Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-2017
Capstone Advisor
Joseph Godlewski
Honors Reader
Lawrence Lewandowski
Capstone Major
Architecture
Capstone College
Architecture
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Creative
Subject Categories
Architecture
Abstract
Method Meditation is an architectural design method developed during my exploration of systemization in the design process. Systems have been used throughout architectural history in an attempt to create space that can affect an occupant exactly the way the architect intended. However, these attempts have had inconsistent outcomes. This inconsistency has been attributed to several factors, from the variety to individual experiences that skew an observer’s viewpoint, to the lack of provable, causal relationships between environment and behavior. Due to these obstacles, other designers have used systems not to create perfect results, but to push their designs to new extents, and to produce unprecedented outcomes.
To explore the relationship between systemization and design, I create my own method that would further incorporate the occupant in the design process, testing whether more thorough collaboration between the architect and occupant could produce a more desirable result. To do so, I examined the design preferences of thirty participants, twenty of whom are outside of the architectural field. The participants answered questions on two separate surveys that asked for preferences based on sixty two-dimensional illustrations. These illustrations are based in part on the work of Christopher Alexander, a proponent of systemization as a means of better design. The results of these surveys showed discrepancies between the choices of the participants within, and outside, of the architectural profession. Though the scope of this method is limited, its findings suggest the possible benefits of a closer relationship between the architect and occupants during the design process.
Recommended Citation
Damari, Armand, "Method Meditation: An Experimental Demonstration of Systemization in Architecture" (2017). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 1067.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1067
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
