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

Yang, Jing; Hale, Jonathan; Blackman, Toby

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Authors

Jing Yang

Toby Blackman



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)

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