Where does architecture begin and when does it end? Many people tend to consider the moment of a building is when it is erect. However, it is very critical to define the beginning and the ending of architecture due to its dominant impact on people’s physical, psychological, and emotional interaction within a space. A place begins with materials that construct the particular setting and it radiates a certain atmosphere and then it ends with phenomenal experiences of the space. 











Keywords: material, atmosphere, experience, sensory, perception, empathy

  My interpretation of the beginning and the ending of architecture or spaces is that it starts with empathy and ends with an epiphany. We understand the material’s history, its relationship with the surrounding, and its properties. And the structure undergoes the stages of change due to people, and natural phenomenon such as weather, seasons, light, and time. Even though it may disappear, it can suddenly become very clear to us through its absence. The buildings become part of people’s lives and their sensory apparatus has formed a memory of the experience of the space.

Both Zumthor and Goldsworthy explore and translate their own unique relationship with time, material, culture, and nature through their processes of thinking and making in their work. Although their representational methods, functional requirements, and use of technologies may vary significantly, both create environments that share the same discreet and deep respect for the material and its context, for the importance of rich sensory experience and a meaningful sense of timelessness. The poetic journey of space from understanding the material to recalling memories is what both the architect and the artist claim through their works.
This essay explores the more abstract and poetic meaning of the concepts beginning and ending as it informs our understanding and experience of architecture in its widest definition. I seek to answer this overwhelming question through critical readings of the philosophy of the architect Peter Zumthor and the artist Andy Goldsworthy.