Breathing Skin
Wingshan Cao
ACT ONE
As Alexia Roux(2015) points out:” Olfactory has the most direct memory system, the most primitive and most instinctive human response.” Indeed, we enter different spaces everyday, and each space is filled with different smells. When we smell the corresponding Olfactory, our brain will automatically mark it. Also, your sense of smell will give You a strong signal, if you meet it again.
After the massive research and analysis，I found that skin can sniff certain aromas. It is reported that the nose is not the only place where olfactory receptors are found.(JEF AKST : 2014). Moreover, an environmental anthropologist called Kenny Broad (2016)uses his experience to take an example of Human skin contains olfactory receptors capable of detecting odour. which means we can smell things through our skin.
In act one, I proposed three hypotheses about the smell which based on the molecular motion of odours: coexist, merge, and exclude. Among them, several experiments were tried to simulate the process of absorbing odour from the skin and investigated the changes of the time with different odours in the skin. One of the researches shows that “added chemicals” are the main item of connection between the smell and the skin.
ACT TWO
In act two, Salt Dome is the site I was assigned to. During the research, it showed that the salt Dome was seasonal. According to interviews with local staff, I learned that the storage of salt was the lowest in July-August. During this time, visitors can walk around in the salt store. However, after October, the salt dome will be reloaded in case of a need in the winter. This phenomenon helped me to develop my project of when the activity will be held.
The interior of the building is divided into 3 floors, each with stairs and elevators to facilitate the use of people with disabilities. In addition, there are three parts between each layer to make the connection between two layers, and the traditional column is replaced by a space with form and function as a column to support the force. The interior of the building is divided into 3 floors, each with stairs and elevators to facilitate the use of people with disabilities. In addition, there are three parts between each layer to make the connect ion between two layers, and the traditional column is replaced by a space with form and function as a column to support the force.
Inside the building, I created three different themed spaces：refresh yourself, soak up the sun and ugh! Cooking，which replace the three-layer structure of the skin to get into this space. The length of time that people walk into the space indicates how long the odour linger on the human skin.
By extracting various elements in the kitchen and applying them to the design of the space, according to the structure of the range hood, it can be changed into a jet; a long pipe can be used as a storage container and a display container for smell. This area is divided into different sizes according to the relatively closed structure of the third layer of the skin. People walking in it are like molecules passing through the skin, with variability and selectivity. The settings for each space are different. In addition, every door can only let one person pass through.
Contact: Instagram: winngshann
e-mail: W.cao2@student.gsa.ac.uk
