Architecture Research Staff

• Dr. Lorens Holm
• Mary Modeen

1st year Architectural Design

Design-led research concerned with a philosophical and architectural understanding of our place in Nature.

To evaluate our how we read our surroundings and understand our place and connection to the world. To explore through design how architecture can influence a sense of connection to the world.

1. Phenomenological philosophy, particularly Merleau-Ponty and Norberg-Schulz
2. A study of architectural stimuli and experiences
3. A study of works of art and fiction to explore cultural attitudes towards Nature

A series of case studies will explore architectural design through different scales (the material, the body, the spatial, the urban) and with different themes (narrative, sublimity, enclosure, memory). Each architecture project will involve a dialogue between the processes making and reflecting: design by drawings and models, followed by the reflective processes of analytic diagrams, photomontage, narratives and storyboards, and recorded peer review.

The built environment has sprawled to the point where many people have little experience of the natural environment. However, within this context most debate about architecture's relationship to the environment is technological. Rather than treat the natural environment as a problem to be quantitatively or technologically 'solved', I believe that our relation to Nature could be enhanced by exploring our environmental consciousness. This is a prerequisite to effective architectural design and arguably, this sensible connection to Nature is a precondition for understanding the social and cultural problems associated with becoming an ecologically friendly society.