7 principles of healing architecture by erik a

239

Gary J. Coates, ProfessorDepartment of Architecture,Kansas State University

Gary Coates taught at Cornell University and is cur-rently Professor of Architecture at Kansas StateUniversity, where he has taught since 1977. He re-ceived his Bachelor of Environmental Design(D.E.D.) and Master of Architecture (m. Arch) de-grees from North Carolina State University. In ad-dition to being principal investigator on more thanforty research and demonstration grants, he haspublished dozens of papers in professional andscholarly journals and has edited three books in-cluding, “Resettling America: Energy, Ecology andCommunity.” He is the author of “Erik Asmussen,Architect,” which won the 1997 “Swedish Book Art”Award given by the Royal Swedish Library.

Seven Principles of Life-Enhancing DesignThe Architecture of Erik Asmussen

Gary J. Coates, Professor

The architecture of the Danish-born Swedisharchitect Erik Asmussen (1913–1998) offers asignificant alternative to both the narrow tech-nological functionalism of the Modern Move-ment and the stylistically eclectic buildings ofthe postmodern reaction. Rather than rejectingfunctionalism, Asmussen chose to explore itsunfulfilled potential by developing the architec-tural ideas of Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), theAustrian-born scholar and artist, who foundedanthroposophy, which is a body of spiritually-based knowledge as well as a path for its attain-ment. (1)

By “living into” the building’s functionsthrough extensive involvement with clientgroups, by attempting to experience inwardlywhat Steiner calls the “organic structuralthoughts” by which living nature is formed, andby designing primarily with models, Asmussendesigned his buildings to express the inner spiritof the functions they contain as well as suppor-ting in a practical way all the activities that go on.The result is a functional and organically expressi-ve form language which evokes an experience ofaliveness and a sense of participation in theforms and processes of the natural world.

Asmussen built over one hundred buildingsin Scandinavia and northern Europe, the mostsignificant of which are located in Järna, Sweden.Comprised of a college, Waldorf school, anthro-posophic healing center (Vidar Clinic), perfor-ming arts center, farm and market garden, hous-ing estate and mill and bakery, this village-likecluster of buildings is interwoven with ornamen-tal and food-producing gardens, waste-purifyingponds and patches of wild nature to create a Ge-samtkunstwerk that is widely regarded as a modelof humanly scaled and ecologically sustainable

design. The architecture of this unique commu-nity is the focus of the author’s award-winningbook, Erik Asmussen, architect, which was pub-lished in 1997 after nearly ten years of research.

In all his buildings, and particularly in VidarClinic, Asmussen sought to create spirituallyrestorative and healing environments, whoseforms, colors, materials and spaces would helpbring into balance their users’ faculties of think-ing, feeling and willing. Illustrated by examplesfrom the hospital and various other buildings inJärna, this paper presents a summary overviewof the seven principles that are the basis forAsmussen’s healing architecture. These princip-les are:1) the unity of form and function; 2) po-larity metamorphosis; 4) harmony with natureand site; 5) the living wall; 6) color luminosity

240 (IADH) International Academy for Design and Health

S E V E N P R I N C I P L E S O F L I F E - E N H A N C I N G D E S I G N

and color perspective, and; 7) the dynamic equilib-rium of spatial experience.

In conclusion, it is suggested that Asmus-sen’s buildings provide a convincing example ofhow to create a life-enhancing architecture thatspeaks to the whole person as a being of body,soul and spirit. It is further argued that the sevenprinciples described in this paper constitute botha necessary and sufficient theoretical basis for anytruly holistic approach to healthcare design in thenew millennium.

Erik AsmussenBorn in 1913 in Copenhagen, Denmark, ErikAsmussen practiced architecture in Swedenfrom 1939 until his death in August of 1998. Heworked in Stockholm for various architects, in-cluding the firm of Nils Tesch and CliffordGiertz, with whom he worked for nearly twentyyears. In 1960 he started his own practice, design-ing more than one hundred buildings innorthern Europe and Scandinavia as well as awide variety of furniture and lamps. Asmussenwas the recipient of numerous design awards in-cluding: the Kasper Sahlin Prize, the highest

honor given by the Swedish Society of Archi-tects; the Prins Eugen Prize, given by the King ofSweden as the highest award that can be bestow-ed upon an individual artist in Sweden, and; theHenrik-Steffen Prize, awarded by the F.V.S Foun-dation in Hamburg, Germany to individualsfrom the Nordic countries who have accomplish-ed works of special significance in the arts, archi-tecture, landscape design, city planning, anthro-pology or the humanities (Asmussen was thefirst architect to be so recognized since the crea-tion of this honor in 1936).

Life-Enhancing DesignAsmussen believed that architecture should benurturing, responsive and alive. Dynamically shift-ing spatial balances, organically expressive forms,subtly luminous colors and biologically healthy,natural materials predominate in all his work. Bydesigning out of a thoughtful concern for hu-man needs, and according to the same principlesby which the ever changing forms of nature arecreated, Asmussen sought to make visiblethrough the art of architecture the same healingqualities that we experience in the nature.

The Culture House in Järna.

241


In order to understand how Asmussen wasable to create buildings that reveal and serve thepurposes of life, it is first necessary to understandthe principles that account for their distinctivequalities and forms. It must be stated, however,that Asmussen never tried to create buildingsmerely as illustrations of abstract design princi-ples or concepts. Rather, he always strove to de-sign for people, working organically and artistical-ly out of the circumstances, materials and siteconditions particular to each project. He believedthat a meaningful and truly original buildingcould only emerge out of a faithful concern forthe content of each design situation. The sevenprinciples which are summarized in this papershould be understood, therefore, merely as len-ses through which the order and meaning ofAsmussen’s architecture can be more clearly un-derstood and experienced.

The first three principles – the Unity of Formand Function, Polarity, and Metamorphosis – arethe most fundamental. They underlie and in-form the succeeding four principles, which dealrespectively with the building-site relationship(Harmony with Nature and Site), the nature ofthe building envelope (The Living Wall), architec-tural color (Color Luminosity and Color Perspec-tive), and the nature and experience of spatial or-der (The Dynamic Equilibrium of Spatial Expe-rience).

The Unity of Form and FunctionIn striving to create an architecture that exhibitsthe same quality of holistic integration of formand function that is evident in nature, Asmussenfollowed Steiner’s advice that one should firstask about any building, “What goes on there?”Function, as he broadly conceived it in techno-logical, psychological, social, ecological and spiri-tual terms, was the wellspring of Asmussen’s art.By imaginatively “living into” the building’sfunctions through extensive involvement withuser client groups, by designing with physicalmodels, and by attempting to experience inward-ly the generative principles that give rise to the

natural world, Asmussen tried to shape his buil-dings so that they would express the inner spiritof the life they contain while supporting in a prac-tical way all the activities that occur within them.

Even in the case of architectural elementssuch as stairs, columns and furniture, Asmussenentered so deeply into the purpose of the objectand its context that he was often able to discoverthe form that that particular thing wanted to be.A door handle, for example, that is intended tobe pulled, for example, is shaped so that the fing-ers can get a good hold of it, while the handle forpushing offers a broad surface that is the pleasur-ably sensuous counter-form of the palm of thehand.

The wall-mounted lights in the large practiceroom of the Seminar’s Eurythmy House, whichappear like abstractions of a human figure witharms slightly raised, are also similar in gesture tothe shape of the room itself, which rises into avolume that is larger at the top than the bottomof the room. Thus, both the space and the ele-ments within it create the counter-form of themovement space of the upright human body.As can be seen in this and many other examples,in Asmussen’s buildings one can typically readthe whole in the part and the part in the whole.

Whether one is grasping a door handle, usinga room or looking at a building from across afield, Asmussen’s architecture allows one to sensethe function it serves through the evidence of itsperceptible form. Although some elements areplayful, nothing in his buildings is arbitrary, orconventionally symbolic. Once the total purposeand context are known, Asmussen’s designs can

Both the wall-mounted lights and spatial volume of theeurythmy house practice room mirror the form of the uprighthuman body.


H E A L T H F A C I L I T YS E V E N P R I N C I P L E S O F L I F E - E N H A N C I N G D E S I G N

be seen to have the same satisfying quality of in-evitability, fitness, and harmony found in nature.Asmussen believed that a truly organic buildingmust strive to create these qualities of nature,rather than the merely imitating the outwardappearance of natural forms, in order for it to beexperienced as alive in the same way that nature isfelt to be alive.

For persons weakened by illness and in needof support to help strengthen their life forces,Asmussen believed that it was particularly impor-tant to design buildings which make tangible andperceptible a non-arbitrary unity of form andfunction. He felt that such buildings would serveas life affirming signs of human caring and com-municate an understanding that illness itself isnot a problem to be solved but, rather, is an op-portunity to re-balance body, soul and spirit at ahigher level of human functioning.

PolarityPolarity means something more than duality,conflict or opposition. To say that contrasting ele-ments are polar is to suggest that they are at once

different yet inseparably related. Like the ends ofa line, the two faces of a coin or the poles of amagnet, polarities are non-dual and non-separateparts of a larger whole.

For Asmussen polarity was a fundamentaldesign principle. Contrasts of color, form andmaterial occur at all scales, creating a richly texturedand densely layered fabric of linked opposites.Just as the harmoniously proportioned field ofseeds in a sunflower are generated by the crossingof spirals that move outward in opposite direc-tions, Asmussen’s form language grows out ofand expresses a lively tension between clearlyarticulated polarities. This is one important rea-son why his organic architecture achieves qualitiesthat are reminiscent of the natural world.

Often Asmussen juxtaposed polar elementswith no mediation between the two, as in the caseof spatial sequences in which opposites of upand down, small and large, light and dark are ab-ruptly contrasted. In other instances he linkedopposites to create patterns of rhythmically alter-nating repetition, as in the case of the balustradesof the Ormen Långe dormitory and the galleryarcade of the Vidar Clinic. Sometimes he would

House called “Ormen Långe” inspired by a Viking ship.

243


provide a third, mediating element to both linkand separate polar elements. As an in-betweenrealm separating yet also joining inside and out-side, the domesticated garden courtyard and thewild nature of the tree-covered granite mound,the gallery arcade of Vidar Clinic, for example,serves as both a circulation path and a special placefor patients and staff to sit outdoors surroundedby nature while being sheltered from sun, windand rain.

The pervasive presence of polarized forms,spaces, colors and materials in Asmussen’s archi-tecture creates a tension of opposites that ener-gizes and enlivens his buildings. Just as naturelives in the polarized space between darkness andlight, contraction and expansion, Asmussen’s or-ganic architecture embodies the endless play ofdifferences out of which life itself arises. Accord-ing to Asmussen, any truly healing architecturemust strive to make tangible this rhythmical,never-ending dance of life.

MetamorphosisInspired by Rudolf Steiner’s pioneering designs,Asmussen sought to embody in his architecturethe formative process of metamorphosis firstdiscovered by Goethe in his studies of the morp-hology of the flowering plant. (2) Both Goetheand Steiner saw nature in the process of constant-ly forming and transforming itself through theinterplay of archetypal polarities of darkness andlight, contraction and expansion. Goethe show-ed how the leaf embodies the qualities of bothexpansion (the blade) and contraction (the stem).He further demonstrated that the entire plant isthe metamorphosis of the polarized form of thearchetypal leaf, which is progressively transfor-med through a rhythmical process of expansionand contraction.

While nature exhibits many kinds of meta-morphosis, Asmussen made primary use of twotypes which can be readily seen in the case of theflowering plant. (3) The sequence of leaves as onefollows them up the stem of the plant illustratesdevelopmental metamorphosis, which is a grad-

ual, stepwise progression of changing forms. Thedramatic contrast between root and blossom,seed and fruit, illustrates polar reciprocal meta-morphosis, which involves a radical change be-tween an original form and its transformed state.In developmental metamorphosis forms are dif-ferent in shape but similar in kind, whereas inpolar metamorphosis forms and qualities arefundamentally different.

The gallery arcade forms the western boundary of thecourtyard.

The natural sequence of leaves as the poppy plant grows.



Asmussen used metamorphoses of forms,surfaces, colors and spaces to create invisible pat-terns of relationship that give unity to buildingsand building elements that at first glance appearto be separate and unrelated. The entry overhangover the south-facing basement doors at VidarClinic, for example, is readily seen as a smaller, lessfully developed form of the main entry pavilion.The relationship between the two entries is simi-lar to that between the seed-leaves and the larger

and more incised and fully developed stem-leavesof the flowering plant. The relationship betweenthese entries, therefore, is an example of develop-mental metamorphosis.

The most dramatic and consequential ex-ample of both developmental and polar meta-morphosis in Asmussen’s architecture can befound in the pattern of relationships among thebuildings located around the orchard meadow ofthe Rudolf Steiner Seminar. It is in this cluster asa whole that the analogy with the flowering plantis most directly revealed.

Each of these buildings is comprised of alow part (contraction), which is always used forliving accommodations and/or offices and ser-vice spaces, and a higher part (expansion), whichcontains rooms for communal use. By analogywith Goethe’s description of metamorphosis inplants, this recurring pattern of low volume/pri-vate, high volume/public represents the basic“leaf ” archetype of this circle of buildings, whichis continually transformed to respond to envi-ronmental circumstances and to serve and ex-press varied building functions and patterns ofuse. The exterior forms of these buildings appearat first glance to be very different, but, when seenimaginatively in Goethe’s way, each building can

Developmental metamorphosis is illustrated by the relation-ship between the overhang over the south-facing basemententry and the main entry pavilion of the Vidar clinic.

All buildings located around the meadow are related to each other through the metamorphosis of the pattern low volume/private, high volume/public.

245


be recognized as a metamorphosis of the arche-typal pattern, just as the parts of a plant are themetamorphosis of the similar pattern of rela-tionships we describe by the word “leaf.”

Not only do the forms of the buildingsaround the meadow alternate between the polari-ties of expansion and contraction, but, read in acertain way, these changes, like those in the flowe-ring plant, show direction and form. The move-ment from Almandinen (seed/root/contrac-tion) to the Library (stem/leaf/expansion) to theEurythmy House (calyx/contraction) to Robyg-ge/Ormen Långe (flower/expansion) culmina-tes in the largest structure, the Culture House,which like the fruit in a flowering plant, repre-sents the final expansion into material form.

If polarity accounts in part for the feeling ofenlivened space between and among these build-ings, it is metamorphosis that provides a “timebody” within which each structure finds its law-

fully ordered place. Within this invisible, yettangibly perceptible pattern, each building ex-presses its own unique individuality yet alsocontributes to the creation of a larger temporaland spatial whole. By expressing and revealingthe generative principle of metamorphosis,Asmussen provides for the possibility of expe-riencing in his architecture the very nature of na-ture itself.

Harmony with Nature and SiteThere are two primary ways in which Asmussen’sbuildings are related to nature and site.

The first and most obvious way is that eachbuilding is placed and shaped so that it creates apositive and useable outdoor space in relations-hip to naturally occurring rocks and trees. In theVidar Clinic, for example, the south patient wingof the hospital itself bends and turns around



large granite rocks and is cupped so that it createsa clearly contained outdoor room immediatelyadjacent to the day room. The large sliding barndoor opens wide to join inside and outside, mak-ing it easy for patients to enjoy the sun and openair. By responding to existing site features in thisway Asmussen’s buildings are both differenti-ated from their surroundings and yet also inti-mately formed by and connected to them.

The second way that Asmussen responds tosite and nature is that his buildings often for-mally reflect the specific qualities of the environ-ments in which they are placed. The buildings ofthe Rudolf Steiner Seminar, for example, arecomprised of one-story horizontal masses outof which sculptural volumes arise. Thus, thesebuildings are homologous to the structure of thesurrounding landscape of this part of centralSweden, which is characterized by gently swellinghorizontal fields punctuated by sculptural, tree-covered granite islands.

While all the buildings for the Seminar sharethis common morphology, each structure alsoexhibits differences that grow out of the meetingof building function and the precise character ofits particular site. The music building Almandi-nen, for example, with its play of rounded andangular volumes, closely resembles the glaciallysculpted circle of rocks of which it is a part. TheLibrary, which is surrounded by mature decidu-ous trees, is itself tall, vertical and open to lightand air through large windows on all sides; it is atreehouse set within an environment of trees.Similarly, the dormitory Ormen Långe, with itsrhythmic columns and walkway railings, lookslike an architectural abstraction of the tree-cove-red granite hill against which it is sited and inrelation with which it creates a variety of well for-med outdoor private rooms for its residents. Thegeometrically regular east-facing facade of thedormitory Tallevana reflects the qualities of thecarefully ordered rows of vegetables over which itpresides, while the west-facing elevation resem-bles the character of the rocky, wooded hill itfaces.

As these examples illustrate, Asmussen’sarchitecture has the same relationship to landsca-pe, climate and place that the living plant does toits environment. The morphology of flora andfauna closely corresponds to the climatic, geologi-cal and biological characteristics of the specific pla-ces in which they live. Goethe noted that “thesame species of plant develops smoother andless intricately formed leaves when growing inlow damp places, while if transported to a higherregion, it will produce leaves which are rough andhairy and more delicately finished.” (4) As phe-nomenological ecologist Mark Riegner observes,“Every plant bears the signature of the placewhere it is found. Conversely, the individuality ofa place comes to expression in every plant pre-sent.” (5) Seen in this light each of Asmussen’sbuildings makes visible the unique qualities ofthe particular landscape in which it is sited. Likenative plants, his architecture also providestangible focal points through which the land-scape as a whole – what used to be called the“genius loci” – comes into presence.

What might this characteristic of Asmussen’swork have to do with the creation of environ-ments that support healing? Drawing once againupon the ideas of Steiner and Goethe, As-mussen understood that, beyond merely provi-ding for human needs in a practical way, the largertask of architecture is to make us feel a sense ofbelonging and at-homeness in the natural worldwithin which we dwell and upon which we ul-timately depend for life itself. He believed thatthe world is not comprised of meaningless andindifferent matter but, rather, that we exist withinan ensouled and intrinsically spiritual/materialreality where we are connected to the smallest mi-crobe and the farthest star. By making consciousour place in this larger fabric of life, Asmussenfelt that architecture could help people to connectwith the healing power of nature to nourish andsustain their everyday lives. Buildings that create aharmony with nature and place and that reveal thegenerative principles by which nature forms andtransforms itself create the possibility of sensingthat the unity and wholeness of nature is not an

247


Hospital, ground floor.

The south wing at the edge of the forest.



abstract idea of mystics and philosophers but,rather, is a lived reality everyone can intuit and,perhaps, someday directly experience. Only whenthe spirit of place is concretized and made real inthe form of an actual building, therefore, does atruly healing place for human dwelling come intobeing.

The Living WallIn much modern architecture the wall is a kind ofinsubstantial filler between repeating membersof a structural grid. When a connection to theoutside world is desired in such buildings, wallsare typically dissolved into large expanses of glass,often in the form of repetitious curtain walls. Theboundary between inside and outside hasbecome reduced to a simple binary opposition ofopen or closed, solid or transparent. Walls andwindows have thus largely ceased to express thenature of the forces they mediate. Such buildingmembranes might limit space and provide viewsbut they do not enhance a sense of dwelling andplace, which requires a much more richly nuancedcontinuum between enclosure and exposure.(6)

Asmussen attempted to create plastically con-tinuous walls as living membranes that reveal theplay between up and down, inside and outside.In Almandinen,Vidar Clinic, and the EurythmyHouse, for example, walls and windows makevisible the forces of downward-bearing load andupward-striving support. (See diagrams) In planthe walls of the clinic appear to be engaged in adialogue between expansion and contraction,concavity and convexity, as if the building werebreathing in and out. Asmussen’s handling ofthe building envelope is a major reason why hisbuildings feel like living creatures that nurtureand protect the life they contain.

The assembly hall in Vidar Clinic offers amost instructive example of how the principle ofthe living wall is applied to create living spaces inhis buildings. In plan the room swells outwardto form an embracing space, as if it is filled withan inner energy. Small square windows that arecut deeply into the thick containing walls frameviews of the agricultural fields and the placid wa-ters of the Baltic Sea to the east. The ceiling alongthe longitudinal axis springs directly out of thewalls and is concave in section, giving the room a

249


strong sense of enclosure. A section cut at rightangles to this axis, however, shows a ceiling that isconvex and rises above horizontal strips of cle-restories that reach up to capture views of passingclouds and blue sky. Within this deceptivelysimple yet dynamically polarized space, the visitoris thus able to experience the simultaneouslyopposing tendencies of the ceiling surfaces thatshape it. One thus senses both the security ofprotected enclosure, which is associated with theelement of earth, and the feeling of imaginativefreedom and psychological release associated withthe sun, wind and light of the overarching sky.

The performance hall of the Culture House inJärna is Asmussen’s most complete and success-ful effort to create walls and ceilings that are, inSteiner’s words, “artistically transparent” so that“when one is inside the building one does notfeel oneself closed in” but rather that one is con-nected to “the whole wide world.” (7) By meansof carved wooden walls following the designs ofsculptor A. John Wilkes, a ceiling mural paintedby Arne Klingborg in veils of bold yet softly glo-wing colors, and engraved colored glass win-dows, Asmussen sought to isolate this greatroom from the distractions of the outside world,while at the same time opening up the space toimaginative perception and inner vision. Morethan any other space designed by Asmussen, thisroom has a strong sense of physical protecionand spiritual freedom.

For persons weakened by illness and confinedto bed such a combination of security and free-dom is particularly important. In the patientrooms of the Vidar Clinic, windows with deepsills have been carefully sized, shaped and positio-ned to allow views of both earth and sky from anumber of bed positions. Thick brick and plasterwalls and concave, sculpturally shaped ceiling pla-nes provide a sense of protection from the typi-cally cold and inclement weather of central Swe-den. Multiple layers of soft transparent colorspainted on the walls dissolve the firm boundariesof the room and allow the imagination to revel inthe constantly changing patterns of light-filledcolor as the sun traces the passage of light from

dawn to dusk. In such rooms patients are free torelax into the healing power of silence withoutfeeling limited by illness or disconnected fromthe larger world. This paradoxical unity of oppo-sites is characteristic of all of Asmussen’s spacesand is one of the primary reasons why his buil-dings have such a healing quality.

Color Luminosity and ColorPerspectiveUpon entering any building by Asmussen one isimmediately immersed in a world of light-filled,transparent color. The interior paints are madefrom vegetable and mineral pigments in a caseinand beeswax medium. They are applied by thelazure method, which is a technique first used by

Walls and windows make visible the forces of downward-bearing load and upward-striving support.


Rudolf Steiner for paintings on the interior ofhis first Goetheanum building in Dornach, Swit-zerland. Beginning with a transparent white,multiple layers of translucent paint of variousand sometimes even complementary colors, arethen applied to create variable densities and hues.The layer of white allows light that penetrates theouter layers of color to reflect outward, illuminat-ing the colored tones as if from the inside. Theeffect is to create a gently luminous veil of colorthat has a depth and quality of aliveness similarto that found in nature. Opaque color, by compa-rison, which is like make-up too thickly applied,hides the materials it covers and can seem dispiri-ted and lifeless, limiting perception to an impene-trable surface rather than opening imagination toconstantly changing patterns of light-filled formand color. The lazured colors in Asmussen’sbuilding enliven and reveal the nature of the ma-

terials he uses, which always remain visible be-neath their glow.

Asmussen believed that such architectural co-lor could help to awaken and educate the user’scapacity to experience what Steiner and Goethedescribe as the objective reality and moral force ofcolor.(8) If one slows down and enters quietlyinto the gently colored spaces of Asmussen’sbuildings, for example, one has the feeling thatthe colors move and flow, advance and recedeand, altogether, enter into a relationship witheach other that is like a dance.

These characteristics of color are most fullydemonstrated in Arne Klingborg’s ceiling tab-leaux for the auditorium of the Culture Houseand in his murals of healing scenes from theGospel of Luke painted on the lower level of thegallery arcade of the Vidar Clinic. In both theseexamples several different kinds of color circles


The gallery arcade with murals by Arne Klingborg.

251


interweave in complex patterns to create variouslocal color climates of differing depths, densitiesand hues. Figures that emerge out of warm col-ors, like red and orange, come forward whilethose arising within fields of cool green and bluemove away, creating layers of space that dissolvethe solidity of the surfaces. Color perspective,rather than linear perspective, gives a sense ofdepth to the floating scenes. The same effect isachieved by the simultaneous presence of warmand cool layers of color which transform everysurface in Asmussen’s buildings into gently glo-wing membranes of living color.

Color in Asmussen’s architecture is nevermerely decorative or allegorical but grows out ofthe nature of color and color experience. Follow-ing indications derived from Goethe’s colortheory and Steiner’s clairvoyant perceptions ofthe spiritual effects of color on the body, soul

and spirit of the human being, Asmussen andhis long-time collaborator, colorist Fritz Fuchs,used color as both a practical and moral force. AsSteiner says, “...in coloring form we should feel:Now we are endowing form with soul.” Webreathe soul into dead form when, through col-or, we make it living.”(9)

In Asmussen’s buildings one realizes thatcolor can be used to support and express themoods and activities of a particular building orspace. As Fuchs says, he begins by “asking whatgoes on in the building and how this life the buil-ding contains can be protected by color.” (10) Hetreats each building like a living being and believesthat each room or space is like an organ thatshould have its own appropriate atmosphere and“color temperature”. Active spaces, such as euryt-hmy practice rooms, are painted in warm rose to-nes to both image and support vigorous bodily

The main stair to the upper level of the auditorium in culture house.


movement, while rooms for painting are rende-red in neutral shades of blue-violet to supportthe more passive and contemplative nature ofthe activity that goes on there. Social spaces, suchas the dining room in Vidar Clinic, are often pain-ted in subtle shades of yellow to express andencourage conviviality and lively conversation. Inthe Clinic, rooms for patients suffering from“warm” illness characterized by fever and inflam-mation are painted in cool shades of green orblue and blue-violet, while rooms for those with“cool” illnesses such as cancer are given roomspainted in layers of a warm rose and rose-violet.

Similarly, the exterior colors of Asmussen’sbuildings always image and express the nature ofthe activities that go on within them, communi-cating their functional as well as spiritual qualitiesto passersby. The healing purposes of the VidarClinic, for example, are announced to the visitorby the soft pink glow of its humanly scaled andfunctionally articulated forms. The compact vo-lumes of the Library and Eurythmy House ofthe Rudolf Steiner Seminar are painted in shadesof blue and blue-green to suggest that the natureof the activities that go on within these structuresare inward-oriented, retiring and self-contained.

As is the case with all his buildings’ formsand spaces, Asmussen’s use of color is also cha-racterized by the principle of polarity. Warm col-ors in one place will always be balanced by coolcolors elsewhere so that a person movingthrough a building, especially in a structure suchas Vidar Clinic which is intended to support theprocess of healing, will experience a kind of colormassage provided by all the hues of the rainbow.Color polarities are used not only to define thecharacter and mood of rooms and building clus-ters but are also used to create enlivening con-trasts between building interiors and exteriors.The cobalt blue exterior of the Eurythmy House,for example, is countered by the warm rose-tonesof the large practice room inside.

For Asmussen, color was seen as a powerfulmeans to reinforce and support building activi-ties while also communicating a meaningful ar-chitectural order. In Fritz Fuchs’ words, Asmus-

sen sought above all to “create a free space inwhich everyone in the building can say, here I canlive.” (11) While there remains much research tobe done into the effects of color on the mitiga-tion of illness (the field of chromotherapy), As-mussen’s color-filled buildings are commonly ex-perienced by both regular users and one-time vi-sitors as healing presences. (12)

The Dynamic Equilibrium of SpatialExperienceAsmussen used contrast between up and down,in and out, front and back, and near and far tocreate spaces that are dynamically polarized andalive. In the corridor surrounding the courtyardof the Vidar Clinic, for example, there is a rhyth-mic alternation between the polarities of pathand place as one moves within the continuity ofdifferentiated and functionally expressive spaces.In an uninterrupted flow the corridor swells andcontracts, reaches up to the sky for light, and thencups itself into alcoves to provide more intimateplaces for sitting or standing alone or with others.Constancy and change, symmetry and asymme-try, sheltered intimacy and expansive opennessare held in a delicate and shifting balance throughthe alternating experiences of movement andrest. Yet, whether one is in motion or at rest thereis always sense of dynamic equilibrium in whichthe seed of the opposite possibility of spatialexperience is already contained within the presentmoment and place.

As we have seen in the example of the assem-bly room of Vidar Clinic, such paradoxical both/and qualities of spatial experience can also befound within self-enclosed, single purposerooms as well as spaces designed specifically formovement and informal gatherings. All the for-mal rooms Asmussen designed embody a playof symmetry and asymmetry, sameness and dif-ference. He once said, “ If there is only symmetrythere is no freedom. And, if there is only symme-try there is no freedom.” (13) Symmetry createsorder and expectation, and asymmetry gives di-rection, movement and surprise. The sclerotic


253

tendency of symmetrical order is warmed and en-livened by the asymmetrical gesture.

For a sense of freedom to emerge in a build-ing, according to Asmussen, there must be bothsymmetry and asymmetry, predictability and sur-prise, order and mystery, all held in a dynamicallypolarized and constantly changing balance createdby human movement and perception.

ConclusionHealth can be described as a living process ofadaptation to constantly shifting inner and outerconditions, rather than as a stable and fixed stateof a separate and autonomous “self.” To createenvironments that support and enhance theprocess of healing, therefore, architecture mustbe concerned with creating a total environmentthat both supports and images this dynamicprocess. Asmussen believed that it is the specialtask of a living organic architecture to stimulate allthe senses, while simultaneously engaging thewill and understanding of the user in a consciousprocess of re-balancing body, soul and spirit.

By making function visible through non-ar-bitrary and intrinsically meaningful forms, by ex-pressing the play between polarized architecturalelements, by revealing how building forms,spaces and elements can be transformed throughthe same metamorphic processes by which livingbeings are formed and transformed, and by in-tensifying and revealing the unity between archi-tecture, place and environment, Asmussen’ssought in his architecture to communicate thesense that nature and culture, person and envi-ronment, do, in fact, comprise a non-dual wholein which harmony rather than conflict is the truthof reality.

Since healing literally means “to make who-le”, such a livingly organic and expressively func-tional architecture can serve as a powerful anti-dote to the presumption and experience of sepa-ration and alienation that dominate moderntechnological societies. As Asmussen under-stood his task, people seeking health and who-leness must be supported by a designed environ-

ment that itself is as an object-lesson in whole-ness and organic order. Embraced by such a livingarchitecture every user, not just those specificallyin need of the healing touch of human care, cansense that, while everything always and onlychanges and eventually passes away, life itself iseternal and never ending. Asmussen believed thatan architecture that offers such a vision of life canhave a healing effect on the human heart even inthose cases where a cure for illness cannot befound. In this sense his architecture demonstra-tes the principles and reveals at least some of thepossibilities of a truly life-enhancing design.

ENDNOTES

Portions of this paper are excerpted from Gary J.Coates, Erik Asmussen, architect, Stockholm: Bygg-förlaget, 1997. Drawings by Susanne Siepl-Coatesand diagrams by Gary Coates are used with permis-sion from that book. Photographs are by Max Plung-er and are also used by permission.(1) For an introduction to and overview of anthro-

posophy see Stewart C. Easton, Man and Worldin the Light of Anthroposophy, Hudson, NewYork: Anthroposophic Press, 1989.

(2) Johann Wolgang von Goethe, The Metamorpho-sis of Plants, Wyoming, Rhode Island: Bio-Dy-namic Literature, 1978.

(3) For an excellent presentation of the idea ofmetamorphosis in Goetheís thought see, HenriBortoft, The Wholeness of Nature: GoetheísWay Toward a Science of Conscious Participa-tion in Nature, Hudson, N.Y.: Lindisfarne Books,1996. For a comprehensive presentation of cur-rent practice and theory of Goethean scienceconsult, David Seamon and Arthur Zajonc (eds),Goetheís Way of Science L A Phenomenologyof Nature, Albany, N.Y.: State University ofNew York Press, 1998.

(4) As quoted in Mark Riegner, Toward a HolisticUnderstanding of Place: Reading a landscapeThrough its Flora and Faunaî, in David Seamon(ed.), Dwelling, Seeing and Designing: Toward aPhenomenological Ecology, Albany, New York:State University Press of New York, 1993, p.184.

(5) Ibid., p. 184



(6) See Colin St. John Wilson, The Other Traditionof Modern Architecture: The Uncompleted Pro-ject, Academy Editions, 1995.

(7) See Charles Lock Eastlake (tr.), Theory of Co-lours: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Cambridge,Massachusetts: The M.I.T. Press, 1976. Also, Ru-dolf Steiner, Colour, Sussex, England: RudolfSteiner Press, 1992.

(8) Rudolf Steiner, Ways to a New Style of Archi-tecture, London: Rudolf Steiner Pess, 1927, p.55. See alo, Michael Howard (ed.), Art as aSpiritual Activity: Rudolf Steiner’s Contribu-tion to the Visual Arts, Hudson, N.Y.: Anthropo-sophic Press, 1998 as well as, Architecture as a


Synthesis of the Arts: Lectures by Rudolf Stei-ner, London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999. Fi-nally, for an excellent overview of Steiner’s ar-chitectural impulse see, Kenneth Bayes, LivingArchitecture, Hudson, N.Y.: AnthroposophicPress, 1994.

(9) As quoted in Gary J. Coates, Erik Asmussen,architect, Stockholm: Byyggforlaget Publsihers,1997, p.199.

(10) Ibid., p. 199.(11) Ibid., p. 201.(12) See Mary Guzowski, Daylighting for Sustain-

able Design, McGraw-Hill, 2000.

7 principles of healing architecture by erik a

Documents