Benjamin Twells PortfolioEmail: btwells@hotmail.co.uk Mob: 07584290066

Extract taken from ‘Securing the future of Katowice’ by Ben Twells & Lizzi Parkinson

“To achieve maximum user experience, the more connections an architect can make with an individual through the built form the more successful a project will be. Optimum user experience can be achieved by engaging all five senses through the treatment of volumes and voids, light and shadow, materials, texture and reflective surfaces. These tools can be used in conjunction with one another to build different scenarios that the architect wants to play out within the design. This is where I believe an architects value lies.

The commonality that users share is their experience with the spatial conditions and their connection to the programme through the language set out by the architect. I believe there is an enduring connection between the user and the architect through, for example, the way a user engages with and responds to different ground textures, how a user holds a handrail whilst ascending a flight of stairs, or how the user receives messages through their senses on encountering a slab of roughened concrete. These messages will undoubtedly be received and interpreted in different ways from user to user, resulting in a multitude of responses. This deeper direct connection between the architect and the user through material, light and texture is unique and endures long after the building has been completed.”