Recapturing meaning: Toward a new material-based design theory for architecture

Abstract

Architects and students of architecture today are less physically engaged with modeling and drawing representations of proposed things and increasingly rely on digital means and methods that are transforming their embodied interactions with actual materials. The result is that meaning, which makes architecture so central to our cultures, is being diminished. It is being replaced by a misplaced belief that “better” buildings and architecture result from increased use of digital tools. To recapture meaning will require a new design theory for architecture that builds on material engagement theory and the critical role of resistance and sensuous reasoning in the design process, which material has historically provided.

Keywords

• Architecture
• Design
• Material engagement
• Material-based design
• Meaning
• Digital tools