How Places Speak: A Plea for Poetic Receptivity in Architectural Research

The traditional tools of architectural research, often foregrounding rational and formal modes of thinking, fail to address the fundamental ambiguities of architecture, such as the seemingly opposite notions subject-object. By developing a poetic way of writing as a mode of architectural investigation, such themes as biography, atmosphere and memory can be addressed. Echoing the words of Dutch phenomenologist Van den Berg, Bachelard stated that poets are capable of “noting that things ‘speak’ to them.” Poetry often starts from the simplest daily observations, in which architectural features such as materials, shapes, colors, smells, shapes, light and shadow, trigger associations and memories. It is the poet’s capacity to meticulously observe such details, and to be receptive to sudden connections between such details and human emotion. Through the close reading of a quote by Dutch poet Rutger Kopland and a poem by the author, this contribution will discuss how the receptive approach of poets offers valuable insights for architectural researchers to engage lived experience in their work.