SAM: Sweet Art Museum Lisbon Case Study

When thinking of sweet, we often think of several aspects. We might think of a specific taste, smell, texture and place. The sweet art museum creates no different experience or feelings. It is located in the very traditional and touristic European city of Lisbon, it contains a great collection of modern architecture and interior within an old building and neighborhood hence bringing movement and activities to this location is one of the aims of the SAM. The city of Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and a coastal city that has several tour opportunities. The city itself is very walkable having metro, trains and buses working 24/7 in which supports not only locals but visitors as well. The city of Lisbon has several monuments, museums, castles, and gardens that make the city very open to be explored. Moreover, the SAM Lisbon was one of those attraction. It was a temporary media friendly museum that had a digital interactive exhibition that allowed visitors to interact with the space and visualize beautiful and colorful interior design with a total of five small interactive rooms that composed the overall exhibition.

Narrowing down specifically to The SAM Lisbon and its location, it is true to say that it is located on a very parallel neighborhood where the modern and touristic Lisbon does not pass by.

However, tourists and locals, still managed to go visit because of its popularity on social media as well as in society in general. While visiting the SAM with my friend Linda who is also a student of architecture in Lisbon we encountered Several aspects of the museum that were very specific. All meaning that, some interior design and architectural choices were very intentional so that people could take pictures person social media and interact with the space creating a unique relationship between visitors and the space. Hence, The SAM was selected as my final case study, for being a place that had a great human interaction concentrated within its small area of space yet those who have been there enjoyed the experience including myself. Therefore, such place will be analyzed based on the theory on how visitors of the SAM Lisbon perceived and interacted with the space through the cultural aspects that the place carried, body interaction, senses and different symbols and meanings that the place embodied.

In addition, to those aspects the influenced how people experienced and perceived the SAM. Therefore, I will be looking at other factor that may have influenced the experience. Factors such as how the usage and experiences that people had within the place. All of it based on the physical environment, activities and the feelings generated within the space. For enrichment, I interviewed Miss Linda Inês a friend of mine. She is a student of architecture in Lisbon who had visited the sweet art museum with me. I interviewed her about what she thought of the Sweet art museum in terms of space and personal interaction.

According to Linda, she believes that the space is very animated, spaces within the museum interlock with each other and which makes it easier for the visitor to navigate through the museum. However, she thinks that the museum or the way people use the museum may vary depending on the people.

More of my and Linda’s opinion will be seen throughout the paper as we agreed in several points of discussion. With such idea in mind, it is true to say that the physical environment of that SAM is a very specific considering the Interior design choices that were implemented within the museum. The layout of the space is very open, therefore, people can move around very easily. I believe that it was designed to carry or have more than one or two people in. The first moment of our visit to the museum, me and my friend Linda were at the first room of the Museum we were actually the only two people within the room in addition to the worker. All of it because in each room there is a worker to assist the visitors. Therefore, while we were staying, interacting and visiting this room which was “the marshmallow pool room”. In which is a room with a decent sized marshmallow pool with artificial marshmallows made out of this soft foam. The room had a strong colored pink landscape in it, giving you a sensation of swimming in marshmallows. Hence with this experience I thought that this room was designed very specifically for this type of sweet (marshmallows). All of this, because while you are in the room you taking pictures and enjoying the moment of being surrounded of marshmallows the assistant gives you a little container of marshmallows to eat. Therefore, you are supposed to relate the smell of the room with the smell of the marshmallows as well as the sensation of being in the pool as if you were wondering and dreaming of being in a pool filled with real marshmallows.

In addition, the materials used within this installation were mainly concrete some parts made out of wood. Some of the scenarios in the artificial figures such as the ice cream and the gummies in which were depicted in enormous proportions were made out of plaster. The overall materials used to color the rooms were ink and wallpaper in which created a more realistic and finished look to the rooms and objects.

Therefore, taking into account all of these elements there were used as compositional components to create this overall idea of sweetness and color is being associated with the type of sweet that the room is representing. In my opinion, the sweet art museum did a good job representing and using those elements to create interaction between the body and the space. All in which means that, they tried to implement some universal design ideas in which is the type of design that encounters different or multiple people hence, the design is made for multiple users. In the case of the sweet art museum I believe that there was no specific target audience, so the overall composition was made for everybody, young, Old, and much more. As seen in figure 2.

Therefore, when using this universal design ideas, sometimes there is the bias of the myth of average person. In which as the name says, is a myth. It is impossible to design for this specific person that represents everybody else in the world. However, there are some concepts from this universal design theory that can be used to create good design. Meaning that the idea is to design for everybody and making sure everybody can use it showing that this standard idea of the average men can actually be reversed. Moreover, it can start to consider all the possible diversities existent between men. In the case of the sweet art museum, I could see that families would go together and swim in the marshmallow pool and take pictures. Hence, I believe that, it is not only the children who are being the main users of those rooms. The parents are also using this room and they also eat the marshmallow that they are given in the museum, having fun and interacting with the room.

Therefore, I can assume that the creators of those rooms specifically use the Anthropometric measurements theory that literally encounters the human body measurements as a basis for designing architecture and interior spaces. As said in Agrest’s book Architecture from without: body, logic and sex “The relationship between architecture and the human body becomes particularly important at the moment in which the issue of the center- a preoccupation that filters throughout the history of art and architecture and in its many symbolic roles- acquires a very specific meaning...” (1996). Thus, The Way visitors perceive the space at the sweet art museum is very natural.

The body automatically wants to be part and interact with the exhibition which totally correlates with this idea from the previous quote, where the author considers the relationship between the body and the architectural composition of a space. All in which Means that the creators of the SAM not only thought of the interaction between the visitors and the exhibition, but also considered the human body as the center of its Interior design and architectural decisions. Another good example of this interaction of the body and the space would be the ice cream and pink tub rooms. Within those rooms people have even more interactive activities that have them use large corporal interactions with the exhibits as seen in Figure 4.

In like fashion, the senses that our bodies also play an important role in how the body reacts to the interaction that he has with spaces. I believe that there were not for a dominant sense that the body used in the specific case of the SAM. On the contrary, and my personal experience and also taking into account the opinion of my interviewee Linda Inês, we used all the senses during our interaction with the SAM. We used visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory and kinesthetic senses while visiting the SAM. In which, somehow does contradict the Pallasmaa idea that “Vision and hearing are now the privileged sociable senses, whereas the other three are merely private function.” (2005).

In the case of the SAM, the spaces and activities taking place required the use of all of our senses. To better explain, the whole museum uses music to influence the mood of people visiting and to create a specific scenario for each room. Moreover, designers used color (visual), textures(tactile), smell and taste of the candy and sweets to create a major experience when interacting with the exhibition. For instance, “the gummy room” in which has artificial giant gummies around the room. In addition, when in the room you get to eat gummies and smell it. You also get to listen to pop music that goes with the colors of the objects in the room. You also get to play the gummy game in which you see the giant gummies moving around the room.

Therefore, I believe that the creators of the SAM did a good job on embodying The theory of using all of the senses to interact with the exhibition. All of it because those interactions actually use of the senses, the relationship between the body and space is strong. In which is good, for being a temporary museum does her visit will not forget about it easily including myself. Consequently, the typical way in which people express their feelings towards the exhibition was very positive. In my Experience, when encountering does interactions I felt feel happy. In which embodies the whole purpose of the museum according to its creator in the descriptive video about the SAM “I want to make Lisbon one of the sweetest and happiest cities in the Europe so I created the SAM…” (Carla Santos one of the SAM creators, 2018). In contrast, the culture, symbols, and meaning of the Portuguese Atmosphere did play an important role in to the creation of the space. In Portugal, more specifically in Lisbon, there is a big culture and costume of sweets. Therefore, the connotation that the people in Lisbon have for this team are very positive and significant. For instance, when going to the movies the food items that the Portuguese Sell and buy the most Are the sweets instead of the popcorns. (This source of information is based on my personal experience of going to this country for more than eight years).

Moreover, I believe that the modern Portuguese culture related to technology, tourism, and the connection with the western culture of social media had positive effects for the success of the SAM. All in architectural and interior composition terms. All of it because, the sweet art museum is part of a city that combines both Old and new architecture. Therefore, the timeframe of its Emergencies, the SAM is a combination of both. All of it because it is a modern high-tech interior insulation within an old building and neighborhood. In which resembles the both sides of the Portuguese culture and architecture.

Furthermore, the creators of the sweet art museum used some socio-cultural Factors to make the SAM relatable do you not only the Portuguese but all the visitors from around the world. The first and most important socio-cultural factor that I noticed was the language. All around the museum, there were both Portuguese and English descriptions and notes about the exhibition. As seen in figure 7, the word ‘Happy’ – ‘Feliz’ spelled in both languages.

Moreover, another socio- culture factor That relates with the exhibition is its life circle or time frame in which it was open for. As mentioned before in this paper, the sweet art museum was only open during a certain period of time. Thus, the timeframe that the SAM Who is open for, was during the summer time period in which, is the time of the year that the Portuguese stay on vacation and tourists from all around the world come to visit the city. Therefore, the creators of the sweet art museum used this socio-cultural factor as a strategy to make the SAM a touristic please. Simultaneously, he way in which the sweet art museum designers create it then meaning throughout The exhibition was in the ways of color and decoration used with in each room. Starting with the colors. The color palette used within the SAM was very specific. The designers used colors like pink, red, yellow and much more to create a more vivid and active mood.

These colors created a connection between the activities being done in the rooms and the relationships people were making in relation to the colors and what they were doing to interact with the exhibition. The colors also gave the sensation of being inside of a cartoon. I believe that this was because of the texture that the colors were translating.

Therefore, when I was interacting with the exhibition I saw all of those colors going together with the exhibition and the rooms correlating with each other through the colors. Hence, it made me feel like I wanted to take pictures. In which was the whole point of the museum it was in media interactive museum so people were ought to take pictures and post them on Instagram for instance. In addition, the decoration I was so creative meeting with in the space and activities taking place. I believe that, because of the furniture the designers are used were so unconventional, it made the museum very unique. It made the museum unique because it created the illusion of people doing conventional activities on unconventional objects. For instants sitting on a giant ice cream, Showering in a colorful bubble tub or even swimming in a marshmallow pool. All of those aspects made the sweet art museum a place where the relationship of the human body with the space stronger.Accordingly, I believe that with all the analysis done. I could gather that the way the visitors interacted with the museum was very intense and rich. In addition, I think that considering the connection of the body and the space, designers did a really good job using the elements that add to this relationship very well.

The reasons for me to think such thing are very simple. I believe that as an overall composition the museum head key elements such as colors, shapes, textures and activities that made easier for me or for my body to interact and enjoy the space. In which is a crucial aspect for an architectural and interior installation to be successful. Likewise, as more open as possible to the diversity of people and the complexity of the human body. With all, I believe that there’s much more to explore about the sweet or a museum architectural composition. Therefore, more questions should be asked. Could the creators of the SAM have created a stronger relationship with the more traditional Portuguese architecture and still have the same outcomes? Or could they have pushed more to the futuristic Portugal and made history on the architecture considering the city’s more medieval architectural layout?

Works Cited

Antonioli, Silvia, director. Sweet Art Museum. Https://Vimeo.com/279519913, MOMO Media, June 2018, vimeo.com/momomediagroup. Accessed Nov, 2018

Agrest, Diana “Architecture from Without: Body, Logic and Sex” in Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architecture Theory from 1965-1995. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996.

“The SAM.” THE SWEET ART MUSEUM, sweetartmuseum.com/. Accessed Nov, 2018

“THE SWEET ART MUSEUM: O MUSEU AUMENTADO (EM LISBOA).” Super Toast, Fabernovel, Lisbon, 4 July 2018, supertoast.pt/2018/07/04/the-sweet-art-museum/.

Pallasmaa, Juhani “The Eyes of Skin: Architecture and the Senses” , London: Wiley-Academy, 2005.

“Lifecooler.” Lifecooler, 2018, lifecooler.com/artigo/comer/the-sweet-art-museum-lisboa/518827.

SAM 2018 Gelmira and Linda. Aug. 2018. our visit to the SAM album.

“What Did You Think About Your Visit to The SAM Lisbon.” Gelmira Gourgel, 10 Nov. 2018. Whatsapp, interview, Linda Inês student of architecture in Lisbon. Accessed Nov. 2018.

SAM Lisbon

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