Affordance

Intentions of the designer should be disconnected from personal agenda to better serve the user. Affordances are “possibilities for actions provided to the animal by the environment by substances, surfaces, objects and other living creatures that surround it” Gibson 1979/ 1986. When affordance dictates design elements, you can create spaces that better serve the user. The issue with creating affordances is predicting the actions of a person. The designer must have an understanding of perception, temporal structures and successful strategies of implementation of affordances. Affordances present themselves in self generating algorithms which produce predictive architecture -- structures that are hybrid forms which afford different use, and programmatic affordances. Affordance form finding is possible assuming that humans want to hold forms that are pleasing to the eye. Supremacist painters like Kasmir Malivetch or architect Frank Lloyd Wright use variations of Zaum painting to create overlapping geometries to create iconic figures. These symbolic figures are valued by the artist and categorized as either bad or good. This is an example of diagram which can give objects approachability. This can be achieved either by deriving from an object that is already categorized as an affordance or slowly through evolution. The suggested use needs to be appealing and form fitting, or it can be overlooked, or its use misinterpreted.

In architecture, there are objects and actors. The designer can create spaces around the purpose of viewing the object or around the movement of the actor. In the case of affordances, it would be more pertinent to design around the actor’s movement. The architecture of the agora, for example, separates the shopper from the goods and services. The colonnade provided shade which promoted viewing and circulation. The rectangular structures contained storage of goods and the colonnade affords the viewing of goods and circulation efficiency. Congruently, the program of museums separates into public spaces and galleries. In New York, the Met Breuer consists of rectilinear forms, even with the rigid form of the building, it is still very user friendly and accomplishes separation of program. The entry tunnels extend like a boarding bridge lodging from the street. You are whisked away from the dense city into a reception area where you become engaged. You are afforded a public gathering space in the sculpture garden below or in the gallery spaces on the floors above. The sunken courtyard and café acts as a reference and a paradox of architecture. The entire city is the user rather than just those who inhabit the structure. Marcel Breuer turns the courtyard inside out and shares a sculpture garden with the city. The areas designated for art are boxed, while those for human interaction are left open and sunken into the ground. The café becomes one of the only places in the museum designed for human interaction at an interpersonal level rather than that of an object oriented one. Objects become the focal point in the galleries and the only point of reference in the space. Transparency creates a gradient that blurs the line between interior and exterior. Minimal distraction is the goal of these spaces to focus the attention of the viewer to the object of the exhibition.

A reference of affordances in a linear historic perspective, which describes the evolution of architecture through time, is the Museum of Art in Brooklyn. The traditional design of the museum in 1910 by McKim Mead and Wight had a temple front that granted the public an uninterrupted view. Similarly the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum incorporate a grand staircase that funneled patrons into a grand entrance. The landscape of Brooklyn in 1910, when the museum was originally built, was populated by mostly farms but this changed over the decades. The Brooklyn museum entrance later underwent extensive renovations. The first renovation took place in 1934 with the grand entry stair removal, which brought the entry of the museum to the ground level. The procession elevated the floors allowing for higher ceilings in the basement. The evolution of this building entry changed from classic Greek to a hybridization between the beaux-arts and contemporary modern architecture. The removal of the grand stairs in 1934 achieved a new hybridization and user-conscious model. Furthermore, the eventual sinking of the entry and addition of the Rubin Pavilion in 2004 condensed the interior and the exterior and blurred the line of where the original entrance was and the new entry begins. The transparent barrier is a social condenser acting as a parkway wrapped in glass. Consequently, the Rubin Pavilion is part of the public realm giving it attributes of a plaza while still functioning as an entry, enhancing the model of 1934 to respond to the needs of 2004.

Another concept of affordance is that it requires multiple functions to allow the maximum amount of action possibilities. Our schemata, or preconceived notion, determines the use of an object or space. That object or space must facilitate the expected action to fulfill the needs of that action. The value of society that frames perception dictates the function of an object design. For instance, why do we know a chair is for siting, and that we could reach objects by standing on it? The answer lies in that society has given a use to that chair. The reference becomes the most important concept to the user when deciding the application of an object. On the other hand, the movement of a person is very predictable due to the limitations of the average person. People moving forward is a fixed variable. Thus, the actions of someone sitting is also very limited and is also fixed.

An affordance is an action possibility and requires an element of time. This is comparable to a movie reel where along every specific time interval there is a set number of actions. The entire process may be one action, but that one action can be separated into an infinite amount of sub-actions that binds the design. “Although a single action might have its own (permutations and limitations,) it is important to grasp that duration is irrelevant, in as much as the individual action operates as a pivot that separates past and future.”-Patrick Shumacher pg 355 AOA. Shumacher is defining action as space contained over time, and he states that actions are intentional behaviors. He does not describe time as a linear event. If time can be referenced from point to point, then each point can be redistributed along a plane. This can be categorized as the generative type of parametric, form finding approach to affordances.

Directionality is another element of affordance. Moments of stimulation direct the user, and without such moments the user becomes slowed and depressed. Negative moods undermine the positive nature of design. The Maxxi Museum in Rome is an example of constantly activated space for the affordance of speed of motion. Zaha Hadid creates differentiation of planes that are articulated in exterior spaces giving shaded overhangs, affording rest and slowing of pace. She highlights the interior circulation with lights and indicated with smooth black lines the traveling between these planes. The form fitting nature of the stair details smoothly connects horizontal to vertical elements further emphasizing directionality of the space. The trusses and ceiling elements become barefaced when the user no longer has a choice but to move along the linear circulation path to be either followed forward or backwards to the point of origin.

Projects by RAAAF (Rietveld Architecture Art Affordances) headed by Eric Rietveld creates affordances that facilitate movement. The definition changes where the user needs to be under a degree of strain while using these objects. Rietveld argues that in order for an object to appear as an affordance it must be part of “the regular way of doing things.”329 and use becomes a learned behavior through perception.

Perception is a way a person or actor understands actions in one of two ways. Mirrored perception is the understanding of another person’s actions by referencing personal experiences to execute such action. Conical perception refers to the understanding of one’s own cone of vision. These perceptions define socio-cultural aspects for the individual vis-à-vis “engagement with affordance.” pg 330. Rietveld also says that there is a degree of skill required to manipulate one's environment and to create an optimal condition suggesting that “higher brain function” and consistency is a requirement to create and operate affordances adequately.

Rietveld highlights the relevance of affordance. “First the existence of an affordance does not depend on the activities use” multiple actions to produce the same outcome or no use needs to be referenced. “Second our practices themselves are dependent on our opportunities for action offered by the material environment”. The affordance is not limited to humans but are executed in various life forms. For example, apes adapt to their environment which is made up mostly of tall grasses, short trees, and shrubs. The ape’s movements are careless, but with a sense of its surrounding. Thus, by climbing trees apes can travel up and down overgrowth. Apes crush grasses to create a soft primitive hut which, when lain low, allows the eldest alpha to contemplate social recourse. Their size enables them to make clearings in the grass having edible walls for the primates to graze. Clearings give security for their young and nourishment for the community.

The End of Sitting project is a human affordance. This requires constant strain and higher brain function. This project creates ramps and seats which respect the user with the ultimate goal of creating one optimized shape that facilitate the human work environment. According to RAAAF the seated position over time is not a healthy position. This study takes degrees of stagnation and puts them across a linear path which creates standing desks and other affordances for working. The transition between them becomes the issue since the user is never really comfortable in any given position for prolonged periods of time.

Designing with the goal of having multiple functions, where there is a hybridization of use, creates density. The RAAAF believes that because of this density the adaptive reuse of the building becomes a multifaceted object that can be plugged in. New material gives texture to the architecture which gives the object a topological attribute. The Architecture firm OMA creates a successful hybridization in the Kunsthal. The transition space between the first floor and the gallery spaces above. The auditorium becomes a ramp that is often used during lectures to reach the galleries. The materiality changes from concrete on the ramp to the wood seating area, on top of platforms moveable seating creates affordance by giving the user the option to create more or less seating and the ability to make the arrangement denser. A curtain affords natural light to be manipulated and when it is not being used it becomes a sculptural element in the corner of the auditorium.

Giving objects anthropomorphic qualities, a narrative can help design with the objective of creating affordances. Like most stories there are actions that are designed to create an environment around a protagonist. The environment can be a person, objects or natural feature. Once the materiality changes the affordance can be realized. An example of this is the Atlas story of the earth being held on the back of a god. The object and the protagonist in this story is the earth and Atlas is creating the environment that gives the earth the ability to exist. Caryatid Type columns become a literal representation where the human figure becomes that which creates spaces that can be used for the nurturing of the human condition. The symbiotic relationship of the user and the affordance becomes one of maintenance and use. OMA’s Tools for life become an object that is interacted with as a topological element. It is constantly changing and evolving depending on the needs of the protagonist.

Conceptual ideas such as “frozen music” and the “module” all become measurable concepts that can be scaled and redistributed along a topological reference. Architecture firms like Snohetta create an interesting paradigm. The point at which the affordance is presented becomes the figurative musical “bridge” of the experience. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina shows this condition both figuratively and literally. The point where you see the entry and bridge illustrates functional aspects of the spaces, a biproduct of designing with the idea of multifunctionality and of programmatic elements. This concept becomes a corner stone for Snohetta in projects like the Norwegian National Opera , the ballet house in Oslo, Lascaux IV: international center for Cave art , and the Norwegian Wild Reindeer Pavilion. Each of these projects have moments of awe where you approach the elements that transform architecture into affordance. Visual cues including changes, in the materiality texture a juxtaposition of form create distributions that elegantly extend the functionality of the structure.

The design project based in Wisconsin uses affordances, each element is curated in space to respect the action of the person inhabiting it. The first element that you are presented with is the path that leads into the forest piercing the barrier from the tamed landscape of Wisconsin to the wild forest. The directionality is linear and encompasses both interior and exterior spaces. The path moves along the curves minimizing the amount of time that you are on a slope. A gravel path permanently creates a surface that tames the environment around it. The overgrowth will no longer trespass the circulation path that has been given to the user. The user is given the option of changing levels at any point along the path or continue into the wilderness where there are vestiges of the past including old farm equipment and existing shelters. This creates a space that is similar to a museum, but it is not void of distraction from the objects that litter the forest. The option that is given to the user where they are able to change level is the moment when you are afforded shelter. The existing structure has affordance plugged into it with the objective of creating hybridization of use increasing the density of the space implementing RAAAFs ideology. Where options are given to the user there is a change of pace. From one section of the structure you walk up steps which elevate you from the ground. The storage under the bed platform are accessible from both the level entering the structure and from the bed platform. As you continue to walk parallel to the bed you are given two options one where you are elevated to your sleeping area or a social area. This small space has furniture that can be manipulated by the user depending on the amount of people that are present or the functionality that is necessary to satisfy the user’s needs. The functionality is not pre-conceived where elements are present for a particular reason. There is no program but can be categorized as a social condenser. The amount of density could dictate it as a personal study space but if the density increases the use changes.