Composition and Its Contribution to the Visual Perception of the Building

How does the perception of a building as a “good” or a “bad” one in response to its design and appearance form in the head of a viewer? Perhaps the most definitive answer can be found in the position of aesthetics of art, which refers to “integrity” as the ultimate state of an artwork. Hence being the most important attribute of any architectural concept. This paper analyses the key features of “integrity”, relating to the approaches of different creative disciplines and their impact on human perception. Therefore, the research focuses on the development of a hypothetical “linear narrative” in the design, which is presented through a composition of steadily evolving elements. These parts are embodied in the combination of solids and voids, based on their weight and proportional value. The paper claims that their appearance should be observed from a perspective of movement which occurs according to the “linear narrative”. Consequently, giving an opportunity to divide it into steps, which include countdown, gradual growth, catharsis, decline and ending point. One of the most significant for the overall experience of a viewer here is the catharsis. Unlike the other particles in the sequence, it doesn’t comply with the regular rules, implementing chaos in the organised composition. However, this primal collapse allows to generalise the contribution of the other elements into the overall perception and form the new system of a higher order, which can be described as “Integrity”. The case study is applied to the Elbphilharmonie and Okurayama apartments to Illustrate the “linear narrative” and analyse the viability of the hypothesis. Therefore, both examples are related to different building typologies to prove the importance of integrity and highlight the guidelines which will potentially benefit the emotional impact of the viewers from contemporary architecture.