In The Works
Process work and early ideation towards my Spring semester MAP project. The work included is an accumulation from MAP Seminar in Fall of 2023 with Professor Scott Wall. Image below created using ai generation through Adobe Firefly.
MAP Committee: Jennifer Akerman, Kevin Stevens, Liz Teston
“People have designed their environments to their own scale...dogs, who spend their lives at the side of humans, must accept human scale” -Kenya Hara
How can we understand how non-humans experience the world? The relationship of the human and non-human character within the built environment will be examined through one of the strongest cross-species relationships to exist: the Human and the Canine. What is the relationship of humans and non-humans and how do they benefit from one another? In what ways can the human and the non-human help each other to experience the built environment differently or live healthier lifestyles?
Throughout nearly six years of school, mixed-use spaces and spaces designed for a variety of people and users has been a significant personal focus. The interest into relationships among program, size and user is ongoing and blend with the architectural fields of technology, materiality, and social contexts. Ideas and themes of experiential spaces and blending of programs persists and has inspired the investigation of human and non-human characters within the built environment; The experience and blending of programs in relation to the blending of species, needs and characters.
Dogs experience the world and built environment differently than humans do, and as humans we design at the human scale without much care towards the non-human experience. Our canine companions accompany us often, joining us to keep us company, protect us or aid in medical conditions, however, they are forced to experience the built environment at our scale and perception. The same environments that may seem soothing to us can be unsettling or disturbing to our canine companion. Investigations into how dogs perceive the world will help us to understand how to design for more than the human and potentially inspire a new architectural typology in accessible design.
Dogs have different senses than humans do, causing them to experience the world much differently than us. The way in which dogs perceive the world still has many unknowns and uncertainties but from our current understanding we can pinpoint a few major differences. Dogs hear better than humans, dogs see dichromatically rather than seeing three color pigments like humans, and dogs are often at a different eye elevation than adult humans. With these factors in mind we can begin to understand how different spaces are perceived and make a dog feel or understand a space.
A large part of this process is making assumptions and experimentations into how dogs feel and how to make decisions for dogs. In attempt to try and gain an understanding into the dogs view, this topic will largely investigate materials properties (acoustics, temperature, texture) and color (how do dogs perceive color compared to humans) as well as spatial organization (open concept, heights of objects or viewpoints, eyesight clarity). Research and working with allies can help to further understand how dogs perceive the world and generate a standard for the canine architecture. Experimentations into how dogs navigate spaces will be conducted and diagrammed as well as comparisons into dog vision with human vision in everyday spaces.
Comparisons and similarities in the needs of the human and non-human will be made to determine a program of building. What are the needs and desires of the human within a mixed-use development? What are the needs and desires of the non-human canine within a mixed-use development? Where are similarities drawn and where are there differences that can support one another? These driving forces of wants and desires of two entities will create a program and function for the space to be designed in Knoxville, TN.
This research and project aims to celebrate the relationship between dogs and humans and provide healing, comforting and rehabilitating spaces for both species. The investigation into the non-human experience has the potential to open up a new take on accessible design. A new set of rules and regulations similar to that of the ADA can allow for a design standard to create dog friendly spaces. This research hopes to understand how dogs experience the built environment, how we can better design for dogs and how to create a organized system for dogs and humans to experience together. Cross-Species Architecture is a lacking entity within the field that has the opportunity to change how we look at architecture.
The map on the left shows statistics of dogs across the country and what cities are best suited for dogs. The overall shading of the large map and the two small maps on the bottom right show the top three dog breeds in every state. The map makes it very clear that one dog breed seems to over-power all other breeds in popularity: the Labrador Retriever. The top right map shows the most popular breeds in major cities across the United States.
In the large map, circles display the most dog-friendly cities in the country according to four different sources. Hatch patterns display other statistics that play part in the dogs happiness in various locations: Most dog friendly restaurants, most pup cups and most squirrels per square mile.
Dogs are known for having healing and comforting values about them that humans benefit from. Service dogs and emotional support animals are examples of this, but even without proper training we, as humans, see benefits from having dogs around us, joining us on our journeys. Yet, we still do not take them into consideration when designing. A restaurant or bar will call itself dog friendly because it will offer a water bowl and allow them outside on the patio. Yet, many will not have a comfortable and safe place for them to lay down or a space for them to go to the bathroom or allow them inside. If a human walked into a bar or restaurant and there were no tables, no chairs, no bathrooms, the space would be viewed as not suitable. Here lies an issue in the single focused user in designing spaces.
Architecture tends to push for barriers between properties: indoors versus outdoors, human versus animal, loud versus quiet. These barriers lessen our experience of the world around us, constantly controlling our experience.
What happens when the barriers start getting pushed and boundaries between two entities are melded together? How might both the human and the dog benefit from these boundaries getting blurred?
Architecture presently designs with one perspective in mind: the human. This human-based design may have regulations and accessible options to allow easy access for multiple types of people of differing ages or abilities, but there is a large demographic missing that frequently experiences the built environment with us.
Our canine companions accompany us when we go out to eat, go for walks, run errands, get drinks with friends, travel to new places and much more in our everyday lives. In doing so they are forced to experience the world at our scale. Within the confines of our own homes we can make the space more suitable for our furry friends by adding toys they like, beds, comforting pheromones, and more to make the space feel a little more like theirs and suit their tendencies. However, in the public realm we have little to no control over how our animals feel and the experience they receive. Canines are a part of the forgotten or secondary user when it comes to designing a space.