Paper short abstract:

We are trying to verify if different individuals share the same pattern of memories funded in primary emotions when exposed to similar conditions and what is the role of memory in everyday life. The paper reflects on the observation results of the use of the same space by different users.

Paper long abstract:

Our main goal is to clarify the concepts of memory and emotion in every day life and establish the criteria for intervention in Architecture.

We aim to apply Psychology methodologies to the study of memory and emotion in Architecture, testing the applicability of methods that allow us to "read" the appropriation of space by specific users in rituals of use.

This paper focus at the first exploratory experiments of our study with individuals that voluntarily agree to be observed during the visit to a stenographic arrangement (houses for sale, not inhabited old palaces, or similar). The monitoring should be participatory and systematically recorded in audio-visual support. According to the quality of the collected data, the material will be processed with the application of techniques of content analysis.

The analysis aims to identify the emotions of joy and acceptance, opposed to sadness and disgust (defined by Robert Plutchik in "Emotions and Life: Perspective from Psychology, Biology and Evolution", 2002), that may configure the feeling of love according to the attachment theories, and will be validated by at least one outer judge.

Through this approach to memory and emotion we expect to understand the personal individual processes of (re) construction of architecture meaning and identify invariants that could explain how emotion and memory result from the use of space and, at the same time, dictate that use.

We are also trying to understand what are the physical elements that enable a transformation through use and simultaneously produce (un)expected emotions triggered by memory.