TY - JOUR
T1 - Watermarks of architecture
AU - Sioli, Angeliki
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Engaging Joseph Brodsky’s compelling novella Watermark (1992) — a wintertime account of Venice — this paper unpacks embodied experiences in a place of paramount cultural and historical heritage. The literary language captures the city’s emotional character — portraying how it affects our consciousness and subsequent behaviours — by describing affective atmospheres that emerge on the threshold of architecture and its embodied perception. The seasonal narration, moreover, allows for a unique glimpse into the city’s architectural heritage, which is most commonly appreciated by visitors and tourists during spring or summer. With architectural discourse nowadays embracing the importance of atmospheres and narratives for the understanding of place and culture, Watermark tangibly advocates for the city’s affective emotional power as a unique heritage to preserve. By doing so, it guides architects towards a design sensitivity open to the ephemerality of spatial moods. Distinct moments of encounter between the city’s urban design and water, Venice’s architecture and its humidity, as well as the place’s imposing materiality in the cold, provide an understanding of how a place of memory like Venice is produced and experienced.
AB - Engaging Joseph Brodsky’s compelling novella Watermark (1992) — a wintertime account of Venice — this paper unpacks embodied experiences in a place of paramount cultural and historical heritage. The literary language captures the city’s emotional character — portraying how it affects our consciousness and subsequent behaviours — by describing affective atmospheres that emerge on the threshold of architecture and its embodied perception. The seasonal narration, moreover, allows for a unique glimpse into the city’s architectural heritage, which is most commonly appreciated by visitors and tourists during spring or summer. With architectural discourse nowadays embracing the importance of atmospheres and narratives for the understanding of place and culture, Watermark tangibly advocates for the city’s affective emotional power as a unique heritage to preserve. By doing so, it guides architects towards a design sensitivity open to the ephemerality of spatial moods. Distinct moments of encounter between the city’s urban design and water, Venice’s architecture and its humidity, as well as the place’s imposing materiality in the cold, provide an understanding of how a place of memory like Venice is produced and experienced.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139552014&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13602365.2022.2122068
DO - 10.1080/13602365.2022.2122068
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85139552014
SN - 1360-2365
VL - 27
SP - 500
EP - 516
JO - Journal of Architecture
JF - Journal of Architecture
IS - 4
ER -