Meaningful Architecture: Emotion

emotionalresponse

Denver Museum of Art

Architect: Daniel Libeskind

When I first arrived at this museum I was not prepared for how dynamic this building really is. To say the least it triggered an emotional response from me. Denver in itself is a pretty cool city, however, the urban architecture is somewhat like that of Salt Lake City, very functional and square. My first impression of this building was "wow" its like shopping for a car in the 1950's. If you can imagine yourself walking through isles of cars that look and feel the same, they are even in black and white, when all of a sudden there is an explosion of excitement suddenly your seeing in color, looking at the coolest car you have ever seen and you don't exactly know why. That is what this building felt like to me, it was like suddenly the city had changed from old to new, from blunt to sharp and exciting. As I was marveling at this complex structure I noticed a man sitting across the street drawing. I approached him and observed what he was drawing. He was drawing the new art museum of course, and informed me that one of his pieces of art was hanging inside the museum already and that it was a sketch of the museum called "duo of the planes". I think this building represents the aspirations of the city of Denver. It will cause an emotional response for all who see it. An emotional response is very important in architecture to me because our emotions represent our experiences in life and everyone has different experience, hence the diverse responses are shown in architecture.