Environments by Design

Abstract

The wicked problem of sustainability with its underlying and interconnected environmental, social, and economic issues pose a complex challenge for architectural practice, on how to describe the quality of our built environment as well as on how to holistically develop and assess its value. Nevertheless, economic considerations related primarily to construction costs that do not capture the complex long-term social and socio-economic potentials of architectural design often dominate the design process.

This knowledge gap provides the point of departure for this paper, aiming to explore and describe a systematic method for acquiring knowledge on architectural quality and its resulting social and socio-economic value, based on a phenomenological understanding of architectural spaces. The research aims to formulate a common theoretical framework across architecture, anthropology and economics by investigating the potential of tectonic theory and method as a link between architectural quality (what architecture is and how it is constructed) and its value (what it does and how it is experienced). 

Tectonics, we argue, enables a critical discussion of the choice of specific architectural means in relation to the social and socio-economic context of the architectural work by understanding the process of architectural design as a way of communication. A communication between architect and user, where the meaning is coded by the architect in a gesturing form (construction) and decoded by the user through sensory engagement with this form (experience).

Through methodological and theoretical explorations, present paper discusses this potential of tectonic theory in describing the interaction between architecture and people as a spatial dialogue, in the form of ‘gestures’ (intended, lived and valued), and its suitability to be applied as a multidisciplinary framework to describe architectural quality and value, across the disciplines of architecture, anthropology and economics.