Villa Girasole: A Filter for Movement in Building Cognition

This paper outlines a framework for building cognition that emphasises the role of architectural movement.The framework is relevant for a new type of building that is digitally augmented and autonomous, and that relates to occupants in novel ways. Based on an embodied view of cognition, the framework might serve a complementary approach to integrating building cognition in the overall building design. The significance of architectural movement in this context is unpacked and evaluated in this paper using the Villa Girasole, a historic work of kinetic architecture near Verona in Italy. The villa serves as a filter to investigate movement through three key concepts of the framework: Acting out, coupling, and exteriorisation. The paper proposes that architectural movement might enable an interdependency between building, occupant, and environment that is critical for establishing a form of highly specific building cognition.