Forget me not: Architectural atmospheres as a form of communication

Abstract

This thesis explores the atmospheric qualities of architecture, focusing on the sensory and emotional cues, and aims to interpret the experience of space as a language of its own. What follows is a story of a memorial standing as a reminder of Onkalo, the final repository of Finland’s nuclear waste. This thesis poses the question, can architecture be used as form of communication with future humans? Architecture is not only a visual experience but a multi sensory encounter. Building on the ideas of Juhani Pallasmaa and Peter Zumthor, this thesis examined how atmospheres influence the experience of architecture and how they can be warped to tell of a possible threat. The project is seen through a conceptual lens of nuclear semiotics, a field of research on long-term communication of radioactive waste storage. With the Onkalo repository set to endure 100,000 years, traditional warning methods become obsolete with the vastness of deep time. By extending architectural atmospheres to the scale of deep time, this thesis seeks to investigate the elements of architectural communication that carry beyond language, cultural bias, and time. The project unfolds as a story, narrating a speculative future told from the perspective of the memorial itself. Each chapter of the story was interpreted to visual representations by translating the atmospheric qualities to architectural design. The goal of this method was to change the order in which architecture is designed, to aim focus the on atmospheric spaces. Surrendering the design to the story came to be the theme of the thesis. The focus did not lay on the solving the question of nuclear semiotics, but to tell a story that reflects on the inherent impossibility of the task. Experience of a space is not only a result of its elements but more than the sum of its parts – atmospheres are to be felt, not explained. The method of storytelling allowed the experience of architecture before it was fully visualized. Ultimately this thesis emphasizes the nuances of architectural atmospheres and the experience of space as a subtle form of communication.