Teaching Architecture to Newborns - by Jason King

[The following guest post is authored by Jason King, Project Director at Dover, Kohl & Partners town planning jking@doverkohl.com]

I came across a facial recognition test for newborns in the book Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads (2004). Sure enough, my boy, Owen, who is twelve weeks old fixated on the image in the test of the recognizable human face with its symmetry and natural order (see below). I was actually shocked. When I covered up the face on the right Owen really didn't seem to know what to look at. I repeated the test with my wife as witness. This second test was less conclusive but there was a moment when we think Owen actually smiled at the face on the right.

Do people naturally prefer the principles of composition present in the human body to be present in architecture? We commonly talk about buildings having "a face" but is there a human connotation to this?  Do we prefer contrast, proportion, scale, balance, rhythm, and unity over disorder, irregularity, proportional illogic, and dissimilarity? Perhaps the failure of architecture in our time to create congenial environments is a failure to appreciate the psychological search images we have as children. Or maybe the reverse is true and our sense of beauty can be actively shaped. Perhaps culture tells us what to assign value to and what to like. The answer is probably a little of both.   

Do you see what I see? If so, does it effect your appreciation of the building? Which do you prefer?

I wrote a novel called New Town St. Jerome which features a character, an architect, who has a definite opinion on the topic. According to Leo Dana, "Buildings are people. The facade is a face and the proportions should be the same as a face – broadly considered. Sometimes it is many faces but you cannot confuse them. Sometimes a building is many people with every part reflective of the proportions of the human body. And when there are many people there must be a leader. A hierarchy."

"Architectural debate," says Leo, "is often framed as traditional-versus-modernist but the debate is really humanist architecture versus technological architecture." Leo recognizes that modern architecture can be humanist but is prepared to fire his avante-garde client before inflicting what Leo calls, "that buildings are machines crap" on people. In this time in history it's no wonder that Leo's peers give him the nickname "Loco."

I don't actually advise trying to teach architecture to newborns but I do hope Owen gets to think enough about architecture one day to be able to articulate his own opinion. But I can't help but wonder if when Owen is older he will still have the same opinion that I think I may be seeing now.

Jason King is the author of New Town St. Jerome which is available at Amazon: New Town St Jerome