Towards a theory of the architectural style of the climate crisis epoch, within a persistent disciplinary paradigm

Ault, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6353-577X (2023) Towards a theory of the architectural style of the climate crisis epoch, within a persistent disciplinary paradigm. In: Architectural Theory for Sustainability. Routledge. (In Press)

Accepted Version File not available for download. Available under License In Copyright. Download (273kB)

Abstract

A robust theoretical conceptualisation of architectural design and its products is needed to make sense of contemporary architecture and its relevance to society’s pressing concerns and to move towards a theory for sustainable architectural design. Climate provides the creative context for the development of design methodologies for architectural practice. The climate emergency provides a crisis that calls into question the validity of prevailing approaches to architectural design, necessitating change/ action, if humanity is to avoid climate catastrophe. Commonly, changes within architectural design, or ‘shifts’, to use the terminology of paradigms, are often discussed in architectural theory in relation to new tools, techniques and technologies and their transformative potential to shift the architectural paradigm and become characteristic of the epoch. For example, for several decades, computational power and ‘digital design’ has been the focus of much of this theoretical discourse. This chapter is concerned with understanding the architectural design paradigm. It asks how the climate crisis can be understood to influence the architectural design paradigm and whether it can be seen to cause a paradigm-related shift; where and what is the nature of that shift? In order to answer these questions, firstly, the notions of paradigms, paradigm shifts and epochal styles are clarified and distinguished, looking specifically at architecture in the context of a society in a climate crisis and the influence of its values and priorities on the framing of architectural design. A disciplinary paradigm for architecture is articulated, derived from theories in design methodology, digital theory and tectonics. The disciplinary paradigm is used to understand and locate the transformative impact of digital tools and techniques in contemporary architectural design; how they can be accommodated by a stable, disciplinary paradigm; seen not as the cause of a paradigm shift, but integral and instrumental in successfully responding to the climate emergency as part of the contemporary epochal style. Finally, having explored the theories, philosophies and processes within the disciplinary paradigm for architecture, the chapter considers the products and artefacts of architectural design. Can the theory of architectural tectonics make sense of a coherent epochal style for the climate crisis?