Haunted houses, buildings and sites have always been justified through humans attempting to explain the unexplainable. Architecture is humanised when it becomes the antagonist of a horror story, taking on lives of their own, becoming thriving members of communities across the world.

 

The atmosphere that a space has can often exist individually, through the power of suggestion, whilst the spatial experience of the architecture can be forgotten. Some buildings, however, rely on the looming features either widely thought to depict horror, or that convey an emotion of dread with unseen abnormalities.

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The belief in the paranormal stands as a controversial subject as it has for thousands of years. It is evident that there is a curiosity in the dark areas of people’s imaginations for questioning what lies beyond death. Countless theories of life-after-death are widely believed across the world, yet, is there evidence compelling enough to render a piece of architecture as spiritually ‘dangerous’?

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This research project will be structured in a way that best answers the question. First by defining what is meant by “the paranormal” and “horror”, as to be able to apply these terms throughout the project. At that point it will be appropriate to specify what deems a building “haunted” followed by 3 case studies of real hauntings and finally first hand primary research and evaluation.