Rethinking Engagement: Transforming Space into Place via Sensing Technology

The proliferation of media technologies can transform human‘s engagement and their sense of place with their environment, and it is important to revisit the role of architects when designing public physical places in the digital era. Juhanni Pallasmaa and Merleau-Ponty‘s arguments on senses, perception and movement within a space are all re-occurring themes in this design exploration. Yu-Fi Tuan‘s concept of transforming a space into a place is also used, especially when interacting with the space by utilizing our senses. Finally, Huizinga‘s ideas on what constitutes play within a space; has also been applied. This thesis aims to reconfigure a space and transform it into a place where sensing technology is used to stimulate senses to encourage the user to engage with the physical space. The advancement of digital technology in architecture has resulted in a new phenomenon referred to as interactive architecture which makes up the foundation for this thesis.