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A lecture assembled for the course onArchitecture Design Studio IV

by Jason E. Charalambides PhD, PE, M.ASCE, AIA, ENV_SP

(only for educational purposes)

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A Definition CONTEXT IS DEFINED AS A “WHOLE

SITUATION, BACKGROUND ORENVIRONMENT, RELEVANT TO SOMEEVENT OR PRODUCT.” The derivation ofthe word means to “weave together.”

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Relationships and factors in a site: A Site is never inert. It is an ongoing set of

very active networks that are intertwined incomplex relationships.

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Relationships and factors in a site: The consequence triangle focuses in

the simulation of the completed andthe occupied building and is basedon the hypothesis that it is not thedesign or the building itself that isour ultimate responsibility asdesigners but the prediction anddelivery of a set of consequences oreffects that have been deemedpositive and possible.

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Relationships and factors in a site: It behooves us to not only know

something about the compositionalcharacteristics of buildings, peopleand contexts but also how theyaffect themselves and each other.

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Relationships and factors in a site: The implanting of our building on the

site will always result in aremodeling of our site. The ultimategoal is to leave the site in a conditionthat is better than the one in whichwe initially found it

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Excellence is in the details: It is easy to convince ourselves that

we have done our job in researchingthe context if we have some data(however incomplete) about our site. We proceed with design thinkingthat if we deal with what we knowabout the site, even if we know it isan incomplete picture, we will havemet our responsibilities asdesigners.

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Excellence is in the details: Data synthesis, comparison and

manipulation are obviously muchricher if we are able to performoperations with all data at hand.Missing data guarantees that certaindesign concepts may not be evoked.

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Excellence is in the details: Data synthesis, comparison and

manipulation are obviously muchricher if we are able to performoperations with all data at hand.Missing data guarantees that certaindesign concepts may not be evoked.

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Excellence is in the details: It is important not to do the analysis “at long

range” but to actually go to visit and feel theelements within the site.

The issue of time must be applied to all oursite information.

It is desired to look at the next contextuallayer of issues that stand beyond the oneswe are addressing.

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Excellence is in the details: There should be a set of

priorities in the informationwe collect and record