Suzanne Mathew
figure 5 Thermal Envelope Sequence
This final drawing remaps the same weather data as a notational sequence that describes the chronological experience of the body from the beginning to the end of each survey. Dash marks are used to indicate changing temperatures along the walks (a morning and afternoon survey). The spacing between the marks correlates to temperature, and indicates how the sensation of space might expand and contract based on the perception of thermal changes in the environment.
Market Square is a small urban brick-paved plaza, adjacent to the Providence River. In the summer, the site is exposed to full sun but also to an intermittent breeze that flows down the riverway, which is channelised and surrounded by urban conditions. A federalist brick building projects shade into the square, while on its other side a grouping of large oak trees creates a small, enclosed garden. Most of us may anticipate that it would be cooler in the shade, and warmer in the sun. But in measurement the river’s edge, though fully exposed, was 4°-9°F cooler than spaces further away from the river, even though some of those spaces were in deep shade. What I came to understand is that by the river my feeling of warmth was a negotiation between the warm air coming from the piazza and cool air hovering above the water, the impact of the sun’s radiation on my skin, and the intermittent cool breeze coming through the corridor. Here, while the instrument registered lower air temperature, my inner temperature began to rise due to the direct exposure to the sun, but the intermittent breeze created a fluctuating tempo of warming and cooling in a space that otherwise looked uniform. The intensity of light drew my attention to the surface of my skin and my feeling of space compressed, though in this spot I had the longest depth of view up and down the length of the river. While the temperature felt cooler in the shade, the instrument registered warmer air than expected in both the building and tree shade.
This clarified for me that the buildings and trees significantly blocked the cooling effects of the breeze, and that warmer air was getting trapped under the tree canopy, while the brick surface of the plaza retained heat and radiated warmth back into the plaza. Although it remained cooler than the urban street, it was warmer than the exposed space by the river ( figure 5 ). Through these surveys my body has become more aware of moments of enclosure marked by phenomenal transitions, and I am also seeing that the dimensions of volumetric space are dictated not only by solid boundaries, or the distance of the horizon, but by the contrast of these atmospheric moments and their relative effect on the surface of my skin. The instruments I’ve used have their own metric scale and range of precision, but what has been more important is how they pose contradictions to my assumptions, and how they point out finer phenomenal gradients than I may notice when taking in all of the effects of a dynamic environment. Instruments and tools are conceived with specific functions, and in that are reflective of what we see as our own limitations. But what I’ve found is that the measuring tool can be treated as a temporary aid – that in borrowing and observing its own incremental sensing of the environment, we can tune our own. q
on site review 39: tools
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