Pantheon of Wonder

Essay

Abstraction of Colorful Light

Strategy: Tapping Into Your Building Skin’s Potential

by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image Strategies

Architecture Drawing

Featured Image Takeaway Design Strategy:

Be sure to think more holistically about what your building skin can accomplish. The building skin in the photo above helps to absorb traffic noise, and is also said to change perceptually as a visitor moves around the building. (1) So, what perceptual advantages does the design of your building skin give your occupants? While temperature control or amazing interior to exterior vistas are wonderful occupant benefits, how else can you use your building skin to shape your occupants’ experiences for the better?

To Apply This Strategy, Ask Yourself:

AS YOU DESIGN YOUR BUILDING’S SKIN, THINK OF MORE THAN JUST A FEW EXTERIOR VANTAGE SPOTS FROM WHICH YOUR OCCUPANTS WILL VIEW THEIR BUILDING. ALSO, THINK BEYOND MATERIALITY THAT DEFINES HOW EACH MATERIAL IN A SKIN’S ASSEMBLY WORKS INDEPENDENTLY FROM ONE ANOTHER. INSTEAD, BE SURE TO ALSO CHALLENGE YOUR DESIGN BY DELVING INTO THE LANGUAGE OF ITS SKIN — INCLUDING HOW ALL OF THE MATERIALS WORK TOGETHER WITH EACH OTHER AND THEIR CONTEXT. UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR BUILDING SKIN MOVES, PROTECTS, INVITES, DAMPENS, FILTERS, SELF-REPAIRS, CONCEALS, HIGHLIGHTS, OR EVEN FORSHADOWS. THE SKIN OF YOUR BUILDING HAS A PERCEPTUAL EFFECT, BOTH FOR OCCUPANTS IN THE INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR OF YOUR BUILDING. USE WHAT IT IS CAPABLE OF DOING TO YOUR FULL ADVANTAGE.

‍Image Credit: © on1stsite. | Flickr

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Your invitation:


Dear reader,


I believe life is a continual process of awakening. As the journey of my own life continues, I always find myself connecting my experiences, studies, and ideas to new creative projects that bring beauty, inspiration, and hope for our world. For over 30 years, since starting at age 17, I have immersed myself in architectural design; and early on, I earned a Master of Design with Distinction from Harvard University, setting the foundation for decades of deep immersion in the field. Yet even before this, I held music close to my heart. At the age of 5, I began my first piano lessons; and since then, I began to see the world through a musical lens — even while designing architecture.


Over the decades, I grew closer and closer to music with a deep love for the design of instruments, their unique timbres, and for all the immersive ways their sounds could be interwoven into beautiful orchestrated compositions. I even began to develop a musical composition methodology, Spatial Symphonics, as I found my architectural design work becoming more and more emotive, soul-stirring, and yes: musical.


In recent years, I finally turned my focus to music composition. I hold a Graduate Diploma from the Film Scoring Academy of Europe where my works have been recorded by the acclaimed European Recording Orchestra (ERO), and I am founder of MLL ATELIER® — an award-winning studio now dedicated to my work as an orchestral composer, recording artist, and spatial symphonist — where I advance architectural design through music, and innovate music through an architectural design lens.


It is my hope that I can share my ongoing musical-design journey with you, directly from my studio through my video-newsletter entitled 'Orchestral Notes'. Expect video updates filled with first-access studio news announcing: album/book releases, concert premiers, sheet music publications, creative process sneak-peeks, and my own compositional philosophies as they develop to fuel my ongoing body of musical and architectural authorial works.


I would love for you to join me for this exciting adventure.


Simply click the button below to join my Orchestral Notes video-newsletter delivered every two weeks directly to your email inbox. Plus, get access to the full publication archives.

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Let’s enjoy the beauty, inspiration, and hope that music brings.


Thank you for joining me on this wondrous journey.


Warmly,

Maria Lorena Lehman


Founder of MLL ATELIER® | Orchestral Notes

Your invitation:


Dear reader,


I believe life is a continual process of awakening. As the journey of my own life continues, I always find myself connecting my experiences, studies, and ideas to new creative projects that bring beauty, inspiration, and hope for our world. For over 30 years, since starting at age 17, I have immersed myself in architectural design; and early on, I earned a Master of Design with Distinction from Harvard University, setting the foundation for decades of deep immersion in the field. Yet even before this, I held music close to my heart. At the age of 5, I began my first piano lessons; and since then, I began to see the world through a musical lens — even while designing architecture.


Over the decades, I grew closer and closer to music with a deep love for the design of instruments, their unique timbres, and for all the immersive ways their sounds could be interwoven into beautiful orchestrated compositions. I even began to develop a musical composition methodology, Spatial Symphonics, as I found my architectural design work becoming more and more emotive, soul-stirring, and yes: musical.


In recent years, I finally turned my focus to music composition. I hold a Graduate Diploma from the Film Scoring Academy of Europe where my works have been recorded by the acclaimed European Recording Orchestra (ERO), and I am founder of MLL ATELIER® — an award-winning studio now dedicated to my work as an orchestral composer, recording artist, and spatial symphonist — where I advance architectural design through music, and innovate music through an architectural design lens.


It is my hope that I can share my ongoing musical-design journey with you, directly from my studio through my video-newsletter entitled 'Orchestral Notes'. Expect video updates filled with first-access studio news announcing: album/book releases, concert premiers, sheet music publications, creative process sneak-peeks, and my own compositional philosophies as they develop to fuel my ongoing body of musical and architectural authorial works.


I would love for you to join me for this exciting adventure.


Simply click the button below to join my Orchestral Notes video-newsletter delivered every two weeks directly to your email inbox. Plus, get access to the full publication archives.

JOIN ORCHESTRAL NOTES

Limited availability each month.


Warmly,

Maria Lorena Lehman


Founder of MLL ATELIER

Author of PANTHEON OF WONDER

Maria Lorena Lehman has received the following awards and has been seen in the following publications: