Monika Liočaitė-Raubickienė (KTU)
Creative part: "The Application of the Biophilia Method in Architecture for Buildings and Indoor Spaces with Negative Aura". Supervisor assoc. prof. Gintaras Balčytis
Theoretical part: "The Application of the Biophilia Method in Architecture for Buildings and Indoor Spaces with Negative Aura". Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Indrė Gražulevičiūtė-Vileniškė
Keywords: soviet modernist architecture, negative aura, memory, sick building syndrome (SBS), biophilia design, autoethnography.
This artistic research focuses on Lithuanian Soviet modernist public, mostly functionalistic architecture, including indoor spaces of stairs and corridors, which for a holistic approach to architecture could form the negative aura, diseases, and disaffection of being in the building as the type of sick building syndrome. Lithuania as a post-soviet country has an ambiguous experience and memory about those times. However, soviet modernist architecture is the most common building style in all regions of Lithuania, usually used for institutional, public buildings such as schools, universities, hospitals, offices, etc., and they work as a trigger for our emotions and memory, which form us in one or another period of our life. Nevertheless, the Soviet modernist buildings are going to be part of Lithuanian architectural heritage and will not be demolished or forgotten as the disaffection of the Soviet period. In addition, SBS now concentrates on physical data from buildings: poor ventilation, dust level, poor lighting, existing fungus, toxic materials in construction, etc. This autoethnography research analyses memory, personal experience, fictional-created and real-felt knowledge, and also, the correlation between architecture and psychology, behaviour in the most functionalistic spaces such as corridors and stairs. One of the aims of this research is to show the correlation between Soviet modernist buildings and the sick building syndrome, which is still vague. Second, to extend the term of SBS, including new knowledge generated from artistic studies of autoethnography, which should demonstrate the power of perceptual memory and personal experience on a par with physical data of buildings. Finally, the conclusion hypothesis is incorporating the biophilic design method as a cure for healing in Soviet modernist buildings and their indoor spaces. Could it be a way to eliminate negativity in buildings…perhaps?..
