattened. There is nothing changing in it with the passage of time.

}"When was Lobby 7 built?” {open-end Q.}

The answers to this question span from 1840 to 1970. 73.3% of the respondents didn’t find the correct answer, while their answers were equally based on judgments about the building’s condition (eg. “well preserved”), design (eg. “classical”) and style (eg. “represents grandiosity”).

101

: Despite that, the result doesn’t contradict the clients’ and the designers’ wishes for a timeless design.

The spatial elements of the building that people used as reference points in order to estimate the age of the structure are:

Columns - Doors - Entrance steps - Façade - Fenestration - Inscription - Masonry - Materials.

[2] The language of Lobby 7

}"Please give 1-5 adjectives that in your opinion best describe Lobby 7." {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

The responses were collapsed in two general categories and four sub-categories:

Adjectives describing material things:

o based on Design [13/30] (eg. “classical”) o based on Shape and/or Size [18/30] (eg. “big”)

Adjectives describing immaterial things:

o based on Impression [22/30] (eg. “overwhelming”, “monumental”) o based on Ambient Conditions [18/30] (eg. “colorless”)

102 : The fact that 40 out of 71 of the adjectives given were based on immaterial conditions verifies the validity of the initial hypothesis that one can actually change space just by affecting the impression that people have of it instead of changing any of its physical elements.

Space was identified with both positive and negative impressions. In summarizing the positive point of views, Lobby 7 is “representative of MIT”, “monumental” and “venerable.” On the other side, Lobby 7 was found as “unfriendly”, “rigid” and “indifferent.”

: The design directions here are evident in the sense that the positive impression needs to be nurtured and enhanced, while the negative one should be controlled and reduced, if not eliminated.

If we attempt to combine the most popular responses, then we come up with “a Greek Classical Lobby 7 that is big, impressive, monumental and both empty and busy.”

103 }"Please give 1-5 verbs that in your opinion best describe the activities that take place inside Lobby 7." {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted} The responses were collapsed in 5 general categories based on the nature of the activities:

o Transitional activity [25/30] (eg. “pass-through“, “walk“) o Stationary activity [15/30] (eg. “stand“, “rest“) o Social activity [15/67] (eg. “greet“, “interact“) o Emotional activity [5/30] (eg. “experience“, “imagine“) o Activity of the space [7/30] (eg. “disperse people“)

We see that the space is used mainly for transitional activities, while stationary and social activities follow closely. The responses not only show what people do in Lobby 7 but also indicate how much time they spend in that space for their activities.

: The responses combined with the “prime-time” findings will direct the organization of the time- related events in the treatment part of the suggested methodology.

: What is also evident here is the fact that only 5 respondents engage themselves emotionally with Lobby 7. This means that the space could use more elements that would attract people and create an emotional link with them.

[3] Using Lobby 7

}"What is in your opinion the basic function of Lobby 7? Can you identify secondary functions?” {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted} The responses were collapsed in 3 general categories:

o Actual function [22/30] (eg. “entrance”) o Positive impression [14/30] (eg. “shows the MIT character”) o Negative impression [7/30] (eg. “suspends people”) From a general point of view, the responses reveal that the original design intent is visible and intelligible, and thus rendering the design successful. For the extent of this research though, the objective is to go beyond the original design intent and provide a design solution that would clear out all the negative impressions that the present state of the space evokes. At the same time, there should be provision to reinforce the elements, and even add new ones, that “radiate” the MIT identity within Lobby 7.

104 }"How would you rate the signage inside Lobby 7 regarding: {close-end Q}

Information?” (e.g. events/announcements/news/weather and so on)

[7/26] Adequate [4/26] ok [15/26] Inadequate [4/30] No opinion [13/19] What is there is Clear [2/19] ok [4/19] What is there is Unclear [11/30] No opinion

Navigation?”

[4/26] Adequate [3/26] ok [19/26] Inadequate [4/30] No opinion [9/21] What is there is Clear [0/21] ok [12/21] What is there is Unclear [9/30] No opinion

Identity/History?”

[2/26] Adequate [5/26] ok [19/26] Inadequate [4/30] No opinion [9/16] What is there is Clear [3/16] ok [4/16] What is there is Unclear [14/30] No opinion

The large percentage of responses in the “inadequate” field reveals that the capacities of the informational displays in Lobby 7 are limited while they do not function properly so as to disseminate messages successfully.

: Information displays should be examined in depth during the treatment step. Regarding the audience of the displays, the proposals could be directed toward two types of solutions: information for the MIT community (coded) and information for visitors and people outside the MIT community (riddle-like but playful and easy to understand).

}"Is there any other category for which, in your opinion, signage is important in Lobby 7? {open-end Q} The proposals coming from 21 respondents comprise a list of additional categories for which people would like to see dedicated signage in the future:

o Dinning options at MIT (esp. for free) o Events in Cambridge and Boston o MIT map with the campus’ topography, scaled 3d buildings, art pieces o MIT achievements o Personalized information for MIT events o Rest areas at MIT o Timetable for bus #1 and MIT shuttle o Tracing the presence of people on campus

105 }"If you were to indicate a meeting spot inside Lobby 7, where or what would that be? "How will your response differ if you were to meet someone outside the MIT community?” "If you were to meet someone who hasn’t been in Lobby 7 before, could you draw a rough 15sec sketch that you would probably use to explain to that person where you will meet?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

This is an introductory question to get an idea of what are the predominant spatial elements of Lobby 7 in people’s minds. Additionally, the responses will indicate the areas in Lobby 7 that people mostly occupy with their bodies. It is also a smart way to guide the respondents toward putting their answers down on a sketch.

106

107

108 This is how 26 of the respondents would sketch their description of a meeting spot inside the Lobby 7 area. Half of them drew a sketch with some or many of the features of Lobby 7, while the other half made a featureless representation. The most popular features were the entrance doors, the columns and the I.C. [Please refer to the Appendix for a more detailed view]

109

110 }"If Lobby 7 was part of another space, what type of space do you think it could be? (what are the most similar spaces that you can think of?) {open-end Q}

No Opinion0 Theatre-Opera 9 Railway station 2 Public library 4 Planetarium 1 Pantheon 5

Palace 11

Office building 1

Museum - science museum 13

Movie set (feat. an old university) 2

Hotel lobby 2

Government Building 6

Dungeon in Tolkien literature 1

Court lobby 1

City Hall in Europe 1

Church - temple - medieval monastery 5 Ball room 1 Atrium in a big complex 1 Arcade-Mall 1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 30/30 respondents

The common characteristics between the three space-examples that prevail within the rest of the responses, the museum, the palace and the theatre-opera, is that they all have something to show to people, they all mean to attract attention and they all mean to impress. The immediate thought to that will be that people are definitely expecting to see something (more) in Lobby 7.

[4] User(s) – space experience

}"In your opinion, what is the shape of Lobby 7?" {open-end Q} The answers were collapsed in two categories:

o Lobby 7 as a 2-dimensional flattened “space” [50%]

o Lobby 7 as a 3-dimensional space [50%]

: My only comment here is that if space was not so empty then more people would perceive it from a 3d point of view.

111 }"For you Lobby 7 is (…)?" {close-end Q}

[18/30] The space on the ground floor [12/30] The space of multiple floors

}"In your opinion, how many sf (or sm) is Lobby 7?" {close-end Q}

[4/30] 3200sf (300sm) [5/30] 5400sf (500sm) [8/30] 7500sf (700sm) [correct answer] [12/30] 9700sf (900sm) [1/30] No opinion

}"In your opinion, what is the height of Lobby 7?" {close-end Q}

[5/30] 50f (15m) [10/30] 65f (20m) [4/30] 80f (25m) [11/30] 100f (30m) [correct answer]

}"How would you describe the scale of Lobby 7 in relation to the human scale: your scale? {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

The answers were collapsed in two main categories:

o Those based on Shape and/or Size [18/35] (eg. “big”)

o Those based on Impression [15/35] (eg. “intimidating”, “interesting”)

: As with similar cases in the questionnaire, the responses here show how people trust their impression of space and they base their answers on it. This fact points to design directions that will increase the positive impressions of people, while reducing the negative ones.

}"Describe the sound in or of Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

o Hollow sound o Human traffic - footsteps - background noises o No sound (cancelled by the size) - quite o Noise People chatting - talking – laughing o People singing o People walking - rushing o Outside noise (cars - traffic light)

112 }"In terms of lighting conditions, how do you remember Lobby 7?" {close-end Q.}

Bright [0/30] 1 : [15/30] 2 : [11/30] 3 : [4/30] 4 : [0/30] 5 Dark

} "What is the predominant color inside Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

[11/30] Beige – [9/30] Grey – [5/30] Pink – [5/30] Brown

}"Do you consider it a clean or a dirty space?" {close-end Q.}

Clean [17/29] 1 : [9/29] 2 : [2/29] 3 : [1/29] 4 : [0/29] 5 Dirty

}"What are the materials used for the interior of Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

[36/61] stone-like materials [13/61] metal-like materials

The materials that were identified in this question were:

Cement – Concrete – Copper – Glass – Granite – Iron – Marble – Metal – Paper – Plastic – Steel – Stone

} "Is there anything tangible that you remember about Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

The responses were categorized based on: o Tangibility and mobile spatial elements [13/29] (eg. kiosks) o Tangibility and immobile spatial elements [14/29] (eg. columns) The relatively low percentage of responses reveals that people don’t find many objects in space to familiarize with by touching them.

}"Is there a predominant smell inside Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

15/30 respondents gave a “no-opinion” answer while 9/30 remembered the smell of coffee coming from the new café.

113 }"What is the overall feeling that you get from Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

*Bold numbering stands for responses that came from non-architects

+ [01] Monumentality. + [16] Overwhelming

- [02] If you stay too much time in it, it + [17] Welcome to MIT. MIT rulez! means that you are lazy. - [18] It is not doing enough to welcome me - [03]* The idea of MIT is intimidating. to MIT.

+ [04] I like it. 0 [19] It is just a lobby.

- [05] It doesn’t have a specific character. It 0 [20] It is not mine. is neither grandiose nor luxurious. You won’t remember it. - [21] It is an empty space.

- [06] Makes me feel lost. - [22] Soul-less, empty, intimidating.

+ [07] Greeting and production that waits - [23] Busy and noisy. for recognition. + [24] Stimulating. Makes me feel that I - [08] I feel small in relation to MIT. have to do more. There is a lot of mystery behind the walls in the corridors, like something is hiding, + [25] Fear, awe and eagerness to move crawling. forward.

- [09] Unfriendly and uninviting. + [26] A pumping heart.

+ [10] Everyone is being productive in here. + [27] I like it. A grandiose entrance, part of MIT. Successful space. + [11] Every time I go in there I hope to meet people. - [28] There is no continuality between Lobby 7 and the rest of the building. [12] N/A Space doesn’t have a character: archaic columns are combined with automatic -/+[13] MIT’s monumentality, but empty, doors. without energy. + [29] I like it. [14] N/A - [30] Empty, intimidating. Could have more + [15] MIT’s awesomeness. Equal to the action in it. MIT status.

114 }"Is there anything that Lobby 7 could have to make your experience of it more memorable?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

The difficulty of the question did not prevent a high participation in the responses, an indication that the space has not reached yet its real potential. 26 of the respondents returned to me with their own ideas of how to defeat the deficiencies of space. The majority of these responses focused on art and technology “treatments.”

*Bold numbering stands for responses that came from non-architects

[01] A lot of things. Like the installations in the Kendall T-station. Something kinetic [action-sound].

[02] A sensor picks up the presence of people upon entrance and announces something about them to the whole space.

[03]*Art. Organic-shape art. A piece of art has a welcoming feeling. More color. The colors should be warm, not cold.

[04] N/A

[05] It should either be too minimal (the geometry would prevail) or too decorative (overwhelming). The lighting conditions could be more dramatic/scenographic.

[06] Something to read and feel more acquainted with the space (eg. inscription).

[07] Technology.

[08] Image and music to touch the space. A light and sound show that would stimulate people.

[09] More activities in it. Something experimental. Like the event with the balloons.

[10] N/A

[11] N/A

[12] Happenings and banners.

115 [13] Something to make space (the atmosphere), more familiar. Objects!

[14] More objects to fill in the space.

[15] Display student’s gadgets.

[16] Real people on the pedestals like statues.

[17] Daily events in Lobby 7.

[18] Something to welcome me.

[19] Projections.

[20] N/A

[21] Music. Something representative of the MIT technology on the pedestals.

[22] Holograms on the pedestals. Projections on the dome. Slow changes so that people can follow them. Connect the old and the new.

[23] Something to calm me, but not to make me stop.

[24] Transparent dome during the night.

[25] Something flying inside Lobby 7.

[26] Make visible the traces and the flow patterns of the people.

[27] Something to intensify the vertical dimension. An aesthetic space-use, not only functional. The inner facades should not be blind.

[28] Technology, both low- and high-tech. A wall with the history of technology at MIT with empty slots for the future.

[29] A reception. Small children playing with MIT science toys.

[30] Ambient sounds for relaxation under the café area and stimulating music inside the corridors.

116

[5] Imagery

} "Please name one element of Lobby 7 that in your mind constitutes a landmark of that space." {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

List of landmarks presented in this question: Automatic door [3/28] Clock [1/28] Columns [4/28] Dome [7/28] Glass façade [4/28] Infinite corridor [1/28] Kiosks [4/28] Lobby 7 as a whole [2/28] Octagonal shape of space [1/28] Passages/corridors [1/28]

117

118 }"If you close your eyes, what are the first 3 characteristics of Lobby 7 that come into your mind?" "Do they represent something for you?" "Which one of them is predominant?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

The three predominant landmarks of Lobby 7 in people’s minds are the dome, the columns and the glass façade. The personal links that people have created with those elements are: o Dome: “MIT tradition”, “prestige” and “warmth” o Columns: “monumentality”, “power”, “prestige” and “culture” o Glass façade: “MIT limit” and “the passage of time (shadows on the floor)”

The majority of the personal links that people have created with the elements of Lobby 7 are intimately connected with the “MIT pride.” Still though, the number of people who answered with a more personalized way is small [10/30] and it should definitely be increased with the mediums suggested in the treatment path under the guidelines defined by the diagnosis. It is the number of people engaged personally with the space that matters here and not the nature of the engagement. Once the personal links have been established, then the designer could “play” with a number of variables to recycle the links and hold people’s interests for a longer period of time.

This question marked the end of a series of questions that aimed to identify the common characteristics of the mental image that people have created for the Lobby area. An attempt to visualize the average responses would probably result into something like this:

119 }"Is there a favorite place for you to stand/sit and observe Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

This question was meant to identify the viewpoints that people use to observe the space of Lobby 7. The responses in this case verified the findings of the empirical research on the same issue. [Please refer to pages 87 and 105 for the visualizations.]

The following questions, all open-end, aimed to draw specific details from the individual mental images of people for Lobby 7, in order to complete the ‘puzzle’ of the average one. Detailed information was gathered on elements like the floor, the ceiling, the sides, the corners, and so on that will be used in the treatment step for a more refined application of the proposals.

}"Could you describe to me the floor in Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

Average response: Beige or black and white, shiny marble with a grid pattern.

}"Could you describe to me the ceiling of Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

Average response: A dome with carved patterns and a skylight.

}"Could you describe to me the sides of Lobby 7?" "Could you rank them in terms of importance?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

Average response: The sides are defined by the columns, the terraces and the hallways. Two out of three elements in this response enclose the active zones identified previously. The glass façade is first in the ranking [8/30] of the four sides but the majority of people [14/30] didn’t have an opinion in this subject.

}"Could you describe to me the corners of Lobby 7?" "Could you rank them in terms of importance?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

Average response: The corners of the Lobby 7 area are occupied by the café, the elevator and the four pedestals. This view is very distant from the original design intent of the architect who created the space based on absolute ruled of symmetry. The balance should be restored through the media intervention.

120 }"Where do you think that the light comes from in Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

Average response: Natural light coming from the glass façade. Only 30% of the respondents mentioned the existence of artificial light in the domed area. This is verified by the fact that the new lighting system of the Lobby, installed during the 2001 restoration, was awarded for its excellent application and effect.

}"How many levels does Lobby 7 have?" "Is there one that you particularly like?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

Average response: 3.

}"How many columns are there in Lobby 7?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

Average response: 8.

} "Could you describe how high they reach?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted} Average response: No opinion.

[6] User(s) – space communication

}"How is your experience in Lobby 7 compared to similar public spaces you have been?

{open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

They goal of the question is to acquire general knowledge on people’s impressions created in similar to Lobby 7 public spaces, regardless if the responses include negative or positive impressions.

I tried to break down and analyze the responses in smaller groups. Here are the results:

[] Positive impressions related to the Lobby 7 experience:

» aristocratic - great - monumental - prestigious » articulated-coherent » crowded - successfully busy » well preserved

121 [] Negative impressions related to the Lobby 7 experience:

µ chaotic - spatial discontinuity - no order µ colorless - dull - no character - indifferent µ lost grandeur µ negative climax µ intimidating - unwelcoming µ makes people rush µ too crowded µ uninformative µ without traces of people - empty [] Space examples used and the idea/impression they were connected with :

∆ church - temple (owe) ∆ Exeter library (articulated design) ∆ government building (intimidating) ∆ GSD lobby (exhibitions - space climax) ∆ hotel lobby (informative - welcoming) ∆ justice buildings (prestigious - monumental) ∆ mall (crowded - open interior facades) ∆ Media lab atrium (well lit) ∆ museum (things to see in it) ∆ office building (art) ∆ station lobby (people moving) ∆ Vatican (prestigious – monumental) ∆ virtual reality games (search to find one's way)

}"Do you believe that you have something in common with the rest of the people using Lobby 7? If so, what is it?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

No opinion 5

Student elsewhere 1

Stranger - do not belong here 3

Research - work - classes 11 Passer-by 5

MIT pride 3

MIT people 7

Love sci-fi 1

Love engineering 1

Do not use that space 1

Anxiety/rush 3

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

122 }"Do you believe that there is a connection between you and the space of Lobby 7 itself? If so, what is it? For example, do you feel connected with events in Lobby 7, with objects in it, with your own personal experience in it, with the history and the magnitude of it? {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

The majority of the people [56.7%] gave a “No opinion” answer to this question, while the rest of them gave answers the context of which was too diverse to be combined in sub-categories (eg. “I use my cell phone in it”, “I have played baseball in it”). It is evident that people don’t feel that they have a connection with Lobby 7. Although in previous responses we saw that they had a personal emotional link with space, in this case it seems that they don’t have intelligible links; space is not communicating a message. People’s responses reveal that they feel more connected to other people rather than they do to space.

}"In your opinion as an active participant in the life of Lobby 7, what do you think is missing?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

no opinion 1 welcoming reception 1 unify the users 4

traces of people/human activity 1

transformable structures 3

smth to personalize space 2

projections - holograms 2

open elevations/openess 2 interactive structures 8 music 6 MIT technology/gadgets 5 MIT students' projects 2 MIT events/activities 5 lounge areas - relaxation areas 5

internet access 2

information map/directory - virtual tour of MIT 7

history of the building 2

flags of all nations at MIT 2

art - colors - decoration 5

adventure - games 2

123 }"Can you name examples of other public spaces you have experienced where you found these qualities?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

ι Airports ι Art galleries - art in corporate buildings - sculpture gardens ι Cambridge Post Office ι Caves ι Church - Temple ι Conferences (eg SIGGRAPH) ι Libraries - Exeter library ι Hotels ι Justice buildings ι International exhibitions ι Malls ι MIT - Kendal station - Lobby 10 - Media lab - Stata ι Museums - Science museums ι Oriental markets ι Public parks - squares ι Royal festival hall in London ι Stations ι Theatres ι Universal studios ι Virtual environments in games

}"If you were to experience a more interactive/informative Lobby 7, in what category you’d rather be informed about." {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

No opinion 1

Weather forecast 10

Transportation timetable 2

Traces of people along campus 4 - spot friends on campus

Promote MIT achievements 1

Personalized information 11

News (local/international) 13

MIT (events/announcements) 16

Map - directions on campus - 5 MIT's virtual tour

Local events 11

History of Lobby 7/MIT 12

Ethnic events at MIT 1

Dinning options at MIT 1

124 [7] Imagination

}"Would you like to try and describe to me a fictional, futuristic image of Lobby 7 that you would really like to see?" {open-end Q. – multiple responses accepted}

[01] I see MIT as an archaeological site being dug up. Lobby 7 is like a tomb. The surrounding rooms are cellular rooms (tombs with skeletons). The solar orientation twice a year and the echo reveal that it is a place for worship. There are objects for worship on the pedestals. The priest uses the railings to talk to the people gathered on the ground floor.

[02] A 3d hub with no-gravity conditions.

[03] Fly around it. There seems to be a swirling energy inside it (because it is so spacious).

[04] New doors. Holograms on the pedestals. Huge banners during special occasions. People fly with jet-backs. Trace the MIT shuttle on campus to know exactly when it is going to arrive.

[05] I want to see the un-natural made possible by technology, for eg. the dome levitating without any structural support (and think that this can only happen at MIT.

[06] Application of new materials that change their properties based on everything (eg. light, temperature etc). Also projections. A sci-fi environment. Holograms too.

[07] A smooth blue “pushy” stuff that has some signage hanging from the top (stainless steel, white-like messages dropped from the sky). It will look like a blown-up bouncing castle, disorienting like MIT is. But it would be a great experience for the whole body.

[08] Light and sound. A game, a riddle like an Escher painting. If you solve, then the space is yours.

[09] LEDs in the place of the inscription, running around as a scrolling text. The dome would be operable. The whole thing could open up. Moving images in it (OLEDs) Operable kiosks that would move slowly, even bouncing on the walls.

125 [10] Rebuild the whole areas with more windows (interior and exterior), with more light coming from the roof, with a large horizontal dimension (that is parallel to Mass. Av.) and with another café.

[11] Something 3d floating in space like a hologram.

[12] Flags all over the place to show the population diversity at MIT. Maybe screens with statistics too. Every month, representatives from one country should take over the space and decorate it.

[13] Like the Harry Potter movie with the moving stairways. Immaterial walls.

[14] Walk in the air (wear some kind of special shoes or have a backpack to do it)

[15] No gravity space. Data-space, like the Matrix one.

[16] A kind of stage where one could stand and speak or even perform. Bridges connecting the balconies. People moving on a two wheels vehicle like the “Segway Human Transporter” by Dean Kamen.

[17] Something changing, like the MIT homepage. Something representative of the cultures inside MIT.

[18] Space under the control of the people. People can change the way it looks at will or by following options set by the architect. Art and Lobby 7. Different artists produce something for Lobby 7 (like in the ABSOLUTE commercials)

[19] Projections on the floor, on the pedestals, everywhere.

[20] I think that its fixity is its greatest asset. One day it will be an old museum, so probably it will need a lobby like this.

[21] Change everyday like the MIT website (but on an add-on layer). Bring Media Lab and CSAIL stuff. Something representative of the architecture department at MIT. Holograms.

[22] Lobby 7 is the portal for all MIT. The pedestals are the teleport points. Information is ubiquitous, hidden and materialized only if someone requests for it.

126 [23] Sound absorbing materials to make it quiet. With less people.

[24] IMAX dome. People with Inspector Gadget’s back-packs. Transparent dome. Open-close skylight.

[25] A mix of virtual reality and physical structures. Lobby 7 is the beginning, the starting point of an adventure. MIT is like a dungeon and you map it space after space (like computer games). An immersive experience.

[26] An accessible data bank with people’s experiences of that space. A visualization of how feelings could change the appearance of the space.

[27] More interactivity. Space should be exhibited to the people’s wishes. Also I would like to see some personal exposure in it. Observe and be observed. Today space is over-protective. Like a social paradox: be with people but not interacting with them.

[28] Bridges to connect the terraces and intermediate levels. An event in the 3d space, not only floor-based. Something that would calm the huge scale of the space.

[29] Younger ages as students.

[30] A waterfall. The presence of water would be very soothing for all these people who always rush.

127 [Conclusions]

The invaluable aspect about the questionnaire is that it reveals “preferences”, “impressions” and other connotations, relating people with the examined space that could not be approached or identified by the designer through any other kind of research.

Going through all the responses from the questionnaire, two groups kept on coming on the surface: responses originating from metric, objective aspects of space and responses that were based solely on the impression that space creates in people’s minds. When for example, the study participants were asked to describe the scale of Lobby 7 compared to their body scale, the responses were either something like “big – huge” or something like “overwhelming – intimidating.” This diversity in the nature of the responses was balanced throughout the questionnaire, meaning that more or less, 50% of the responses were facts, created from knowledge and the other half were feelings, created from impressions.

This verifies my initial hypothesis that space can be altered by immaterial means (produced by digital media) that target human impression rather than physical interventions. The impression is critical for the perception of space and so it is feasible to alter space with mediums that affect the people’s mental image leaving the physical space as it is.

In the following section, the data I derived from all the three stages of the diagnosis process are presented in an organized manner that will point out the directions that should be followed in the treatment.

128 [Diagnosis’ Findings and Conclusions]

The gathering of all the diagnosis‘ findings and their detailed analysis best describe the purpose of this step of the methodology. The outcome is a detailed identification of the present condition of the examined space. In general, there are three categories observed that are classified here: findings that have to do with the impression and implicit conditions, findings that have to do with explicit interventions, and specific design directions that were identified from the users and the client.

The findings are eventually grouped and collapsed to form general and specific conditions that need to be treated. This procedure is important because it will inform correctly the treatment process. In a way the metaphor here is pragmatic. If the findings are wrong, the treatment will be from ineffective to mischievous. That is why all the data should be analyzed, cross-examined and cross-validated.

In the Lobby 7 case study, for example, we have a plethora of data deriving from the three investigating stages of the diagnosis process. The background research reveals the fact that the architect (Bosworth) was a man of strong leaning toward classicism. He highly regarded order and symmetry and, being influenced by the Beaux-Art philosophy, he also praised perspective and proportions. He specifically considered “Geometry” as the equivalent of good grammar, giving us a hint that this is an important key to ‘reading’ his work. Additional features that emerge from his story are the desire for those qualities of space that produce softness, reserve, elegance and serenity. We dare say that for Bosworth a successful design was a clean design, with obvious spatial relations in soft tones and discreetly decorated. For Bosworth, ideals and beliefs should be expressed through materials and form. ‘The Vitruvian principle is in order.’

On the other hand the client, the MIT Corporation, wanted a timeless building, favorable to growth and symbolic to accomplishments. They believed in Bosworth, since they let him design the first part of the MIT complex, so there were no important issues to keep them at a distance. The MIT was a fast growing institution, ambitious, with a healthy appetite for distinction. The potential was already visible and that was their main primary focus as a client. Machinistic functionality was a second important issue that the institute raised, that was to be fulfilled by the engineer of the project. Besides, we know from Bosworth’s correspondence that he wanted to take responsibility for the aesthetic aspects of the building and leave to Carlson, the assistant architect-engineer of the project, the responsibility for the rest of the architectural engineering features, like structural heating, plumbing and so on. The result is evident today as an aesthetic

129 discontinuity between the space of Lobby 7, the rest of the building, as well as with the rest of MIT.

Bosworth focused on the “front” of MIT’s new building. Lobby 7 was meant to be the main entrance of the institution, enjoying today the presence of approximately 13000 visitors per year. The design intent wanted the space to have the qualities of a chapel, with distinct elements. The desire for placing the four statues on the pedestals was never realized. Bosworth’s belief that sculpture enriches human life indicates that he believed in certain forms of representation that should be included as a second semantic layer in his design in order to convey more explicit messages. All the elements of his design symbolize a certain attribute or quality. The columns, for example, symbolize wisdom as the dome symbolizes the unified knowledge provided from the heavens. Except from the statues he denied any other “meaningless” decoration that he thought would reduce the monumentality of the space. The desired projected message was (is) the dignity, the importance (large scale) and the character of the Institution. The inscription that reveals the ‘motto’ of MIT’s activities and portraits MIT’s character was welcomed by Bosworth since he believed in lettering to be able to render architecture alive. Here, the second hint for his stance to representation comes forth. It can be argued that with the word “alive” Bosworth acknowledged the fact that architecture could not be alive unless certain representational forms altered this fact.

As we mentioned earlier, the only thing from the initial design that was left incomplete was the installation of the statues on the four pedestals. In the passage of time, during the process within which a space turns into a meaningful ‘place,’ Lobby 7 developed a certain character, but for a reason that seemed problematic. The users, mainly the students, left their marks with high drop-posters hanging from the terraces, while the ground level was filled with ‘urban’ furniture. This intervention was caused by the need of people to connect and identify with their space, a feat that they considered special. On the other hand, Lobby 7 was rendered dark, cold and fumy. These negative elements were enough to cause for action. After 65 years of ‘living,’ a renovation was scheduled to ameliorate this situation. In the design program of the renovation, the target was to clean and restore the space. After the renovation, the student’s “media” presence was withdrawn from the Lobby, a fact that caused student reaction, but fire regulations managed to impose it. In order to return to the initial design ideal, all the spatial elements inside Lobby 7 were cleaned with all the pieces of the old furniture being removed. The answer to the need for a rest area came with the creation of a café on the eastern corner of the Lobby.

130 Another element that was introduced in the Lobby after the renovation was a set of three kiosks that were ‘entrusted’ for the dispersion of information. Despite the fact that the lack of signage was obvious, the design propositions for the installation of digital media were never realized (at least to this moment). This research argues that the design approach of the renovation was accurate in its intuitive nature but it missed some critical elements and would partially cover the emergent needs. The condition that Lobby 7 was left with until this present day has the following characteristics: a masterly lighted space with all of the elements visible without any ‘human’ intervention, that is also an ‘empty’ space with unhindered human flows.

The empirical observation of the current condition identified elements that belong to two categories. Elements that show the trace of time in space and elements that show the behavior of people in space. Specifically, routes, paths, trajectories were recorded in relation to time on a weekly basis. The findings reveal that approximately 70% of the people move directly towards the Infinite Corridor (I.C.) without stopping in the main lobby area. The density of those flows provided data that indicated the peak hours of occupancy to be from around 10.00am to 18.00pm. One of the most spectacular time-related events in Lobby 7 is the trace of the sun in the afternoon. During that time the reflection is high, the colors of the space seem to change, while the patterns of the façade are slowly moving into space.

There is a number of people that reside at Lobby 7 during sunset time, usually situated at the pedestals near the façade, watching the ‘traces’ of the shadows. The activity at this hour is lower than it is in the morning or a few hours later in the evening. The time of the sunset is the only time though that some people are actually looking at the building for a longer period of time. The rule of thumb also proved the following: students, faculty and staff of MIT pass through Lobby 7 purposefully without paying any attention to the space but just scan the area at an eye-level for acquaintances. Visitors on the other hand explore space while making remarks or taking pictures. This activity is heightened during the weekends. In the morning a lot of people are sitting at the café. Occasionally, small informal gatherings are emerging and quickly move and position themselves away from the path of the flow. There are also people that ask for directions. The kiosks are rarely used, and when this happens, they work mainly as protective shields for the brief informal gatherings. Only tourists take advantage of the ‘specialized’ kiosk’s ability to view the dome.

Specific mention should be made on how the characteristics of space are altered in the case of events. The observation revealed a great interest from the part of the people when unexpected events combine the impressive posture of the space’s permanent landmarks with the ephemeral

131 liveliness of the artificial attractor. The hindrance is that the flows are obstructed since people are caught in the event’s ‘net’ as soon as they exit from the I.C.

In a first comparison between the findings of the observation and those of the background research, it is evident that the pedestals have acquired the significance intended by Bosworth, at least in the mind of the people who like to sit on them. The inscription constitutes truly a ‘landmark’ in the eyes of the visitors but for the users it has lost all of its ‘magic’. The absence of differential semantics, such as posters, has created a ‘mental’ distance that is partially reduced with the playful free moving of the kiosks.

One of the most powerful tools in this process was the questionnaire, for it brought to the surface things that none of the previous two stages did and moreover it verified the initial hypothesis of this thesis. Its most important finding is that the majority of the study participants confirmed through their answers that they use ‘impression’ as their prime mechanism to describe and, subsequently, to perceive space. Architects used more ‘metric’ descriptions, probably as a result of their training. The questionnaire confirmed the observed peak hours as well as the ratio between users and visitors. People identified space as monumental, crediting some value to Bosworth’s intent, but they also found it empty and unfriendly. The negative impressions dominated and pointed out a feeling of “dwarfness.” It could even be argued that the process of becoming a ‘place’ is reversing presently. The lack of elements in a mediatory scale made clear in the responses that people wanted to connect more with the space but do not have the mediums to achieve it. The actions described were in coordination with the observations also. In their sketches people showed a remarkable attitude to depict the space featureless. This fact, that could make Bosworth’s bones to tremble, is far away from the initial intentions and signifies the first major design direction to be processed for the treatment. This indication is confirmed again and again in the process of the questionnaire through questions aimed to cross-validate answers.

On the other hand, people in their majority did not understand the age of the building. Not even the architects. So timeless the image and the quality of space are. Architects at a great extent described space as 2-dimensional whereas non-architects used mainly 3-dimensional descriptions. In contrast, many people considered Lobby 7 to be only the space on the ground floor, something that finds support in the fact that there is no visible access to the upper floors of the building. The area of the space is perceived much larger than it is, confirming with this inaccuracy the feeling of smallness. The height estimation though was much better. The landmarks of the space were identified to be the dome and the columns. These are the bearers

132 of the symbolisms of monumentality and grandiosity. On the other side of the equation, the sides (behind the columns) are virtually non-existent in people’s minds. A conceptual collage was made from the findings to give the impression of the ‘average’ mental image. Percentages of transparencies were given in direct relation with the times that the objects were identified in space. The outcome produced a pale image of an almost transparent space with almost only three identifiable elements (see p. 119). The space seems incomplete and comments for discontinuity have, under this finding, a more serious impact.

The landmarks identified in the questionnaire are responsible for the positive impressions in people’s minds and therefore they should augment their presence ‘to reach out for more mental images.’ They constitute the main points of reference and the area in space that hosts them is considered to be an active zone since it is widely in the path of the major viewpoints’ direction. With the identification of the active/inactive zones a mapping procedure enables us to guide the design intervention and to achieve maximum effect. The conclusions gathered from the questions regarding information dispersion showed an inadequacy that reaches almost zero effectiveness. This percentage easily explains why information displays were an identified need for the intuitive design intent of the renovation in 2001.

Finally, in the series of questions where people were asked to describe design directions (after having their mental images’ recalling mechanisms warmed up) they pointed out to three main directions: interactive and mobile interventions that will liven up the space, informational mediums that will provide specific and general information in an interesting manner, and events, signs and objects that will promote and celebrate the MIT pride. Even when they were deliberately asked for exaggerations, the majority of the respondents described interventions that look sci-fi but in reality, they could be feasible within the scope of MIT’s activities and abilities.

Following is a recap of the most important conclusions deducted from the cross examination of the findings that point to design directions in the treatment part:

• The monumentality of space (positive effect) is linked with the dome and the columns. These are the major landmarks of space and their nature should be ‘elevated.’

• The feeling of being in a large but empty, void space, (negative effect) is creating a great divide in the impression of the scale. The solution is found in the desire for objects in an intermediate scale and in the idea of an accessible multi-vision place (viewpoints from above).

133 • The space creates a nearly transparent mental image that needs to be enriched.

• The active zones are located in the center, under the dome, in the coffee side and in the area before entering the Infinite Corridor.

• The inactive zones are located on the left side (as we enter Lobby 7) and on the arcades of the terraces.

• The symmetry, the clarity of the form and the feeling of reverence (like being in a ‘chapel’) must be maintained because they add to the monumental impression that is recognizable by the people.

• Exhibits must be installed on the pedestals, since both previous projects included them in their proposals. Any suggestion should bear a pedagogic meaning, permitting user occupation, if possible.

• The inadequacy of signage in every possible category should be balanced with the great interest that people show for all kind of information categories, and in particular for MIT events, MIT achievements and MIT announcements, including social group activities.

• The peak hours (or the “prime team”) of the Lobby 7 area are during weekdays between 10.00 and 18.00. Any activity scheduled during these hours while have a greater impact.

• The primary viewpoints are located on the axis leading to the I.C. and on the axis from the café to the centered area under the dome.

• The major flow of people is observed along the axis leading to the I.C.

• Space produces an unwelcoming feeling resulting to a lack of sense of connection.

• People had specific requests revolving around [MIT] pride, unification, empowerment of identity and an engaging environment.

• The idiosyncratic MIT character requires a codification to signify the differences between the MIT community and the community of people outside MIT.

These are the present conditions that require ‘treatment’ in order to ‘heal’ the identified problems, boost up the ‘healthy’ agents and ‘wake-up’ space to communicate with its users. The design directions formulated here will be collapsed to design goals and, depending on the design approach of the architect, the appropriate digital tools will be used to achieve them in the most effective way.

134 One safety pin for the process is that it can be repeated to evaluate the ‘evaluation.’ Even if the application of the treatment is completed, it can be easily (re)-adjusted. The continuous loops will ‘fine-tune’ space until the findings ideally reveal maximum qualities to all categories, minimum negative impressions, and finally no additional suggestions. The ever-evolving progress of people though makes that improbable. The pragmatic goal is for the diagnosis process to identify the present state of space and its potential “treated” state and for the treatment, in its own respect, to try and reach that potential and preserve the new state.

To the treatment now!

135

136

Media Treatments

137

138 [Overview]

This is the final phase of the proposed methodology for an architectural information design. It should be mentioned here that in the breadth of this research effort this section is generally described, but not analyzed in depth. The treatment phase is largely dependent on the personal filters and decisions of the designer therefore s/he should follow the most objective way to analyze the existing tools before applying the ‘treatment.’ The approach includes the description of media systems today; it creates a rough index depending on the mediums’ function and effect (operating system and mechanisms), and also it describes methods or patterns for the application of those mediums that are well developed in the fields of digital art installations and computer games respectively.

The analysis of the findings and the consequent conclusions deriving from the diagnosis will inform the treatment process. Certain negative as well as positive impressions of the ‘place’ have been identified and certain design directions have been clarified already. The first leading step now will be to gather, classify and organize the required actions that would constitute the design intent of this proposal. After the designer decides on those actions then s/he will try to map their execution according to the proposed systems and patterns. Whatever the design approach will be, it will target the impression of the users, increasing the quality of the examined space without affecting its physical elements.

In order for the quality of space to be increased, the identified negative impressions must be eliminated while the positive ones should be augmented. The values that have been identified during the diagnosis process can be distinguished to implicit values, such as ‘feelings’ and ‘impressions,’ as well as to explicit ones, such as ‘signage’ and ‘projected information.’ In the diagnosis process, in order for people to identify the implicit values that connect them psychologically to space, the inquiry approach guided them to compare the examined space with other spaces and to describe it with the use of adjectives. This is a valid method since people are not ‘educated’ to read architecture and space and moreover they are reluctant to do so. This approach points out to the semantic differentials that elevate the importance of specific elements of space and foster feelings connected to other specific or general characteristics.126 This method of finding the semantic differentials allows for the schematization of the ‘objective’ or ‘average’ mental image of space, as I have shown in the previous section. On the other hand, the respondents gave a direct answer about functions that are absent or inadequate, in their

126 Lawson (1999), pp. 231-232.

139 opinion, expressing in an explicit way their demands for something that they can quantify, like, for example, the lack of navigational information we saw in the case study.

The respondents were also encouraged to reveal their own futuristic imaginary ideas for the examined space. This is an additional element that specifically points out to design directions. As people in general form their futuristic approach based on what their life-gathered representations are, usually from movies or books, these ‘ideas’ are not so far away in the future while they could even be already available.

Another category of crucial findings that affect the application of the ‘treatment’ in Lobby 7 has to do with the hierarchy of the spatial elements identified as landmarks during the diagnosis process. In the case of Lobby 7, it was confirmed that there are elements in the examined space that ‘mentally’ do not exist. This fact, combined with the mapping of active and inactive zones, pinpoints the application of the digital media layer. From there on, it is up to the designer to use this information and produce an efficient and successful solution.

As I described earlier, the treatment phase in this research is not as elaborated as the diagnosis part. Furthermore, while the spatial diagnosis methodology was orchestrated and tested for an existing public space, MIT’s Lobby 7, the media treatment part will stay, for the extend of this thesis, on a theoretical level of research, leaving ideas open as experimental enterprises for the future.

140 [Lobby 7: Design Directions]

The filtering process used to simplify the diagnosis’ findings outlined the most important characteristics of Lobby 7 that are to be taken care of with the help of digital media tools.

Under this spotlight, the most important negative values identified for the Lobby 7 space are:

• Empty, void and colorless • Intimidating • Uninformative • Indifferent

On the other hand, the positive values noted are: • Monumental and grandiose • Representative of the MIT character

The incomplete design intentions from the last restoration should also be considered here:

• Laser-shows on the pedestals • Information wall at the entrance of the Infinite Corridor • Interactive wall next to the stairway entrance of building 7127

The design directions proposed by the users (the study participants) can be summarized as such:

• Interactivity through arts and technology

• Welcoming and friendly feelings

• Projection of the MIT achievements

• Information on a variety of subjects, classified either as general, to be viewed in a loop on a large scale or as personalized, to be viewed independently on a small scale

• Visualizations of the weather condition

• Visualizations of the multi-national character of MIT

• An element able to unify the people using the area

127 The interactive wall is scheduled to be installed during the summer of 2005.

141 The futuristic design directions of the users can be divided in two categories; applicable and non-applicable.

Regarding the applicable ones, the following ideas came forth:

• Property-changing materials that illustrate changes • Holograms and other projections (regardless of the theme) • Students’ active engagement • Everyday change of appearance, like the MIT homepage • Robotic enhancement of the kiosks The non-applicable are:

• People mechanically enhanced with floating or levitating abilities in order to access the upper levels, even the dome • Moving elements in space, like Escher’s stairs or bouncing elements

• General physical interventions that go beyond this research’s intentions. (see pp. 125-127)

Even if this is a long list of goals actually they can be collapsed to a few, while many of the applications will simultaneously cover for more than one. This can be done through a careful analysis and classification as mentioned earlier.

Let’s examine some of the assumptions deriving from the case study. While the negative values were not connected to specific spatial elements, the positive ones were mainly linked with the dome and the columns. It is evident in this case that there is no specific area or spatial element that should be targeted for the appropriate shift of the perceived negative impression. As for the positive impressions, the sense of elevation produced should be augmented, creating more attractions to provoke that specific sensation.

The majority of people stated that they want space to be filled-in either with their own presence or with an external agent that would also be able to convey messages. An approach like that would balance the out-of-scale sensation, the emptiness, the lack of communication, as well as the desire for more accessible viewpoints. So it is possible for many design directions to get merged in one design goal.

The conclusions of the diagnosis process pointed out the fact that the goals set for the renovation of Lobby 7 in 2001 included the application of informational systems. This reveals the fact that the need for information was already identified. Unfortunately (or fortunately since this could have made the ‘gap’ less visible for this research to commence in the first place) the

142 proposed interventions were never realized. It is evident from the documentation that the inquiry to set the context in which the mediums would have been applied was isolated to the designer and the client (MIT). Also it is evident that there was no organized empirical observation of the area to provide further information. In this present research, the useable information that affects the treatment and consequently the information displays is directed by the client as well as by the various user groups that occupy the space. The design guidelines recorded for the renovation of 2001 are already covered here since they were noted down during the diagnosis. In the event that past, non-materialized design directions were not found in detail in the diagnosis process and if it was not possible for them to be identified, then it would be advisable not to apply them in any future design proposal because they may create conflicts.

In any case, the ‘message’ that the digital media will be programmed to convey should not be complicated and distressing. People have a specific ability to process qualitative and especially quantitative data at a given time. If this cap is surpassed, then the effect will become unpleasant and maybe irreversible. Ideally, research should approach that cap by keeping a certain distance since people are extremely diverse in their abilities. If the design remains in the “easy- processing” zone of perception, people will understand the projected ‘message’ and their impression will be affected to the intended direction. People will then be able to read space since everything will be decoded for them. The digital media layer will provide the required language, vocabulary and syntax so that space could then be understood as a ‘place’ again.

143

144 [Lobby 7: Design Goals]

The lay-out of a digital media application for the case study of Lobby 7 will probably have the following form: large scale projections with intelligible content, such as general information about MIT events, welcoming messages and so on, placed within the active areas, augmenting the transmissibility of the intended messages, while the overall intervention remains discreet; small scale interventions carrying intelligible content as well as any kind of abstract content applications, placed within the inactive areas or upon the “background” elements to elevate their importance in people’s mental imagery.

By collapsing the content of the design directions that would guide the ‘media treatment,’ two general design goals emerged. The first has to do with increasing the interest of people in space and its elements, in order for them to create a more complete (and accurate) mental image of it. In this way, the indifference and the emptiness identified in the diagnosis can be reduced while the sense of monumentality can be further nurtured and increased. The second goal is revolving around the dissemination of messages in order to increase the informative dimension of space and by that to create a friendlier sensation that supports the MIT character. These goals can be achieved through multiple mediums, with overlapping areas of effect in order to maximize their efficiency, while maintaining a discreet character and presence in space.

For the achievement of the first goal, the proposed interventions are:

• “Animated” light on the columns.

• Projections of colors and patterns from above, at random sites, accompanied by music to create specific sensations.

• Media-surfaces on the walls at all levels that visualize weather, traffic or other external conditions.

• Memory-tracing materials or installations on the floor and on the kiosks to visualize human presence.

Comments – All these projections will be ambient in character, with increased intensity at times where a highly impressive surrounding is required.

For the achievement of the second goal, the proposed interventions are:

• Projections or holograms of welcoming messages and information on MIT events floating at the center of the Lobby area. (height: approximately between the 2nd and the 3rd floor).

145 • Holograms of MIT ‘gadgets’ on the pedestals (paraphrasing the initial design intent for the positioning of inspiring figures on them).

• Small-scale information projections on the sides of the I.C. entrance regarding the MIT topography, the MIT history, dining options at MIT and so on.

• Projections of views of the lobby from above taken by cameras installed on the terraces of the 3rd and the 2nd floor to create a feeling of accessibility and possibly to reduce the magnitude of the scale. People will then gain the floating point of view they asked for. The images will be projected on the sidewalls of the lobby.

• Personalized information will be given through info-booths, like the one being installed in the near future, preferably placed on the inactive left side of the lobby to stimulate it and to conserve the “ecosystem” of the central space. There must be efficient signage though to announce their presence, since the sides are the least noticeable areas in the lobby.

• Game-like projections on various screens scattered in space that will intrigue visitors to explore MIT beyond the Lobby 7 area and also entertain the MIT users that want to blow some steam off.

Comments – All the MIT information will be “coded” in order to align with the policy of mind exercising and distinct identity. The overall projection system will be designed based on game design patterns to achieve a “Spatial, Emotional, Cognitive and Sensory-Motoric Immersion” as well as a sense of “Freedom of Choice and Illusion of Influence.” (For more details please refer to pages 155-158.)

Note: Other types of suggestions indicated in the responses such as the accommodation of rest areas cannot be achieved through digital media and as such they are not presented here.

146 [Digital Media: Tools for Treatment]

This section is dedicated to the description of existing examples and mediums that can be applied in order to achieve the goals identified in the previous section:

• Informational systems: Simple programmed projections.

• Interactive projection systems: Systems that have the ability to ‘respond’ to human activity.

• “Memory” systems: Systems that keep a trace of activity and fade over time.

• Sensor-Actuator systems: The crucial elements comprising the main system that can keep track of the overall activity and maintain efficiency combined with economy.

• Smart materials with inherent changeable properties: Elements that are able to respond to exogenous conditions either by themselves or through computer control.

These categories also form the sub-categories of a larger classification based on “the ways of operating or controlling the actions that occur within an intelligent environment.”128 This classification produces four categories: The direct mechatronic (mechanical- electronic) models, the enhanced mechatronic models, the constitutive models, and the metaphor models. The classification includes elements of the surrounding environment as well as the users.129

For the ‘preliminary’ treatment approach employed in the case study of Lobby 7, this proposal is using elements from the enhanced mechatronic and constitutive models. This is because they are computer controlled, but more importantly, because many MIT developed or developing technologies exist in both of these categories. The use of MIT technology for the realization of such a project is a demand of both the client and the users. Even the visitors expect to witness something like that entering the Institution from its main gate on 77 Mass. Av. (The only thing they experience today of the kind is the automatic door, a fact that most of them are negligent to). This research indicates only the possible applied media that have been found suitable to satisfy the design goals. Most of them are projects researched by MIT Media Lab and by MIT CSAIL groups.

128 Addington & Schodek (2005), p.212. 129 Ibid., pp. 212-213. Also, please refer to the tables presented on pages 149 and 151.

147 To name but a few here are some of the suggested projects:130

• The MIT Media Lab’s Responsive Environments group has produced the Gesture- Sensing Radar. “This project has developed a series of very low power radar systems intended for sensing non-contact gesture in interactive spaces.” (Joe Paradiso, Nick Yu, Che King Leo)131 Another similar project is the Window Tap Technology. It is a system that locates the positions of knocks and taps on glass surfaces. (First System Collaboration of Joe Paradiso and Tangible Media Group). It is applied in many installations as an interactive informational panel or game.132 There is also the LaserWall, an inexpensive system that provides a precise gestural interface in front of a “smart surface” (Joe Paradiso, Josh Strickon).133

• The MIT Media Lab’s Ambient Intelligence Group is developing technologies that aim to promote participation and engagement of the users. They also empower the sense of identity. These are the Collective Memory/Collective Intelligence project (Pattie Maes, Hugo Liu)134 and The Playful project that introduce immersive environments that enable the whole engagement of a person’s body. (Pattie Maes, Benjamin Buchwald, David Gatenby, Ron MacNeil)135

• The MIT Media Lab’s Sociable Media group has developed the Teleaction that creates a remote agent information gathering system, (Dana Spiegel, Matt Lee, Kelly Dobson, Derek Tang)136and the Sociokinetics that attempts to visualize social motion and meaning. (Judith Donath, Hyun-Yeul Lee, Jiawen Chen, Julie Yoo)137

• As an overall platform, the Pervasive Human-Centered Computing Project OXYGEN conducted at MIT’s CSAIL, provides developed systems for the creation of space “awareness,” for communication with the user that also enables central control138 with a developed network of software, perceptual and user technologies.

130 Please refer to the Appendices section for images of these projects. 131 http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/Radar/index.html 132 http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/Tapper/index.html 133 http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/SpectrumWeb/captions/Laser.html 134 http://interact.media.mit.edu/research.html 135 Ibid 136 http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/TeleAction/ 137 http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/motion/ 138 http://oxygen.csail.mit.edu/Overview.html#today

148

Source: Addington & Schodek (2005) p.214.

149

150

Source: Addington & Schodek (2005) p.215

151

152 The application of MIT technologies will simultaneously cover for the explicit needs of the users, such as the dissemination of information and the ability to create “games” in order to explore MIT, while increasing feelings of MIT pride. The “MIT presence” was significantly reduced after the restoration when the students’ drop-posters were removed despite the fact that they were considered very effective. There were two reasons for that. The main one was that they constituted a fire hazard and the second that many of those posters had not been updated for over 25 years. No effective solution was found. Under the scope of the proposed method though, the digital interventions shall surpass both of the problems that were raised while providing an even stronger effect. There is no risk for fire while the themes and the information presented will be regularly updated.

A committee on behalf of the Corporation along with the MIT community will determine the themes and the context of the projected information, while their ‘mood’ and their overall appearance will be determined by the architect as s/he interprets the derived information from the diagnosis. Beyond the obvious reasons that rely on the overall aesthetics of the immaterial intervention, the other reason why the architect must employ the use of specific design patterns is because s/he should design beforehand the framework within which the projections will take place. These patterns are modifications of the patterns used for the design of computer games. Their success to grasp human attention and affect the player’s impression are considered de facto for the extent of this research based on their wide-spread and popular-belief.

153

154 [Digital media: Patterns for Treatment]

The game design industry has already employed the ‘knowledge’ of design from various fields such as “architecture, software engineering, evolutionary biology, mathematics, and interaction design” and of interaction environments from the fields of “sociology, social psychology, psychology, and cognitive science.”139 This fact indicates the close relationship that game design has with the conducted research and the proposed methodology.

The evaluation of these patterns is performed through continuous loops. The steps of the evaluation are: “recognize, analyze, describe, test, and evaluate.”140 I believe that the design of games, being a new field, has developed a level of interdisciplinary sophistication since it invaded nearly every social group and it is based on the motto that a game [must] “ (…) provide reasons to interact. If [the game] is not interesting, novel or well designed something will be lacking”141 and will not stimulate participation and thus experience.

Björk &Holopainen, (2005) “In this research we are using the temporal components that describe the flow of the game and the structural that define the physical and logical elements necessary for containing and manipulating the experienced state and secondary about the boundary components that set the limits of the activities.”

139 Björk & Holopainen, (2005), p.52 140 Ibid., p.52 141 Ibid., p.3

155 Based on the work of Björk & Holopainen (2005) in the domain of game design, the pattern examples that can be employed in the treatment process and the elements that comprise them are:

• “Game World (Lobby 7 for example). The Game World defines spatial relationships. It is connected to Game World Navigation information, it instantiates Spatial Immersion and other types of Immersion and also helps the development of Narrative Structures.

• Strategic Locations They instantiate Memorizing and provide patterns for augmenting the illusion of importance for center elements. They also create a sense of connection and ownership.

• Patterns for Information presentation These are mainly decided from what exactly is to be achieved. There are many patterns in this category but they will not be presented here in detail. The important features of those patterns are the ability to provide with information that extends beyond the observational abilities and to provide with alternative viewpoints for secondary views that allow for a quick synthesis of information. The basic function of distributing information with the use of various patterns that define its quality or timing is to create interest. They instantiates Cognitive Immersion.

• Illusion of Influence The actions possible create the feeling of changing the environment’s state. These actions must seem meaningful to the user. There must be an adjusted Level of Complexity of the interface to be effective that must be used in conjunction with the Freedom of Choice pattern. The ability to create objects or events, such as ‘hacks,’ provides for a more tangible form of influence that can be achieved through Creative Control. It is instantiated by Social Interaction. It triggers Emotional Immersion since it makes people feel that their actions are important.

• Immersion It aims to create a feeling of satisfaction and an increased sense of involvement and engagement. The immersion does not imply that the people will be unaware of their surroundings but that they will be more focused to the interactions they will have. It should be achieved with discretion since it aims to capture attention through cognitive demands.

• Types of Immersion patterns: Spatial (identify limits, maneuvering), Emotional (like reading a book), Cognitive (based upon the focus of abstractive reasoning and complex problem solving), and Sensory-Motoric Immersion (achieved through feedback loops and repetitious movements). They are triggered by the Characters, the Narrative

156 Structures, the Game World, the Freedom of Choice, and the Problem Solving techniques.

• Anticipation It is created when there is emotional immersion involved that “hooks up” the user. It can be created for upcoming events, through countdowns, promotions and so on.

• Freedom of Choice People should be able to make choices they feel that are interesting. This means that those choices must have seemingly different effects that are meaningful. People feel that they affect the course of time and so they become engaged and feel connected. Freedom of Choice gives Empowerment and thereby Emotional Immersion. Furthermore, it promotes Social Interaction. People are inclined to plan and evaluate and by that Cognitive Immersion emerges too. Freedom of Choice is triggered by Creative Control. Among other patterns, it instantiates Empowerment, Immersions and Game World Navigation.

• Creative Control This describes the ability of people to perform inside the ‘place’ (Game World) actions that qualify as expressions of creativity. (Certain MIT students or groups, for example, can achieve through a “gaming” procedure an upgraded status that grants them the ability to change the appearance of Lobby 7). It requires an adjusted Right Level of Complexity. It allows people to have Constructive Play with the aim of creating ‘game’ elements, information, or even sequels of actions. It also gives the sense of Identification and Empowerment. It instantiates Social Statuses, Emotional Immersion, Freedom of Choice, Empowerment, Stimulated Planning, Illusion of Influence, and Identification.

• Narrative Structures It is the creation of stories that provide motivation. (The unfolding story of MIT, for example, with the people as protagonists.) It provides Immersion and Identification. It is triggered by the Characters. It instantiates Identification and Emotional Immersion.

• Characters In this research we use this pattern only with regard to what affects the people using the ‘place’.

• Identification It provides the platform for the creation of links with spatial elements and for identifying oneself with the overall ‘place’. (Create mental links in Lobby 7, for example, and unify the groups using that space). Identification is created by the actions of the Characters. Through Identification, people can engage in Social Interaction and thus promote the emergence and maintenance of Social Organizations. It triggers

157 Emotional Immersion. It is instantiated by Focus Loci, Creative Control, and Narrative Structures.

• Cooperation It divides goals that can be achieved through cooperative effort. It can be achieved by introducing Mutual Goals with Shared Rewards. It increases the motivation and the Social Interaction. Cooperation is also the basis for having Social Organizations and Social Dilemmas. There is also an emergence of Social Statuses. If Cooperation and Competition coexist, they can raise the level of Social Interaction.

• Constructive Play People are allowed to affect spatial elements or set their own design goals. (The changing of the appearance of Lobby 7 like the MIT web site, for example). The different features of Constructive Play such as problem solving and sensory-motoric skills” enhance Cognitive Immersion and increase challenge and interest.

• Social Interaction This pattern provides reasons for the players to communicate and to engage each other in performing Collaborative Actions and Cooperation in general. Social Statuses emerge. Social Interaction provides methods for different ways of communicating within and outside the Game World or the ‘place’. Social Organizations are provoked and, through Identification, the promotion of Social Statuses creates a healthy competition. It triggers Collaborative Actions, Social Organizations, Emotional Immersion, Illusion of Influence and Freedom of Choice. It is instantiated by Communication and Cooperation. It is modulated by Identification.” 142

These patterns are designed through the programming of the controlling system and should be evaluated on a regular basis. In case of diversions, they should be adjusted. With constant evaluation, space will eventually be “fine-tuned,” reaching the maximum desired potential.

142 Björk & Holopainen, (2005), pp.55-262

158

Epilogue

159

160

In the recent years, digital media have invaded every aspect of human activity with tremendous velocity. They rendered obsolete their analog predecessors and changed forever the way we live because, basically, they completely revolutionized the way we communicate. I think it is safe to suggest that still most of the fields that have been ‘turned’ up-side down from these invasion still struggle to find ways to coop with the new mediums. In architecture, digital media enabled sophisticated ways for conceptual inquiries, increased productivity143 and revolutionary abilities for construction.144 The main abilities that architecture ‘exploits’ from digital media are related to data processing for the creation of databases and the execution of complicated calculations, from form-finding processes to complex computer aided manufacturing. We can see that the single feature that caused the mutation of contemporary society, communication, is largely left out from the design product.

Of course this is not true at all levels. Designs are ‘traveling’ all over the globe in their digital formats and collaboration is feasible even if there is no physical contact. But all this communication ways are just improvements of the traditional (analog) methods. Digital tools open new paths of communication, for example, with space itself. It seems like we are using digital tools in an analog way. We have just improved the ‘old’ ways. Usually a new tool brings new methods. I believe that we are in such a threshold, where the practice is changing and I attempt to bring one such method before you. In the age of mobility and streaming information, space seemed more frozen than ever. A passive ‘spectator’ of the activities that it hosts. Even if it seems to react, it is the activities of the people that do so. Space itself is unaware of such activities, like being in a comatose state.

I deliberately used the diagnosis/treatment metaphor in order to emphasize the inertia that space is currently in. My research is about the potential of space to communicate. Escaping the traditional notion of designing the physical space, the notion of actually designing the events rather than the ‘limits’ within which they would occur seems an exciting new path. People do not understand the mathematical space.145 They understand a fictional one by constructing its mental image and by keeping it updated through experience.

143 Liapi & Oungrinis (2003) pp. 377-381. 144 Bechthold (2003) pp. 91-96. 145 Tversky (2003), p. 66.

161 Now architecture can aim directly to affect that image. The evolving ‘place’ can be rendered alive. People can increase their connection with their spatial surroundings. The ‘cold’ quality of the ‘absolute’ produced by mathematics can acquire ‘warmth’ with the illusionary projection of sensations. Furthermore, space can be a protagonist in connectivity. It can absorb many of the mediums used today, except for the ones that increase mobility and flexibility, in the same manner that digital technologies absorbed their analog predecessors. Space can provide all sorts of information and keep people connected at all times, a fact proven by research that is underway in the computer science fields.

Regarding this research, the number of examined spaces must increase not only in scale but also in quality. One of the main objectives of the case study was to verify the initial hypothesis, and that was proven with more success than anticipated. Future work must focus on refining the diagnosis project, form an analytical index of available digital tools and systems and examine them empirically, and finally expand the research to other typologies of space. Hopefully after some years the collected data will create a sufficient and reliable source for low-risk speculation. The loop process embedded in the proposed methodology can help architecture to keep spaces updated and fine-tuned, while pointing out shifts regarding social/public demands.

I believe that the next ‘places’ that are to be examined are the ones that were identified as similar to Lobby 7 by the respondents of the questionnaire. In this way, some of the findings will be cross-examined and at the same time the process will be refined in a manner of recording small differences. These types of buildings are mainly Museums and Palaces. Gradually though all types of areas should be examined. The fascinating advancements regarding the abilities of the digital media today are in the position to inform continuously the architectural practice. Other types of research also rise such as the possibility to better position art pieces in an exhibition and the development of objects or accessories, such as clothes, that will be designed specifically to work in this type of environments and to enable broader and more efficient communication between the user and the space.

Following the next logical steps, regardless of the diversities in the nature of this research direction, I intend to continue working within its general framework on a doctoral level. Firstly, I need to verify the effectiveness of digital tools and of game design patterns in the design of impressions in architectural environments. Secondly, I should expand my research field to more types of spaces, at various scales. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the method in relation to certain criteria is also on target.

162 The endless impetus for progress and human adaptability opens up new paths to be explored. I consider this particular one the one that I have to take. Regardless of where it may take me, I am committed to do this bidding in the best possible way. I already feel like I have left the known ‘lands’ of ‘traditional’ design from the most far out port and now sailing to an uncertain but exciting alternative. The goal is to find a new land to bridge with the old. My own ‘New World’.

163

164

Bibliography

165

166 { inspirations }

Β books

1. Abercrombie, Stanley. (1984). Architecture as Art. New York: Icon Editions. 2. De Kerckhove, Derrick. (2001). The Architecture of Intelligence. Basel: Birkhäuser. 3. Kotsiopoulos, Anastasios. (1985). Critique on the Architectural Theory. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press. 4. Norberg-Schulz, Christian. (1988). Architecture: Meaning and Place. New York: Electa/Rizzoli. 5. Risebero, Bill. (1979). The Story of Western Architecture. 3rd edition, (2001). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 6. Rybczynski, Witold. (1986). Home. A Short History of an Idea. New York: Viking. 7. Virilio, Paul. (1996). The Art of the Motor. Translated by Rose Julie. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Β journals

8. Milgram, Stanley. (1970). "The Experience of Living in the Cities," in Science. Vol. 167. March 1970, pp. 1461-1468.

{ spatial diagnosis }

Β books

9. Bergson, Henri. (1988). Matter and Memory. New York: Zone Books. 10. Freundschuh, Scott & Kitchin, Rob. (2000). “Cognitive Mapping” in Freundschuh, Scott & Kitchin, Rob. (Eds). (2000). Cognitive Mapping, Past, Present and Future. Routledge: London, UK. 11. Jormakka, Kari. (2002). Flying Dutchmen. Motion in Architecture. Basel: Birkhäuser. 12. Lawson, Bryan. (1999). The Language of Space. Oxford, UK: Architectural Press. 13. Peterson, Robert. (2000). Constructing Effective Questionnaires. London: Sage Publications. 14. Tversky, Barbara. (2000). “Levels and Structure of Spatial Knowledge” in Freundschuh, Scott & Kitchin, Rob. (Eds). (2000). Cognitive Mapping, Past, Present and Future. Routledge: London, UK. 15. Weiss, R. S. & Boutourline, S. Jr. (1962). Fairs, Pavilions, Exhibits, and their Audiences. Commissioned by David Holzman and Robert S. Lee of IBM Communications.

Β journals

16. Tversky, Barbara. (2003). “Structures of Mental Spaces: How People Think About Space” in Environment and Behavior. Vol. 35. pp. 66-80.

167 { media treatments }

Β books

17. Addington, M. & Schodek, D. (2005). Smart Materials and Technologies for the Architecture and Design Professions. Oxford, UK: Architectural Press. 18. Björk, Staffan, & Holopainen, Jussi. (2005). Patterns in Game Design, Hingham, MA: Charles River Media. 19. Bechthold, Martin. (2003). “Customization in Building Construction: Integrating Digital Design and Manufacturing in New Technologies in Architecture” in II & III: Digital Design and manufacturing Techniques. Proceedings of the Second International Conference Harvard university School of Design; Cambridge, MA: Harvard College.

Β other references

20. Liapi, Marianthi & Ougrinis, Konstantinos. (2003). “The Trasmutation of Architectural Synthesis: Morphing Procedures through the Adaptation of Informational Technology in the Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering” in Proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering. World Scientific publishing Co., Inc. NJ. pp. 377-381.

21. http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/Radar/index.html 22. http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/Tapper/index.html 23. http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/SpectrumWeb/captions/Laser.html 24. http://interact.media.mit.edu/research.html 25. http://interact.media.mit.edu/research.html 26. http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/TeleAction/ 27. http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/motion/

{ Lobby 7 }

Β books

28. Jarzombek, Mark. (2004). Designing MIT. Bosworth’s New Tech. Boston: Northeastern University Press. 29. Johnson, W. Howard. (1999). Holding the Center: Memoirs of a Life in Higher Education. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press.

Β journals

30. Brehm, Denise. (2003). “Coffee Lovers Warm Up to Lobby 7 Café” in MIT Tech Talk, Volume 47, Number 18, February 5, 2003, Cambridge, MA. 31. Hess, L. John. (1965). “Welles Bosworth is Active at 96” in New York Times, Monday, June 28, 1965. 32. Krishnan, Jennifer. (2001). “Work Begins on Lobby 7’s First-Ever Renovations” in The Tech, Volume 121, Number 16, Friday, April 6, 2001, Cambridge, MA.

168 33. Robinson, Karen. (2002). “Upcoming Cafe in Lobby 7 Highlights Renovations” in The Tech, Volume 121, Number 68, Friday, January 16, 2002, Cambridge, MA. 34. Shillaber, Caroline. (1954). “Architecture of MIT Buildings” in Technology Review. V. 56, Apr. 1954, pp. 297-326; May 1954, pp. 343-376. 35. Shulman, A. Peter. (2002). “Up with Drop Posters!” in The Tech, Volume 121, Number 70, Wednesday, January 30, 2002, Cambridge, MA.

Β other references 36. Lawrence, Juan Marcos. (1981). “A Historical and Social Assessment of the Main Academic Buildings on the MIT Campus.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology Buildings Bibliography. MIT Rotch Library, Circulation Desk T171.M423.R68.

Β search places

MIT Museum [N52-200], Contacts: Gary Van Zante [Curator, Architecture and Design], Jenny O'Neill [Curatorial Assistant] MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections [14N-118], Contact: Nora Murphy [Reference Archivist] MIT Department of Facilities [14N-118], Contact: Maryla Walters [Archivist]

Illustrations are credited to the author unless otherwise stated.

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Appendices

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Questionnaire

MIT COUHES Letter of Approval

Letter of Informed Consent

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Questionnaire # _ _ [The questionnaire will be administered in the form of a personal interview with the study participant.]

µ DEFINE THE CONDITIONS DURING THE INTERVIEW (to be filled in by the researcher before the interview begins)

01. Date Month: Day: Year:

02. Time

03. Approximate amount of people present in the survey area at the time. Empty Space 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Very Crowded Space

04. Local weather conditions. Warm 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Cold Sun Clouds Rain Snow

05. Any significant events today? (check all that apply and describe briefly) MIT related Local related Nation related World related None : :

µ DEFINE THE STUDY PARTICIPANT

06. Indicate the study participant’s gender through observation. Male Female

07. "How old are you?" [years of age] 20 or younger 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 60 or older

08. "Where are you from?” (if necessary proceed to "What is your nationality?") : :

09. "What is the highest degree or level of school that you have completed?" (detail: field of study) 12th grade or less High school graduate Some college/no degree College degree Bachelor’s degree Master’s degree Doctorate degree Other :

10. "Are you currently employed? If yes, what is your occupation?" Yes No :

11. Indicate through observation whether the study participant is wearing headphones. Yes No

12. "How long have you been at MIT?" (time-related knowledge/use of the research subject) Tourist New user Short-term user Long-term user 13. "From where do you usually enter the MIT campus?" :

14. "What is your destination?" (just building name and/or number) :

15. "Do you use any area around MIT’s Lobby 7?" (If yes, go to the next question. If no, go to question No. 17) Yes No

16. "What building? What floor?" : :

17. "How often do you spend time in Lobby 7?" (Accordingly move to the next question or to question No.20) Frequently Sometimes Rarely Once Never

18. "What time of the day do you usually visit Lobby 7?" (check all that apply) Morning Noon Afternoon Evening Night None No opinion

19. "Do you have a preferred time of the day to visit Lobby 7? Why?" (check all that apply) Morning Noon Afternoon Evening Night None No opinion : :

20. "Do you know when Lobby 7 was built?" Yes : No Guess:

21. "In your opinion, is the age of the building visible? If yes, in what way?" Yes No No Opinion : :

22. "Are you interested in learning more about the history of Lobby 7?" Yes No No Opinion

µ THE LANGUAGE OF LOBBY 7

23. "Please give 1-5 adjectives that in your opinion best describe Lobby 7." (ask if there is a ranking)

No opinion

24. "Please give 1-5 verbs that in your opinion best describe the activities that take place inside Lobby 7." (ask if there is a ranking)

No opinion

µ USING LOBBY 7

25. "What is in your opinion the basic function of Lobby 7? Can you identify secondary functions?” :

: No opinion

26. "How would you rate the signage inside Lobby 7 regarding:

26a. Information?” (e.g. events/announcements/news/weather and so on) [quantity] Adequate 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Inadequate No opinion [quality] Clear 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Unclear No opinion

26b. Navigation?” [quantity] Adequate 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Inadequate No opinion [quality] Clear 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Unclear No opinion

26c. Identity/History?” [quantity] Adequate 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Inadequate No opinion [quality] Clear 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Unclear No opinion

27. "Is there any other category for which, in your opinion, signage is important in Lobby 7? : No opinion

28. "If you were to indicate a meeting spot inside Lobby 7, where or what would that be? : No opinion

29. "Does your answer depend on whether the people you are meeting are from MIT or not? Yes No No opinion : 29a."If you were to meet someone who hasn’t been in Lobby 7 before, could you draw a rough 15sec sketch that you would probably use to explain to that person where you will meet?" (do not worry about accuracy, just draw the first things that come to mind) No opinion

30. "If Lobby 7 was part of another space, what type of space do you think it could be? (what are the most similar spaces that you can think of?) : Church Arcade-mall Theater-opera Palace Atrium Planetarium Pantheon Museum Other No opinion

µ USER(S) - SPACE EXPERIENCE

31. "In your opinion, what is the shape of Lobby 7?" : No opinion

32. "For you Lobby 7 is (…)?" The space on the ground floor The space of multiple floors Other No opinion :

33. "In your opinion, how many sf (or sm) is Lobby 7?" 3200sf (300sm) 5400sf (500sm) 7500sf (700sm) 9700sf (900sm) No opinion

34. "In your opinion, what is the height of Lobby 7?" 50f (15m) 65f (20m) 80f (25m) 100f (30m) No opinion

35. "How would you describe the scale of Lobby 7 in relation to the human scale: your scale? (guide towards the use of an adjective) : No opinion

36. "Describe the sound in or of Lobby 7?" (note down the presence or not of headphones) : No opinion

36a. "Have you ever noticed an echo inside Lobby 7? Yes No No opinion

37. "In terms of lighting conditions, how do you remember Lobby 7?" Bright 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Dark No opinion

38. "What is the predominant color inside Lobby 7?" : No opinion

39. "Do you consider it a clean or a dirty space?" Clean 1 : 2: 3: 4: 5 Dirty No opinion

40. "What are the materials used for the interior of Lobby 7?" : No opinion

40a. "Is there anything tangible that you remember about Lobby 7?" : No opinion

41. "Is there a predominant smell inside Lobby 7?" : No opinion

42. "What is the overall feeling that you get from Lobby 7?" : No opinion

43. "Is there anything that Lobby 7 could have to make your experience of it more memorable?" (No further explanation. I want to see what the study participant is thinking.) : No opinion

: : :

µ IMAGERY

44. "Please name one element of Lobby 7 that in your mind constitutes a landmark of that space." : No opinion

45. "If you close your eyes, what are the first 3 characteristics of Lobby 7 that come into your mind?" (material characteristics, mobile or immobile) None No opinion

45a. "Which one of them is predominant?" : No opinion

45b. "Do they represent something for you?" (e.g. the dome is the sky) : No opinion :

46. "Is there a favorite place for you to stand/sit and observe Lobby 7?" : No opinion

47. "Could you describe to me the floor in Lobby 7?" Yes No No opinion :

48. "Could you describe to me the ceiling of Lobby 7?" Yes No No opinion :

49. "Could you describe to me the sides of Lobby 7?" (if not clear, mention 3 options: columns, walls, or arcades formed by the first two elements as parts of the three sides) Yes No No opinion :

49a. "Could you rank them in terms of importance?" Yes No No opinion

50. "Could you describe to me the corners of Lobby 7?" Yes No No opinion :

50a. "Could you rank them in terms of importance?" Yes No No opinion

51. "Where do you think that the light comes from in Lobby 7?" : No opinion

52. "How many levels does Lobby 7 have?" : No opinion

52a. "Is there one that you particularly like?" : No opinion

53. "How many columns are there in Lobby 7?" : No opinion

53a. "Could you describe how high they reach?" : No opinion

µ USER(S) - SPACE COMMUNICATION

54. "How is your experience in Lobby 7 compared to similar public spaces you have been? (if necessary remind the study participant of the response in question No. 30) : No opinion : :

55. "Do you believe that you have something in common with the rest of the people using Lobby 7? If so, what is it?" Yes No No opinion :

56. "Do you believe that there is a connection between you and the space of Lobby 7 itself? If so, what is it? For example, do you feel connected with events in Lobby 7, with objects in it, with your own personal experience in it, with the history and the magnitude of it? Yes No No opinion :

57. "In your opinion as an active participant in the life of Lobby 7, what do you think is missing?" (clarify with additional information: What is there for you today vs. what you would like to find in the future: Is there something functional missing, informative, event generating, aesthetic, entertaining, technological, responsive, transformable, luxurious, and so on [please add]) : No opinion : : : 57a. (based on the previous response) "Can you name examples of other public spaces you have experienced where you found these qualities?" : No opinion : : :

58. "If you were to experience a more interactive/informative Lobby 7, choose which of the following categories you’d rather be informed about." Personal (school/dept) MIT (events/announcements) Weather News (local/international) History of place Local events

Other No opinion

µ IMAGINATION

59. "Would you like to try and describe to me a fictional, futuristic image of Lobby 7 that you would really like to see?" : : : : : : : : : : : : : No opinion

60. "Are there any comments that you would like to add to this questionnaire?" : : : : : : : : : : : : : No opinion

Thank you!

Sketches of Lobby 7 from the study participants

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Lobby 7 Plans 1938

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Lobby 7 Renovation Proposals - Plans 2001

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Media ‘Spices’

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The Tele-reporter is an interface that allows the audience of a news program to make real-time requests to an external agent as a reporter. (Derek Tang, Kelly Dobson) [Media Lab : Sociable Media Group : Teleaction Project :

http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/TeleAction/ The Interactive Window presented at SIGGRAPH 2002 was TeleReporter.html ] based on the Window tap Technology. It can work in conjunction with the Gesture-Sensing Radars Project. [Media Lab : Responsive Environments Group : http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/Tapper/SG2002.html]

The Trajectory of Forgetting. Interactive Multimedia LaserWho, presented at SIGGRAPH 2000. Application by Ruth West. [Media Lab : Responsive Environments Group Simulates the fading of memory by taking images Source: http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/SpectrumWeb/captions/ and projecting them degrade over time. Laser.html] [Source:_http://www.viewingspace.com/ucla_mfa/ucla_pag es/trajectory/trajectory.htm]

Interactive Particle Display at Spiral/ Wacoal Art Center in Tokyo by Christian Moeller. The installation detects actions and then generates tracing moving patterns of those actions. [Source:_http://www.christianmoeller.com/display.php?project_id=43]

AzimuthXX: The Logical Stage. Installation by Margot Loverjoy An examination of formal perceptual and representational issues. [Source: http://margotlovejoy.com/]

Influence. A project of Media Lab’s Ambient Intelligence Group. It is an interactive artwork that ‘plays’ with collective behavior through interactive digital media. [Source: http://interact.media.mit.edu/research.html] Illuminated Tiles [Source: http://transstudio.com]

Smart Wrap building by Kieran Timberlake, introducing a Thermotropic glass mass customizable print Facade. [Source: http://transstudio.com] [Source: http://www.kierantimberlake.com/SmartWrap/index.htm]

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