Phenomenology

Written By Darshana | Master of Urban and Cultural Heritage Student

Written for the Bachelor of Design (Interior Architecture)(Honours)

April 2021 - Philosophy of Interior Architecutre

by Darshana Thapa

This precedent study aims to view the Baker D. Chirico Bakery, through the lens of phenomenology to understand how our senses are ignited by different aspects of the unique design. 

The heritage-listed, two-storey Victorian brick building pictured above received a new lease on life when Baker D. Chirico and the architects at March Studio reimagined the bakery experience in 2011. Bread has been around for thousands of years and is made from simple ingredients, so the space needed to celebrate simplicity, not just make an architectural statement (Sydney Morning Herald, 2012). 

The CNC routed plywood walls and ceiling were cleverly designed to resemble the interior of a breadbasket. The timber shelves cool bread straight from the oven and the countertop serves as a cutting board with space to hold bread knives and display baked goods. 

We experience the environment around us through our senses and this information is processed and stored in our memories. 

Juhani Pallasmaa noted in The eyes of the skin, ‘The body is not a mere physical entity; it is enriched by both memory and dream, past and future’ (Pallasmaa 2005, p. 45) Each person experiences life in a uniquely vivid and complex way. No two people share the exact same series of experiences. 

We can call upon these moments to feel their comfort as Gaston Bachelard described in The poetics of space, ‘When we dream of the house we were born in, in the utmost depths of revery, we participate in this original warmth’ (Bachelard 1994, p. 7). This means the feelings we felt during those moments can be experienced again in the present. Which is why some interior spaces evoke such powerful emotion.They are entwined almost indistinguishably with our past. 

The Baker De Chirico interior experience is unique as it has the ability to reach into the memories of almost any viewer no matter their cultural background or social status because most of us can instantly recall a time when we delighted in the experience of fresh bread. 

Pallasmaa outlines each of the sense modalities in An architecture of the seven senses. Sight is considered the primary sense but what I noticed first when I visited Baker D. Chirico was the smell of fresh bread floating out the doorway and into the street. Pallasmaa suggests, ‘A particular smell may make us secretly re-enter a space that has been completely erased from the retinal memory; the nostrils project a forgotten image, and we are enticed to enter a vivid daydream’ (Pallasmaa 2011, p. 44). I was transported back to visiting my Aunty and Uncle in Belgium 10 years ago as the smell of fresh bread filled their dining room on a cold Winter’s day. 

Pallasmaa believed, ‘Our bodies and movements are in constant interaction with the environment; the world and the self inform and redefine each other constantly’ (Pallasmaa 2005, p. 40). We feel all of the senses through our physical form which converts to muscle memory. Entering the store, my body automatically sensed the scale of my surroundings. In this narrow space, with the breadbasket creeping onto the ceiling, I felt enclosed and protected. 

My eyes were drawn to the curves of the wall. Warm light shone through, as if to mimic the heat of an oven. Pallasmaa believed all the senses are an extension of touch; ‘Even the eye touches; the gaze implies an unconscious touch’ (Pallasmaa 2005, p. 42).

The sounds that filled the store were of cars driving past on the busy street and people placing orders. These sounds reminded me that life keeps moving, everyday people go about their busy routines and somehow find the time to duck into their favourite bakery for their favourite sweet treat. 

Taste seems like it would be the least connected to architecture because we do not physically use our tongue to touch walls, but vision soon gives way to taste. The sight of fresh bread and pasteries woven in between the spaces of the breadbasket is an enticing invitation. The architecture fuses with the baked goods and we associate our pleasant memories of delicious bread with this unique design.

The sensory experience created here evokes feelings of warmth and nostalgia. Pallasmaa believed ‘We identify ourselves with this space, this place, this moment and these dimensions as they become ingredients of our very existence’ (Pallasmaa 2011, p. 49). It is these ingredients of the interior architecture, and possibly the pain au chocolat, that keep us coming back for more. 

References

Books:

  • Bachelard, G 1994, The poetics of space. Boston, Mass., Beacon Press 

  • Pallasmaa, J 2005, The eyes of the skin: Architecture and the Senses. Chichester, Wiley-Academy. 

  • Pallasmaa, J 2011, ‘An Architecture of the seven senses’, in L Weinthal, Toward a new interior: an anthology of interior design theory, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, pp. 40-49. 

Web Pages:

Darshana | Master of Urban and Cultural Heritage Student
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