Architecture as (Lived) Experience

In his Art as Experience (1934), John Dewey coined the slogan "learning by doing," emphasizing the need for art to return to its aesthetic root in the proper sense, which is the experiential one, where experience is not mere sensation; it is on the contrary interaction of living with the environment, an integral event for both the author of the work and the user. This paper intends to bring attention back to the experiential dimension of architecture, highlighting the need for a necessary shift from the formal structure of the work to the lived experience that can take place within it to configure, as Harry F. Mallgrave (2013) writes, "palpable environments" within which our mind-body systems are intertwined and highly stimulated. Within a fruitful relationship between affective and cognitive neuroscience, Neurophenomenology, New Phenomenology, and Atmospherology, this paper aims to emphasize the pivotal role that empathy can play in the design and reception of space, bringing attention back to the experiential dimension based on the extensive involvement of the body in its psycho-sensory globality. The focus is not so much on the ‘given’ reality, as on that "state of things" (material or not) whose actual reality is currently and subjectively established. Therefore, the return is to the phenomenon as a state of things that, by affectively involving us, "we cannot not-admit". A difficult topic to address, the empathic relationship between the producer of work and the user/users can assist design choices by focusing attention on the perceptual and emotional aspects that always accompany our cognitive processes. The emphasis on “embodied cognition”, as a necessary premise for developing an empathic space, can help us understand more clearly the fundamental role of our living body in interacting with the built environment to implement physical and psychological well-being, both individual and collective.