Elements; Elements is a sanctuary of the senses, where architecture and gastronomy become one, awakening both body and spirit. It is more than a restaurant.

Abstract

Modern cities are becoming more and more visually oriented, quite often at the expense of other senses of humans. This sensory imbalance is a symptom of a larger societal issues such as digital mediation, fast paced lifestyles, and sensory over stimulation. These factors reduce our sense of being, physical self awareness, and emotional states of happiness. Restaurants, the exact opposite of our detached digital lifestyles as they serve as places for rituals, socializing, and shared sensorial experiences have simply gone along with this trend by giving priority to efficiency, branding, and visual identity rather than a full sensory engagement. This master thesis is on architectural design as a tool for bringing back multisensory awareness by using the four classical elements, Fire, Earth, Water and Wind, and combining them with the human senses. Supported by phenomenological theory and multisensory design research, this work conceptualizes architecture as the body’s manifestation of experience through atmosphere, materiality, sound, light, temperature, and spatial sequence. It is based on a combination of phenomenology and sensory architecture to analyze how architecture and food together can create a coherent sensory narrative. The study is carried out by analyzing literature, creating conceptual sketches, testing atmospheric materials/volumes, and going through an iterative architectural design process. Such techniques facilitate the conversion of intangible sensory and elemental ideas into spatial strategies and architectural forms. The final product of the thesis is the creation of a multisensory restaurant in the coastal landscape of Falkenberg, Sweden. The location between sea and land presents the restaurant with a changing natural setting where elemental powers and local food systems come together. The design of the restaurant is a way of thinking about how spatial interiors, materials, and environmental factors can arouse people’s senses and turn eating into a ceremony that is going back to first principles, reconnected with nature, place, and having one’s own body as a momentary presence. In the end, it is maintained that architectural sustainability should be more than just technical; it should also be sensory, cultural, and experiential so that it will encourage the formation of closer bonds between humans, the environment, and daily habits such as eating.