How do buildings talk? Embodied experience in the Rolex Learning Centre

Yang, Jing; Hale, Jonathan; Blackman, Toby

Abstract

A 3D film by Wim Wenders of the Rolex Learning Centre provides a deeper phenomenological reading of SANAA’s distinctively minimalist architecture.

The Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010, curated by Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, co-founder of Tokyo-based practice SANAA, included a remarkable 24-minute 3D film by the German director Wim Wenders depicting the practice’s Rolex Learning Centre in Switzerland. Entitled If Buildings Could Talk the film ran in a continuous loop, without a tangible beginning or end, much like the building itself. Invited by SANAA to develop the film, Wenders found himself confronted with a new type of space which he had no prior experience of, and no vocabulary to describe: ‘The Rolex Learning Centre,’ said Wenders during a talk given at the Biennale, is more landscape than building.’

Citation

Yang, J., Hale, J., & Blackman, T. (2021). How do buildings talk? Embodied experience in the Rolex Learning Centre. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 25(1), 83-92. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135521000129

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 31, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jul 27, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-03
• Deposit Date: Apr 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: May 5, 2021
• Journal: arq: Architectural Research Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 1359-1355
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 83-92
• Series ISSN: 1359-1355
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135521000129
• Keywords: Architecture, design, theory, psychology, perception, criticism
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5502374
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/arq-architectural-research-quarterly
• Additional Information: This article has been published in a revised form in arq: Architectural Research Quarterly https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135521000129. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use. © The Author(s)