Self-reflective practice in sustainable design Volume Two30032398/mellershlucas-self... · Appendix C4: JT_1st interview_13.10.06 1 - 52 (CD) Appendix C5: LH_1st interview_20.10.06

parisr

Redacted stamp

Self-reflective practice in sustainable design

Volume Two

by

Susan Mellersh-Lucas BA (Architecture) (Hons)

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements

for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Deakin University

December, 2009

i

Contents

Volume Two

Chapter 7 1

7.0 Introduction 1

7.1 Sampling 2 7.1.1 Sample sizing 6

7.2 Constructing the interview 7 7.2.1 The interview guide 7

7.3 The role of the interviewer 12

7.4 Developing theory from the interviews 13 7.4.1 Grounded Theory 14

7.4.2 Deconstructivist Theory 15

7.5 The interview analysis process 16

7.6 Conclusion 24

Chapter 8 25

8.0 Introduction 25

8.1 Architecture as an undermined authority 27

ii

8.2 The art of scenario building 30

8.3 The articulation of meaningful spaces 34

8.4 The employment of the architectural sciences 48

8.5 Conclusion 57

Chapter 9 60

9.0 Introduction 61

9.1 Human development pressures 64

9.2 Sustainable design 70 9.2.1 Functionalism 70

9.2.2 Double-loop learning 73

9.3 Self-transformation strategies as personal dynamics 78 9.3.1 Phenomenology 78

9.3.2 Integrity and intuition 83

9.3.3 Happiness and self-interest 86

9.3.4 Propensity 88

9.3.5 Suffering 90

9.3.6 Passion, courage and humility 92

9.3.7 Critical reflection 94

9.4 Self-transformation through interpersonal dynamics 96 9.4.1 Office culture 96

9.4.2 Participatory Design 99

iii

9.4.3 Advocacy, opportunism and leadership 101

9.5 Conclusion 106

Chapter 10 113

10.0 Introduction 113

10.1 Interdependence and design as praxis 116

10.2 Attitudinal change and existential need 117

10.3 Personal self-transformation strategies 118

10.4 Interpersonal self-transformation strategies 120

10.5 The need for certainty 121

10.6 The dynamic between empathy and certainty 123

10.7 The techno-psychosocial model of sustainable design 124 10.7.1 Consilience 124

10.7.2 The biopsychosocial model 124

10.7.3 Meditation 125

10.7.4 Action Research 125

10.8 Recommendations 126

References 127

iv

Appendix A1: Practitioner interview request 140

Appendix A2: RAIA interview request 142

Appendix A3: Consent Form 146

Appendix A4: Motherhood Statements 148

Appendix D1: Figure 7.2a (detailed view) 151

Appendix D2: Art of Building Summary Report 152

Appendix D3: Figure 7.2b (detailed view) 164

Appendix D4: Art of Dwelling Summary Report 165

Appendix E1: Art of Building Narrative Report 172

Appendix E2: Art of Dwelling Narrative Report 174

Glossary 177

Appendix B: CD format

Appendix B1: Interviews journal 1 (CD)

Appendix B2: Observations of interviewee character 12 (CD)

Appendix C: CD format

Appendix C1: AR_1st interview_09.10.06 1 - 38 (CD)

Appendix C2: DO_1st interview_09.10.06 1 - 38 (CD)

Appendix C3: GB_1st interview_15.02.06 1 - 50 (CD)

v

Appendix C4: JT_1st interview_13.10.06 1 - 52 (CD)

Appendix C5: LH_1st interview_20.10.06 1 - 30 (CD)

Appendix C6: MP_1st interview_18.01.06 1 - 123 (CD)

Appendix C7: NP_1st interview_25.06.06 1 - 24 (CD)

Appendix C8: NP_2nd interview_18.10.06 1 - 45 (CD)

Appendix C9: SG_1st interview_29.06.07 1 - 28 (CD)

Appendix C10: SW_1st interview_01.12.05 1 - 27 (CD)

Appendix C11: SW_2nd interview_16.02.06 1 - 27 (CD)

Figures

Figure 7.1: Second step of the analysis process 19

Figure 7.2a: Third step of the analysis process 20

Figure 7.2b: Third step of the analysis process 20

Figure 7.3a: Fourth step of the analysis process 22

Figure 7.3b: Fourth step of the analysis process 22

Figure 8.1: The narrative structure for ‘The Art of Building’ 26

Figure 9.1: The narrative structure for ‘The Art of Dwelling’ 63

63

vi

Tables

Table 7.1: Interview Analysis Process 17

Table 7.2a: Fifth step of the analysis process 22

Table 7.2b: Fifth step of the analysis process 23

1

Chapter 7

Conducting the field study

7.0 Introduction

In order to conduct research on self-reflective practice with architects practicing

sustainable design, a qualitative approach incorporating semi-structured

interviews was selected. Semi-structured interviews provide a snapshot and

enable thick description of existing thinking within the everyday language of

conversation. Iterative and deconstructive methods incorporated within

phenomenologically-informed journaling, Grounded Theory and Deconstructivist

Theory guided the collection and analysis of the interview material. Their value

lies in an empathetic mode of enquiry made rigorous through critical thinking and

well-defined methods for conducting fieldwork.

Defining rigour, however, is problematic. It is recognised that criteria for rigour

are paradigm sensitive and never completely objective or universal. All inquiry

reflects the standpoint of the inquirer, all observation is theory-laden, and there is

no possibility of theory-free knowledge (Denzin and Lincoln 2005; Smith and

Deemer 2003; Thornton 2006). Any discussion of criteria in making judgement

‘must confront the issue of relativism’ because it operates as ‘the central

condition of our very being in the world’ (Smith and Deemer 2003:437). In

recognition of the socially-constructed nature of standards of criteria, truth

statements have come to be seen as best-fit scenarios defining proximity to an

agreed construction of reality that operates as the norm until proven otherwise.

Patton (2002) observes how the criteria for rigour has shifted to reflect the special

characteristics of qualitative enquiry. The credibility of a qualitative researcher is


2

to be judged through ‘dependability - a systematic process systematically

followed - and authenticity – ‘reflexive consciousness about one’s own

perspective, appreciation for the perspectives of others, and fairness in depicting

constructions in the values that undergird them’ (Patton 2002:546). This criteria

recognises that qualitative research depends ‘on the insights and conceptual

capabilities of the analyst’ whose essential contribution is, among others, ‘astute

pattern recognition’ (Patton 2002:553). According to Patton (2002) this is best

achieved through actively looking for rival explanations, explaining negative

cases, using triangulation of data sourcing, collection and analysis and above all

maintaining context in the presentation and analysis of the data. A researcher’s

skill rests on bringing all these strategies together in recognition that qualitative

research by its very nature produces multiple and often conflicting observations

that require defendable best-fit scenarios as explanations.

The aim of this chapter is to establish the rigour of the field study. Rigour is to be

achieved through criteria of dependability and authenticity. This behoves a

systematic approach to interviewee sampling, material collection and interview

analysis to enhance critical thinking and astute pattern recognition. In a detailed

account of the sampling process, Section 7.1 introduces the interviewees and

explains how rigour was pursued through triangulation of the sample group.

Section 7.2 explains the construction of a problem-centred and the expert-

oriented interview format as a means for eliciting subjective views relevant to the

research question and of deconstructing normative thinking about these matters.

Section 7.3 explains the role of the interviewer. Sections 7.4 and 7.5 outline the

application of Grounded Theory as an iterative method to guide the fieldwork and

maintain accountability and transparency. Section 7.6 summarises the field study

process to prepare for discussion of the interview findings.

7.1 Sampling

The three main categories drawn from the literature review through which to

pursue the research question were also used to define the sampling field. They


3

are sustainable design, self-reflective practices and professional development

strategies promoted through the AusIA. Sample groups were identified via

selective sampling over a period of eighteen months. This evolutionary and

cumulative technique is traditional to qualitative research (Patton 2002:68).

Sampling started concurrent with the literature review. The review was used to

identify critical architects to leverage ongoing insights into the developing theory

of self-reflective practice in enhancing the transformative agenda of sustainable

design. The sampling field was specifically focused on architects practising in

Melbourne. The rationale for sampling such a localised field was to determine

the extent to which knowledge of the three main categories had filtered down into

local practice. This approach preferenced a deepening of the sampling field as

opposed to its widening. In effect, it is a further “thickening” of the research

material in accordance with Interpretivist methodology.

Critical sampling is made rigorous through both ‘data triangulation’, which refers

to ‘the integration of various data sources differentiated by time, place and

person’ and ‘analytic induction’ which looks to control the developing theory

through the sampling of deviant cases (Flick 2002:67). The review of the

UIA/AIA Declaration for a Sustainable Future and the BDP Environmental

Design Guide series was the first step in data triangulation (Chapter 2). They

established a baseline standard regarding formal approaches to professional

development in sustainable design and in ascertaining the visibility of self-

reflective practice as a design initiative. Other material showcasing architects

practicing sustainable design was also reviewed. In this manner, sub-groups of

architects practicing in the field of sustainable design and as contributors to the

AusIA in promoting sustainable design practice were identified.

Contact was made with eight recognised leaders in the field of sustainable design.

Greg Burgess, (the late) David Oppenheim, Mick Pearce and Allan Rodger are

internationally recognised, while Louise Honman, Natasha Palich, Jane Toner and

Stephen Webb are highly regarded both Australia-wide and within Victoria.


4

Contact was made also with the AusIA in order to source office bearers. Allan

Rodger, David Oppenheim, Jane Toner and Natasha Palich are recognised

contributors to the AusIA. In total, eight prospective interviewees affiliated with

the AusIA were approached out of which Natasha Palich and Jane Toner agreed

to be interviewed as representatives of the AusIA. Designers who are

practitioners of both sustainable design and forms of self-reflective practice

including meditation were also specifically sought within the sampling field.

Of all the interviewees, Greg Burgess is especially well regarded for a design

methodology guided by self-reflective practice. Louise Honman was approached

through recommendations from colleagues who noted her informal approach to

self-reflective practice. Contact was also made with the Buddhist Council of

Victoria and various Buddhist groups for introductions to architects who

practiced meditation. Practitioners personally known to the researcher as

acknowledged Buddhists were also approached. Out of three prospective

interviewees identified, Seona Gunn, who also practices sustainable design,

agreed to be interviewed.

Greg Burgess is a Melbourne-based, internationally acclaimed architect and 2004

RAIA Gold Medalist. He is especially recognised for his work in designing

innovative buildings with and for indigenous Australians. His major contribution

to sustainable design is in elevating ‘the fundamentals of dwelling, human

interaction and public space’ through architecture (Croaker 2004).

Mick Pearce is an internationally acclaimed architect and winner of the 2003

Prince Claus Award for Culture and Development. His work in Australia, after a

career in Zimbabwe and Zambia, includes the award-winning CH2 building in

Melbourne; the first commercial building in Australia designed through

biomimicry; a “first principles” approach to the problems of sustainable design

(Biomimicry Institute 2009; Morris-Nunn 2007). Pearce is identified as an

architect committed to regionally appropriate and responsive architecture and his

specialisation is in the development of buildings which have low maintenance,


5

low capital and running costs and renewable energy systems of environmental

control.

As an academic and sustainability consultant, Professor Allan Rodger, through

various international and national bodies has ‘established the UIA Programme on

the Sustainable Development of the Built Environment, chaired the jury for the

first world-wide design competition on Sustainable Communities and drafted the

Chicago Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future’ (Lighthouse

Experts Bureau 2002:wp). He is also an expert advisor on sustainability to the

AusIA.

Louise Honman is well respected as a heritage architect and is an award winner

for her energy efficient designs.

(The late) David Oppenheim was a nationally and internationally respected and

awarded sustainability pioneer through his commitment to architectural science

and quantitative assessment. He was also well regarded for his deeply spiritual

and reflective work as a designer (Fay and Owen 2008).

Natasha Palich is a Melbourne-based architect, well respected as a sustainable

design advocate at local government level and consultant to the AusIA. Natasha

currently holds the positions of Chair of the AusIA National Sustainability

Committee and Convenor of the Victorian AusIA Sustainable Architecture

Forum.

Jane Toner is an architect, well respected as an ESD consultant and for her

voluntary work with non-profit organisations such as OzQuest and Architects

Without Frontiers. She is also an active environmental advocate and advisor to

the AusIA.

Stephen Webb is also a Melbourne-based architect. He is well recognised for his

contributions to national award-winning projects such as CH2 and has authored

papers on the participatory design method employed for CH2.


6

Targeting a mix of designers with and without affiliations to the AusIA or self-

reflective practice, but all committed to practising ecologically sustainable

design, triangulate different approaches to the central research aim. Case-

contrasts as well as case-comparisons provide for rigour through analysis of rival

explanations in the development of typology (Flick et al. 2004; Patton 2002:554).

7.1.1 Sample sizing

The field study eventually comprised eleven interviews held with the nine

architects. Determining sample sizes appropriate for theoretical sampling is

dependent on ‘theoretical saturation’ in that sampling stops ‘when no additional

data are being found …’ (Flick 2002:64). The emphasis in this research is on

theoretical as opposed to numerical generalisation. Therefore, ‘the number of

individuals studied is less decisive than the differences between the cases

involved or the theoretical scope of the case interpretations’ (Flick et al.

2004:150). Flick et al. (2004:150) further advise that ‘(t)o increase the theoretical

generalizability, the use of different methods (triangulation) for the investigation

of a small number of cases is often more informative than the use of one method

for the largest possible number of cases’.

The sample size of nine interviewees recognises the tension between ‘covering as

wide a field as possible (as against) doing analyses that are as deep as possible’

(Flick 2002:70). The sampling is considered representative of the field in a

number of respects. According to Flick (2002:70-71), it represents itself as a

‘specific individual socialization against a general background’, in that individual

interviewees represent specific examples of their social milieu. It also represents

a level of professionalisation specific to the individual case, in that all the

interviewees are in the field of sustainable design as practising architects.

Considering that seven of the interviewees are key architects in the field, their

individual views on the experiential nature of design become important as an

aspect of their expert opinion.


7

7.2 Constructing the interview

The eleven interviews produced thick descriptions of ‘subjectively significant

connections between experience and action’ (Flick et al. 2004:7). According to

Flick et al. (2004:113) thick description also ‘aims at the explanation of

“explanations” (in a cultural field) in relation to the totality of this cultural field’.

Therefore, explanations from key practitioners regarding their experience of

sustainable design provide for a type of predictability that is explanatory of the

wider field of sustainable design.

Each interviewee is recognised as having a high level of expertise in his or her

various areas. They could possibly hold subjective theories about self-reflective

practice if they are not experts in that area. As practicing architects they are also

experienced problem-solvers by the nature of their profession. This means they

can be interviewed through any or all of the three interview methods - semi-

standardised, problem-centred and the expert interview - evaluated as favourable

for eliciting qualitative material (see Section 6.5.2.2).

7.2.1 The interview guide

Advice for conducting semi-standardised, problem-centred and expert-oriented

interviews recommend the crafting of an interview guide (Flick 2002).

Therefore, a guide was set up based on the six sub-categories drawn from the

literature review (see Section 6.1). It was crafted as open-ended Motherhood

Statements specifically related to the creative and moral dimension of being an

architect, to prompt bridging between the professional and the private domains

during discussion. All the interviewees were sent a Plain Language Statement as

a letter of introduction, an Ethics Approval Consent Form and the Motherhood

Statements (Appendix A). The objective was to stimulate expert knowledge

through presentation of problematic themes identified within the literature review

as significant to designers engaged in promoting ecological sustainability.

Prompts were made insitu to gain access to more reflexive subjective theories

influencing uptake of both sustainable design and self-reflective practices. The


8

interview prompts were made in such a manner that, while asking about strategies

for monitoring professional and personal behaviour as part of the design process,

the words “self-reflective practice” and “meditation” were left for the interviewee

to articulate in an attempt to uncover a natural understanding from the

interviewee about their value to design. Each Motherhood Statement is presented

below with commentary explaining the intention behind them.

Motherhood Statement 1

We tend to operate at two levels of need, both of which are open to change:

Our public / professional needs which tend to be task-oriented.

Our private / personal needs which are primarily self-oriented.

I argue that design intervention aims at task-oriented needs while designer

transformation aims at self-oriented needs. So this interview is to discuss with

you your own blending process. How I want to discuss this is through two broad

topics:

The concepts of commitment / need

The need for an environmental ethic

The first motherhood statement explains the researcher’s concern to differentiate

designer transformation out from design intervention so as to establish one aspect

of design as self-oriented and the other as task oriented. This opening statement

makes explicit the preferred orientation for the interview and focuses the

interviewees on their own experiences and opinions about what the design

process means to them.


9


Expertise is understood as being able to distinguish between competence and

capability. It comes down to attitude. Improving capability relies on continual

improvements that challenge beliefs, abilities and knowledge base.

Within architectural practice, while there are many barriers to ecological

sustainability, there is also a growing awareness of the need to change.

Through this statement the questioning ranged from office-based approaches to

more personal approaches in developing expertise in sustainable design. This

question was drawn from research into office practice that suggests a growing

reliance upon practitioners as independent learning centres within office

hierarchies that are more horizontal in power arrangements, and networked across

groupings of independent learning centres (Dawson 2004; Doppelt 2003; Rodger

2000). It indicates the need for greater adaptability, flexibility and self-

motivation on the part of practitioners in maintaining professional standards of

expertise in an environment of fast-paced change and uncertainty.


To commit - place sustainability at the core of (architects’) practices and

professional responsibilities - is the first principle upon which the RAIA

Environment Policy is based.

Examples given on how to do this involve the practitioner in ‘actively

encouraging clients to include sustainability as an integral principle…’ of their

project and to ‘maintain(ing) commitment to the delivery of sustainable outcomes

…’(RAIA 2001). These directives encourage the outward-bound efforts of the

practitioner to influence others in a social contract once the practitioner’s own

level of commitment has been forged. These are not directives aimed at forging

practitioner engagement prior to encouraging outward-bound efforts.


10

The emphasis in the questioning was to draw from the interviewees their

understanding of the qualitative nature of commitment as a personal aim. This

was in a deliberate attempt to reorient the traditional approach to ethics from

“know-why” to “know-how” in line with a more phenomenological approach to

cognition and meaning-making taken up within the cognitive sciences (Section

3.3) (Varela 1999a).


There is a lot of discussion about spirituality and its importance to living

harmoniously with the world. Architects are drawn to designing habitats that

work in this manner. Space and form are seen as opportunities to enhance

psychic as well as environmental energies. There is a lot of talk about buildings

in terms of energy transfer potential eg ‘harmonising / energising / vitalising /

refreshing / regenerating / respecting / relaxing.

Reflective practice and intuition as cognitive processes were broached within this

discussion in an attempt to link physical with metaphysical forms of energy and

well-being.


The thrust of human development is to satisfy human needs.

In acknowledging this the UN Brundtland Report definition for ecologically

sustainable development is: “A sustainable society meets the needs of the present

without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’

The questioning here was to focus the interviewee on how they scaled down this

global need to everyday practice and individual need so as to achieve desired

outcomes for themselves now and into the future.


11

Motherhood Statement 6a

Happiness is considered our ultimate goal; it is now a well-tested fact that when

asked, people overwhelmingly support this as self-evident fact and requiring of

no further justification. It is our ultimate self-oriented need in that it is

considered both our highest aspiration and our most fundamental need.

Happiness rests within us as a state which acts like a hydrostatic level of well-

being. Research into this phenomenon concludes that most of us, most of the time

consider this resting point to be equivalent to feeling around 75% happy.

Motherhood Statement 6b

A further understanding of happiness coming out of the behavioural sciences is

that we experience it as a continuum of ‘constant struggle’ that rises and falls

unbroken between extreme misery and extreme joy. This concurs with our

understanding of happiness coming out of the natural sciences that see it as a

natural aspiration common to all sentient beings. Being ubiquitous it fosters

ecological sustainability through dynamic compromise between individual self-

oriented needs and the common good and is a state of equilibrium which has

always been maintained through natural checks and balances.

The science of happiness is a modern phenomenon devoted to tracking new

trends in the social and physical sciences promoting well-being alongside

understanding human pathologies (Layard 2005). The questioning was aimed at

drawing from the interviewees reflections upon their own sense of happiness and

well-being, how consciously they used their design practice to maintain this, and

whether this extended into non-human relationships.


Fundamental challenges to conventional scientific thinking such as Gaia Theory

within the Biological Sciences; Chaos Theory and Quantum Theory within the

Physical Sciences; and the theory of Autopoiesis within Neurocognitive Science


12

have instigated significant change in understanding the nature of existence and

the role humans play in it. While this has spawned urgent calls to respect the

complex logic of the earth’s living systems as a unique and irreplaceable

phenomenon within the universe it has also spawned a quantum leap in

technological prowess.

Non-human relationships were discussed in terms of the huge difference in power

sharing and the impact of technological prowess upon society’s ability to be

concerned for other life forms. The questions were directed towards personal

strategies for developing ecologically-oriented sensitivity and whether the

interviewees consciously and strategically drew upon particular philosophical

understandings of humanity’s existential condition in committing to ecological

sustainability as advocated by much of the literature on environmental and on

personal well-being.

7.3 The role of the interviewer

Current understanding of the interview process has evolved through two powerful

concerns: a feminist concern to move from ‘the practice of exploiting respondents

… to interviewing for ameliorative purposes’ and the postmodernist concern to

treat interviews as ‘negotiated text’ whereby ‘interviewer and respondent

collaborate together to create an essentially monologic view of reality … a

unified “we”’ (Fontana and Frey 2003:93-96). Both these approaches refute the

traditional notion of researchers as invisible, neutral entities and instead

accommodate the reality that, as part of the interactions they seek to study,

interviewers necessarily influence those interactions (Fontana and Frey 2003). In

recognition of this, it is required of the interviewer to make biases explicit (Patton

2002). This researcher enters the field as a mature-aged, graduate architect and a

novice meditator, with an emerging theory about the research topic developed

through the literature review, which requires empirical grounding. While

purposefully avoiding revelation of such a theory lest it distort the thinking of the

interviewees, the Motherhood Statements none-the-less reveal the pre-disposition


13

of the researcher by inviting the interviewees to make comment upon the

experiential domain of sustainable design. This particular orientation toward

sustainable design surprised most of the interviewees. Responses ranged from

positive support, to bemusement, to confusion, to trepidation and even to slight

annoyance. While it is not necessary to draw attention to particular identities, it

is important to note a non-uniform response to a uniform document. This attests

to the power of preconceptions to influence the conduct and content of the

interview.

It is recommended to engage in mental cleansing processes in an effort to pre-

empt concerns that might prejudice not only the conduct of the research project

but also the reception of the research report (Patton 2002). Exercises for clearing

the mind utilising yoga and Buddhist meditation techniques were undertaken

through the conduct of the research. Journaling by the interviewer was done

immediately after each interview session. This strategy objectifies the

engagement without denying subjectivity by bringing the interviewer to a state of

detached mindfulness during the interview. Journaling brings to conscious

awareness individual experiences and background situations that affect fieldwork.

The journal provided a further technique for triangulating data collection (Patton

2002) (Appendix B). All the interviews were taped with the consent of the

interviewee. They were transcribed with the date and location of the interview

noted in the transcription (Appendix C).

7.4 Developing theory from the interviews

In acknowledging that there is no possibility of theory-free observation or

knowledge, a technique specific to Grounded Theory, known as analytic

bracketing, has been adopted for drawing empirical data from the interviews

while respecting them as context-bound and mutually constructed performances

(Fontana and Frey 2003:94). Temporarily deferring how a story is being told

while focusing on what is said before re-integration allows the necessary analytic


14

separation between process and product that ensures a rigorous form of

subjectivity during the analysis process (Feldman 1995; Fontana and Frey 2003).

Feldman (1995:2) advises that ‘clusters of data tend to stick together (and that)

(t)hese clusters probably depend on both what is in the researchers thoughts as the

data are collected and how the members of the culture tend to organize their

culture’. The findings of the literature review suggest that practitioners tend to

cluster design initiatives with design intervention rather than with designer

transformation. This was borne out in the interviews and even though the

interview guide was set up to loosen this clustering, this interviewer was

conscious of being both caught up in and trying to refrain from reinforcing this

tendency and to maintain the focus upon the subjective domain of design. During

the analysis phase, Grounded Theory and Deconstruction Theory were

instrumental in loosening cluster boundaries further. This approach strengthened

triangulation of the analysis process in allowing movement between an

empathetic and deconstructive mode of analysis.

7.4.1 Grounded Theory

In order to decipher the interviewees’ responses, interview analysis proceeded as

an iterative, interpretive and deconstructive method utilising Grounded Theory.

Grounded Theory, rather than deducing testable hypotheses from existing

theories, provides a systematic technique that functions to expose an empirical

basis to the building of theory from the interview material and thus provide

credibility through transparency (Charmaz 2006; Flick et al. 2004; Glaser 1992;

Grbich 2007; Guba and Lincoln 1981; Strauss and Corbin 1998). As a method,

Grounded Theory is a critique of the interview texts for identifying major themes

from the clusterings of emergent sub-themes (Grbich 2007; Merriam 2002;

Strauss and Corbin 1998). It provides for ‘some of the quantifiable scientific

rigor (of) survey research … with its painstaking emphasis on coding data …’

(Fontana and Frey 2003:67).


15

Coding starts with line-by-line coding to prompt close study of the data, before

moving to focused coding through which to ‘separate, sort and synthesize large

amounts of data’ (Charmaz 2006:54). Coding emphasises two main criteria: fit

and relevance:

[Study of the data] fits the empirical world when codes have been

constructed and developed into categories that crystallize participants’

experiences. It has relevance when an incisive analytic framework is

presented that interprets what is happening and makes relationships

between implicit processes and structures visible. (Charmaz 2006:54)

Therefore, the goal of Grounded Theory is to build a ‘substantive theory’ sourced

from the interviews that is ‘localized in dealing with particular real-world

situations’ (Merriam 2002:7/8)

7.4.2 Deconstructivist Theory

While Grounded Theory allows the researcher to view the culture of sustainable

design as nearly as possible through the eyes of its architect practitioners,

Deconstructivist Theory looks for self-limiting/expanding concepts contained

within those practitioners’ perspectives especially in terms of self-reflective

practice. Deconstruction Theory ‘points out both the dominant ideology in the

[data] and some of the alternative frames that could be used to interpret the

[data]’ (Feldman 1995:5). The assumption behind deconstruction is that

‘ideology imposes limits on what can and cannot be said … [therefore]

deconstruction aims at exposing these ideological limits’ (Feldman 1995:51). In

raising designer transformation strategies as an unacknowledged aspect of

sustainable design, the Motherhood Statements activate deconstructive techniques

to ‘ask the questions that tend to be ignored’ and give ‘notice [to] what is not

said’ (Feldman 1995:52). Deconstruction is accomplished through a number of

‘moves’ that analyse the interview text for any silences and gaps, dichotomies,

and disruptions (Feldman 1995:51).


16

7.5 The interview analysis process

A rich and descriptive account of real-world situations encountered by key

architects in the practice of sustainable design in Australia emerged from the

interview analysis through two major themes: the art of building and the art of

dwelling. These two themes draw on Heidegger’s seminal ideas about being-in-

the-world, building and dwelling (Dreyfus 1991; Heidegger 1962; 1971; 2006).

Heidegger argued that Western philosophy has overlooked “being” because it was

considered obvious, rather than worthy of question. Yet, to “be” is ‘the bare fact

of human existence ... [and] the world is already there before anyone tries to

reflect upon it’ (Sharr 2007:27). In his deconstruction of ‘dwelling’ and

‘building’ through their common root in old German language, Heidegger argued

that ‘building isn’t merely a means and a way towards dwelling – to build is in

itself already to dwell’ (Heidegger 1971:146). He also argued that the original

term for dwelling meant ‘to cherish and protect, to preserve and to care for, …’

(Heidegger 1971:147).

In this thesis, the art of dwelling encapsulates the phenomenological idea that,

before one is an architect, one exists un-self-consciously through being-in-the-

world. The art of dwelling is, therefore, subject to pre-theoretical ways of being

or praxis (Section 5.1.1). Dwelling is not a fully self-conscious nor rational

exercise. Consequently, the art of building extends this idea to capture the pre-

theoretical stance of design-as-praxis out of which all design thinking emerges.

The discussion of the findings of the interview analysis is taken up in Part 3 of

this thesis. Prior to this, all interviews were analysed using the QSR N-Vivo 7

software program (QSR International Pty. Ltd.). The program allowed for the

organisation of interview transcripts into major themes and sub-themes through a

process of coding and note-taking linked directly to the raw material. It was

instrumental in quantifying the analytical process through its ability to generate

automatic diagramming of lists and models (Bazeley 2007; Gibbs 2006; Johnston

2006; Richards 2005). While it was found that critical stages of meta-analysis


17

needed to be carried out in hand-written form to expedite lateral thinking through

visual scanning of multiple texts, QSR N-Vivo 7 facilitated management, storage

and presentation of the large volume of text generated throughout the analysis

process. The rigour of a five- step process undertaken to structure and process

the interview material analysis is outlined in Table 7.1.

Step Method Purpose Outcome Figures and Tables

Appdx

1 Descriptive First step in the triangulation of analysis methods

Analysis remains tied to Motherhood Statements.

NA

2 Micro-analysis through induction

Analysis moves beyond description toward conceptualisation. Second step in the triangulation process.

A myriad of emergent issues identified and coded. Formulation of a provisional hypothesis for categorising the codes into three major themes.

Figure 7.1

3 Macro-analysis through deduction and iteration

A countermove to Step 2. To crosscheck the working hypothesis. An iterative method for developing the hypothesis.

Each major theme is re-populated with extracts from all of the interviews deduced to be relevant sub-themes.

Figure 7.2a Figure 7.2b

D

4 Meta-analysis through hermeneutical approach

Clusters are identified from amongst the various sub-themes.

From amongst the clusters a narrative emerges to explain the major themes.

Figure 7.3a Figure 7.3b

E

5 Micro-analysis through induction

Re-coding as cross-check for emerging narrative. Opportunity for independent analysis is provided. Third step in the triangulation process.

The emerging narrative remains grounded in the data.

Table 7.2a Table 7.2b


18

The analysis process was not linear but iterative in that the ordering of the ideas

into sub-themes and major themes did not appear sequentially but in dialogue

with one-another (Snodgrass and Coyne 2006). This process underscores the

hermeneutical nature of understanding generally, in that it occurred through

understanding the parts and the whole in tandem together, as a dialogue between

projection and reflection upon the emerging narrative.

The first step taken in the analysis was to describe each interviewee’s explicit

responses to the Motherhood Statements. The purpose of this was twofold: to

expose a-priori false assumptions held by the researcher (see Section 7.4) and to

satisfy analytical triangulation by evidencing any changes to the findings

following the application of Grounded Theory.

The second step involved microanalysis and deconstruction of two randomly-

selected interviews following the Grounded Theory method. This is a mode of

interrogating the interview texts line-by-line to move analysis beyond description

and toward conceptualisation (Strauss and Corbin 1998). It also helps suspend

the urge to draw theoretical conclusions before uncovering possible alternative

explanations hidden in the details (Strauss and Corbin 1998). Strauss and Corbin

(1998:68) consider that this approach ‘forces examination of assumptions (in

that) false assumptions will not stand up when rigorously compared against the

data incident by incident.’ This step was crucial to the analytical triangulation

process.

As an inductive approach to analysis, the second step identified a myriad of

emergent issues (Fig. 7.1). The issues were not specific to the Motherhood

Statements, but emerged as a structural device to categorise the full range of ideas

found in the interview material. These issues were identified through in-vivo

headings; a process promoted in Grounded Theory to ensure the categories are

kept as close to the original expressions of the interviewees as possible. The

issues were then tentatively categorised into sub-themes with major themes

emerging from the clustering of the sub-themes. The coding, comparing and


19

note-taking required of this approach allowed for the formulation of a provisional

hypothesis against which to code the remaining interviews. The major themes

are: the art of dwelling, the art of building and bridging strategies between private

and professional values.

Lack ofreflection

Moralimmaturity

Status Quo

Relationships Ethicalbehaviour

Makingchoice

Self

Suffering Love

Beingconsistent

Directexperience

Raisingawareness

Touchstones

Bridgingseparation

PersonalisingEcological

sustainability

Art of dwelling

Synthesising

Collaboration

Connectedness

Expertise

Best Practice

Creativity

Challengingthe status quo

Clientrelations

Architect'spractice

Sourcinglocal

Complexitybehaviour

Economiesof scale

Best Practice

ecologicallysustainable

design

Art of building

Challengingthe

status quo

Commitment

Conscience

PersonalProfessional

In a third step, the interrogation of the texts moved from micro to macro-analysis

in order to cross-check the previous step (Flick et al. 2004; Guba and Lincoln

1981). According to Flick (2004:13 original italics) ‘the analytic categories that

were established from the material in the previous stage of the analysis are now

applied to the material’. To achieve this step, each major theme was re-populated

with extracts from all of the interviews. Additional sub-themes emerged with

their associated issues. These were ordered into sets of typologies with

associated characteristics. By the end of this step only two major themes

remained: the art of building and the art of dwelling. Figures 7.2a and 7.2b

illustrate the coding structures for the two major themes (Appendix D). This


20

cross-checking process also allowed for iteration in developing the working

hypothesis.

Empirical

Experiential

Knowledge typologies

Empirical

Experiential

Traditional

Practice typologies

Private

Public

Value typologies

Professional practice

Empirical

Experiential


Empirical

Experiential

Traditional

Practice typologies

Private

Public

Value typologies

Design

Empirical

Experiential


Empirical

Experiential

Traditional

Practice typologies

Private

Public

Value typologies

Ecologicallysustainable design

Empirical

Experiential


Empirical

Experiential

Traditional

Practice typologies

Private

Public

Value typologies

Architecture

Art of Building

being aware of being self-aware

Meta self-awareness

beliefs goals / aspirations

self-memories emotions

interests standards

values / opinions attitudes

perceptions sensations

Private self-information

other's opinions social relations

behaviours / actions abilities / skills

Public self-information

Personal settings

Financial / Economic

Political

Cultural / Social

Individual

Professional

Existing conditions

Art of Dwelling

Following a hermeneutical approach, as favoured by Glaser (1992; 1994; 2001;

2003; 2005), the fourth step involved meta-analysis of each major theme. This

was in order to identify a dynamic of concern across the various sub-themes.


21

This resulted in a re-assessment of the sub-themes into new categories and was

the climax of the analysis process. A narrative emerged to explain each major

theme in terms of their dynamics rather than as a composition of typologies.

Figures 7.3a and 7.3b illustrate the new coding hierarchies that emerged for each

theme. This step was taken off the computer and onto hardcopy. It involved

lateral thinking to move beyond a strictly causal coding regime to take account of

the dynamic processes pursued by the interviewees for structuring sustainable

design into their living and working habits. A more comprehensive coding

structure emerged through which to discuss the two major themes that define the

impact of sustainable design upon the state of architecture (Appendix E).

The Art of Building(architecture as an undermined authority)

Knowledge domains

Generative domain(scenario-building)

Representative domain(meaningful space-making)

Technical domain(architectural sciences)

Practice domains

Experiential domain(immersion)

Reflective domain(oeuvre)

Collective domain(tradition)


22

In the fifth step each interview was revisited again and re-coded inductively line-

by-line into the re-organised sub-themes to check how well the emerging

narrative was grounded in the texts (Table 7.2a and 7.2b). This iterative process

also ensured that as the ideas were coded into more abstract concepts, these

higher concepts remain ‘grounded’ via a recognisable pathway between the raw

material and the narrative. This opens the process to assessment through

independent scrutiny, and in so doing acts to further triangulate the analysis.

The Art of Dwelling

Human development scenarios

under-development

over-development

alienation

denial

apathy

Sustainable design

Functionalism

Double-loop learning

Self-transformative strategies

personal dynamics

phenomenology / enchantment

integrity intuition

happiness and self-interest

propensity

passion courage humility

critical reflection

group dynamics

office culture

Participatory Design

advocacy opportunism leadership


23

1 Coding opportunities refers to the process of selecting text from the interviews appropriate to each theme

The Art of Building Interviews Coding opportunities1 Undermined authority 11 164 Practice domains Experiential 11 56 Reflective 11 119 Collective 9 47 Knowledge domains Art of scenario-building 11 163 Articulation of meaningful spaces 11 132 Architectural sciences 10 52

The Art of Dwelling Interviews Coding opportunities

Human development scenarios Underdevelopment 2 9 Overdevelopment 10 81 Sustainable design Critiquing functionalism 10 60 Critiquing fear of change 10 48 Self transformative practices Personal dynamics 11 147 Phenomenology / enchantment 3 9 Integrity / intuition 10 24 Happiness / self-interest 10 19 Propensity 5 10 Suffering 6 19 Passion / courage / humility 8 16 Critical reflection 7 13 Group dynamics 11 57 Office culture 7 25 Participatory Design 7 10 Advocacy / opportunism / leadership 9 33


24

7.6 Conclusion

In this chapter, a formal analysis of the sampling process and the conduct and

analysis of the interviews according to Grounded Theory has been presented.

This was in order to explain the rigour of the qualitative approach undertaken in

the interview analysis. Interviewees were selected either for their expertise in the

development and implementation of sustainable design and/or their engagement

with formal and informal self-reflective practices. The sample size allowed for

thick descriptions to be gathered from key architectural practitioners through

which to develop a theory of sustainable design as self-transformative practice.

Through a five-step process of analysis, a rich and descriptive narrative of real-

world situations encountered by key architects in the practice of sustainable

design in Australia emerged. Two major themes were arrived at through which

to structure this narrative. They are: the art of building and the art of dwelling.

The following two chapters of this thesis presents a discussion of this narrative.

Chapter 8 discusses the art of building, while Chapter 9 discusses the art of

dwelling.

25

Chapter 8

The Art of Building

8.0 Introduction

Chapter 7 detailed the conduct of the field study in which the collection and

analysis of interview material through journaling, Grounded Theory and

Deconstructivist Theory proceeded. The interview material consisted of

responses to a number of Motherhood Statements that were designed to elicit

self-concepts from the interviewees through discussion of expertise, commitment,

spirituality, familiarisation, happiness and value-systems as they apply to their

practice of sustainable design. Through a series of analytical steps, this material

was ordered into major themes and their attendant sub-themes. Two major

themes were identified through this process. They are the art of building and the

art of dwelling.

These two themes are presented as two separate chapters. Chapter 8 discusses the

impact of sustainable design upon the art of building. Chapter 9 discusses how

the transformative potential of sustainable design affects the designer as the art of

dwelling. Through the presentation of extensive quotes drawn from the

interviews, the discussion remains grounded in the individual life-worlds of the

architects while offering new insights into sustainable design that explain its self-

transformative aspect and reveal naturalised types of self-reflective practice.

In Chapter 8, sustainable design is pursued through exploration of a concern that

was found to permeate all the interviews. This was identified as an undervaluing

of architecture as the art of building. Section 8.1 introduces this concern to set

the context for the rest of the chapter. The countermeasures taken by the

The Art of Building

26

interviewees have been coded into two domains: architectural practice and

architectural knowledge (see Figure 8.1). Architectural practice has been coded

into three levels of practice: the experiential domain; the reflective domain; and

the collective domain. These three domains describe the development of

expertise through immersion of the practitioner in gathering architectural

experience, the reflection of this experience in the development of an oeuvre and

finally its distillation into the collective domain of tradition. These three domains

describe an ordering of personal and career development strategies through

interplay with architectural knowledge. Three domains of architectural

knowledge have been identified: the generative domain of scenario building; the

representative domain of space-making; and the technical domain of the

architectural sciences. They represent a dynamic interplay of the arts, humanities

and sciences. In this chapter, the art of building is discussed through these three

knowledge domains. Section 8.2 presents the art of scenario-building, Section

8.3 presents the articulation of meaningful space and Section 8.4 presents the

employment of the architectural sciences.

Experiential domain(immersion)

Reflective domain(oeuvre)

Collective domain(tradition)

Practice domains

Generative domain(scenario-building)

Representative domain(meaningful space-making)

Technical domain(architectural sciences)

Knowledge domains

The Art of Building(Architecture as an undermined authority)

The narrative structure allows for the discussion of existential concerns and

metaphysical orientations of the interviewees through their references to both the

The Art of Building

27

exoteric and esoteric nature of architectural design. The esoteric urge to utilise

ways of knowing beyond discursive thought was found to underpin the design

process as surely as the exoteric urge expressed through reasoning and logic.

This general rule, as a characteristic of human nature, is attested to by the

interviewees through a propensity for morality, intuition and contemplation

alongside of, and often in tension with, rational thinking. The objective of the

discussion is to bring the discourse on esoterism into the discourse on sustainable

design. Such discourse will help to illuminate the central research question

concerning the potential of self-reflective practice to enhance the transformative

agenda of sustainable design.

8.1 Architecture as an undermined authority

The history of architecture is intimately bound up in human development (see

Section 4.2 – 4.4). It is an expression of culture that has its roots in the West in

the articulation of esoteric Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Christian cosmologies

(Cuomo 2007; Pérez Gómez 2005) . Architectural traditions of existential

authority and certainty lost their relevance in the turbulence of the Enlightenment

era (Habraken 2005; Vesely 2004). Historicism, revivalism and eclecticism

emerged in response to the new ordering of society brought about by the new

sciences, new technologies, greater access to and widened knowledge of the

world. As the Modernist era dawned these too, were in their turn, abandoned in

favour of increasing secularism, rationalism, professionalism, individualism and

novelty (Scully 1974; Walz 2008). Modernism in the twentieth century is seen as

a defining moment in the history of Western architecture, in that it took the new

certainty of the scientific/industrial era to wrest architecture free of its deep-

rooted cosmological traditions (Bangs 2007). The tragedy of this unprecedented

event is that it was caused by the development of technological capacities that

dispensed with observance of cosmological patterns in the ordering of form and

energy, logic of aesthetics and use of resources. Freedom came at enormous cost.

Modernist architecture, in this account of its history, was presented with a de-

The Art of Building

28

sacralised view of the universe hollowed out by a rationalist, materialist paradigm

(Norberg-Schultz 1975; St. John Wilson 2000). Esoteric methods were separated

out and sidelined in a secular world inspired by the scientific view (Faivre and

Hanegraaff 1995; Hanegraaff et al. 2005). The existential agenda of architectural

practice was re-fashioned into new sets of utopian ideals (Sharr and Weston

2001). This is the situation confronting the current agenda of sustainable design

(Chiotinis 2006). The following quote by Stephen Webb illustrates how

sustainable design remains an idealistic response to existential need.

I think there is a lot more important discussion beyond buildings. There

is also a lot of fundamentals with the broader curve and pattern in

civilization that we need to address before we get the perfect

environmental building right. And I think as architects we’ve got to look

beyond those four walls so, if anything, what I’m hoping to do is slowly

raise the quality of the urban realm through doing green buildings.

(Webb 2005:12.105)

This history, in all its complexity, has led to a reassessment of the possibilities

and limitations of envisioning as an aspect of design thinking integral to the

authority of the architect and the practice of architecture.

It’s very unpopular to say so, but … architects have been complicit in

supporting highly destructive practices for a long time, like the building

of our present cities. … they produced a lot of the imagery - the tower

blocks and mass transit for example - you would have to go back to Le

Corbusier, his drawings, he produced imagery and developers and

Governments came along and did it. Architects have been complicit in

this whole current morphology of the urban system, the agro-urban

system. … that system will kill far more people and do far more damage

to humans in the whole than a Hitler, Stalin or a Mao. I mean really our

cities are huge tender traps. We like them now and they seem

comfortable but they are tender traps. (Rodger 2006:320-328)

The Art of Building

29

When I think of ecologically sustainable development I do think about the

problems we’ve caused ourselves, the ways we’ve actually set up our

cities and the way we’ve set up our infrastructure. … [My] immediate

reaction is one of knowing how badly everything’s been done. I think

first and foremost about our poor quality of our built environment. I think

everything comes from that. … And then the whole mindset of whether

it’s possible to use macro solutions to fix some of the problems in the

world. (Webb 2005:14.123)

I want the natural and built environment to encourage change, because I

really do believe that it does. We create our environment and then it

creates us. (Palich 2006b:5.157)

You know, our built environment by and large isn’t all that inspiring, and

that’s probably why we are like we are. (Palich 2006b:12.387)

While Palich makes an observation about the uninspiring environment

modernism has delivered, Rodger targets its problematic heart. Resistance to

ecologically sustainable design tends to be articulated as a concern that it is too

pragmatic to be inspiring (van Schaik 2005). Rodger observes how misguided

and pretentious this type of criticism really is.

You may have seen Norman Day’s critique of Council House 2 [Pearce

and Webb’s pioneering office tower in Melbourne incorporating

ecologically sustainable design principles]. And he wrote point after

point after point, a paragraph about this thing and about the next thing and

the cooling and the heating and the water and the venting and the natural

lighting and all that stuff. And then he concluded that this might all be

very good but the purpose of architecture was to raise the soul or

something like that he said. It was certainly a sort of emotional response

and essentially it did all these good things but it actually didn’t do what

architects are supposed to do. Now, in my view, Council House 2, that

should be the starting point for everything else and if it doesn’t do all

The Art of Building

30

these things it shouldn’t even get built! And sometimes you get buildings

that are really inspiring and uplifting and have got a bit of magic. Not all.

It never has been all. You just get a little bit of magic emerges from time

to time. And if you’re getting that the community’s doing quite well. But

to sort of denigrate it because it doesn’t do that seems to me to miss the

point that this is the base condition that really aught to be built in and

that’s where we start. Now, how do we make magic from there, not

instead of there. (Rodger 2006.215-223)

Rodger observes that architecture, at its best, reflects aspirations that are both

exoteric and esoteric. The pragmatic concerns of sustainable design are not

necessarily a denial of the “magic” of architecture, but a necessary grounding for

this “magic”. The basis for the tensions in architecture Rodger observes, is

identified in phenomenologically informed treatises (for example Pallasmaa

2009; Pérez Gómez 2006; Vesely 2004) as the artificial separation between body

and soul/mind central to Christian theology. The modern sciences upon which

the pragmatics of sustainable design rest represents the quintessential expression

of a de-souled pragmatism. The challenge for architects is to recognise both the

necessity and the limits of this condition if they are to evoke the occasional

magic.

8.2 The art of scenario building

From earliest antiquity onwards the prestige of architects has waxed and waned

according to the utility of architecture to serve the communicative (or meaning-

making) needs of society (Cuomo 2007; Pérez Gómez 2005; 2006). With the

failure of the Modernist era of architecture to live up to the utopian ideals

unleashed by the advent of a secular/scientific/industrial age (Glazer 2007; Pérez

Gómez 2005; Salingaros 2007), the role of the architect has diminished into that

of bit-player in the pragmatics of building (Berglund 2008). This is a cause of

considerable concern for all of the interviewees. For some, they see a de-valuing

of their particular expertise. For others, they are concerned that many architects

The Art of Building

31

no longer know what their particular expertise is or should be. This has

consequences. As Rodger admits:

… architects are in a sense bit-players. … They only deal with a little bit

of what might be called architecture … so they only deal with a little bit

of that bit. But the dynamics of it, and the effectiveness of the

architecture is very dependent on architecture at a bigger scale of how the

cities go together. And then at a bigger scale again: how the cities relate

to the supporting hinterlands. (Rodger 2006:2.31-33)

The particular expertise that is missing is that:

Not many architects conceptualise their architecture as the organisation of

space in support of human activities. (Rodger 2006:2.35)

To overcome this problem Rodger then suggested that architects engage in:

… scenario building as distinct from accumulating provable facts. … you

also have to have some kind of vision for what it is you’re trying to do.

… now that’s a real architecture / planning thing. … it seems to me that’s

part of the community education, reflective practitioner kind of [thing] …

we’ve got to stimulate thinking and this becomes community education

through the injection of practice ideas. I’m just saying we should be …

building scenarios … [and] these should be live issues because we’re

going to have to make some decisions … huge, huge changes … I think

that’s something that architects could do very much more of.

(Rodger 2006:8-10.163-197)

This criticism of the architectural skill of scenario building as a precursor to the

art of building is particularly significant on three counts. Firstly, it is the opinion

of Professor Allan Rodger, an architect and academic instrumental in the drafting

of the 1992 UIA Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future – an

environmental manifesto taken up by the architecture profession world-wide and

a major achievement in scenario-building at the global scale (see Section 2.3).

The Art of Building

32

Secondly, the scenario building in which Rodgers wants architects to engage is as

utopian as any that have come before. This signals the great care that must be

taken by architects designing for ecological sustainability, given that scenario

building is historically constituted and therefore dependent upon the

circumstances and knowledge that nurtures it. Finally, Rodgers’ criticism must

be seen in light of the fact that architecture as the organisation of space in support

of human activities is a core consideration for all the interviewees. All assumed it

to be their core skill. However, differences in approach to scenario building by

the interviewees reveal a problem with maintaining focus on human agency.

When relationships are discussed there is a tendency to slip from its human

dimension to a purely physical one.

I think it’s probably also dimensions of self and dimensions of

imagination and dimensions of connectedness. Even suffering I think

[influences scenario building]. … It’s all about relationship and a sense

of self and a sense of the other and what the space between is.

(Burgess 2006:2/3.20-48)

For me an ecologically sustainable development is about creating spaces

that actually could positively contribute to the other spaces around them

and to the space as a whole, the greater space. Probably we have the

lighthouse of sustainable design which is buildings that use no energy,

that use no water, they create no waste in their construction or operation,

they don’t affect ecological diversity, in fact they might contribute and

feed something back into the system. This is how this definition expands

to ecologically sustainable development and we call this the lighthouse

model ... (Toner 2006:27.568)

… say a house that harvested its own water, purified its own wastes,

generated its own warmth, coolness, even produced surpluses for

operating machines and all that sort of thing – the autonomous house if

you like … a city of autonomous buildings would still be disastrously

The Art of Building

33

destructive because it could be so dependent on say food from outside,

unless you say we’ll make it totally autonomous. … And totally

dependant on high levels of mechanised transport for people and goods.

You see we could have, as it were, environmentally perfect architecture

still part of a totally destructive system so the interactions seem to me

profoundly important. (Rodger 2006.41-55)

Burgess, Toner and Rodger illustrate three understandings of space: the in-

between space of human interactions, its reification into contained space, and as

something separable from supporting infrastructure. These three understandings

illustrate how easily concepts of space and interaction can unintentionally become

divorced of their human agency and misappropriated as building dynamics. It is

a subtle manoeuvre that has its roots in mainstream concepts of human boundary;

a situation covered in the literature review and revisited throughout this chapter.

The architecture critic Dalibor Vesely’s (1985; 2004) reflections on the

ontological and cultural foundations of modern architecture illustrate how this

misappropriation manifests as dysfunctional built space (see Section 4.3.1).

Vesely (2004:21) argues that when architects undervalue the twin dangers of the

industrial model embraced through Modernism, (which he describes as abstract

thinking coupled to a unidirectional control perspective), this leads to scenario-

building favouring ‘possible realities’ as opposed to ‘real possibilities’. Vesely

sees this as an endeavour which loses touch with lived world exigencies, causing

deep disorientation for society. The reason for the disorientation is that scenario-

building within this paradigm is unable to give adequate representation to the

field of latent possibilities generated through interpersonal dynamics out of which

society is shaped, and in effect impoverishes culture as shared meaning-making.

The different interpretations of space revealed by Burgess, Toner and Rodger,

with their slippage from a focus on its human dynamics to a more abstract

relationship between buildings, illustrate how architectural scenario-building can

quickly lose touch with lived-world exigencies. The implications for sustainable

The Art of Building

34

design to be drawn here, is that scenario-building must remain resolutely

grounded in human interactions so as to give adequate representation to the field

of latent possibilities generated through them and avoid the pitfalls Vesely points

out.

8.3 The articulation of meaningful spaces

Vesely’s writings shed light on the nature of the built environment that modernist

architectural thinking has celebrated and encouraged, and that individual

architects now find themselves as ‘bit-players’ in. They also shed light on how

this undermines both the role and the skill of architects to articulate meaningful

spaces out of the real possibilities associated with ecological sustainability that,

by this very association, must prioritise planetary life if it is to provide for human

survival. While none of the interviewees expressed awareness of Vesely’s

particular argument, all were sensitive to the need to be more closely connected to

these deeper existential needs through their particular projects.

It’s more about how to search for elegant solutions in architecture. So it

also relates back to the idea [that] good design actually embodies

sustainability. … When I say elegance I don’t mean visual elegance but

getting back to addressing a whole lot of different things. … So, that’s

an overwhelming aspect of why I’m interested in green design. It just

gives such more meaning and reason to the ideas behind that elegant

solution rather than purely looking at form and function, proportion,

symmetry, whatever other design elements you put into it. You just build

so much more meaning into a building. It sort of answers your questions.

(Webb 2005:9.82-84)

Webb’s insight is that, for a solution to be ‘elegant’, it must articulate the deeper

existential needs of the designer as the embodiment of wider needs to be satisfied

by ‘green design’. His comments also highlight the search for moral grounding.

A common theme that emerges from across the interviews is the requirement for

The Art of Building

35

some level of moral certainty made emphatic through personal lived experience.

This provides the confidence and energy to sustain motivation.

… you know there are a number of people that I read who are very much

my mentor. … Scott Turner is a great physician who writes about the

physiology of animals and he’s the one that produced this idea of the

extended organism. Yeah, and its wonderful hearing or reading a

physiological explanation of living systems, it makes a lot of sense

because it’s so holistic. And that provides a model for my design. See, I

really take this biomimicry quite seriously.

(Pearce 2006:42/3.1508-1512)

I tend to self educate … Now it’s based on ecological ideas … I’ve

moved from being trained in one of the leading schools in Britain (The

Architectural Association), which was the leader of … the industrial age

or the machine age celebrating the machine. … [and] the dictum by

Corbusier that buildings were a machine for living in. I’ve moved away

from that, because I think that we’re no different from other species. If

you look at other species, or other animals especially, they make nests and

burrows and buildings, and other ways of modifying the environment, and

I subscribe to the idea that, that burrow, or that nest is actually an

extension of the organism. In other words … the psyche doesn’t end in

the fur or the skin or whatever it is. It actually, when you make a space to

live in, it extends to those boundaries. And so it’s absolutely vital that we

begin to see our habitat as extending that far. If they don’t, I think you’re

living in an unreal place, you’re not, you can’t relate to it properly.

(Pearce 2006:2/3.55-83)

It is the scientific thinking behind biomimicry that Mick Pearce turns to, to design

meaningful spaces. Pearce confirms Vesely’s writings in his own rejection of

Modernist architecture and the industrial paradigm articulated through it. In his

support of another paradigm, based on the ecological sciences, that supports the

The Art of Building

36

non-separability of humanity and habitat, Pearce is pointing out a failure of the

industrial model – its premise upon the separability of humanity and habitat and

concepts of self underlying this. In so doing, he provides an example of the

difference between ‘real possibilities’ for meaningful space based on science, in

opposition to the hubris of ‘possible realities’ perpetrated through the industrial

paradigm. Pearce’s understandings also demonstrate the critical role science

plays in scenario-building, and in this case in building concepts of self. Concepts

of self are only now under significant scrutiny within the cognitive sciences

(Harnard 2007; Maturana and Varela. 1973; 1987; Thompson 2004; 1999b;

Varela 1999c) and especially those mind sciences in collaboration with Buddhist

methodologies and understandings of the phenomenon of self-awareness (Mind &

Life Institute 2003; 2004; 2005a; 2005b). Significantly, Pearce goes on to

explain how he has established certainty in this matter:

[While] I’m an atheist, on the other hand, I think what’s very important is

to recognise where we’ve come from. And the real deep connections we

have with our origins. You know, people say “why the hell do you go

back to Zimbabwe all the time. Why don’t you just leave it?” I can’t

explain why I don’t leave it. But I will not leave it. I won’t leave it. I

was there about two weeks ago and driving through the country with these

wonderful villages and the plains and these immense great granite rocks

rising up covered in diverse ecologies that you don’t see anywhere in the

world. That’s beautiful. It’s absolutely incredible how beautiful they are.

And very much alive. The sort of relationship between human farming

which is all peasant farming. You know, that sort of stuff, for me, is

indescribably powerful. And you know, that’s important to me, that’s

very important. And I think we’ve come from the Savannah, that’s our

origins, that’s the origins of the species and … it’s that part of Africa

which has given birth to our aesthetic. That’s about spirituality, that’s the

essence. You know the plain, the flat plain and the water and the trees

and the edge of the forest. (Pearce 2006:46/7.1629-1641)

The Art of Building

37

Through his own deep love of his homeland, Pearce is able to experience the

qualitative dimension of Scott Turner’s idea of the extended organism, and in

effect dissolve the separation between Mind and Matter. He is also able to

interpret this as both spirituality and the birth of aesthetic appreciation. Pearce is

then able to give his architecture deep meaning in that:

… consciousness of sustainability brings back that, it’s all about changing

our attitude to nature. … The building responds to nature, in the same

way that a tree does – reaching - is what, exactly what I’m talking about

… that the building responds to me, so there’s a new relationship between

the city and nature that develops out of that.

(Pearce 2006:60/1.2073-2089)

When questioned as to how responsive the inhabitants of the building are to this

‘new relationship’, Pierce exclaimed:

Well, that’s up to them, but you know the building around them is.

(Pearce 2006:60.2097)

The story of human evolution that science tells, allows Pearce to place within the

story his deep love for the symbiosis he witnesses in his homeland between

humanity and nature. It has allowed him to draw inspiration for creating a built

environment that more closely mimics natural systems. In so doing, this provides

the communicative spaces so necessary for satisfying humanity’s existential

needs, which for Pearce is a dimension of human nature that is clearly bound up

in the Darwinian concept of the origin of species. The key to his architecture is in

appreciating space holistically - not only as something physical, but also as

something spiritual and aesthetic. Its qualitative dimension, experienced through

love and made logical as an extension of ‘the organism’, helps Pearce to dissolve

the spatial and psychological separation between ‘habitat’ and ‘organism’ that is

so characteristic of post-Enlightenment Western culture (Capra 1996; Harnard

2007; Maturana and Varela. 1973; Merriam 2007; Varela 1987).

The Art of Building

38

Having designed for a building capable of sensitive interactions between habitat

and inhabitant, Pearce considers it up to the inhabitants to make the connections.

This observation leads to two core requirements of architecture to articulate the

‘real possibilities’ for being sustainable noted by many of the interviewees.

Firstly, they confirm that for design to be sustainable it must be a participatory

process (Berglund 2008; Fuller et al. 2008; Sinclair and Stohr 2006). As a

participatory process it becomes the province of the wider community involved in

both making and using the spaces created. This is seen to strengthen connectivity

and responsibility at many levels, and leads onto the second point: the need for

certainty, and thus the onus placed on the building community in particular, to

provide certainty. Both these points are discussed in detail in Section 8.4. In

Pearce’s case, his sense of certainty in the scientific explanation of habitat as the

extension of the organism is reinforced through his own powerful and humbling

experiences of extension through love for his homeland. These two modes of

understanding together establish certainty for him.

In order to tease out Pearce’s design thinking, it is important to note that the

separation between ‘habitat’ and ‘organism’ is well documented within Western

culture as mainstream thinking. It is a vision of reality widely critiqued as one of

the major sources of alienation characterising contemporary society (Bateson

1972; 1979; Berry 1988; 1991; 1999; Capra 1983; 1996; 2002; Hamilton 2002;

Harding 2006; Oliver and Ostrofsky 2007). An argument canvassed within this

thesis is that such separation is a consequence of the ubiquitous influence of

scientific materialism – a philosophic concept popularised through nineteenth

century classic physics (Wallace and Hodel 2008). Wallace and Hodel argue that

this is in spite of contradiction across many forms of knowledge, and that it

persists because of entrenched mores. So, as Pearce noted, the problem comes

down to attitude and the solution must encourage attitudinal change towards our

own nature as part of Nature.

The Art of Building

39

Testing these mores and moving beyond them into a heightened sense of

connectedness is an art exemplified by Greg Burgess. Burgess is an architect

internationally recognised for his ability to enable community-responsive

architecture that sustains community at varying levels of existential need, in

particular through attention to sacred geometries (Burgess 2004). He

acknowledges that the conceptual separation between mind and matter is implicit

in a literal reading of space and that an architect must learn to read a very

different space – one recognised as pregnant with potentialities waiting to be

activated; an approach prominent in Vesely’s (2004) discourse.

Energy is also identified as a crucial architectural concern for Burgess, but not

that identified through the science of thermodynamics, so dominant in Pearce’s

thinking (Fortmeyer 2008). The energy Burgess explores is rich with meaning;

though more latent than comprehensible. The realm of space and energy Burgess

is able to access connects him to a mode of being beyond the strictures of self.

… you get into a very lifted energy where you potentially reach quite

unusual inspiration or access to certain integrating energies or whatever.

… you're under a creative, psychological, psychic, pressure to work

through something - and like your state of mind and your attitude - and

preparation – sort of meditating or – making yourself open to grace.

(Burgess 2006:16.386-390)

I think there’s something about that process which is much bigger than

yourself. … You’re doing something for the world and it’s something

that is graced by something bigger than yourself – so that hopefully it

speaks to a wide variety of people – rather than some little self-

expression, neurotically put together. So there’s something there about

service, like an attitude of service, an attitude of, I suppose love, or some

sort of the greater good. ... It’s not just simple “we need a roof, we need

a nice view or …”. There’s always that complex lattice of people and

place and culture and history you don’t even know you’re absorbing - by

The Art of Building

40

osmosis or by just being open. So you’ve got to be open and gathered.

Those two things together and I take that preparation seriously ... Yeah so

that preparation time then sets the mood or attitude or state of being for

the day and you hope ... (Burgess 2006:17.394)

… it’s all about moving into a state of being connected so that when

you’re – you have the right thought at the right time, the right gesture or

the right idea. There’s something when you’re connected – things come

together in the right way – that openness, it’s almost like an innocence in

spite of our worldliness – we have to trust I think.

(Burgess 2006:17.408)

Burgess is clearly talking about inspiration as a mode of communication that

connects him to a level of creativity beyond his individual limits and in which he

places his trust to access what is ‘right’. The kind of rightness described here

illustrates an esoteric quest by Burgess, that the philosopher and art critic Luc

Benoist (1988:13) describes as being able ‘to arrive at a quite different level of

truth designed to impart wisdom which would penetrate the entire being both

mind and spirit’. What Burgess practises and Benoist describes is design as

praxis (Chapter 5). It requires a crucial re-orientation to the world in that the

arrival point is according to Burgess, something opened up to rather than wilfully

sought.

Burgess’s insights illuminate another approach to scenario-building discussed in

Section 8.2, that architecture remain representative of real possibilities as opposed

to possible realities. Vesely (2004:14) describes the representative act as

connecting to ‘the potential field of possibilities present and available’ and

coming to ‘a representation of the latent possibilities (by) bringing into focus

their typical characteristics and enhancing their presence’. It ‘takes place each

time we succeed in grasping what is essential to a … project’ (Vesely 2004:14).

Burgess likens his experiences of this process to a meditative state and describes

this state as being open and gathered. It requires trust and an openness to grace –

The Art of Building

41

a quality of acceptance, of humility; a communion with an authority beyond

concepts of self. It provides certainty. This is the communicative state Vesely

(2004) argues has been ignored in the desire of the avant-garde to transcend the

limitations of traditional culture and the human condition, and which has led to

scenario-building as an instrument in the production of possible realities rather

than communion with real possibilities. The difference is subtle but critical in

that one encourages a state of dominance through hubris whereas the other

encourages a state of interconnectedness through humility. Experiences of self

define these two different states.

The path that leads through self and then beyond requires of both Pearce and

Burgess a level of sensitivity and critical awareness they liken to that still

accessible to cultures alive to their traditional wisdom. Quoting Burgess again:

… you have to gather yourself for something you haven’t done before and

you have to lift yourself – if you’re not going to do anything that’s

pedestrian or predictable – you’ve got to crank your energy up somehow

and get connected with yourself but out of yourself as well. It’s that sort

of being able to be enchanted or to wonder - to wonder about a person or

a place or about what you can’t see or what you can feel. It’s the use of

your whole being as a means of understanding, drawing information from

the environment. It’s also the space behind – I’ve noticed that’s

incredibly active when you’re not just listening to what’s being said …

The back space becomes very important – very live - which is quite

mysterious. I put that together with something a young Maori said to me

in New Zealand when I was over there about [how] they walk backwards

into the future. And I thought that was a very fascinating, profoundly

interesting thought or reality, because what it means is of course you trust.

By walking backwards you trust your own space, you're probably facing

your ancestors and there’s something amazing about that. Anyway I put

this together with this particular consciousness I had in my backspace – as

The Art of Building

42

you're trying to walk backwards or balance on something going

backwards – that sort of process, it’s very interesting. I noticed the

Chinese actually doing it in the parks – lot of the old people just walking

backwards, as part of a sort of training to not be seeing but to be sensing

out. So that’s part of, I think, what an architect – part of an architect tool

kit or whatever you call it. The undefined aspects of consciousness or

memory or imagination. It's like occupying a very different space not just

a literal one we all tend to be trained in. (Burgess 2006:18.420-424)

The spaces Burgess explores are dynamic ones filled with consciousness,

memory and imagination. In this sense they are also an ‘extension of the

organism’ as described by Pearce. These insights allow Burgess to conceptualise

his architecture as ‘the trace of the dance’ (Burgess 2006). He acknowledges that

sacred geometry attempts to articulate this dance through activation of universal

archetypes. It is in this sense that his architecture becomes an exploration of life:

… they’re explorations of the sacredness of life and the underlying form

and flux. There’s chaos and form … And I think working with

Aboriginal people - that’s sensitive chaos. That’s what that is - and it sort

of spirals in big gatherings and it’s space and all that sort of movement –

there’s no centre as such. I’m interested in centre and periphery and I’ve

been profoundly interested in Vesica Pisces sacred geometry for a long,

long time and that, I suppose, universal ordering principle. Movement –

that’s a part of flux – yeah I’m interested in the pulse between polarities -

between life and death and re-birth. It’s quite simple really. I find it very

moving and very wonderful. That’s what keeps me going.

(Burgess 2006:22.509-513)

Commitment to me is not just about a commitment to architecture, … it’s

more a commitment to architecture as an exploration of life. I mean

architecture is a vehicle for exploring and understanding life or

connecting up in as many different ways, as many different levels one can

The Art of Building

43

be conscious of. … Well it’s like the trace of the dance. … it's not

about freezing something in a Platonic fixed form – it’s about that poise

issue where a heart’s beating or something. So it’s about life and that’s

what interests me. (Burgess 2006:22.497)

When asked what ideology guides him as an architect, Burgess responds:

I suppose it’s humanist and it’s certainly got a spiritual dimension.

(Burgess 2006:22.501)

The explorations of space and energy undertaken by Burgess illustrate how he

dissolves the separation between mind and matter, Self and Other, within his own

experience to bring about a richness of connections upon which he can ultimately

trust to provide certainty to his creativity. It also underlines the conviction that

his approach transcends current approaches to ecologically sustainable design,

which he considers simplistic in a ‘fundamentalist’ type way, in that they strive

for certainty through measures that show no tolerance for techniques such as his

own. In discussing his own techniques in relation to ecologically sustainable

design he concludes:

In some ways it’s to one side and in other ways it’s behind it all. But I

certainly don’t put myself as a shining example of [ecologically

sustainable design] but like a bit of a bungle like everybody else. But

with a strong sense of a starting point which has as part of its trajectory a

wisdom about these things. I suppose some people start it down here with

a more fundamentalist commitment to ESD but it’s not going to be much

good because there are so many things missing there that you need to sort

of come back here to reconnect or to gather and take the thing to [where it

has to go], because architecture is many things and ESD is part of that

picture and it’s an important part of the future that’s for sure.

(Burgess 2006:23.521)

The Art of Building

44

The criticism here levelled at current approaches to ecologically sustainable

design can be read as the failure to engage in it as something sacred and requiring

esoteric practice. Considering that esotericism is ‘a way of looking at sacred

things which gives deeper insight’ (Benoist 1988:15), the potential to engage

holistically in ecologically sustainable design as both sacred and pragmatic is

fundamentally compromised in Burgess’s view.

… there’s a million subtleties and impossibilities in getting things right. I

suppose that’s the other thing, one feels constantly ignorant about exactly

how to make choices in these things. It’s not a science in the usual sense

at all because there are so many things to weigh up and you get differing

opinions about where something sits. (Burgess 2006:5/6.121)

For Burgess, he is clear about the rules of engagement in working through the

complexity:

I think logic and reason, analysis, they’re all important, but I suppose it

sits all under the umbrella of intuition. Like intelligence, all that stuff

needs to be under the guardianship of intuition. It’s very real … [a] very

real creative process ... I suppose the issue is how you might characterise

it, or describe it, or learn about it, or use it. They’re all sort of slightly

elusive questions but I think there are principles there too and the

difficulty might be with some people letting go enough to trust enough, or

to put aside, getting to the right state of mind, because you need to have a

working trusting relationship with your intuition for that to fly I suppose.

(Burgess 2006:18/19.428-436)

The crucial insight offered up by Burgess is in describing design as a process that,

under the guardianship of intuition, lifts the business of sorting out things beyond

discursive thought to become the creative act of bringing forth real possibilities.

His approach reveals deep insights into an experiential domain brought to

consciousness through self-reflective practices that he describes as meditating or

The Art of Building

45

making himself ‘open to grace’, which move him beyond a conventional sense of

self (Burgess 2006:16.386-390).

Burgess provides insights into the structural significance of self and intuition in

design thinking. In the following quotes, Webb and Honman reveal that, to the

extent that self-reflectivity is not pursued as part of design practice, intuition

remains a mystery. Yet they utilise it because outcomes are so consistently

enhanced.

Its only so far you can take something like intuition (I know), but I’m still

a firm believer that there is a lot in our understanding of the brain that on

the surface is not rational, but there’s plenty of processes in nature that

can be understood that are nonlinear or nonrational. I think we just don’t

know enough about how the brain works, whether you take a very

reductionist point of view in saying that there are logarithmic processes

right back; there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that it’s not and that it’s

something more emergent in terms of thinking and consciousness.

(Webb 2006:6.71)

Consciously what I do are sometimes little exercises or disciplines where

I will stop thinking or take a break from a certain path of design or

process – deliberately do something different. Because I have learnt that

something in the brain helps fuse things together and gives you a different

look. I guess it’s a simple as sleeping on something, some kind of

intuition that suggests that nothings more to be gained rationally

following a process like this. It parallels the idea of trying to put yourself

in different experiences and spaces and gaining from that. I’m very

conscious that the trips away that I take I’m quite conscious that my brain

gets reshuffled from a design point of view in terms of influences, not just

architectural, but experiences of culture. So I guess that is a in a way a

deliberate way of trying to feed into that more intuitive way of thinking

things out. (Webb 2006:6.71)

The Art of Building

46

I know probably most of the time is spent doing the more logical “this

works, this doesn’t …” and all of those things take up probably ninety

percent of the time, ninety-five percent of the time, because you have to

get them right. But I know that unless the other is there, it’s a sort of

hollow solution, it’s not all there. So, I need to almost get out of the

office, come home and sit and think about it, and really think who these

people are, what drives them, what’s important about this site, what can I

build into this that makes meaning for them and also for myself. And so

I’m quite conscious of it, but it takes up such a small amount of time

compared with the rest. … but that’s the way things are structured at

present. There are so many things that you have to take into account with

planning and geotechnical and landscape issues and so many things. …

that’s all very well, you get a design that’s functional, but you don’t get

another level of meaning in a building, and you don’t get that unless

you’ve had time to reflect on it. (Honman 2006:5.86)

Webb and Honman provide examples of the different perspectives on the

centrality of self-concepts and use of intuition in the design process. Webb

deliberately shifts attention in his thinking from a rational mode to an intuitive

mode. In effect, he moves from problem-solving to a synthetic mode of thinking

in order to ‘fuse things together’. Webb, in effect, describes design-as-praxis in

which the attitude is more intuitive and accommodating than deliberative and

wilful (Chapter 5). Honman, on the other hand, engages in critical reflection

away from more pragmatic distractions in order to engage in a more empathetic

mode of thinking to achieve a more meaningful solution for both her clients and

herself. Both architects are in effect describing the need to think differently from

the techno-rational thinking that dominates so much of their thinking.

Pearce and Burgess illustrate two different approaches to the articulation of

meaningful space considered by all the interviewees to be part of their core

architectural knowledge bases. Pearce works with scientific concepts of space as

an extension of organism, and as an atheist, draws upon his love and wonder for

The Art of Building

47

the natural world to experience those concepts first-hand. Both modes of

understanding support the other to enhance certainty for Pearce. Burgess,

working within what he describes as humanistic concepts, deliberately draws

upon a less individualistic memory space, accessible through an attitude of mind

that values intuition, to experience communion with the sacred nature of reality.

He employs archetypes potent with universal meaning to activate his designs.

The richness of these experiences and the multiple layers of connectivity they

incorporate and activate provide certainty for Burgess.

Burgess regards the technical and scientific dimensions of sustainable design as

too ‘fundamentalist’, preferring instead to keep them subservient to the more

potent relationships he believes are activated through sacred geometry. His

criticism reflects a wider and perhaps less sophisticated ambivalence towards

sustainable design rife within the profession (Owen 2003). Oppenheim dismisses

this criticism as a preference for a methodology lacking in empirical evidence.

He wants architects to take up the challenge of a more scientific approach to

architecture.

And not only do they [performance standards] have to be seen in the

design phase, they also have to be monitored and verified and measured in

after the built object, and to see if they’re maintained. So there’s this

complete strategy of, again, not only measuring the design outcome, but

measuring the constructed outcome and measuring the performance

outcome to make sure it’s [all] there. So architects may find that process -

it isn’t an airy fairy methodology. … our office is trying to change the

psyche of architects, so that they see this as an issue that needs to be

addressed. (Oppenheim 2006:3/4.103-119)

Oppenheim articulates what Owen’s (2003) research highlights. In essence,

Owen highlights an epistemological tension between architecture as an artform

predicated on tacit knowledge, uncertainty and relativity, and sustainable design

with its reformist agenda rooted in scientific thinking, quantitative knowledge and

The Art of Building

48

certainty. This need for certainty and the difficulties in achieving it was

observed by a majority of the interviewees to be thwarting architectural expertise.

8.4 The employment of the architectural sciences

Immersion in the technical and scientific dimensions of sustainability is a concern

for all the interviewees. The reasons for this turn on the need for certainty, and

through this, the demand for quantitative measures of sustainability. Science and

technology are taken as the default mechanisms for action and there is a strong

desire amongst the interviewees for such mechanisms to live up to the promise of

certainty through ways of recognising, measuring and standardising sustainable

built environments. But experiences are mixed on that promise. This section

explores some of the reasons for the mixed experiences.

The first thing, in terms of ESD as practice, is numeracy. Then you can

implement strategies and do a whole range of things, but at the end of the

day, there has to be numeracy to measure if you’ve had any change. …

And you might have some strategies that are good, and some [that] are

bad, but you don’t know. So … you should measure environmental

impact and then get feedback from that system. Most architects are very

good at intuition and bringing together a whole range of issues, and

dealing with a whole range of issues, but are not good at necessarily being

numerate. (Oppenheim 2006:2/3.59-73)

Oppenheim’s observations about where an architect’s weakness and strength lies

were reinforced time and again throughout the interviews. Yet, in spite of the

support, this approach excited controversy. There is a concern that the current

scientific approach to sustainability cannot be applied and may never be

applicable across the full gamut of architectural considerations that necessarily

include aesthetics as well as psychological and social well being.

I am strongly in support of regulation and I think that without that there’s

not going to be a cultural shift. But once you start to regulate something

The Art of Building

49

you need to be able to measure it, and once you measure it you distil out

the design stuff and it becomes quite quantifiable and non-esoteric design

stuff. So you, by its very nature get down to the nuts and bolts, and you

lose some of the quality of the architecture, which is always going to be

impossible to measure. So, you know, catch 22 really.

(Palich 2006a:5.60)

Palich is concerned not to miss the multi-dimensionality, complexity and richness

of architectural design and raises two issues that go to the heart of the matter.

One is measuring, while the other is identifying, qualitative content. In dealing

with measurement, the social sciences have become the default means for

measuring qualitative factors, yet this is seen as problematic for a couple of

reasons. First, it has to do with the political problem of conceding professional

turf to outsiders. As Webb explains:

A really big part of why we end up getting ourselves into situations where

we’re backed into having to defend buildings against cost and quality is

that we don’t actually understand the importance of the social aspect of

the space and can’t actually have some form of knowledge and empirical

data to back that up. We’re relying on other disciplines, [for instance] the

social sciences, and it seems to have been the history of architecture over

the years that we’ve slowly given up these different knowledges. And it’s

probably that aspect of the architectural sciences that I really latch onto,

that there is the beginnings, or the re-emergence that architects can

actually claim (I hope the environmental engineers don’t get it back), can

claim some solid knowledge. So my take on the aspect of psychology of

space is that the architecture profession, us as designers, probably don’t

do enough of actually experiencing buildings and documenting what those

qualities are. (Webb 2005:13.113)

Secondly, resorting to the social sciences is seen to have real problems especially

when generalisations and extrapolations are attempted:

The Art of Building

50

… if one works between wellness and productivity, the evidence at the

moment is that it can range - as stated by Adrian Leeman from the UK-

productivity increases in that “green” building can be anywhere from –5

to +20. Now that’s not a set of numbers on which you’d want to base

anything. One huge error, and on both sides positive and negative. And

there’s so much grey noise in that report in terms of managers and

mothers dying, and children being sick. Stream out all of that, stream out

all of that and God knows what you’re left with.

(Oppenheim 2006:7/8.221-241)

Oppenheim’s dismissal of the social sciences in this particular case raises two

further points. Firstly, it was part of a greater concern, on Oppenheim’s part, to

defend the integrity of the scientific approach and in so doing, the status of

sustainable design.

I think that’s one of the biggest problems that architects need to face, is

how do they quantify what they’re doing, and only since we’ve had the

inception of Greenstar we really haven’t had a standard against which to

measure things. Now we do have it, and whether the standard’s right or

wrong or needs tweaking or anything, that’s another issue, or another

discussion, but we do have a set of standards that say, well, a group of

people, and an enlarging group of people, would suggest that some of

these things do lead to better outcomes. (Oppenheim 2006:3.91-99)

This is the first time that we’ve actually gathered a group together that’s

been able to be supported financially, because of the change of

regulations and the introduction of Greenstar. I mean there’s some sort of

regulation behind all of this. There was never a Section J, and never any

regulations to do with anything. We were the lone greenies out there.

(Oppenheim 2006:13.387-391)

The Art of Building

51

The second point concerns the real dilemma of using the scientific approach to

measure complex relationships that are fundamental to the architectural agenda.

As Burgess notes:

… there’s a million subtleties and impossibilities in getting things right.

… It’s not a science in the usual sense at all because there are so many

things to weigh up and you get differing opinions about where something

sits. (Burgess 2006:5/6.121)

… it can be quite confusing - this weighing process of what one would

like to do, and there’s the aesthetics to it as well, and there’s a point to be

made and there’s even a marketability. (Burgess 2006:7.168)

While there was real confusion on how far to integrate the scientific approach

into the architectural equation, those who embraced the concept of biophilia for

designing around a psychological rapport with nature, and approached building

performance through the concept of biomimicry seemed most at ease with this

issue.

In the last couple of years [I’ve] deliberately not focused on energy

because that is really where the technology comes [in] and its all very,

very important but just to readdress the balance, to always talk about

healthy nature of spaces and indoor environment quality. Biophilia, that

means in terms of having an environment that relates back to natural

patterns in the way we use things in the environment. Stressing the

importance of that is as sustainable if not more so than pure energy

savings and reductions … I think it’s a much-needed approach especially

for CH2 [Council House 2]. What came out of it from a costing point of

view and a marketing point of view was a healthy building more so than

an energy saving. (Webb 2006:4.51)

… the spatial appreciation of the outside, whether that’s to do with light

levels, quality of the air, experiencing movement of air, views, landscapes

The Art of Building

52

– all these aspects that tie back into something that’s very much wired

into the human experience, whether its called biophilia or whatever you

want to say. When you trace back history of qualities that people look to

in a space (and they are quite often given more ephemeral names), a lot of

them do come back to those aspects of a space or building that have a

relationship back to what’s either going on outside from a visual or a sight

point of view or what we associate. An example of that (we’ve been

looking at learning commons for some educational projects) is what we’re

calling domesticated space. So in some of the new ways of learning, what

we’re pushing is to create either landscape or access to use of food. It’s a

very simple way of students feeling more in touch with natural

environments and that has an impact on the way they learn and their

propensity to work together, which is a much harder thing to measure than

say, how much natural light they’re getting when they’re working. But it

also ties back down to the psychology or type of space that they’re in, so

there’s a lot there. But I think that that’s the one that brings it all together.

(Webb 2006:5.63)

In observing the difference between measuring biofilia and measuring light

levels, Webb touches on another problem associated with certainty. While

reductionist methodologies have been so successful in the physical sciences,

difficulties arise when they are used as the material indicator of more complex

psychological interactions. In measuring light levels and other physical settings

as indicators of biofilia, there is a real risk of using indicators that may be

necessary but not sufficient for an accurate measurement. There is also a

tendency to conflate one with the other in pursuing outcomes:

The thing is to reduce consumption of energy. That must be the first.

And you do that by using technological approaches to design, which

reduce energy. It just saves energy. I mean, we waste vast amounts of

energy in the way we behave. (Pearce 2006:8.296-300)

The Art of Building

53

Pierce sees a direct link between energy efficiency and behavioural change. The

latest evidence on the effect of Greenstar regulations upon energy use suggests a

more indirect link between the two (Wilkenfeld 2007). Wilkenfeld’s findings

highlight the need for ongoing project feedback from the field. While the

interviews show this form of feedback is considered obvious and necessary, it is

difficult to achieve.

… the buildings I’ve designed, particularly East Gate and Haruser House,

I’ve lived in the buildings. So we’ve set up the office in the building, and

lived there for four or five years and that’s enormously important because

you don’t normally get much feedback. The goal when we were in

Zimbabwe was to set up an architectural firm that did projects and

facilities management so we get [feedback]. And that’s how buildings

should be. And we’ve been at East Gate for six years so we know it

backwards and we know how it behaves. (Pearce 2006:40.1413-1425)

When asked if they are also the facilities manager Pierce responds:

No, … we keep on offering to take it over. … But ideally if we could

design, develop, build and then manage. (Pearce 2006:40/41.1429-1437)

When asked if he knew of any occasions where designers were engaged as such

he replied:

No, I don’t actually. No, I don’t think architects tend to get involved. So

they don’t build up this body of feedback as they should do. It would be

ideal if they did. (Pearce 2006:41.1441)

Burgess’ experience indicates that project feedback opportunities require support

that is not always available from either the client or the architect’s resources.

We don’t, I suppose, go into very detailed audits ourselves, but we have

worked with and employed people to do that who will [do an energy

audit] in the process of choosing and when the final building is there - to

The Art of Building

54

analyse. That’s what’s going on with this project too [units in George

Street, Fitzroy]. RMIT is doing an ongoing study of post-occupancy and

performance. But that doesn’t happen with all projects.

(Burgess 2006:10/11.244-260)

The real level of access to feedback most architects get is the sort Palich

describes:

We’re not all that great at going back and learning from our past

experiences. You reflect on them from a design point of view, quite

often. (Palich 2006a:7.211-215)

When it comes to providing a holistic service, this requires an investment in

research and follow-up that is not well suited to the demographic of the

architectural industry.

… the problem is lack of resources and as I mentioned earlier the nature

of architecture offices, they’re too small to produce a totally holistic

solution in terms of empirical [research]. (Toner 2006:7.144-146)

It also comes down to the fact that much of ecologically sustainable design is

considered too technical for most architects and outside the expertise of

mainstream engineers.

There are not many engineers actually who come as part of a mainstream

engineering practice who are either interested in helping to lead and

really, a lot of these things are quite technical so not something that an

architect carries. You’re really looking at the need to be in tandem and

usually that person tends to be more of a specialist than a mainstream

engineer, which effectively means that it’s an extra consultant. And we

have them on quite a few jobs where we convince people to make sure

they’re on board. Because we went through a process some seven or

eight years ago where we interviewed a lot of engineering firms to try and

The Art of Building

55

test their commitment because we wanted to make sure we were being led

so that we could lead. (Burgess 2006:14/15.338-342)

[In getting good engineering advice] it’s mixed and it’s constantly

changing. Probably there are different areas they’re strong and different

areas they’re weak. Strong is in anything that can be measured and

looked at from a Greenstar point of view - exchanges of air rate, straight

engineering things. Where it breaks down is where there needs to be

some judgements made from a modelling point of view. As soon as you

start looking at natural or mixed-mode ventilation for instance, you

struggle particularly at an early level with most engineers. I think that is

across the board. And probably the other area that we’re finding it

difficult is with engineers who put themselves forward as a co-ordinator

of all things environmental maybe pertaining to Greenstar but then only

really want to interface with the aspects that relate to their engineering

disciplines - and as you know full sustainability is much broader than that.

At the moment there’s a real overlap between architecture and sustainable

architects practising and environmental engineers and I’m not really sure

which way it’s going to go. (Webb 2006:12/13.157)

The scientific and technical dimensions of sustainability are a major concern to

architects critically because of the engineering component.

I think it’s essential for architects to become engineering thinking, and for

engineers to become architectural thinking. But, there’s a huge

communication barrier there. They don’t understand space and we don’t

understand energy, and as the thing has to express both, it’s essential that

we understand energy, basic concepts of energy. … architecture is energy

and light combined not just one or the other.

(Pearce 2006:46.1621-1645)

I don’t have the skills, the mathematical skills and the theoretical skills to

do all the engineering [though] I’ve got a good feeling for the engineering

The Art of Building

56

problem. And I find that this approach needs a new breed of engineers

who are trained differently from the chemical and mechanical engineers.

They need to be called something else because environmental engineering

is a holistic business, and it needs [to] break down all these barriers. ...

Holistic engineering [is] where you bring in every factor and deal with it,

actually put figures against it, and measure it. Turns into mathematics

and then it incorporates, in this new approach, the building form as a vital

part of the mechanical performance of the building. Whereas before you

made a pretty building, you sent it down the road to the engineer who

made it work. Built it up and provided all the ducts and stuff they would

have added in afterwards. But now the ducts are a space. That’s why I’m

going through all these crazy metaphors like the termite mound to try and

bring the thinking in to the team. And this is absolutely vital.

(Pearce 2006:29/30.1027-1051)

When asked about integrating the expertise of biologists and ecologists, Pierce

notes one of the major problems with the scientific view that make it such a

difficult tool within the architectural sciences:

Well, they would be very useful, I mean, they probably haven’t got to the

point where they’re placing humans in the ecology. Some of them are.

… So I’m looking for ecologists who bring in humans into the story.

(Pearce 2006:30.1069-1075)

The quest for certainty through scientific and technological means is one

recognised as fraught with difficulty on numerous fronts. There is a tension

between the certainty that can be delivered via the physical sciences and

recognition of genuine uncertainty characteristic of complex systems that is the

hallmark of the social sciences. The danger in reducing complex human

interactions to behavioural or physical indicators is real. The newer sciences of

biophilia and biomimicry have been embraced as the most certain route through

difficult terrain, and there is a growing literature of evidence-based biophilic

The Art of Building

57

design to back this up (Kellert et al. 2008). The interview analysis has revealed

that concessions of expertise to outsiders is seen as brought about, in part by a

lack of clearly defined knowledge bases for architects and in part by the

demographic typical of architectural practices. This is compounded by the

increased scope and depth of expertise required to implement ecologically

sustainable design.

8.5 Conclusion

This discussion of the art of building has used an undercurrent of concern about

the state of architecture as an undermined authority to identify a range of practice

and knowledge domains as counter strategies to this concern. The three practice

domains identified conform to natural alliances universal to the pursuit of

excellence. These are the experiential practice of personal immersion, the

reflective practice of building an oeuvre and the collective practice of establishing

tradition. Knowledge domains were identified as the art of scenario building to

service the articulation of meaningful space through the employment of the

architectural sciences. Discussion of these interactive domains revealed both the

esoteric and exoteric nature of architectural design.

Section 8.2 commenced with an exploration beneath the call by Professor Rodger

for architects to critique their approach to scenario building. Using Vesely’s

writings as a guide, it exposed the challenge of ascertaining the ‘real possibilities’

for ecologically sustainable design as against the ‘possible realities’ favoured by

modernist architecture informed by unrestrained industrialism. Webb summed up

the compelling attraction of sustainable design, seeing it as an elegant solution for

addressing real possibilities through a range of factors that prioritise planetary life

and shared meaning-making.

Section 8.3 was devoted to teasing out real possibilities for the articulation of

meaningful space. Pearce and Burgess provided powerful reflections upon the

nature of meaningful space from their very different perspectives. A bridge of

The Art of Building

58

understanding emerged between Pearce’s characterisation of habitat as an

extension of the psyche and Burgess’s esoteric engagement in the experiential

domain of psychic extension. Pearce knows of this space while Burgess actively

cultivates his experiencing of it. Both architects saw space in terms of a mental

energy embedded within a domain articulated through form-making.

Architecture designed in accordance with this truism, in Burgess’s words,

becomes ‘a trace of the dance’. To achieve certainty, both architects relied on

immersion through an attitude of love. Being ‘gathered and open’ defines the

attitude of immersion. Immersion relates to an attitude of accommodation

(Chapter 5). The major finding taken from this discussion is that neither the facts

nor intuition alone could achieve certainty without immersion through love.

Love has been found to be an important characteristic of the subjective domain of

design practice.

At the end of Section 8.3, ambivalence within the profession towards sustainable

design was seen essentially as a reaction against its scientific and technological

bias. Section 8.4 critiqued this ambivalence, as the architectural sciences are

considered elemental in providing technical certainty in the pursuit of ecological

sustainability. Oppenheim summed up the desire for technical certainty in his

insistence on ‘numeracy’ and his preference for pursuing ecological sustainability

through the physical sciences. However, the architectural sciences rely on both

the physical and the social sciences. The social sciences, involving the

complexity of human interaction, provide for less certainty, yet they function to

bring the human element into the building performance equation. Criticism of the

architectural knowledge bases has highlighted a lack of expertise regarding

energy as form-making and of the psychology of space-making. Biomimicry and

biofilia have both found support in providing for design strategies that

acknowledge these criticisms.

The aim of this chapter has been to present the impact of sustainable design upon

the art of building. Through extensive quotes drawn from the interviews, new

The Art of Building

59

insights into design as praxis reveal naturalised types of self-reflective practice

while ensuring the findings remain grounded in the life-worlds of the

interviewees. Three major findings can be articulated:

First, within the subjective, experiential domain of design as praxis, reflection

upon concepts of self, whether informed by an esoteric or exoteric level of

knowledge, emerged as a key means for establishing certainty. Through an

attitude of love, its practical outcome was to extend the psyche beyond limited

self-concepts into the greater interactive space of habitat. Within this activated

space real possibilities awaiting articulation become attainable. Trust in one’s

intuition plays a major role in this regard. This aspect of human creativity lacks

the attention and respect it deserves for its central role in enabling the design

process. It is a mental capability shown to require a deliberate attitude of trust

and respect even if its workings remain a mystery. Meditation is a well-

recognised practice for gaining greater insight into this aspect of human mentality

(see Chapter 3). Burgess’s meta-analysis of his own experiences indicates a high

level of sophistication can be achieved in articulating the intuitive dimensions of

design as praxis. He describes his technique as meditation and defines its quality

as an opening up to grace.

Second, a lack of design expertise has been found to exist concerning the form-

making dynamic of energy and the psychology of space-making. This finding

confirms the importance of a process-oriented view towards reality. It

emphasises energy as the generative condition for form-making. It also

recognises space as a psychological as well as a physical dimension. This

understanding reinforces the concept of habitat as the extension of the psyche.

Habitat is recognised by both Pearce and Burgess as a mode of presence

cultivated by its inhabitants and not to be distinguished from them as an

independent phenomenon. It indicates a domain of interconnectivity that is both

experiential as well as empirically ascertained. Again, Burgess provides vital

insights into the experiential nature of this domain. Through self-reflective

The Art of Building

60

practices, he has deliberately drawn upon the energies it is composed of to bring

its information-rich qualities to the fore. This approach to habitat finds

confirmation in the extensive architectural tradition of sacred geometry (see

Chapter 4).

Third, the interviewees see the reorientation of the design agenda towards

ecological sustainability as a necessary strategy that counters the undermined

authority of architectural practice. This strategy requires high levels of certainty

across the three architectural knowledge domains. From the interview analysis, a

typology of holistic, design knowledge has emerged in response. Its articulation

as an elegant solution requires, not just physical and social measures of

wellbeing, but phenomenological and psychological ones as well that come

through intuitions and feelings. These different accounts of wellbeing represent

different realisms and modes of certification. If these different accounts can be

brought into ‘a consilience of equal regard’ (Gould 2003:259), the dogma of

certainty can be swapped for salience and a measure of predictability may be

achieved that better accommodates human agency within complex real world

dynamics (Wang 2006).

In Chapter 9, the Art of Dwelling, a fuller account is taken of the self-

transformative dynamic of sustainable design alluded to in this chapter. It will be

presented as a phenomenology of Dwelling through Being and treated as

something sacred as well as mundane in its everyday impact upon the designer.

Chapter 9

The Art of Dwelling

The Art of Dwelling

61

9.0 Introduction

From the discussion on the art of building in Chapter 8, three major findings

emerged concerning the subjective domain of design as praxis and self-reflective

practice. First, reflections upon concepts of self, combined with strong emotions

of love, were found to inform more objective design knowledge. These concepts

helped break through limited self-concepts to open up understanding of and

access to the real possibilities of habitat as an extension of the organism/psyche.

This was found to be a key mechanism through which sustainable design could

provide for more meaningful and ecologically sustainable forms of habitation.

Second, critical reasoning, emotive power and heightened self-awareness were

shown to configure the creative process but not completely define it as a quest for

certainty. Intuition was also found to play a major, if mysterious, role in

producing a truly elegant solution. Burgess, in particular, revealed this to be a

domain of experience that could be more self-consciously engaged in through

meditative practice.

Third, a typology of holistic, design knowledge emerged, which combines

phenomenological, psychological, physical and social measures of well-being.

These measures represent different realisms and modes of certification that

together allow the designer to offer a more salient architectural response to the

complexities of bringing the human development agenda in line with planetary

well-being. Explorations into the art of building have so far revealed that sound

reasons and opportunities exist for self-reflective practice.

This chapter considers how the transformative potential of ecologically

sustainable design affects the designer in the art of dwelling. This requires

observing design practice as a two-way dynamic between objective knowledge

and subjective attitudes. What do the interviewees think is the transformative

agenda of sustainable design? What are the attitudinal barriers to this agenda?

What are the personal settings they already have that have drawn them to take up

The Art of Dwelling

62

the challenge? Do they also see the challenge in terms of their own self-

transformation?

To answer these questions, the interviews were coded via Grounded Theory to

reveal what the interviewees had to say about themselves and the world in which

they practice sustainable design. Two sub-themes emerged: personal settings and

existing conditions (Figure 7.2b).

The sub-themes within this coding structure represent an iterative dynamic of

self-transformation. A narrative emerged from the interview material that

explained this dynamic as the art of dwelling. The interviewees embody this art

through an ongoing critique of the status quo. The status quo was found to

represent three different expressions of existential need discussed, first, in the

context of human development pressures, second, as a hidden limitation of

sustainable design, and finally as two iterative strategies for self-transformation

oscillating between the personal and interpersonal (Figure 9.1).

The Art of Dwelling

63

In Section 9.1, existential need is identified in terms of human development

pressures. Under-development and over-development pressures were found to

afflict human well-being as an expression of existential need in different ways.

The narrative concentrates on the afflictions caused through over-development, as

this is the real-world setting within which most of the interviewees work. Section

9.2 discusses a second expression of existential need that remains un-addressed

within the distinct strategy currently pursued as sustainable design. A third

expression of existential need underscores the self-transformative strategies

employed by the interviewees in rising to the challenge of sustainable design.

These strategies involve personal and interpersonal dynamics. Section 9.3

explores private self-awareness as personal dynamics. Section 9.4 explores

public self-awareness as interpersonal dynamics. Section 9.5 presents the

The Art of Dwelling

Human development scenarios

under-development

over-development

alienation

denial

apathy

Sustainable design

Functionalism

Double-loop learning

Self-transformative strategies

personal dynamics

phenomenology / enchantment

integrity intuition

happiness and self-interest

propensity

passion courage humility

critical reflection

group dynamics

office culture

Participatory Design

advocacy opportunism leadership

The Art of Dwelling

64

conclusions drawn from the discussion of existential need for its impact upon the

art of dwelling.

9.1 Human development pressures

The interviewees see energy and resource consumption together with

technological advances as the double-edged sword of human development. They

see them largely in terms of opportunities for self-fulfilment that are not only

unsustainable but morally wrong. This understanding is well supported by the

literature on ecologically sustainable development (Chapter 2). As a result of

human development pressures, the under-developed world is now in great need of

these resources (UNDP 2008). But time is at an absolute premium in ensuring

development pressures can be met in ways that are sustainable and are of real

benefit to those most in need. The dilemma of development is bound up in

notions of growth, needs and limits (Meadows et al. 1972; 2005). The growth

mentality, which currently powers unsustainable development, must be

transformed. It is financed through an outmoded economic model, which has

seriously distorted utilitarian concepts of human well-being and compromised

ongoing development agendas (Section 2.1). It is also based on an industrial

production model with a functionalist concept of nature bereft of intrinsic value

(Diesendorf and Hamilton 1997; Hamilton 2003). This model of development is

not only unsustainable but is seen by the interviewees to have caused real loss,

not only in terms of physical resources but also in existentialist terms of

alienation from the natural world and sense of place within it.

No economic argument factors in natural resources. Our economies in the

West are all based on growth. They don’t put a cost on that. They don’t

recognise the limits. (Pearce 2006:11.387-395)

Pearce pinpoints the loss of fire from consciousness as a major factor in the

alienation process that has reduced the ability of modern society to really know

how to live within Nature’s limits.

The Art of Dwelling

65

Vitruvius, I’m told, said that what created human society was the fire. …

And it seems that in the machine age fire has disappeared from our

consciousness, whereas previously it was always there. It was there on

the fields where people farmed, because you burnt the stuff off and you

cleansed the field with fire, and you fertilised the field with ash. Now we

use fertiliser, and we use machines which are all driven by fire in the form

of fossil fuel. … And fire has become something we fear, particularly in

Australia. … In Africa it’s not so. People are totally conscious of fire.

…They also are conscious of the carbon cycle. … The problem for me is,

we’ve lost that consciousness [of fire], and therefore we don’t understand

that we’re adding vast amounts of fires that never happened. … the solar

energy has been stored up [as fossil fuel] and now we’re releasing it

without even realising it. And we’re totally changing the balance. One

way of looking at it: that consciousness of energy, I think, needs to be

something that architects need to express. (Pearce 2006:12-14.439-531)

Honman articulates the existential danger of urbanisation in breaking down

connections with the natural world.

I think it’s how vulnerable we are, and how intertwined we are with

nature. We’ve really tried to get away from that. We’re terribly urban,

[yet] we are connected in so many ways to nature, to animals, to plants

and what’s showing up so rapidly is that those connections are being

broken, and the effects can be catastrophic. … So I think that you must

try and make, understand some of those connections. Even if you’re not

terribly scientific or well read about scientific issues, you must take on

board what people say who know about these things, and say “What is my

action going to have on this particular piece of land” or whatever.

(Honman 2006:8.122)

The over-developed world on the one hand knows much about its condition but

has lost much in terms of a common sense, embodied knowledge about how to

The Art of Dwelling

66

dwell in nature. This situation gives further testimony to the problematic

embrace of the industrial model of development discussed throughout this thesis.

Exploitation of energy is a major factor in the strength of the industrial model and

its dominance over older patterns of human development. Extraordinary wealth

creation has been attributed to its successes in the harnessing and exploitation of

human and natural resources. However, liberal democracy is based on

utilitarianism; a philosophy which supports the rights of the individual and of

future generations to partake of human development initiatives (Section 2.1).

Pearce is very clear that once a need is stoked it must be met. In this sense need

is tied to aspiration.

… it’s partly living in Africa too, you realise that you don’t need so much

of this stuff because you see people without it. I mean, the whole time

you’re conscious of people who live at a much lower level of

consumption. [However] they see what they can’t, what they don’t get.

… we can get it, so we can do without it, but if you don’t get it then you

can’t do without it. That’s a huge problem. … it’s why they all move in

to cities in vast numbers. (Pearce 2006:55/56.1926-1938)

I can think of at least two or three people who have said to me they prefer

to go back to Africa than come here, because they’re missing [something].

It’s actually freedom from need. (Pearce 2006:56-57.1978-1982)

However, when this was noted as the privilege of choice Pearce agrees that those

who don’t have the choice can’t get rid of the need.

They don’t have that experience. So they can’t get rid of the need. But

we can. The first world people can go back and enjoy not worrying about

the need. Not caring about the need. Not needing the need.

(Pearce 2006:57.1998-2010)

You know that’s a real problem with the West, we can escape. We can go

in to the airport lounge and get away from the crowd because we have the

The Art of Dwelling

67

money and the means to do it. And we lose that touch, that contact with

nature. I mean it’s very much to do with that fire business.

(Pearce 2006:58.2032)

The speed at which urbanisation pressures have grown means that time is the one

resource which cannot be squandered in fulfilling under-development needs. The

urgency of the situation is felt to be dire not just in terms of providing for

development needs to be met, but in ways that are truly just in terms of people

and planet. Pearce links a new sense of justice to an understanding of the Earth

through the concept of Gaia.

I like to then, when you’re talking about energy, think about the next

triangle, which is scale. That is the rate at which the energy is consumed.

And distribution. … Who gets the energy? That’s about human justice.

See, scale is about rate, rate of consumption and the rate at which the

ecology can absorb the resultant entropy. Distribution is about justice,

and finally allocation for efficiency. (Pearce 2006:9.323-335)

And cities in Africa are growing at six percent, and they’re not getting a

house, or a job, or any benefits. People need a tap to turn on water.

They’ll need power. So we’ve actually got to provide vast amounts of

energy somehow. And I don’t believe that the Chinese are going to go

back on their objective to urbanise four hundred million people. We’ve

got to find a way of doing it and keep the planet going. I mean that’s the

problem. So you know, the need is not going to disappear. I think that

the consciousness of where we are and the results of pursuing all of these

needs must be got across. It must be part of our education. We all should

learn about Gaia and about the consequences of climate change.

(Pearce 2006:55/56.1942-1958)

Understanding ecosystem equilibrium dynamics as Gaia is a recognised strategy

for ascribing intrinsic value to Earth systems (Section 2.1). It constitutes taking

The Art of Dwelling

68

up ‘completely different’ responsibilities Rodger notes are of such urgent concern

in bringing human aspirations into balance with Earth’s holding capacity.

… there was nowhere, by the late fifties, where human activity hadn’t

intruded. … So even in the most remote places on Earth, the fingerprints

of humans were there. And the corollary of that was that having grown

into the environment as it were, filled it, there were no new places to go,

no empty spaces, a whole array of responsibilities become completely

different. You really have to take responsibility. You may or may not

like it but that’s the way it is. Growing empires can grow as long as there

is space round about them. But the human enterprise, Bill Rees, he says

that if we all did it like the European and the Americans, we’d need four

Earths and we’re living at more than one Earth at the moment by running

down the stock. (Rodger 2006.386-390)

You’re actually using up the one resource that you can’t make any more

of. You’re using up time, the lead time. … its immutable and you only

get it once, every little bit of it. … You release carbon today, the total

effect of that is spread over sixty or seventy years and there’s nothing you

can do about it, you can’t catch it again. … And if you take action now to

look after the future, it takes a long time to transform the capital stock,

even if you have a total commitment to doing it, which you don’t.

(Rodger 2006.80-100)

Sense of urgency was highlighted in the literature review as the missing

ingredient in responding to unsustainable development (Section 2.1, 2.2, 2.3).

From the review of the MA Report and the IPCC Report, mainstream neoclassical

economics, with its emphasis on instrumental rationality and narrow, short-

sighted cost-benefit analysis, is condemned for obstructing a concerted effect to

change.

The Art of Dwelling

69

I’m instilled with a sense of urgency. I don’t think I’m alone in that. I

certainly feel that there’s a sense of urgency to address these issues. To a

point where I feel panic about it, but that helps as a driver. I don’t know

what it would take for people to do it because I come across people all the

time who don’t believe that there’s an urgency about what we need to do.

So why would they do it? Because your community’s asking for it,

because its the latest thing to be? (Palich 2006a:2/3.24)

Rodger exposes why the real need is to transform the current development model

while emphasising the inherent self-interest within any strategy to deal with the

problem.

Well, by far the best thing we could do for our own survival - forget about

sustainability - survival of ... a congenial lifestyle in Australia - the most

valuable thing we could do would be to develop and to give away our

market visions for sustainable futures including giving away - making

available at prices that could be absorbed - the technologies. … It’s

absolutely in our self-interests ... and what a mission for a technologically

developed world and [to] make it globally available!

(Rodger 2006.294-400)

The behavioural change literature explains the current response at the level of

individual decision-making. It is related to the problem of ‘bounded rationality’

in that rules-of-thumb logic, pre-empting of one’s options, conservatism and

short-sightedness are value perceptions that filter and often distort rational human

behaviour (Garnaut 2008:408). In Section 9.2, weaknesses found within the

current approaches to sustainable design in dealing with bounded rationality are

discussed.

The Art of Dwelling

70

9.2 Sustainable design

Observations as to the seriousness of the situation, its urgency and the stance

required of the designer to address them provide the opportunity to look more

closely at models of sustainable design currently subscribed to by the

interviewees. How well do they attend to the transformative agenda required of

them? Sections 9.2.1 and 9.2.2 describe two particular expressions of existential

need of concern to some of the interviewees that may be confounding the

situation.

9.2.1 Functionalism

Webb is concerned to look beyond a conventional approach to human

development (what he calls the “straight way”) and to see it as something to be

fundamentally overhauled.

So I think there is a layer and a level that we have to look to beyond the

straight way that we live now and start questioning “well, what does it

actually mean to be a conscious thinking hominid in the rest of the

landscape?” And maybe it’s not as simple as saying that we can just work

with nature, it’s some very different relationship to what the rest of the

modern world has. … the bigger picture is how do we now create a new

relationship with nature in the way we want to live.

(Webb 2006:2/3.28-32)

Webb wonders whether trying to improve the situation through simply ‘just’

working with nature is enough. Just working with nature implies a value-free

functionalist attitude toward the natural world as a resource to be exploited.

Functionalism powers the unidirectional, exploitative relationship with nature

currently under critique (Plumwood 2002). Webb is critiquing the continuation

of a functionalist attitude. It is a mindset that he believes must be addressed

through the transformative agenda of ecologically sustainable design and

The Art of Dwelling

71

development. The relationship Webb considers appropriate is that of a creative

act based on want. But what typology of a wilful, creative human being is Webb

referring to and how are wants to be assessed? What sort of mindset is Webb

advocating to go with this new typology?

… we’re always going to have to solve a lot of fundamental natural

problems by technology because of our ability to conceptualise. So given

that is a given, I think we’re in a great position ... to actually take the best

of technology and look at what actually is superfluous in our lives. And

whether that’s looking at purely the material aspect of life or whether it’s

looking at all our petty status anxieties that we’ve all got. I think that’s

something to be learned from our previous connections with nature …

(Webb 2005:17.144)

Pearce (2006:5.142) concurs with Webb’s understanding of humans as

technologists. He specifically acknowledges that ‘all species on the planet

transform energy’ – it defines life and therefore survival. He sees the need to

manipulate earth’s energies as deeply ingrained in the human psyche. It provides

the impetus behind humanity’s technological and cultural development.

It’s to do with energy. All the species on the planet transform energy

from the sun. And we’ve found enormous deposits of energy stored from

previous periods and we’ve mined it. Now, it goes right back to the use

of fire. … you get all these huge advantages just from transforming

energy. Well, that’s where it starts and it goes on and on because we

now, without realising it, are changing the climate of the planet.

(Pearce 2006:5/6.142-189)

According to Eckersley (2004), the outline Webb gives of human nature as

technologists driven by petty status anxieties is succinct and incontrovertible,

even if it is a little dismissive of the full emotional power of human motive to

conflate need with want. Pearce acknowledges its roots in the evolution of life

The Art of Dwelling

72

and its power in transforming human culture. Webb advises using technology

only to address one’s needs, with the extent and nature of need to be assessed

through references to previous connections with nature.

… it’s more looking at your needs in terms of the minimum requirements

to live and then build on what we’ve got from a technological point of

view. … Most of the problems in the world would be solved if we

actually consumed less. It’s a pretty big thing whether that’s in terms of

emissions or in terms of materials. (Webb 2005:17.144)

Webb believes that once those minimum needs are defined this should lead to

reduction of resource consumption. He attests to this approach through his own

interest in bio-mimicry and biophilia (see Section 8.4). These are scientific

understandings of nature as a system of instruction from which humans draw

sustenance that is both physical and emotional.

So for a number of years I had a very strong interest in looking at natural

systems. There’s obviously the emerging science of bio-mimicry.

Architecture has got a lot of scope to get into that. … I am just

constantly inspired by looking at the way nature does things. I think it’s

such an untapped resource in terms of not just buildings but everything

we make and manufacture. It’s probably not quite an environmental ethic

but it’s … looking at the processes that nature might use. There’s no

doubt that how nature does it is a way that’s sustainable.

(Webb 2005:18.156)

The effectiveness of this approach lies in its potential to transform an orientation

toward nature from one of unidirectional control towards a more respectful

relationship (Sections 2.1 and 8.2). The functionalist approach is thereby

tempered through respect. Webb considers such settings as necessary for reduced

energy consumption. While biomimicry is largely concerned with a technical

understanding of nature, biophilia is squarely aimed at uncovering the link

The Art of Dwelling

73

between nature and emotional well-being and designing the built environment

accordingly (Frumkin 2008; Greene 2008; Kellert 2005; Kellert and Farnham

2002; 2008; Kellert and Wilson 1993; Kibert 1999). Bio-mimicry and biophilia

are both regarded as genuine improvements upon current attitudes and strategies

within architecture. But is it really enough to rely on this approach alone? Can it

really address petty status anxieties? An observation critical of current

approaches to sustainable design initiatives made by Palich provides the trigger to

explore into this matter in greater depth.

9.2.2 Double-loop learning

Natasha Palich is an architect recognised for her advocacy and leadership within

local government and the AusIA on matters to do with sustainable design. Palich

is frustrated by the tendency to focus on efficiencies rather than effectiveness as a

reflection of ‘a distinct strategy’ toward ecologically sustainable design that

favours existing techniques and technologies. In her estimation, this approach

has been proven not to work:

I’ve tried to explain the recent revision of the new Port Phillip [local

government] policy around that, so it’s not lowering our impact, it’s not

being efficient about everything, it’s being effective about everything.

It’s an idea that’s been around for ages … I don’t think that’s generally

well understood. … But we’re also working within a distinct strategy –

the techniques and technologies that we understand. And what we

actually need is to shift away from that because they don’t work! And

they won’t ever get to! (Palich 2006a:20.675-683)

While the need for certainty has been seen to configure the ‘distinct strategy’

Palich rails against (see Sections 8.3 – 8.6), it is the idea of an uncritical stance

towards sustainability strategies themselves that has been found in need of further

investigation (Section 2.2). Palich realises that focusing on design intervention

alone is problematic and relying on a distinct strategy that preferences technical

The Art of Dwelling

74

innovation is also not working. It is then worth considering Palich’s accusation

in light of Action Research theory about the extent of real change required for

sustainable outcomes (see Section 6.4.7).

Action Researchers argue for double-loop learning through the necessary

prerequisite of personal transformation for any systemic change to be effective

(Argyris 1990; 1993a; 1993b; Argyris and Schön 1974; 1978; 1996; Crossan

2003; 2004; Senge 2003; Senge et al. 2008). In their estimation, focusing on

technical and institutional change initiatives alone is not enough. This supports

Palich’s concern. In favouring efficiency-through-technology measures as the

distinct strategy of choice, this approach while necessary is not sufficient, in that

it doesn’t directly challenge the need for personal transformation.

We have masses of technology. There’s no shortage of that. And our

ability to use them; there’s no shortage of that. The biggest problem we

have is our own culture. (Pearce 2006:15.551-555)

But the biggest thing that I think [about] all this stuff is, “yes there’s

going to be a few GHG emissions saved and there’s going to be a bit of

water saved”, but I think what I’m mainly doing is working towards first

is cultural change / shift. (Palich 2006a:4.41)

Gunn provides a clear example of the consequences of focusing on design

intervention without adequate attention upon designer self-transformation.

I think it’s easier to deal with a client that doesn’t want to use recycled

timber. But it’s very difficult to deal with a client who’s stubbornly

egotistical and thinks that his way or her way is the only right way.

(Gunn 2007:7.62-66)

It has to be started by questioning how big a footprint you think is

ethically correct, as opposed to how much you would like to have. Or

how much you think you should have because other people have it too.

The Art of Dwelling

75

So there’s a lot of – how will I put it - from a Buddhist point of view you

have to look at ego and ego is very important in the design process.

(Gunn 2007:3.28)

Gunn reflects on the central role of ego in defining what is ethically correct and

then designing in recognition of this. She is talking about the ego of both the

architect and the client, for once a position has been taken, the designer must take

on the responsibility of encouraging the client to think critically about these

matters as part of the design process.

However, there’s a responsibility, I think, for pointing out to your clients

that perhaps what they need may not necessarily be what they would like

or want or what would be responsible. But quite often – sometimes - you

just have to suppress that because the code of practice states that we have

to design for our clients. (Gunn 2007:3.28)

Gunn’s reflections in particular about architect/client relations place the architect

in a subordinate relationship. This was supported by many of the interviewees as

a barrier to change. Ways of dealing with this are presented in Section 9.4.

However, the important observation to be made at this juncture is that, according

to Action Research theory, personal transformation is activated through double-

loop learning. This is a type of learning that requires a self-reflective stance

toward the status quo to expose one’s complicity in the life-long habitual

conditioning that maintains the status quo (Section 6.4.7). On the

social/personality index it requires meta-self-awareness skills (Figure 3.1). Palich

sums up her own predicament. She, alone among the interviewees, admitted her

own culpability.

I think actually that because I’m so passionate about it and because I am

interested in learning about all this stuff, I read about it over and over

again that it becomes ingrained. … But even someone like me with my

ingrained belief in all of this stuff, I’m not living differently. And so I

The Art of Dwelling

76

often think, well what hope have we got. You’ve got somebody like me,

I’m passionate, I’m way fit, I practice it as much as I can but really, I live

in a three bedroom house, I’m out in the suburbs, I’ve got two cars, I’ve

got a dog. (Palich 2006a:7.83-93)

In explaining why little effective change has occurred in spite of this knowledge,

Senge et al. (2008) note it requires a commitment to personal transformation

together with support for such transformation from wider social and professional

structures; a situation which Palich herself admits is rarely the case:

Clients come to you and say, “I want to be really green (with my) building

and I’ve come to you because you’re a sustainable architect”. But then

they either don’t take my advice on what to do or they don’t ask me and

go off and make decisions and buy things or whatever without [consulting

me]. So I think I have fairly high expectations in terms of, if you want to

say, you are doing a sustainable building. I don’t think they’re high

expectations but I have experience to think they must be. But they’re

fairly simple decisions to make and I don’t see my clients always

following through with them, so it’s pretty disappointing in a way.

(Palich 2006a:2.16)

I have fairly high expectations of the Institute [AusIA] I think which isn’t,

definitely isn’t shared by all members. But you forget … you forget that

there are people out there who don’t think like you. … It was related

back to whether or not you took the precautionary principle on something.

And by not taking the precautionary principle and putting other things

into place I felt was a very egocentric approach, whereas what I was

trying to push was an eco-sense in that it would take in precautionary

principles. And I think for me that’s how I put it into practice – an

ecological viewpoint, worldview – is to take the precautionary principle

on everything. (Palich 2006a:9/10.125-140)

The Art of Dwelling

77

Transformation is really at the core of all this, and because we live in a

pretty comfortable society, with a government who’s encouraging that

kind of unreal sense that everything is all right, when it’s not, I think, in a

way that’s saying we don’t need to suffer or we don’t need to

acknowledge that other people are suffering. Because I think the only real

transformation comes about through suffering, in a way. So if you live in

a comfortable country it’s more difficult to transform, more difficult to

change when you don’t feel the need to. … Reflection is very crucial in

all of these things. To reflect what went wrong, to reflect on what is

being denied, or are things really as good as [they seem], or why aren’t

we thinking more about this. Because I think that’s the problem, that

comfort thing is a real problem in Australia. We think all of us have it

pretty good, why bother to try too hard about these sort of things. [This

is] part of the picture in which architects work and it’s part of denial, part

of that thing about denial and lack of reflection as is the whole issue of

Australia’s past. And it’s in the present now, we’re denying a lot of

things ... So that’s head in the sand kind of stuff.

(Burgess 2006:2.32-36)

Palich and Burgess’ criticisms re-emphasise that fear of change is deep-seated

and it is this fear of change that hides behind petty status anxieties, egocentricity

and denial. These deep-seated fears also remain hidden by an emphasis upon a

distinct strategy for change based on existing techniques and technologies. The

problem with this strategy is that the real focus of change, life-long habitual

conditioning, is not directly confronted. Without direct attention upon cultivating

meta-self-awareness skills through self-reflective practice, the opportunity for

transformation that includes designer self-transformation necessarily remains

under-acknowledged and therefore under-supported at many levels. Self-

transformation, as a condition of both individual and group dynamics, reflects the

The Art of Dwelling

78

powerful role of social interaction in the development of self-identity and in

guiding a sense of adaptability to change.

9.3 Self-transformation strategies as personal dynamics

The logic for taking a critical stance toward current approaches to sustainable

design was to expose the need to include designer self-transformation as part of

the agenda. Action research theory holds that double-loop learning must include

self-criticisms by the designer in living up to the transformative agenda of

sustainable design. This logic reinforces the need for engaging in meta-self-

awareness through self-reflective practice. Action research theory further holds

that attempts at self-transformation are often thwarted by a deep-seated fear of

change and lack of support from wider social and professional structures. This

being the case, a wide range of strategies utilised by the interviewees will be

assessed in terms of countering this fear. This section presents a range of

personal dynamics that constitute private forms of self-awareness. They include

bodily sensations as well as self-images formed through a combination of moral

training and emotional qualities.

9.3.1 Phenomenology

Within architecture, phenomenological approaches are pursued as a counter to the

alienation and disconnection observed as a consequence of Modernism

(Alexander 2001-; Alexander et al. 1977; Caicco 2007; Dovey 1979; Holl et al.

2006; Norberg-Schultz 1966; 1975; Seamon 1993; 2007; Seamon and Buttimer

1980). Phenomenology has been used to explore subjective ways of knowing

through heightened self-awareness. It is a deliberate philosophical stance against

the scientific method with its pursuit of objectivity and dismissal of first-person

experience as a legitimate knowledge base (Harvey 1989; Husserl 1939/1973;

Merleau-Ponty 1964; 1992; Varela 1987; Varela and Depraz 2003; Varela and

Shear 1999; Wallace 2000). Uncritical scientism is seen to undermine deep-felt

engagement with the natural world and the design knowledge flowing from this.

The Art of Dwelling

79

Oh I do Tai Chi. That is self-expanding and also to me it’s a holistic sort

of a thing. It actually fits in with sustainability to my way of thinking.

Everything’s interconnected; every movement creates another movement,

that’s my core [understanding]. … It’s not even something I can explain

but which is a meditation as I see it. … We all need to personalise that

somewhere. All that I can think about when you ask me that question

[about experiencing interconnectedness] is being at some point in the

middle of a Tai Chi exercise and having that sense. … If you’re

engaging in [Tai Chi] practice I guess you do have that more intuitive

sense of [interconnectedness] … but it’s at such a deep level. How you

access that? (Toner 2006:24/25.508-526)

When asked if she consciously draws on it to enhance her design knowledge

Toner replies

No. I think it’s just part of what I do. You never get to think about these

things. (Toner 2006:25.528-530)

Though Toner finds Tai Chi reinforces her understanding of sustainability, she

does not admit to practising it as a deliberate design method. While this may

reflect Toner’s current professional situation as one in which design is not the

focus of sustainability pursued within the office, it can also be argued that lack of

support for subjectivity in Western culture has undermined it as a guide (Chapter

4). Her oversight can be argued as a consequence of the taboo of subjectivity

within the sciences and its flow-on effects into an overly-scientistic approach to

sustainable design (Section 5.1). The only interviewee to cultivate a deliberately

phenomenological approach to guide his design response is Burgess.

I think part of the use of it [intuition/creativity] is communication I think.

… It’s about making the space in which people can – a group of people –

can co-habitate and creatively contribute to and begin to build energy in.

I think that’s quite critical, especially group clients, group dynamics. So

The Art of Dwelling

80

the way your state of mind affects the capacity to express yourself is

extremely important for working the way towards what it is it’s got to

become. So, because it’s already involving people in the process …

there’s a communication, an exchange in energy, or mutually building an

energy which is not just me or you or the other people, it’s a shared

energy which is freed from you and shared, which sort of lifts – which

makes a lifting – it’s that thing of the other, or the group, or the

community, or the world. All those things take it into another realm

where you’re still connected [to the thing it has to become] but there are a

whole lot of connections working with it. So it's in movement and lifting

and it’s integrating energy … It’s not comfortable necessarily. …

There’s something there about being prepared for things to be a bit raw.

So we do some very refined things, but there’s something important about

not being afraid of rawness and reaching towards something and not quite

getting there or you fall on your face or you’re getting up or there’s

something you can’t see clearly and you’re going for it – and that’s pretty

wonderful - to go with that rather than feel you've got to work it ‘til it’s

[done]. So there’s something there in architecture; a kind of poise – quite

sort of sibilant poise, or dynamic poise or dynamic compromise.

(Burgess 2006:19.440)

Burgess’ understanding of riding with a dynamic rather than working an idea too

self-consciously highlights the value of a process-oriented view in dissolving

self-boundaries (Section 8.3). Phenomenological engagement in design dynamics

brings consciousness to real-world bodily processes of engagement that constitute

sensations, feelings and imagination as a holistic experience (Chapter 5). It

encourages the practitioner to re-orient and enlarge their sense of self through

mindfulness of these processes and in so doing, to become more genuinely

grounded in the moment and place of their experiences. Dwelling in their

experiences, truly dwelling in them as a physical, emotional and mental

The Art of Dwelling

81

experience, becomes the base from which to design. In referencing an image of

Persian art, Burgess emphasises an attitude of enchantment as an appropriate

meditation upon dwelling:

That’s one of my favourites. The birds and the whole world is enchanted

and it’s all about moving into a state of being connected so that you have

the right thought at the right time, the right gesture or the right idea.

There’s something when you’re connected – things come together in the

right way – that openness it’s almost like an innocence in spite of our

worldliness – we have to trust I think. (Burgess 2006:17.408)

Through exposure to African life and cultural expression, Pearce recognises his

own need for self-expression has been enriched by full-bodied, emotional

experiences beyond the strictures of the intellect. He realises the value of art as a

mode of expression that channels this need.

You see, I’m very lucky because I work in Africa. They’re fantastic to

work with. I’m very lucky because you can’t escape from that [psychic

intuition] in the way they do things. Here you get enormous value from

aborigines I would have thought because of their [intuitive] knowledge.

All these things, they should be [valued]. Exactly, and you see though

their art and, of course, that is another thing that I should do more of, I

should paint. Do more art. But actually working with Zimbabweans on a

building site or anywhere, you can’t escape from that, because they just,

you know, it’s there. They haven’t a problem … they’re very physical

people. And they’re very good at singing and dancing. And their

language is fun. And their language is all metaphorical too, they’re very

good at metaphor. So everything’s like this or like that. And they work

intuitively, very much so. So you listen to your feelings much more. I

mean I’m normally very bad at that; my heritage prevents me from

listening to my feelings, my English [heritage]. Very positive enriching,

The Art of Dwelling

82

and the third world gives you that. That’s why I go back there all the

time, it’s fantastic. You go to Bali, and places.

(Pearce 2006:51/52/53.1778-1853)

Pearce has come to recognise the limits of his own cultural upbringing at a

number of levels. First, he finds that to paint more and to think more

metaphorically has allowed him to move beyond his emotionally-limited

upbringing. Working through different modes of self-expression and

understanding the world through different language traditions has helped Pearce

to take a critical stance toward his culture and the connections and boundaries it

sets up.

… the psyche doesn’t end in the fur or the skin or whatever it is. It

actually, when you make a space to live in, it extends to those boundaries.

… It’s like making new boundaries. Now boundaries have all sorts of

problems about them. They have one side, which is what I call language,

or culture. … We particularly have a fascination with language. We have

to speak in order to think and so on. But the act of speaking, language is a

very consoling act. I mean there are dozens of examples of people

who’ve moved to different places and failed because they’ve not changed

their culture. They’ve taken their culture with them and simply practiced

their culture in a different environment. (Pearce 2006:3/4.71-111)

Pearce’s observation about the comfort of psychological boundaries that culture

and language bring reinforces his and Burgess’s concern to move beyond

language in order to break down boundaries and make new connections. Burgess

places himself beyond discursive thought through phenomenological means

embedded in the meditation he practices as part of the design process.

Connectivity becomes a deeply felt experience and a dynamic that he is then able

to reflect upon with real understanding. His approach acts as a counter to

uncritically placing one’s own self-concepts onto other cultures and environments

The Art of Dwelling

83

(see Section 8.3). Heightened self-awareness plays an important role in critiquing

one’s self-concepts and activating the real possibilities of group dynamics. Self-

critique enhances the ability to respond appropriately to other’s needs throughout

the design process.

This discussion highlights the need to ground design responses in real-world

possibilities through a critique of self-concepts. This is in order to balance a

tendency toward an overly restrictive view of self that is seen by

phenomenologists as a subtle form of disengagement. Culture plays a central role

in reinforcing this tendency and Western culture, with its under-developed

notions of subjectivity is defined through this characteristic (Wallace 2000;

Wallace and Hodel 2008).

9.3.2 Integrity and intuition

Cultural settings that foster alienation, apathy and denial are keenly felt by all the

interviewees as moral laxity. They are well aware that absorbing firm moral

training through upbringing allows them to resist these pressures and to ground

their own self-affirming measures. They understand that to practice ecologically

sustainable design with integrity they must live according to its tenets. They are

also well aware of the need for reinforcement across all domains of life. The

more embedded the learning, the more intuitive the thinking and more confident

the interviewees were of their stance in light of the cultural milieu.

It’s more about what right has one person got to exploit anything, person,

animal, ecological system for their own need, I guess. I don’t know

where that sense of justice or equality has evolved from. I guess my

father has always tried to instil that sense of fairness.

(Palich 2006b:8.263-267)

I try and take my approach all the way through my business really. So I

bank with a bank that I don’t think is as unethical as some of the major

The Art of Dwelling

84

banks. All my investments are in ethical investments. My mortgage is in

an ethical investment. I try and live that way. All the paper I use is

recyclable. I work from home because I’m only doing two days a week.

But I like that because I don’t have to travel. … I would try and through

my business support organisations or events or people if I think they are

trying to make a difference. So if I can assist them in any way. I think its

fundamental to practicing architecture sustainably that you actually

practice sustainability. (Palich 2006a:2.20)

We also have that oath. This is something that I took very seriously and

once again I think it’s being brought up as the child of an architect, who

was really into - it wasn’t sustainable design it was just environmental

design. … My background has come back out and it’s been endorsed by

the movement of the moment. … It’s the moral issue that’s the

interesting one. If you’re attaching a morality to it you don’t want to set

yourself above people at all. That’s not sustainability. For me it’s about

sharing the information and having extra knowledge in this area.

(Toner 2006:11/12.246-258)

I was brought up an Anglican. I was an altar boy and I was always

fascinated by the physical and the metaphysical and to try to find some

morality that guided one’s actions. And when I started to do architecture,

I found it very odd that there didn’t appear to be an ethical approach to

design. … there was no ethical evaluation of why one does it. And does

this bring one closer to God or further from God, all of that was missing.

And then when the first oil crisis came, well the first one that I

experienced … all of a sudden I said “Oh, okay this is an ethical issue”

and, “where do we sit on all of this?” So I suppose that was my guiding

thing. But what drove me was this sense that we need to be moral and

ethical in what we do and how does one take the path that one’s chosen

The Art of Dwelling

85

and not be a priest and to do that in an ethical way.

(Oppenheim 2006:8/9.261-273)

Oppenheim’s comments highlight the impact of existential need upon human

motivation. Time and again throughout the interview process, interviewees

expressed existential concerns that drove their actions and their need for integrity

in the process. Ecologically sustainable design provides the vehicle that

transports these emotional forces into real-world engagement.

For Webb, self-worth comes through making a practical contribution to life;

whether that be in the private or public sphere, and practised through

architecture or otherwise. Critically for Webb, happiness is tied to the creative

process required for the practical outcome and architectural design is well suited

to this existential need. Sustainability, for him, is an emergent philosophy; a

quality of design tied to wider views about life that enhances the practical

contribution that Webb can make.

I’ve always been a strong advocate of an objective view of life; one where

your ability to produce something is a direct measure of your self-worth

whether that’s to physically produce something in terms of ideas or

whether it’s doing something. I’m a very strong advocate of the

relationship between your own happiness and your ability to produce

something whether that’s personal or public. So therefore, my main aim

in what I do is the enjoyment of the process and what I’m doing. The

sustainability side of it is certainly a very strong motivator behind it but

it’s not why I engage in architecture; it’s an emergent philosophy. And if

I wasn’t doing architecture I’d probably be doing something that had

some other sort of similar ideas-based or creative aspect. The absolute

bonus of what I’m doing is that it also has a very strong relationship back

to my ideas about the world. I couldn’t imagine any other profession that

has such a scope for cross fertilisation. (Webb 2005:15.131-133)

The Art of Dwelling

86

Webb provides the definitive statement about sating one’s existential need

through vocation. The art of dwelling is to practice one’s vocation with care.

Whether practiced through Palich’s humanitarianism, Toner’s professional ethics,

Oppenheim’s religious concepts or Webb’s utilitarianism, all attempts at logic

only reinforce what is recognised as a fundamental setting of human nature

(Layard 2005). This is a recognition of the right to self-expression. The only

proper response to the fact of existence is awe and reverence. When tied to a

concern that one’s own self-expression not come at the expense of others, it

illuminates a fundamental moral precept of sustainable design.

9.3.3 Happiness and self-interest

Emotional well-being underpins one’s sense of vocation. All the interviewees

direct their happiness and self-interest toward hopeful activity. Directing them

towards the service of others is seen as a moral act that is also self-interested even

to the point of selfishness. This understanding reveals how deeply embedded

Darwinian utilitarianism is within the Western psyche.

It’s necessarily in your self-interest to be an advocate for sustainability.

… Interdependence and inter-responsibility it’s hard to confront. … The

question is … if life is good, do you want to make life good for your

children and grandchildren and succeeding generations if it’s good. … If

Life as distinct from our life … it actually becomes a rather exciting and

challenging task once you’ve bitten the bullet that you’re not going to

spin it out forever. If you think “she’ll be okay”, if you think Mother

Nature is a beneficent mother who looks after her progeny then, “She’ll

be right.” “Don’t worry about it too much.” That’s for some people

much more comfortable. I think it’s unrealistic. (Well, look at religions -

full of endless, endless promise.) Well, if you take the actual experiential

side of living as good, something after that’s a bonus, but the living bit we

actually have some control over. (Rodger 2006.370-386)

The Art of Dwelling

87

I don’t think it really matters if the human race becomes extinct but I kind

of like this idea that we’re all trying to save ourselves. I’m quite

entertained by this whole thing. But the only reason I subsume myself in

it is because it entertains me and I’m passionate about it. You know the

only reason I have enough time and energy to devote to this is because

I’m fed and I’m loved and I’m housed. It’s all selfish, it’s all driven by

self-need. I mean that’s how I see it if you really get down to it, if you’re

talking about happiness. But I get very, very upset when I see people –

(you know there’s that fundamental level where I think we’re all stuffed),

but at a day-to-day living-with-community type level I do get very

influenced and driven and passionate about it. Therefore we have

responsibility, definitely. (Palich 2006a:9.125-133)

Palich sums up the complexities of existential need. She embodies what she

admits is a self-oriented need tempered through selfless responsibility. Her self-

critical stance allows her to distinguish responsibility as a thanksgiving for her

personal good fortune that allows her to give and take with integrity.

Honman emphasises the emotional well-being pertaining to responsibility. She

understands that to act through a sense of responsibility is a decision-making

exercise guided by an emotional response to moral training.

You must maintain a global perspective of those things, but also bring it

down to how you deal with people on a day-to-day basis. … you’ve just

got to be so straight with people, and not to favour one party over another

… And if you feel … uncomfortable about it then I know it’s a wrong

decision for me. So it’s just a feeling that you think, “no this is not right”.

And I guess I’m fortunate that I was brought up with very good core

values from my family, and I’m really lucky that that happened. … but

you’ve got to really think, take one step back from that decision and say,

The Art of Dwelling

88

“okay, what’s the right things to do here” … it’s what makes you feel

good. (Honman 2006:12/13.194-198)

Honman’s decision-making is bound up in feelings. It is a response to feeling, is

guided by feeling. In this manner it is a sense-making activity guided by intuition

(see Section 3.4). Intuition may be explained as a reflection of moral upbringing

but to fully explain propensity, phenomenological accounts of intuition take into

consideration the embodied nature of cognitive processes that lie strictly beyond

the reach of consciousness (Thompson 2001; 2007; Varela 1999a).

9.3.4 Propensity

Propensity refers to an inclination. The full significance of propensity was

defined through praxis with its close relationship to prohairesis as ‘the exercise

of choice between various things or courses of actions, [which] is at one and the

same time a preferring and a choosing’ (Snodgrass and Coyne 2006:112) (Section

5.1.1). The essential quality of propensity can therefore be understood as both a

preferring and a choosing; a situation emphasising its mix of tacit and

deliberative knowledge.

I was right into, you know, trees and stuff. And then it took me a while

to actually work out and learn about what it was and then apply it; redirect

that energy into my profession. Because at one time I had a dual focus,

one that was the more green end of the campaigning, and then I managed

to apply that to my profession. So, I don’t know where it comes from, but

it’s always been there and I was able to direct it towards what I had been

trained in. But I often describe myself more as a greeny first and

foremost, over and above an architect. But it’s becoming better, because

they’re becoming more and more integrated. (Palich 2006b:6.189-205)

Existential need surfaces through propensity. For Palich, her first motivation is

environmentalism and sustainable living as a practical approach to sating her

existential need. This has found expression in sustainable design at the

The Art of Dwelling

89

professional level. Palich’s engagement in sustainable design indicates that, for

her, sustainability is the higher authority and the basis for existential need. This

can be contrasted with Webb’s approach as discussed earlier (p. 85). For him,

sustainable design is an emergent process, in the sense that it has enhanced the

creative processes felt critical for his own happiness by allowing for a growing

awareness of deeper existential concerns about sustainability.

While many of the interviewees spoke of their upbringing in providing content to

intuition, Honman provides genuine insight into its power. Through her own

self-reflective practices she reveals how the creative, wilfulness she experiences

(and which Webb speaks of in Section 9.2.2) is powered by an aspirational need

over which she has only limited control.

I mean you’re a product both of your time and the place where you grew

up, and the family situation you grew up in and the family situation you

find yourself in now, and all of that, so you’re tied up with other people so

much. I think what you do, what you become is also part of it. I mean I

find when I go and look for books or listen to music or whatever, you’re

drawn to certain things, and you don’t know why you’re drawn to them,

you don’t have either the vocabulary or the knowledge of those artforms

or whatever to say why you like them, you can’t be particularly critical,

but you’re drawn to them. What is it that draws you to them? Having

then been drawn to them, you then find out more about them and then you

find that, “yes I really do like the way this is composed, or the way this is

written”, or whatever, and it puts you in touch with a whole movement, a

whole array of thinking, a whole way that other people have thought. So

again, you’re putting yourself out there to discover what other people

have previously discovered, but you find you identify with it intuitively.

So you have to trust your intuition a lot and it’s very easy when you’re

working with other people to question it, because they will question it,

because they have a different way of operation, but I think there’s a lot in

The Art of Dwelling

90

intuition that we don’t use and don’t value highly enough. Because I

think there’s something that just attracts you to certain things, and that’s

what you are, and you almost want to identify yourself with that group of

people who can do those things, and you wish you could do it as well as

they could. You construct [yourself] through identifying with other

groups. (Honman 2006:10/11.150-162)

Honman appreciates that she is drawn to a certain expression of self. While she

may be influenced by upbringing, Honman realises that there is an attractive force

beyond upbringing through which she realises her aspirations. Her insight is to

take a process-oriented view towards this relationship. Honman realises she is

not the instigator of her propensities; she is the condition it expresses. Wilfulness

is played out as an aspiration to identify herself through others. While she may

appear as a wilful interpreter of her lifelong instruction, intuition actually guides

her aspirations and decision-making processes. Intuition channels an existential

need for self-expression. This signifies the need to look beyond upbringing for

deeper insights into self-motivation.

9.3.5 Suffering

Burgess makes it clear that genuine self-transformation requires experiences that

engender feelings of suffering. For him, one of the tasks of the designer is to

understand, empathise and experience suffering as fully as possible in order to

connect to real-world situations.

It’s not easy I think to just read and do something just because you read

something either. It’s like things happen when a client is particularly

sensitive to toxicity or something and so that becomes an extremist

situation because somebody is in some sort of danger. What you and I

might cope with in terms of breathing stuff in, they break out in [reaction]

or go into paroxysms of coughing. They make you more conscious and

The Art of Dwelling

91

make you think it’s a very real underlying [condition] of how serious say

that particular thing is. (Burgess 2006:5.109-121)

I went to China at the end of last year and gave a talk in Shanghai. One of

the big things there for me was … the density and the contact is far more

pressing, and the quality of the air and the quality of the water and all

these things, which in Australia you come back and take for granted. …

Therefore, the next level of suffering, whether it’s bronchial or brain, that

all becomes much more real … there’s no substitute for being there

yourself and feeling affected … bodily and psychologically and

emotionally and even then you have to experience it probably many

times. (Burgess 2006:3/4.56-77)

… things that happen like international climate disaster that result in

widespread humanitarian disaster is just uncomfortably unbearable from

your comfortable couch to watch really. (Palich 2006a:10.136)

If I had time and looked into where my clothes come from I’m sure I’d be

horrified. If I looked into where my food comes from I’m sure I’d be

horrified. But I happen to be an architect. I happen to be able to focus on

this stuff so I can be horrified about being on a deck that is from a

Victorian forest. It depends I guess on what you’re prepared to be

horrified by. And so it’s all real personal stuff. It’s the sort of thing you

need to experience really. … And if you haven’t really gone through that

thought process or experienced that you’re not going to make a decision I

think, or it’s a real decision for me anyway. (Palich 2006a:8/9.117)

Palich reveals what it takes to make a real decision: suffering and passion. These

experiences drive her outlook, her stance and her actions. Through her own

behaviour, Palich embodies and activates Vesely’s (2004) understanding of the

‘real possibilities’ for design.

The Art of Dwelling

92

9.3.6 Passion, courage and humility

Palich demonstrates the level of passion that accompanies suffering. It is a

passion for others as well as a passion about how to live that powers a mixture of

urgency, purpose and despair that underlies many of the interviewees’ strategies

of engagement.

I think actually that because I’m so passionate about it and because I am

interested in learning about all this stuff, I read about it over and over

again that it becomes ingrained. As you say it’s intuitive. And there’s no

decision to make but I know with some people there would be a decision

to make. (Palich 2006a:7.87-89)

I know that if I think about this too much I actually get overwhelmed by

the fact that we’re all doomed. However, (I do think that we’re all

stuffed, but that’s okay), I prefer to go down fighting.

(Palich 2006a:9.125)

Toner is well aware that while suffering is a crucial response to other’s suffering,

it must not be turned into despair. This is a deliberate choice she can and does

make. Toner turns it into a positive critique of the status quo, which at the same

time, sates her own existential need for self-expression.

… there’s the knowledge and there’s the despair. You can very swiftly go

off into despair and not do anything but the real trick is to stay away from

the despair knowing that it is potentially there. But if you can be engaged

in working away from that despair, for one you’re making the outcome

less severe perhaps, hopefully. For another, action and doing it makes

you feel better about yourself that it is transforming [something]. “Well

here’s what I’m doing. It’s all like that but here’s what I’m doing.”

(Toner 2006:23.476-478)

The Art of Dwelling

93

Honman is also reflecting upon the emotive power which drives existential need

when she talks about what she likes and dislikes and what she sees as her

personal challenge:

I hate seeing waste, I hate seeing poor design, I like to think that

everything you do makes things better, that you repair what is bad, and

that you try and make it better. Even if you’re working with something

that’s really awful, your challenge is to improve it. (Honman 2006:4.64)

For Pearce, engaging in battle forges many useful qualities. It forges purpose

with humility. It also improves communication skills through the need for clarity

in getting across one’s message as effectively as possible.

You have to fight for something you want. You’ll never get there without

a struggle, so you must be prepared to really battle for it. And in the

battle, that gives you the focus, and the clarity. I mean clarity is very

important. I’m very bad at writing, and talking but I’ve learnt to make it

more and more simple by using simple language, actually. Because you

get it across much better. So communication is vital, so talking is just as

important as listening but you need to try and use very simple language to

get [your message] across and that keeps your thinking clear. And then

you must expect a battle. (Pearce 2006:43/44.1545-1549)

It’s not a game; it’s a real fight. And the other thing is that you have to be

prepared to accept failure with humility. And you know, accept that

failures are strengthening occasionally. I mean there’s strength in failure,

and weakness in success (you rest on your laurels).

(Pearce 2006:45.1585-1601)

The preceding two passages from Pearce reinforce the importance of humility as

the key that unlocks the self-transformation process. But it is a humility forged

through real experiences and real engagement in battle. Humility becomes a form

The Art of Dwelling

94

of courage as well; courage in never being too sure and in having the confidence

to make change.

I sort of drifted away from my earlier political activity, which was pretty

violent, to a much more passive position when I realised it didn’t work (in

Africa, that is). So I’ve changed there. I’m beginning to think that we

completely misinterpret other cultures. So there’s a change. I’ve changed

from somebody who’s pretty arrogant, to somebody who’s less arrogant

and more accommodating, so that’s a change there, as I get older. You

realise that - and I think that’s very important - never to be sure that

you’re right and have the confidence to change. It’s very important.

(Pearce 2006:35.1242-1254)

Passion and courage are the critical emotions that drive a determination to take up

the challenges to be met through ecologically sustainable design. One of those

challenges is to avoid over-confidence so as to have the confidence to change.

This requires humility. It allows Pearce to reflect, to note changes and to learn

from his mistakes.

9.3.7 Critical reflection

Keeping up-to-date and double-checking one’s understanding is crucial to staying

critically informed.

You know, it’s so important to try things out and follow them right

through to the end and be involved in the re-assessment of them. It’s very

important. … The goal of course is eventually to try to get as many

people aware of the problem, to raise consciousness. And to keep

involved at the front line. I regard myself as having to. Education has to

go on all the time, right through your life. (Pearce 2006:34.1198-1218)

But to practice it properly I think it’s just a decision and then a

commitment to research it. … the best way of gaining this expertise or an

The Art of Dwelling

95

expertise in anything is actually trying it and working through it.

(Palich 2006a:3.24)

If you’re at all interested in it [architecture], it becomes much more than

just your job. [It requires] complete feedback [which] you do

independently just by the shear extent of the stuff that you deal with and

the amount of time and effort that goes into it. So yeah, there’s a constant

feedback there. (Webb 2005:9.82)

There’s masses of information. You have to keep crosschecking. … I

think that is essential. You have to keep up with what’s going on and

cross check. (Pearce 2006:37.1304-1320)

Webb, when asked to reflect on the nature of commitment, brought up his own

critical reflection of beliefs. He noted that ultimately his stance reflects his beliefs

but with the proviso that this, too, be subjected to critical reflection.

[Commitment] conjures the aspect of a future and thinking beyond the

short term whatever that’s in. It also for me ties back into having some

sort of integrity about what you think of to start with, because you can’t

use the word commitment without accepting that there are fundamental

things that you accept to believe in. So to me it’s more of an

acknowledgement of your own attitudes to things rather than necessarily

buying into or accepting a particular way of looking at something. It’s

not a word that I’ve used that much actually. (Webb 2005:10.92)

Webb’s comment about ‘fundamental things’ raises a fine distinction between

beliefs and acceptance of beliefs. This is a clear case of meta-self-awareness.

Webb has been able to step back from his beliefs and to view them more

objectively. This view has allowed him to clarify what drives him and to make

some choice in the matter.

The Art of Dwelling

96

Phenomenology, moral values, emotional qualities and critical thinking represent

a range of personal strategies valued by the interviewees in their aspirations to

practice design that is both meaningful and ecologically sustainable. These

strategies generate a dynamic compromise in both encouraging and tempering

efforts to live through those standards they have chosen to believe in. This

dynamic powers their public behaviour as architects. But again, the dynamic is

iterative in that the public domain exerts an influence upon the individual that

both reinforces and challenges personal attributes. The following section

examines how designers utilise these personal settings within the public domain.

9.4 Self-transformation through interpersonal dynamics

Public self-awareness is the process of self-consciously conducting oneself under

public scrutiny. The interviewees reported on a wide range of strategies that

reveal the importance of reinforcing personal values and agendas through group

dynamics. These strategies provide deliberate feedback between design

intervention and designer self-transformation. The interpersonal strategies

presented in this section have been chosen because they are deliberately

provocative in challenging current practices. They illustrate Sen’s (2002) call to

celebrate protest and activism as a necessary mechanism for human freedom of

expression (Section 2.1). Feedback loops are activated through office culture,

Participatory Design, advocacy, opportunism and leadership.

9.4.1 Office culture

Transforming office culture through active feedback loops is critical to delivering

sustainable design. The spectrum of approaches discussed by the interviewees

aligned with their personal understanding of, and commitment to, sustainable

design. Burgess discussed his office practice in terms of hiring employees and

engaging sub-consultants with a commitment to sustainable design. Webb took a

more pro-active and structured approach in recognition that sustainable design

needed to be integral to the firm’s own sustainable business model of service

The Art of Dwelling

97

delivery. He considers the real test of personal commitment to sustainability is to

deliver it in his professional capacity and as part of a business plan. To this end,

Webb was personally engaged in overhauling the office’s design delivery process

to reinforce sustainable design thinking at every stage. To this end, Webb was

personally engaged in overhauling the office’s design delivery process to

reinforce sustainable design `thinking at every stage.

... its [sustainable design] been bubbling in the background and probably

only become quite a integrated or more overt part of the design practice in

the last 2 or 3 years ... [in] that we’ve actively tried to draw from previous

projects and gather information for the next project ... we’ve actually got

at least one person now dedicated to just doing that as opposed to being

involved in projects. So she’s just physically interviewing, researching,

collating lessons learnt on previous projects. The biggest gap at the

moment is getting everyone in the office to a certain level in terms of

knowledge. ... we also in the last couple of years formalised a lot of that in

terms of check lists and matrixes and QA systems ... [and we] have a

library that is set up via the Greenstar rating … and it’s a wish to not lose

the information that we’ve gained so it’s…in a lot of ways a business

decision as well as an environmental design decision.

(Webb 2005:3.29-35)

When asked as to who initiated these processes Webb replied:

Its probably director driven, me and one or two others. (Webb 2005:39.4)

However, it was Oppenheim’s office that offered the most extreme example of

double-loop learning. Oppenheim’s approach was to vet potential employees for

their commitment to the bigger battle for cultural change within which

architecture sits. This approach to being a designer confirms the iterative nature

of self-transformation practices.

The Art of Dwelling

98

I mean, the staff here … some of them were eco-terrorists … I mean they

come here they’ve got to be committed to the environment, be part of an

environmental organisation and bring a skill that makes money. We’re

getting an increasing number of people who want to come and work for us

… because we appear to be doing the current “in” thing, and so that they

see ESD as a skill that they need to acquire to work in the market place,

which is terrific. … but from our point of view, we can’t employ those

people because a lot of our staff have had to suffer the slings and arrows

of dispute and because we try and take as radical an expression of it.

(Oppenheim 2006:10/11.305-321)

Look, the fit-out of the office is important … there was a commitment by

everyone to have nothing new in here, and to have the right attitude. …

And you can’t sort of direct staff to do that, I mean there’s an attitude of

staff, “Oh okay I’ll do that” and that’s part of the ethos of the firm. … So

when you talk about this internal reflection, I suppose it’s a view that

we’ve all taken and we all support as a group; this is the way things are

done. (Oppenheim 2006:12.365-377)

Say if there was an anti-nuclear protest, [it] would be known within the

firm by everyone, that that activity would be supported in terms of going

off and protesting. … If they wanted to go and protest against say, anti-

animal, that would not be seen as part of our core business. … But if it’s

to do with the built environment and how the energy’s supplied to the

built environment … yes it’s seen as something that would be supported.

Because I suppose from a management point of view, that all of the

knowledge that they gain, and the experience and the street ‘cred’ and all

that sort of stuff is important to lay on the table.

(Oppenheim 2006:11/12.345-357)

It is worth noting the limits of support for activism Oppenheim has put in place to

separate out issues he sees as specific to his business involvement in the built

The Art of Dwelling

99

environment from those he considers less applicable. This reflects an approach to

ecological sustainability pursued within the architectural profession that may be

too narrow to adequately accommodate interdependency (Section 2.2). It

underscores the pragmatic difficulties of defining boundaries for activism in an

interconnected world of complex problems all requiring critical levels of

engagement.

Double-loop learning theory and phenomenology both claim to offer legitimacy

to ways of experiencing and transforming reality. They fundamentally challenge

the distinct strategies toward ecologically sustainable design Palich raised as of

real concern (Section 9.2). Within architecture, Participatory Design workshops,

with their emphasis on community empowerment, come closest to employing

Action Research methodology in activating double-loop learning as a

community-learning exercise (Sanoff 1990; 2006; Sutton and Kemp 2006).

9.4.2 Participatory Design

All design is profoundly interactive, involving many parties in the process.

Participatory design is deliberately practised at a higher level of interaction for

community empowerment. Expertise and commitment is shared beyond the

office and built up within the wider community. This approach to design is seen

as an ideal way to practice ecologically sustainable design. It gives recognition to

a fuller complement of people and processes that enable the ‘real possibilities’ of

the design process to be met. But it challenges the architect to personally address

normative patterns of behaviour in the process.

I think the will of everybody participating in the project needs to be there.

I think that requires quite a lot of skill and requires quite a lot of

compassion and a generosity of spirit. And also to a certain extent a

suppression of ego I guess. And there are certainly some architects that

would find that difficult. (Gunn 2007:19/20.186-190)

The Art of Dwelling

100

The other thing that I find is that architects mustn’t be afraid to step out of

their cocooned existence. It’s something that everyone should be engaged

with. It’s a public thing. If you try to build your own monument and

become better and better at selling it to the corporates, I think you’ve lost

your way. (Pearce 2006:23/24.843-871)

Pearce reveals the challenge of participatory design to be a balancing act of

control and ownership while always mindful of cost. This balancing act is central

to managing the design process and makes public and accountable the delicate

balance between wilfulness and letting-be. The significance of the outcome is in

its power to create habitat as an extension of the psyche; the ultimate expression

of sustainability according to Pearce. He argues that such an outcome is

measurable in terms of productivity and well-being.

… the more participation you get from the wider users, from other

experts, the better the product I think, if you can control it. It gets

expensive – workshops - very expensive but they’re good. They’re good

things to do. And the more you can pull people in, the more people own

the ideas. (Pearce 2006:25/26.915-923)

It goes back to that extension of the psyche. The whole idea that that’s

what the building is. By doing that, if you can get a building that people

can really belong to in that very holistic way like an animal’s burrow,

there’s no question about their productivity and bottom line, it’s more

healthy, it’s an environment which they enjoy working in.

(Pearce 2006:24/25.883-887)

Whereas Pearce’s understanding of participatory design may be regarded as

ecological, both Honman and Burgess express two humanist perspectives.

Honman sees the process as one of empowerment through critical engagement

with the design process.

The Art of Dwelling

101

… the belief that I have is that everyone should be able to design … It’s

not the realm of experts, professional people to do that. Everyone has

within them the ability to do it and a lot of people do not have the

confidence. And I see trying to give people that confidence as an

important thing, but also the confidence to reject what’s out there that

they’re told they should buy or build. And so what you’re trying to do is

really change people’s attitude. And sometimes it works and sometimes it

doesn’t … Sustainability is important and increasingly becoming more

and more urgent and people will turn around for different reasons. But

you need to be able to give them the power and the confidence to do so, I

think. (Honman 2006:4/5.68-78)

Burgess considers the process in terms of its phenomenology. The experience is

enriching because creativity emerges as the vehicle of communication between

the participants. That this creative process is also a “rubbing against one-

another” reveals the interactive nature of creativity in its rawness.Participatory

design, while a non-mainstream design methodology, can be seen to encourage a

more direct focus on attitudinal and behaviour change that has found its adherents

among the interviewees. A problem noted with this method is that it requires

time and high levels of interpersonal skill that challenge self-image as well as

professional imagery.

9.4.3 Advocacy, opportunism and leadership

The pursuit of sustainable design has led many of the interviewees into advocacy

and the wider public domain. If architecture and architects are to be relevant in

an era of transformation, these practitioners see it as imperative that architects

transform their own profession and extend their sphere of influence into the

political domain.

The most worrying thing I think is the almost complete failure to grasp

how serious the situation is at a community level. Not at a technical or

The Art of Dwelling

102

expert level. It really doesn’t matter if you or I understand that perfectly

… its whether you can generate the political will. … Public advocacy

becomes a part of that mission and Natasha [Palich] is presiding over a

number of initiatives in the Institute [AusIA] at the moment, as you well

know. One is a public advocacy and clear commitment that the Institute

ought to take a proactive role either directly with the community but also

as an advocate to government and to business and [to be] much more

proactive than they have been in the past. (Rodger 2006.108-112)

I reckon that you can create your own opportunity. It is really difficult if

you’re working as a full-time architect to actually get out there and absorb

all this information. I was fortunate enough that when I was at the

Institute [AusIA] to be involved in a lot of industry activities. Then, as a

member of the committee and Chair of the Committee and now at the City

of Port Phillip, in these advocacy roles you have time to go out to

conferences. … You have to make the time and it’s mostly on my own

time obviously, when I’m asked by the Institute. (Palich 2006a:3.33)

You do what you can where you can - entirely opportunistic. I suppose

my effort has been to create a context in which sustainability becomes a

kind of respectable, reputable arena for discussion and therefore

subsequently for adoption. (Rodger 2006.262-266)

… you build up credibility as you go, you have a track record and that’s

worth power. That’s worth power and persuasion. You also have to take

risks you see. You have to keep taking risks with people as well. I mean,

I’m not a corporate person at all, and I don’t obey those rules, and that

doesn’t get me any power, but I think that you get into a powerful position

by seizing an opportunity. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,

you’ve got to seize the opportunity. You’ve got to find the opening and

always take it. I never actually don’t take up an offer. I always listen to

The Art of Dwelling

103

an offer. Whether I take it or not is another matter, but I think it’s very

important to always be open to change, to seize an opportunity.

(Pearce 2006:36.1272-1286)

… you’ve got to lead the way and the local authority is the best vehicle

for that at the moment because the local authority is at the interface

between people and politics. (Pearce 2006:21.753-757)

Webb gives voice to the cultural barriers against engaging in public advocacy.

There is a real tension between architecture and city planning in Australia.

Planning is seen as a pragmatic, regulatory exercise rather than an urban-design

exercise.

[Advocacy leads to] architects being involved in broader planning at

government level. And there’s a lot more precedent in Europe for

architects being very much involved at local authority level in terms of

reviewing and approving processes. One of the huge problems in

Australia is the way that the planning system works – the lack of training

for planners. They basically have no formal design training at all. And

the fact [is] that design architecture is not actually a valued part of

Australian culture. (Webb 2006:9.104)

Webb’s own understanding of good urban design is something he sees as so

fundamentally at odds with the current situation it has led him to despair of

achieving it within an Australian setting. Therefore, he feels his energies should

not be swallowed up in pursuit of what he sees as fundamental change but to

remain focused on insertions and incremental change. This is the dilemma faced

by all who engage in transformation. It underscores the need for activism. But

Webb’s predicament must also be juxtaposed against Rodger’s comment that

architects not become too isolated from public understandings. This reinforces

Vesely’s (2004) understanding that architecture remain in the realm of real

The Art of Dwelling

104

possibilities as a genuine service to cultural change. The art of activism is to

activate change through push-and-pull strategies.

Quite often when I think about the bigger realm it’s probably why I have

yet or maybe will never take a step beyond architecture into an urban or

city design type role (although I think it’s an absolutely critical one). My

current view and understanding of what is a sustainable model or the way

that we should live in the city is with a very medium to dense quite small

core with lots of natural environment, landscape – I mean it’s a little bit of

a Dutch model; you only have to go a couple of kilometres out of

Amsterdam and you’re into the farming. So it’s much more a series of

dense satellites. It’s quite well documented that it by far, in our current

way of living, the most sustainable way to live. So what I’m really saying

is that somewhere like Australia and indeed much of the world,

particularly the developing world, is so far beyond achieving that model

and ever getting back to that model that the best we can do from a

strategic point of view is to improve on what we’ve got. And I find it

very hard to work from the bottom up. I think [engagement] in city

planning, urban design that’s the only way forward unless you’ve got the

opportunity to look at new towns or cities. So therefore, I feel my biggest

difference I can make and also have the most satisfaction myself is to look

at examples and models of things within the current system that are really

good if that makes sense. It can be viewed as a fairly selfish approach.

It’s not to say that I’m not constantly advocating better ways to be in the

city, but in terms of putting the rest of my life energies and efforts

professionally, I don’t think the way I think and the way my brain works

is suited to having to deal with the complexities and particularly politics

of trying to make a better city fabric within what we’ve got.

(Webb 2006:7.80-84)

The Art of Dwelling

105

You make it reflective and you engage the community in a continuing

education process and of course Greg Burgess would say (almost) the role

of the designer is (a quality architect) is to engage the community in an

educational way. (Rodger 2006.69)

As Rodger sees the problem, self-transformation is not something that can or

should be restricted to one party or another. He advises that it is an iterative

affair.

… you really can’t have one without some level of the other because

simply the smart learning professional who learns from their mistakes if

you like, but stays isolated from say, client or community or whatever,

isn’t going to get anywhere because the communities’ ego (coming back

to the psychiatrist’s model), their self image of who they are is rattling

along undisturbed by the evolving ego of the architect.

(Rodger 2006.250-258)

The final say is given to Palich and Oppenheim in summing up what is required

of the designer and what to expect of the many challenges engagement in

ecologically sustainable design delivers.

In my experience people that emerge as leaders are the ones with the

passion, that’s the most important thing, combined with knowledge and

they don’t compromise. (Palich 2006b:12/13.421-429)

Look I couldn’t be happier I’m a pig in mud it’s just fantastic, just

working with or from my perspective, it’s just fantastic to be surrounded

by really young active intelligent people, and it’s just fantastic.

(Oppenheim 2006:18.527)

The Art of Dwelling

106

9.5 Conclusion

The art of dwelling has been identified in this chapter through a narrative about

existential need. Sustainable design is seen to provide the vehicle through which

this need can be channelled. Three different expressions of existential need

representative of the status quo were used to measure the success of sustainable

design both as a task-oriented and designer-oriented transformation strategy.

In Section 9.1 under-development and over-development pressures were seen to

inhibit and distort various expressions of existential need. Having lived in Africa,

Pearce understood under-development pressures in terms of a person and a

community knowing about and aspiring for what was available, but which at the

same time was not being provided for. Needs of the most basic kind are not

being met. The current model of human development through urbanisation

requires enormous amounts of energy to make it work. Whether the provision of

energy and its distribution is equitable as well as sustainable is seen by Pearce to

be the two greatest challenges to the success of this model.

Over-development was defined as a state of not needing the need to the point of

denial. Pearce saw escapism as a deliberate choice to remove oneself from the

suffering of others through denial. It is motivated by a deep-seated fear of

suffering that was recognised as a major problem of over-development.

Burgess identified denial of suffering as the status quo in Australia. Honman

noted how denial has given rise to another need. This is denial of one’s

vulnerability to psychological alienation as more and more connections to nature

are broken. She sees this as one of the great dangers of urbanism. It’s a form of

hubris in not recognising one’s biophilic needs. These reflections led to the

conclusion that the over-developed world has lost much in terms of a common-

sense, embodied knowledge about how to dwell with nature.

The Art of Dwelling

107

Rodgers noted the squandering of time as humanity wrestles with its collective

conscience. This situation has been reviewed in the literature as a problem tied to

outmoded socio-economic decision-making frameworks that are too narrow and

short-sighted to deal with the unsustainable pressures upon the Earth’s

ecosystems. Time is the most important resource that can never be reclaimed and

Palich sums up the urgent action needed in addressing the current situation. The

conclusion drawn from this critique of development pressures is that denial,

alienation and apathy define over-development. The escapism and hubris they

foster are the real human problems in the over-developed West that must be

addressed through ecologically sustainable design.

Through a critical stance towards ecologically sustainable design in Section 9.2,

hubris and escapism were found operating within strategies currently favoured.

Webb is looking to move away from the hubris of just working with nature. He

revealed a dissatisfaction with the exploitative, functionalist mindset through

which the natural world is valued. Pearce notes that the hubris Webb critiques is

deeply grounded in the need for humankind to make the most of technology to

take advantage of nature and rise above its constraints. Both Webb and Pearce

regard biomimicry and biophilia as scientific approaches toward ecologically

sustainable design that allow for a more respectful relationship with nature.

However, there is no guarantee that attitudes will change (Section 2.2). A closer

look at Palich’s concerns about current efficiency-through-technology measures

revealed a resistance to change that these approaches alone cannot address.

Action Research theory promotes double-loop learning as both a personal and

interpersonal dynamic for change. Personal transformation is a recognised

prerequisite for structural change. Focusing on technical and institutional change

alone without deliberate techniques for personal change is not enough. Therefore

efficiency-through-technology measures, while necessary, are not sufficient in

that they do not directly challenge personal transformation. This critique revealed

petty status anxieties and egocentricity as real problems that remain un-addressed.

The Art of Dwelling

108

Hiding behind these conditions is fear of change itself, especially when directed

at one’s life-long habitual thinking. Palich sums up the difficulty through her

own meta-self-awareness. She knows that in spite of being ‘way fit’ to make the

changes, she still embodies a way of life that is unsustainable. Action Research

theory holds that part of Palich’s problem is that personal efforts at self-

transformation require support from wider social and professional structures. The

conclusion that can be drawn from this is that self-transformation needs to be

directly addressed and then directly supported. Self-reflective practice is a

recognised method directly aimed at self-transformation. Any attempts to include

it as part of design methodology would require active support from the

architecture profession by recognising it as professional development practice.

In Section 9.3 real possibilities were critiqued for transforming petty status

anxieties and egocentricity through a review of personal and public levels of self-

awareness pursued by the interviewees. The review of personal strategies started

with phenomenology as the most extreme and under-appreciated critique of

current approaches to ecologically sustainable design. Phenomenology offers a

means of breaking through self-boundaries while remaining grounded in the real

experience of design. The significance of this approach is in providing for a

richness of connectivity that is normally overlooked in a Western cultural mindset

that devalues subjectivity. Phenomenologists consider current cultural settings

encourage a subtle form of disengagement that their methodology addresses.

Self-awareness was next discussed in the more familiar terms of moral values and

emotional qualities. These attributes were critiqued through an exploration of

intuition that was found to be informed by them but also to guide them.

According to Honman, while she appears as a wilful interpreter of lifelong

instruction, it is more a process of being guided by her intuition which channels

her existential need for self-expression. Sating one’s existential need becomes

one’s vocation in life. Practising one’s vocation with care defines the art of

dwelling and illuminates a fundamental precept of sustainable design.

The Art of Dwelling

109

Happiness and suffering, humility, passion and courage were all shown to act as

filters upon self-interest and in maintaining careful pursuit of one’s vocation.

Happiness provides a register of Honman and Toner’s successes in practising

their vocation with integrity. Suffering acts to extend Burgess towards others and

identify with them in their suffering. Suffering combined with passion allows

Palich the courage to take up the fight to make things better. Humility was

explained by Pearce as a form of courage, in never being too sure and having the

confidence to change. This led to the further requirement to keep engaged

through critical reflection. Phenomenology, moral values, emotional qualities

and critical thinking represent a range of personal strategies valued by the

interviewees in their aspirations to practice design that is both meaningful and

ecologically sustainable. These personal strategies power public behaviour and

are in turn reinforced and challenged in the public domain.

In Section 9.4 those interpersonal strategies that are deliberately provocative in

challenging current practices were discussed. They concerned office practice,

participatory design, and advocacy, opportunism and leadership. They were

chosen as positive examples of double-loop learning that explain its power at

both the personal and interpersonal level. Oppenheim demands from his staff

pro-active engagement in environmental groups and the skills to make money for

the business of ecologically sustainable design. Participatory Design challenges

architects to rise above their egos and the tendency to expropriate knowledge. By

engaging in real service to the community, architects are being challenged to give

back to the community the confidence to co-create their own habitat. Advocacy

at government level and through the profession’s representative organisations

provide another challenge for architects to build into their professional practice

the capacity to leverage change outside the office.

Four questions were asked at the beginning of this chapter. What do the

interviewees think is the transformative agenda of ecologically sustainable

design? What are the attitudinal barriers to this agenda? What are the personal

The Art of Dwelling

110

settings the interviewees already have that have drawn them to take up the

challenge? Do they also see the challenge in terms of their own self-

transformation?

The target of the transformative agenda of ecologically sustainable design within

the Australian context is over-development. The attitudinal barriers to this

agenda are denial, alienation and apathy that afflict over-development and

underlie the escapism and hubris it fosters. This also includes the emotionally

barren and controlling functionalist hubris of ‘just working with nature’ that

powers current socio-economic development practices. The interviewees are

explicitly concerned at better design outcomes enriched from lived experiences of

respectful engagement.

The other barrier to the transformative agenda is the deep fear of change itself.

Action Research theory refutes the efficacy of current strategies that favour a

‘distinct strategy’ based on efficiency-through-technology techniques. This

approach conforms to the technologist-in-us-all explanation that Pearce offers,

but the problem is that this approach, while fundamental and necessary, is not

sufficient for real change. What is needed is double-loop learning. Through self-

reflective practice, double-loop learning can be used to bring under control the

runaway technologist-in-us-all urge that Pearce appreciates has led to climate

change and the functionalist hubris accompanying this that Webb notes is further

distorting the human / nature relationship.

Personal transformation is a prerequisite to technical and institutional change.

The double-loop dynamic must occur as a personal self-awareness dynamic as

well as a public self-awareness dynamic. Systematic critiquing of personal self-

awareness levels becomes important. As a disciplined inner feedback

mechanism, this is as important as systematic critiquing of public self-awareness

methods. Public self-awareness methods set up an interpersonal feedback loop

to bring about technical and institutional change. This approach would allow the

The Art of Dwelling

111

designer to engage in the transformative agenda of sustainable design through

two feedback mechanisms.

It has been argued throughout this thesis that self-reflective practices offer a

systematic, double-loop method of self-critique for personal transformation. The

findings from the interview analysis indicate a need exists within sustainable

design for the inclusion of such a mechanism to better facilitate its transformative

agenda.

But what types of self-information are to be critiqued through double-loop

learning? They are the personal settings the interviewees already have that have

drawn them to take up the challenge of ecologically sustainable design. Personal

settings have been moulded through phenomenological practices, moral values,

emotional qualities and critical thinking. These dynamics represent an expression

and satiation of existential need. They are guided by intuition. Intuition has been

found to be a powerful dynamic that, while informed by upbringing, also guides

self-expression through the mechanism of propensity. This leads to another

finding. Self-reflective practice, as a method for gaining knowledge of the mind

and consciousness, provides the opportunity for coming to a better appreciation

of intuition and with this, a revaluing of subjectivity. Self-information and the

levels of self-awareness it accords becomes the focus of study as well as the

dynamic through which the study is made. This is the true purpose and nature of

self-reflective practice.

Self-information and awareness levels power public behaviour and are in turn

reinforced and challenged in the public domain through double-loop learning.

Double-loop learning opportunities for the interviewees were located in office

practice, in design practice and in leveraging for change outside the office within

the public domain. It was noted by the interviewees that change is hard-won and

the battle is ongoing. Because the dynamic is an iterative one, this observation

The Art of Dwelling

112

can be said to pertain to both the task-oriented aspect of sustainable design as

well as to its self-transformative aspect.

Conclusions can now be drawn from the discussion of the art of dwelling and the

art of building. In Chapter 10 they will be presented in terms of their contribution

to new knowledge about sustainable design practice as self-transformative

practice.

113

Chapter 10

Conclusions

10.0 Introduction

This thesis has investigated the synergies between design and self-reflective

practice in order to extend knowledge about design as self-transformative

practice. Three preliminary understandings about the nature of design were

advanced. First, design is both a task-oriented and a self-oriented practice and is,

therefore, self-transformative in nature. Second, the designer embodies the

transformative process, which re-emerges as his/her intuitive ethical know-how or

praxis. Third, while some self-transformation naturally occurs, this is of a limited

nature when self-reflective practice is neither a deliberate part of design practice,

nor practised as a full-bodied process.

From the literature review, it was established that design is a third way of

knowing, different from both the humanities and the sciences for its stimulation

of creativity through game-play. Because of this, design as praxis can be

characterised as more intuitive and accommodating than deliberative and wilful.

As a consequence, design as praxis is highly dependent on the quality of the

designer’s ethical know-how.

The principal guidelines for engaging in sustainable design, as set out in the

UIA/AIA Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future (1993) and

adopted by the profession (here) in Australia, call for value-change and offer a list

of virtues to be inculcated into design practice, but go no further in their

recommendations for embodying such value-change. The expectation is that such

Conclusions

114

virtues will be inculcated into the designer’s praxis as a natural consequence of

acquiring the necessary technical skills through which to practice sustainable

design.

Yet, the phenomenological literatures devoted to design and cognition, establish

that praxis actually guides logic and technical know-how. It was also established

that self-transformation can be enhanced through rigorous methods of self-

reflection encapsulated within meditation practices. That these considerations are

missing from the discourse on sustainable design reflects a lack of research into

deliberative self-transformation techniques. It was found that, within the techno-

rational paradigm of modernisation through which human development is

pursued, the trend is towards greater autonomy and self-expression, yet, self-

expression is criticised as suffering from a distorting mix of individualism and

hubris.

Sustainable design has risen to prominence within the techno-rational paradigm

through a focus on transforming the built-environment via the environmental

sciences. The need for certainty is pursued through an evidence-based approach

to design. However, it was found that within this particular approach, there is a

tendency to overlook how design as praxis actually happens. The concern raised,

pursued and presented within this thesis is that such an oversight tends to

undermine sustainable design as a rigorously holistic practice of transformation.

In-depth interviews were undertaken with nine practitioners of sustainable design

in order to pursue how this oversight affects sustainable design as transformative

practice. Architect’s understandings of praxis, paradigms and value-change can

inform a model of sustainable design that is holistic in its transformative agenda.

Of the nine architects interviewed, six were acclaimed nationally and

internationally by the profession as leading practitioners of sustainable design.

Two architects are known to engage in formal self-reflective practices and

another engages in deliberate but informal practice as part of design practice.

Conclusions

115

Four have strong affiliations with the Australian Institute of Architects (AusIA)

with two agreeing to be interviewed as representatives of AusIA. Targeting a mix

of designers with and without affiliations to AusIA or self-reflective practice, but

all committed to practising sustainable design, captured a number of different

perspectives on praxis, paradigms and value-change. These views were elicited

through Motherhood Statements about expertise, commitment, spirituality,

familiarisation, happiness and value-systems.

Two major themes emerged from the interview analysis: the art of building and

the art of dwelling. These themes reference Heidegger’s seminal ideas regarding

the phenomenology of Dwelling through Being and the linking of Dwelling with

Building through Care. The art of building was discussed through three sub-

themes that together form an integrated picture of architectural design knowledge:

the art of scenario-building, the articulation of meaningful spaces, and the

employment of the architectural sciences. The art of dwelling was discussed

through four interpretations of existential need, which emerged as the compelling

dynamic behind engagement in sustainable design and strategies for self-

transformation. These four interpretations were discussed, first, in the context of

human development pressures, second, as a hidden limitation of sustainable

design, and finally as two iterative strategies for self-transformation oscillating

between the personal and interpersonal.

This final chapter presents the significance of the research findings in terms of

how they advance a more holistic approach to sustainable design. Five major

contributions have been identified:

1) Design as praxis provides a means for experiencing

interdependence;

2) Attitudinal change is linked to deeply existential needs;

3) Scrutinising moral certainty requires virtues that have particular

feeling tones attached to them;

Conclusions

116

4) Self-transformation is a personal and interpersonal dynamic that

needs to be directly addressed and then directly supported;

5) Certainty in design actually relies on a number of immiscible

certification methods. This finding necessitates a broader base to

evidence-based design in order to incorporate, not just physical

and social measures of wellbeing, but phenomenological and

psychological ones as well that come through intuitions and

feelings.

The major theme running through these research findings is that empathy and

certainty exemplify the essential dynamic between design as praxis and design as

technical know-how. In order to capture this essential dynamic and incorporate

it into sustainable design, a recommended model – the techno-psychosocial

model – is presented as a contribution to current techniques for practising

sustainable design as a holistic practice.

10.1 Interdependence and design as praxis

The interviewees reveal, to varying degrees, how an intense experience of

interdependence can be generated and expressed when designing. The quality of

the experience is described, most forcefully by Mick Pearce, as love. Love

conveys the passion and empathy that make the experience of interdependence

possible. Pearce has insights into interdependence and habitat creation. He

understands that people create habitat by extending their psychic boundaries into

the surrounding environment and he uses this insight in designing for the built

environment. While his knowledge is scientific, he also has a feeling for these

concepts, derived especially from his lived-experience of the Zimbabwean

landscape and its people. These experiences not only provide direct evidence for

his understandings, but, most importantly, it is through the power of love that he

too feels conjoined to the landscape and its people. The experience of

interdependence he can only describe as something he can’t give up. His ability

Conclusions

117

to synthesise his feelings and knowledge of interdependence and habitat-creation

into his design responses underscores his contribution to sustainable design. The

lesson to be drawn from Pearce is that, for interdependence and habitat to be

more than abstract concepts, they must be somehow experienced. Love provides

that opportunity for Pearce.

Greg Burgess, in particular, was able to describe in detail the experiential quality

of interdependence when designing. The critical lesson offered by Burgess is to

trust in design as a spontaneous and intuitive process of association. Through

trust, he deliberately generates an experience of being open and gathered; a

mindful receptiveness made possible, again, through an attitude of love. The

power of love is purposefully used by Burgess as an antidote to wilfulness. It is

his strategy for engaging in sustainable design over and above any technical

knowledge that also informs design. Burgess identifies love as the necessary

mode for articulating creative associations generated with participants in the

design process. Burgess experiences this as an extension of his psyche beyond

his limited self-concepts and into the greater associative space of habitat. Habitat,

for Burgess, is a dynamic, information-rich space of ‘real possibilities’ generated

by all the participants in the design process. Burgess’ own experiences reinforce

the concern raised in the literature review that design as praxis be respected as an

intuitive process reliant on an absence of wilfulness for its success.

10.2 Attitudinal change and existential need

All of the interviewees were critical of the status quo. Under-development and

overdevelopment pressures were both seen to distort the expression of existential

need. Whereas underdevelopment pressures distort self-expression in terms of

degradation and suffering, overdevelopment pressures distort self-expression in

terms of escapism and hubris. Escapism and hubris emerged as the real targets

for sustainable design strategies within the Australian context.

Conclusions

118

Most importantly, escapism and hubris were found hidden within an uncritical

acceptance of current approaches to sustainable design. First, a functionalist

hubris hides within an unquestioning attitude towards nature as simply a resource

to be exploited, albeit sustainably. When such an attitude goes unquestioned,

complicity in a will to power over nature also remains hidden. Second, the

sustainable design strategy most endorsed by the interviewees - the strategy of

efficiency-through-technology – hides a tendency to conflate effectiveness with

efficiency. Natasha Palich, in particular, sees in this an uncritical stance towards

existing technologies and techniques, which she worries undermine progress

towards sustainability.

The conclusion to be drawn here is that sustainable design falls short of its

transformative potential while the will to power over nature remains hidden

within it. Yet, the will to power is also a deeply existential need in humankind.

A balanced approach in dealing with this tension needs to be achieved. Design

has been shown to harbour its own strategy for achieving balance. As a praxis, it

can generate an attitude of accommodation as opposed to wilfulness. All that is

required is that this propensity be properly inculcated as part of sustainable

design’s self-transformative agenda. Mick Pearce and Greg Burgess both reveal

techniques for dissolving the will to power over nature, with love providing the

essential dynamic for achieving this.

10.3 Personal self-transformation strategies

All the interviewees rely upon a sense of moral certainty to maintain their

commitment to sustainable design. Their strategy for scrutinising such certainty

is to rely upon a range of virtues that act as filters upon self-interest and reinforce

their commitment to sustainable design as a vocation. Such virtues as integrity,

love, courage, passion, humility, happiness, suffering, opportunism and

leadership were considered essential in challenging and monitoring both personal

and interpersonal agendas of self-expression. The major findings are:

Conclusions

119

• Integrity comes with living according to the moral imperative of

sustainable design. The more embedded the learning, the more intuitive

the thinking and more confident the interviewees were of their stance in

light of the cultural milieu of denial, apathy and hubris characteristic of

the response to sustainable design initiatives they encounter in

architectural practice.

• Neither the facts nor intuition alone could achieve certainty without

immersion through love. Love has been found to be an important

characteristic of the subjective domain of design practice.

• Fostering an attitude of accommodation (described by Burgess as being

open and gathered) requires real courage in trusting in one’s intuition

within an intellectual environment that preferences rational modes over

intuitive modes of understanding. Courage was also found to be

necessary in resisting the powerful forces generated through techno-

rational thinking that devalues design. Passion and courage are the

critical emotions behind a determination to take up the challenges to be

met through sustainable design. One of those challenges is to avoid over-

confidence so as to have the confidence to change. This requires humility

which allows for reflection.

• Humility is the key that unlocks the self-transformation process. But it is

a humility forged through real experiences and real engagement in battle.

Humility becomes a form of courage as well; courage in never being too

sure and in having the confidence to make change.

• Emotional wellbeing underpins vocational activity. All the interviewees

direct their happiness and self-interest toward hopeful activity. Directing

them towards the service of others is seen as a moral act that is also self-

interested even to the point of selfishness.

• Effective self-transformation requires feelings of suffering. One of the

tasks of the designer is to understand, empathise and experience suffering

as fully as possible in order to connect to real-world situations. Through

Conclusions

120

the experience of suffering comes a passion for others, as well as a

passion about how to live, in that it powers a mixture of urgency, purpose

and despair that underlies many of the interviewees’ strategies of

engaging in sustainable design.

• To attain a position of power to bring about effective change through

sustainable design requires the architect to seize every opportunity so as to

build up credibility and establish the necessary track record.

• Leaders are the ones with the passion.

The conclusion to be drawn from this discussion is twofold. First, a sense of

moral certainty is relied upon for commitment to sustainable design; therefore

methods for scrutinising moral certainty are of paramount concern for the

interviewees. This leads to the second conclusion: that the range of virtues

developed by the UIA/AIA and AusIA can be added to from the list above and

refined to include the feeling tone that accompanies them. It has been noted that

training of the emotions is not directly referenced in the major documents

outlining value-change. Self-reflective practices such as those developed within

psychotherapy that utilise meditation, offer techniques for value-change through

training of the emotions.

10.4 Interpersonal self-transformation strategies

Methods for undergoing double-loop learning, as identified within the Action

Research literature, were evident in office practice, in participatory design

practice and in leveraging change outside the office within the public domain. It

was noted by the interviewees that these undertakings are challenging, ongoing

and often a real battle requiring a fighting spirit.

Action Research theory holds that personal efforts at self-transformation require

support from wider social and professional structures. The interviewees confirm

that self-transformation is an iterative process between personal and interpersonal

Conclusions

121

dynamics. Within (the late) David Oppenheim’s firm in particular, its ethos is

built through staff members such as Jane Toner, who are committed to both

sustainable design and to the bigger battle for cultural change outside the office.

This strategy enabled the formation of a cohesive unit that was self-reinforcing.

Participatory design, as another well-regarded technique for sustainable design,

was seen to give recognition to a fuller complement of people and processes that

enable community-level ownership of the ‘real possibilities’ of the design

process. This approach was seen from a number of perspectives. For Greg

Burgess and Mick Pearce, it allows for an extension of the collective psyche in

the creation of habitat, as opposed to more objectifying or functionalist space-

making agendas. Louise Honman, in particular, sees it as giving people the

power and the confidence to engage in sustainability initiatives and as an

opportunity for encouraging them to take a critical attitude towards normative

behaviour. For Seona Gunn, it challenges her to personally address normative

patterns of behaviour and to suppress ego in the process. For these architects,

participatory design is seen to require compassion and a real generosity of spirit.

Thus, self-transformation needs to be directly addressed and then directly

supported. Action Research is a recognised method aimed at structural change

through self-transformation. It is significant that it recommends engaging all the

senses to bring about self-awareness and self-reconciliation. This is a model

moving increasingly toward a confluence with meditation. Any attempts to

include it as part of the transformative methodology of sustainable design would

require active support from the architecture profession by recognising it as

professional development practice.

10.5 The need for certainty

The reorientation of the design agenda towards ecological sustainability is seen as

a necessary initiative by all the interviewees, in that it bolsters the undermined

authority of architecture. Greg Burgess is the only architect to add the caveat that

Conclusions

122

the current approach is too ‘fundamentalist’ in not engaging in a more esoteric

understanding of design.

High levels of certainty are seen as crucial to the credibility and reputation of

sustainable design and, therefore, an evidence-based approach to design is

embraced. However, certainty is also seen as problematic, for differences

between the certification methods of the physical and social sciences are well

recognised. Accommodating this is seen as the most pressing problem (Section

8.4). For Stephen Webb, the reductionist model of the physical sciences is

inadequate for taking account of the human priorities and complexities

represented by the social sciences. Yet, the general expectation from among the

interviewees is that certification should be undertaken through a universal method

and that this method should be the one developed for the physical sciences. For

Greg Burgess, however, certainty ultimately rested upon reflections of self.

Burgess is able to articulate this clearly through his own meta-analysis of his

design experiences. It was found that design as an intuitive process is generally

not well understood, except by Burgess and, therefore, not purposefully

developed, even though it is widely utilised. Significantly, Burgess alone out of

the interviewees, admitted to practising meditation as an aid to his design praxis.

Because the interviewees experience design as a dialogue among truly different

and equally valid ways of knowing, various techniques, whether drawn from the

physical sciences, social sciences or from meditation, are relied upon for

achieving certainty.

Design has been seen to depend on a range of certainties that accommodate

physical/technological, social and intuitive agendas. However, the various

certification methods practised by the interviewees are not only specific, but

immiscible in their specificity. Without an overarching philosophy to

accommodate this, resolution of design thinking into a formal design is

problematic for designers. Therefore, an overarching philosophy is required in

Conclusions

123

order to develop a model of sustainable design that formally recognises this

problem.

10.6 The dynamic between empathy and certainty

A major theme can be identified running through these research findings. The

essential dynamic between design as praxis and design as technical know-how is

an iterative dynamic between empathy and certainty. This dynamic is revealed in

various ways:

Empathy and certainty are necessary to develop the designer’s trust in design as

praxis. Through trust, it can be practised as a mindful receptiveness to the

spontaneous and intuitive powers of association that arise. Design practised like

this requires an attitude of empathy as an antidote to wilfulness. Through

mindful receptiveness, interdependence and habitat can be experienced as more

than abstract concepts. Empathy provides that opportunity, for it is identified as

the essential dynamic for dissolving the will to power over nature and extending

the psyche beyond limited self-concepts; two expressions of existential need that

are seen to distort the living relationship between the designer and the ‘other’.

The iterative dynamic between empathy and certainty is also seen in the

relationship between virtues and moral certainty. Empathy is identified as part of

an extensive list of virtues relied upon for critiquing both personal and

interpersonal settings of moral certainty considered necessary for commitment to

sustainable design. Complementing this dynamic are the more explicit and

technical critiques and certainties provided by the physical and social sciences.

The iterations between the personal and interpersonal dynamics of self-expression

and self-transformation evident in office practice, in participatory design practice

and in leveraging change outside the office within the public domain also reveal

the dynamic is one between empathy and certainty.

Conclusions

124

10.7 The techno-psychosocial model of sustainable design

Now that the essential dynamic between design as praxis and design as technical

know-how has been identified as an iterative dynamic between empathy and

certainty, a model for sustainable design that promotes this dynamic can be

advanced. It is based on four separate concepts: the philosophy of consilience,

the biopsychosocial model, meditation and Action Research. Together, they

address the logic for attending to design as praxis, provide a rigorous method of

self-reflective practice specifically designed to enhance praxis and provide a

method for practising it within daily professional practice that is ongoing and

transformational in targeting both personal and interpersonal dynamics.

10.7.1 Consilience

From within the literature review, the philosophy of consilience has been

identified as a possible overarching philosophy for design (Section 5.1).

Consilience can take account of the complex nature of the design process, where

emergent principles predominate, where contingency reigns and where

immiscibility is a factor. Therefore, consilience highlights design as praxis and

in so doing, avoids the danger of subsuming praxis within technique which is its

temporal extension. If the design process can be better practised as an

accommodation of multiple ways of knowing, it could better respond to the

various international and national calls to widen upon utilitarian ethics and enter

the more unfamiliar moral territory of sociocultural and intrinsic valuations of

worth (Section 2.1.3 and 2.3.1).

10.7.2 The biopsychosocial model

By highlighting praxis, the need arises to bring rigour to praxis in order to

accommodate the wider call for rigour in practising sustainable design as a

credible and reputable architectural practice. What is missing, however, is a

suitably rigorous method that is oriented towards design as praxis. This need has

already been addressed outside of the architecture profession through the

Conclusions

125

biopsychosocial model of clinical practice. The biopsychosocial model of

practice is a holistic approach to daily professional practice that highlights the

importance to praxis of self-reflective practices such as mindfulness meditation.

By incorporating mindfulness meditation into clinical practice, praxis is

recognised as the coping skills of the practitioner. Research indicates that this

approach helps make explicit what are normally tacit forms of awareness

regarding knowledge and feelings. It also helps the practitioner to identify

personal biases and to remain mindful of them in the normal course of daily

activity. By enhancing self-awareness skills, outcomes include reduced stress,

increased coping, and improved empathy.

10.7.3 Meditation

Meditation can be used to specifically address design praxis at a number of levels

and for a number of reasons. First, it can bring about value-change by literally

changing brain architecture and turning fleeting states into structural traits, thus

addressing habitual thinking and recidivism. Second, it can be used to improve

the coping skills of the designer in conducting the design process on a daily basis.

Third, meditation can be used to refine design as an intuitive practice. Fourth,

because meditation is practised as a logical and rational approach to mental

training, it can be seen as a rigorous approach to refining intuition as both a

coping skill and a design practice.

10.7.4 Action Research

Action Research recognises self-transformation as the critical first step in its

bigger agenda of institutional change through double-loop learning. The methods

that have evolved for self-transformation are moving increasingly towards a

confluence with meditation techniques. They are person-centred, experiential and

creatively co-operative and are aimed at transcending ego-awareness and

instrumental rationality.

Conclusions

126

10.8 Recommendations

A range of personal self-transformation strategies that rest on an interplay

between empathy and certainty were identified as critical to sustainable design

practice. This dynamic influences design as both a praxis and a decision-making

process, yet praxis, as the intuitive dimension of design is overlooked for its

strategic importance to this dynamic. Because praxis guides design as a

decision-making process, the techno-psychosocial model is recommended as a

rigorous approach to sustainable design as self-transformative practice. The

techno-psychosocial model can contribute to the momentum towards evidence-

based design by encouraging rigour through meditation and Action-Research

methods. As a model that can incorporate such methods within its overarching

philosophy of consilience, the techno-psychosocial model can focus the

architectural profession on what is currently an under-researched aspect of the

transformative agenda of sustainable design: design as praxis.

In order to advance research into the techno-psychosocial model of sustainable

design, the recommendation is to take the model into the design studio to be

tested and refined in practice. This can be undertaken in studios at both

university undergraduate level and in the workplace as a long-term Action

Research project. The objectives of the research will need to be developed

through a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods within an

overarching philosophy of consilience. The development of the research plan

will require a consolidation of interdisciplinary research interests, some of which

have been introduced and considered in a preliminary sense throughout this

thesis. They include measuring for cognitive, haptic, attitudinal and behavioural

change at a personal and interpersonal level while also measuring for building

performance and urban responsibility from a professional and community

perspective. Such a development constitutes a truly interdisciplinary and holistic

research model for sustainable design.

127

References

Alexander, C. (2001-). The nature of order : an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe. New York: Oxford University Press.

Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., Silverstein, M., Jacobson, M., Fiksdahl-King, I., & Angel, S. (1977). A pattern language : towns, buildings, construction. New York: Oxford Univ.Press.

Argyris, C. (1990). Overcoming organizational defenses: Facilitating organizational teaming. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

— (1993a). Knowledge for action: A guide for overcoming barriers to organizational change. San Francisco: Jossey-bass.

— (1993b). On organizational learning. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Business.

Argyris, C., & Schön, D. A. (1974). Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

— (1978). Theory in Practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco, USA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

— (1996). Organizational learning II : theory, method and practice. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

Bangs, H. (2007). The return of sacred architecture: the golden ratio and the end of modernism Rochester, VT Inner Traditions.

Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.

— (1979). Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. Toronto: Bantam.

Bazeley, P. (2007). Qualitative data analysis with NVivo Los Angeles, London: Sage.

References

128

Benoist, L. (1988). The Esoteric Path: An introduction to the Hermetic Tradition. England: Crucible.

Berglund, E. (2008). Exploring the social and political: Are architects still relevant to architecture? arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 12, 105-111 %R doi:10.1017/S1359135508000997.

Berry, T. (1988). The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco:USA.: Sierra Club Books.

— (1991). The Ecozoic Era. In H. Hannum (Ed.), Eleventh Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures. Great Barrington, Massachusetts: E. F. Schumacher Society and Thomas Berry.

— (1999). The Great Work. NY: Bell Tower.

Biomimicry Institute (2009). Learning from Termites How to Create Sustainable Buildings, Biomimicry Institute. http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/case-studies/case-studies/architecture.html: accessed 18.12.09.

Burgess, G. (2004). The Multiplicity of the Whole. Architecture Australia., 93, 98-100.

— (2006). GB_1st interview_15.02.06. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

Caicco, G. (2007). Architecture, ethics, and the personhood of place. Hanover: University Press of New England.

Capra, F. (1983). The turning point : science, society, and the rising culture. London: Fontana.

— (1996). The web of life : a new synthesis of mind and matter. London: HarperCollins.

— (2002). The hidden connections: integrating the biological, cognitive, and social dimensions of life into a science of sustainability. NY:USA.: Doubleday.

Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

References

129

Chiotinis, N. (2006). The request of sustainability and architecture as cultural paradigm. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 17 593 - 598.

Croaker, T. (2004). 2004 RAIA Gold Medal Jury Citation Gregory Burgess. In Australian Institute of Architects (Ed.), Gold Medal. http://www.architecture.com.au/i-cms?page=4677: accessed 18.12.09.

Crossan, M. (2003). Chris Argyris and Donald Schon's Organizational Learning: There is no silver bullet. Academy of Management Executive, 17, 38-39.

Cuomo, S. (2007). Technology and culture in Greek and Roman antiquity Cambridge ; New York Cambridge University Press.

Dawson, A., (ed) (2004). Technology Roadmap, Stage 1 for industry comment: The building and construction industry.

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2005). The SAGE handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Diesendorf, M., & Hamilton, C. (1997). Human ecology, human economy : ideas for an ecologically sustainable future. St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

Doppelt, B. (2003). Leading Change Towards Sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Sheffield, England.: Greenleaf Publishing.

Dovey, K. (1979). The dwelling experience : towards a phenomenology of architecture. Melbourne: Faculty of Architecture, Building and Town & Regional Planning, University of Melbourne.

Dreyfus, H. L. (1991). Being-in-the-world : a commentary on Heidegger's Being and time, division I. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Eckersley, R. (2004). Well & good : how we feel & why it matters. Melbourne Text Publishing.

Faivre, A., & Hanegraaff, W. J. (1995). Western esotericism and the science of religion : selected papers presented at the 17th Congress of the

References

130

International Association for the History of Religions, Mexico city 1995. Mexico City, Mexico: Peeters.

Fay, R., & Owen, C. (2008). Obituary: vale David Oppenheim, 1948-2007, Architecture Australia. http://www.archmedia.com.au/aa/aaissue.php?issueid=200805&article=14&typeon=3: accessed 18.12.09.

Feldman, M. S. (1995). Strategies for Interpreting Qualitative Data. Thousand Oaks: California: Sage Publishing.

Flick, U. (2002). An Introduction to Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications.

Flick, U., von Kardoff, E., & Steinke, I. (2004). A Companion to Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications.

Fontana, A., & Frey, J. H. (2003). The Interview: From Structured Questions to Negotiated Texts. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Fortmeyer, R. (2008). Architecture, Hot and Cold. Architectural Record, 196, 58-58.

Frumkin, H. (2008). Nature Contact and Human Health: Building the Evidence. In S. R. Kellert, J. H. Heerwagen & M. L. Mador (Eds.), Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

Fuller, R., de Jong, U., & Mellersh-Lucas, S. (2008). The ethics of sustainable housing design: the dilemma for practising architects.(Report). Architectural Science Review, 51, 231(8).

Garnaut, R. (2008). The Garnaut Climate Change Review: Final Report. Melbourne: Commonwealth of Australia.

Gibbs, G. R. (2006). Qualitative Data Analysis: Explorations with NVivo. Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University Press.

Glaser, B. G. (1992). Basics of grounded theory analysis. Mill Valley, Calif. : Sociology Press.

References

131

— (1994). More grounded theory methodology : a reader. Mill Valley, CA Sociology Press.

— (2001). The grounded theory perspective : conceptualization contrasted with description Mill Valley, CA Sociology Press.

— (2003). The grounded theory perspective II : description's remodeling of grounded theory methodology Mill Valley, CA Sociology Press.

— (2005). The grounded theory perspective III : theoretical coding Mill Valley, Calif.: Sociology Press.

Glazer, N. (2007). From a cause to a style : modernist architecture's encounter with the American city. Princeton, N.J. ; Woodstock Princeton University Press.

Gould, S. J. (2003). The Hedgehog, the Fox and the Magister's Pox: Mending and minding the misconceived gap between science and the humanities. London: Vintage.

Grbich, C. (2007). Qualitative data analysis: An introduction. London, Englands & Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications Ltd.

Greene, T. C. (2008). Stephen R. Kellert, Building for Life: Understanding and Designing the Human-Nature Connection , Island Press, Washington, DC (2005) ISBN 1-55963-673-4 250 pp., $60.00. Journal of Environmental Psychology, In Press, Corrected Proof.

Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1981). Effective evaluation : improving the usefulness of evaluation results through responsive and naturalistic approaches San Francisco Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Gunn, S. (2007). SG 1st Interview_29.06.07. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

Habraken, N. J. (2005). Palladio's Children. In J. Teicher (Ed.). Oxford: Taylor & Francis.

Hamilton, C. (2002). Dualism and sustainability. Ecological Economics, 42, 89–99.

References

132

— (2003). Growth Fetish. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin.

Hanegraaff, W. J., Faivre, A., van den Broek, R., & Brach, J.-P. (2005). Dictionary of gnosis and western esotericism Leiden ; Boston, Mass.: Brill.

Harding, S. (2006). Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia. White River Junction: Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Harnard, S. (2007). Maturana's autopoietic hermeneutics versus Turing's causal methodology for explaining cognition. Pragmatics & Cognition, 15, 599-603.

Harvey, C. W. (1989). Husserl's Phenomenology and the Foundations of Natural Science. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time. New York: Harper & Row.

— (1971). Building, Dwelling, Thinking. In A. Hofstadter (Ed.), Poetry, Language, Thought (pp. 143-61). London: Harper & Row.

— (2006). Mindfulness. London; New York, NY: Continuum International Pub.

Holl, S., Pallasmaa, J., & Pérez-Gómez, A. (2006). Questions of perception : phenomenology of architecture San Francisco, CA: William Stout.

Honman, L. (2006). LH 1st Interview_20.10.06. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Geelong.

Husserl, E. (1939/1973). Experience and judgment: investigations in a genealogy of logic. In L. Landgrebe (Ed.). London: Routledge and K. Paul.

Johnston, L. (2006). Software and Method: Reflections on Teaching and Using QSR NVivo in Doctoral Research International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 9, 379 - 391.

Kellert, S. R. (2005). Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection. DC: USA: Island Press.

References

133

Kellert, S. R., & Farnham, T. J. (2002). The good in nature and humanity : connecting science, religion, and spirituality with the natural world. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Kellert, S. R., Heerwagen, J., & Mador, M. (2008). Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.

Kellert, S. R., & Wilson, E. O. (1993). The Biophilia Hypothesis. Washington, DC: USA: Island Press.

Kibert, C. J. (1999). Reshaping the built environment : ecology, ethics, and economics. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a new Science.: Allen Lane: Penguin Books.

Lighthouse Experts Bureau (2002). Profiles of Bureau Members, Lighthouse Experts Bureau. http://www.lighthousebureau.com/profiles.htm: accessed 18.12.09.

Maturana, H., & Varela., F. (1973). Autopoiesis and Cognition: the Realization of the Living. In R. S. C. M. W. Wartofsky (Ed.), Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Dordecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co.

Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1987). The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Boston: New Science Library.

Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., & Behrens, W. (1972). The Limits to Growth. New York, NY.: Universe Books.

Meadows, D. H., Randers, H. J., & Meadows, D. L. (2005). Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. London

Sterling, VA: Earthscan.

Merleau-Ponty (1964). The Primacy of Perception. Evanston, IL. : Northwestern University Press.

— (1992). The Phenomenology of Perception. London: Routledge.

References

134

Merriam, S. B. (2002). Qualitative research in practice : examples for discussion and analysis San Francisco, Calif. ; [Great Britain]: Jossey-Bass.

— (2007). Non-Western perspectives on learning and knowing. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Pub. Co.

Mind & Life Institute (2003). Investigating the Mind: Exchanges between Buddhism & Biobehavioral Science with His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Mind and Life XI. MIT's Kresge Auditorium, Cambridge, MA.

— (2004). Neuroplasticity: The Neuronal Substrates of Learning and Transformation, Mind and Life XII. Dharamsala

India: Mind&Life_Institute.

— (2005a). The Cultivating Emotional Balance Research Project., Research Initiatives / Cultivating Emotional Balance: Mind and Life Institute.

— (2005b). Investigating the Mind 2005: The Science and Clinical Applications of Meditation Exchanges between Buddhism and the Biobehavioral/Medical Sciences on the Potential for Healing Suffering and Disease, Mind and Life XIII Constitution Hall, Washington DC: Mind&Life_Institute.

Morris-Nunn, R. (2007). CH2. Architecture Australia, 96, 90-99.

Norberg-Schultz, C. (1966). Intentions in Architecture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

— (1975). Meaning in Western Architecture. London: Studio Vista.

Oliver, L. E., & Ostrofsky, R. (2007). The Ecological Paradigm of Mind and Its Implications for Psychotherapy. Review of General Psychology, 11, 1-11.

Oppenheim, D. (2006). DO 1st Interview_09.10.06. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

Owen, C. (2003). The Green Field: the (sub)culture of sustainable architecture. Unpublished PhD, Melbourne University.

Palich, N. (2006a). NP_1st Interview_25.06.06. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

References

135

— (2006b). NP_2nd Interview_18.10.06. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

Pallasmaa, J. (2009). The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture. Chichester; U.K.: Wiley & Sons.

Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Pearce, M. (2006). MP_1st interview_18.01.06. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

Pérez Gómez, A. (2005). Questions of representation: the poetic origin of architecture. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9, 217 - 225

— (2006). Built upon Love: Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Plumwood, V. (2002). Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason. New York, USA: Routledge.

RAIA (2001). Environment Policy. BDP Environment Design Guide.

Richards, L. (2005). Handling qualitative data: A practical guide. London: Sage.

Rodger, A. (2000). Environmental Design and Architecture. BDP Environment Design Guide, Gen 2.

— (2006). AR_1st Interview_09.10.06. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

Salingaros, N. A. (2007). Anti-architecture and deconstruction. Solingen, Germany: Umbau-Verlag.

Sanoff, H. (1990). Participatory design : theory & techniques. Raleigh, N.C.: Henry Sanoff.

— (2006). Multiple Views of Participatory Design. METU JFA, 23, 131-143.

Scully, V. (1974). Modern architecture : the architecture of democracy. New York: G. Braziller.

References

136

Seamon, D. (1993). Dwelling, seeing, and designing : toward a phenomenological ecology. Published Albany State University of New York Press

— (2007). A Lived Hermetic of People and Place: Phenomenology and Space Syntax. In A. S. Kubat, O. Ertekin, Y. Guney & E. Eyuboglu (Eds.), 6th International Space Syntax Symposium (pp. iii-1—iii-16). Istanbul: Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Architecture.

Seamon, D., & Buttimer, A. (1980). The human experience of space and place. London Croom Helm

Sen, A. K. (2002). Response to Commentaries. Studies in Comparative International Development, 37, 78-86.

Senge, P. (2004). Presence: An exploration of profound change in people, organizations, and society. Currency Doubleday, New York.

Senge, P. M. (2003). Taking personal change seriously: The impact of Organizational Learning on management practice. Academy of Management Executive, 17, 47-50.

Senge, P. M., Scharmer, C. O., Jaworski, J., & Flowers, B. S. (2008). Alternative Future. Leadership Excellence, 25, 3-4

Sharr, A. (2007). Heidegger for architects Oxon; New York: Taylor & Francis.

Sharr, A., & Weston, R. (2001). The paradoxes of progress. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 5, 3-3.

Sinclair, C., & Stohr, K. (2006). Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises. In A. f. Humanity (Ed.). New York; NY.: Metropolis Books.

Smith, J. K., & Deemer, D. K. (2003). The Problem of Criteria in the Age of Relativism. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Snodgrass, A., & Coyne, R. (2006). Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a way of thinking. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

References

137

St. John Wilson, C. (2000). Architectural reflections : studies in the philosophy and practice of architecture. Manchester ; New York: Manchester University Press.

Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Sutton, S. E., & Kemp, S. P. (2006). Integrating Social Science and Design Inquiry Through Interdisciplinary Design Charrettes: An Approach to to Participatory Community Problem Solving. American Journal of Community Psychology

38, 125-139.

Thompson, E. (2001). Empathy and consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8, 1-32.

— (2004). Life and mind: From autopoiesis to neurophenomenology. A tribute to Francisco Varela. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 3,

381–398.

— (2007). Mind in life : biology, phenomenology, and the sciences of mind Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Thornton, S. (2006). Karl Popper. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2006/entries/popper/.

Toner, J. (2006). JT 1st Interview_13.10.06. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

UNDP (2008). Human Development Report 2007/2008. Fighting Climate Change: Human solidarity in a divided world. Summary. In K. Watkins & Human Development Report Office (Eds.), United Nations Development Programme. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.

van Schaik, L. (2005). Mastering Architecture: Becoming a Creative Innovator in Practice. Great Britian: Wiley-Academy: John Wiley and Sons.

References

138

Varela, F. J. (1987). Laying Down a Path in Walking. In W. I. Thompson (Ed.), Gaia, A Way of Knowing: Political Implications of the New Biology (pp. 48-64). Great Barrington, MA: Inner Traditions/Lindesfarne Press.

— (1999a). Ethical Know-how: Action, Wisdom and Cognition. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

— (1999b). The Specious Present: A Neurophenomenology of Time Consciousness. In J. Petitot, F. Varela, B. Pachoud & J.-M. Roy (Eds.), Naturalizing Phenomenology: Issues in Contemporary Phenomenology and Cognitive Science. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

— (1999c). Steps to a science of Interbeing: unfolding the Dharma implicit in modern cognitive science. In S. Bachelor, G. Claxton & G. Watson (Eds.), The Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Science and our Day-to-Day Lives. New York: Rider/Random House.

Varela, F. J., & Depraz, N. (2003). Imagining: Embodiment, Phenomenology, and Transformation. In B. A. Wallace (Ed.), Buddhism & Science: Breaking New Ground. New York: Columbia University Press.

Varela, F. J., & Shear, J. (1999). The View From Within: First person approaches to the study of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6.

Vesely, D. (1985). Architecture and the conflict of representation [Architektur und der Konflikt der Repraesentation]. AA files. (8):21-38 .

— (2004). Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation. London: MIT Press.

Wallace, B. A. (2000). The taboo of subjectivity: toward a new science of consciousness. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wallace, B. A., & Hodel, B. (2008). Embracing Mind: the common ground of science and spirituality. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambala Publications.

Walz, R. (2008). Modernism Harlow, England ; New York Pearson Longman.

Wang, D. (2006). Prediction in theoria: towards an interdisciplinary range of theories related to architecture. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 10, 263-273

References

139

Webb, S. (2005). SW 1st Interview_01.12.05. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

— (2006). SW 2nd Interview_16.02.06. In S. Mellersh-Lucas (Ed.). Melbourne.

Wilkenfeld, G. (2007). Options to reduce greenhouse emissions from new homes in Victoria through the building approval process. In Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (Ed.).

140

Appendix A1: Practitioner interview request

Dear

My name is Susan Mellersh-Lucas and I am conducting research towards a PhD

at School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University. My supervisor is Dr

Ursula de Jong. The title of my thesis is Including the Designer in Ecologically

Sustainable Design (ESD). My particular concern is to investigate how

designers become engaged in ESD, develop their effectiveness and enhance their

commitment to the practice of ESD. In this manner I hope to critique the

orthodoxy of strategies current within the profession aimed at encouraging

engagement to ESD.

May I take this opportunity to ask you if you would be interested in participating

in a research project which I am currently building around a number of exemplars

within the architecture profession? I would like to question you about your

personal insights into your own journey; the stratagems you devise for your own

self-motivation and the structures you rely upon or have put in place to support

your sense of purpose. Practitioners such as yourself who have made the

commitment and can demonstrate this through your output are a very important

resource for helping others to engage in ESD.

I expect the initial interview to take an hour, and that there will probably be

follow-up communications with you in which your time will be needed for

review and comment on the interview report. You are welcome to withdraw

from the interview process at your discretion and without any need to declare

your reasoning at any stage. You will also have the opportunity to review a

transcript of the interview and make any changes which you feel are required.

The interview data and consent form will be secured in accordance with Deakin

University guidelines for their confidentiality to be maintained, and will be

disposed of after a minimum period of 6 years.

Appendix A1

141

The reporting of the interview will be published as a separate chapter of the

thesis in the form of edited highlights attributed to you. For this reason I am

asking for your permission to identify you and your project in the thesis.

The interviews will be used in a critique of both the research findings from

outside the architectural profession and of current strategies promoted by

the RAIA as the representative body of the profession.

In focusing on how you have developed and maintained your commitment to

ESD my questioning will be as follows:

• What does sustainability mean for you?

• How do you pursue sustainability?

• What does ESD mean for you?

• How do you pursue ESD?

• What does reflective practice mean to you?

• How do you pursue reflective practice?

If you would like further clarification of my authenticity and research mission I

would be most happy to supply you with supporting evidence.

My supervisor Dr. Ursula De Jong can be contacted at: [email protected]

<mailto:[email protected]>.

My email address is: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>

Yours sincerely,

Susan Mellersh-Lucas

Should you have any concerns about the conduct of this research project, please contact the Secretary, Ethics Committee, Research Services, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, BURWOOD VIC 3125. Tel (03) 9251 7123 (International +61 3 9251 7123).

142

Appendix A2: RAIA interview request

Dear

My name is Susan Mellersh-Lucas and I have been introduced to you through

Rob Stent the Victorian State President of the RAIA. I am conducting research

towards a Ph D in the School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University.

My supervisor is Dr Ursula de Jong. The title of my project is Including the

Designer in Ecologically Sustainable Design (ESD).

This is to invite you as a committee member of the RAIA to participate in my

research project. I wish to investigate the thinking behind the RAIA call to place

commitment at the core of professional practice. My research is into the

implementation of ESD but with the focus upon why the designer commits to

ESD and how that commitment is sustained. In an effort to design for ecological

sustainability the architecture profession is incorporating a variety of new

knowledge into building design and procurement processes. My particular

concern is to investigate how designers become engaged, develop their

effectiveness and enhance their commitment to the practice of ESD. In this

manner I hope to critique the orthodoxy of strategies current within the profession

aimed at encouraging commitment to ESD.

It is already known that psychological processes impact upon daily decision-

making. There is evidence to suggest that engaging in reflective practice is a skill

to be learned and is as critical to an ecologically sustainable outcome as grappling

with the more overt social-environmental challenges. A large part of this new

thinking about reflective practice is being generated within the behavioural

sciences and a matrix of scientific disciplines collectively referred to as the

science of consciousness.

Appendix A2

143

My research programme aims to track this momentum to see how it is understood

and applied within the architecture profession. In this manner I hope to critique

the orthodoxy of strategies current within the profession aimed at encouraging

commitment to ESD.

If you agree to participate, I would like to interview you about this aspect of ESD.

I expect the initial interview to take an hour, with follow-up communications for

review and comment on the interview report. You are welcome to withdraw

from the interview process at your discretion and without any need to declare

your reasoning at any stage. You will also have the opportunity to review a

transcript of the interview to ensure its accuracy. The interview data and consent

form will be secured in accordance with Deakin University policy guidelines and

will be disposed of after a minimum period of 6 years.

The interview process is intended to provide the RAIA with an opportunity for a

considered response to my research agenda. The reporting of the interview will

be published as a separate chapter of the research project in the form of edited

highlights attributed to the RAIA. Accordingly, I would like your permission to

represent RAIA thinking and I have also requested permission from Rob Stent as

Victorian President of the RAIA for this. The interviews will be used in a

critique of both the research findings from outside the architectural profession

and of current strategies promoted by the RAIA as the representative body of the

profession. In eliciting your understanding of the thinking behind the RAIA call

to commit my questions will refer to the following documents:

RAIA Strategic Plan 2001 – 2006

RAIA Environment Policy

Sustainable design strategies for Architects

Appendix A2

144

From my reading of these public documents, the RAIA recognises the critical

importance of sustainability and the imperative of architects to educate

themselves about this. In bringing to bear the profession’s collective influence

upon the wider community, an ‘integrated approach to … sustainability …

(through) … individual practice’ (RAIA 2003) is called for. Within the call to

commit there is recognition that it is the quality of individual practice which

sustains ecological, social and economic viability and which needs to be exported

out into the wider community. Practice is an outcome of behaviour. Therefore it

is behaviour as expressed through practice which is to be addressed. The RAIA

in placing the call to commit to ESD at the core of professional practice

acknowledges this dynamic.

I wish to clarify how this dynamic is understood and fostered. I will be asking

you to express your understanding of the RAIA policies as well as your personal

opinions about your professional practice. The theme of my questioning will be

as follows:

• Environmental design is promoted by the RAIA as an approach to

ecological sustainability. Why?

• What is the difference (if any) between Ecologically Sustainable Design

(ESD), Environmental Design and ecological sustainability?

• What is the RAIA approach to engendering commitment to ecological

sustainability and where does this approach come from?

• Which of these measures (if any) are designed to directly affect

behavioural change?

• Is the RAIA able to measure the success of this approach?

• If so, how successful is this approach to engendering commitment to

ecological sustainability?

If you would like further clarification of my authenticity and research mission I

would be most happy to supply you with supporting evidence.

Appendix A2

145

My supervisor Dr. Ursula De Jong can be contacted at: [email protected]

My email address is: [email protected]

Yours sincerely,

Susan Mellersh-Lucas

Should you have any concerns about the conduct of this research project, please

contact the Secretary, Ethics Committee, Research Services, Deakin University,

221 Burwood Highway, BURWOOD VIC 3125. Tel (03) 9251 7123

(International +61 3 9251 7123).

146

Appendix A3: Consent Form

DEAKIN UNIVERSITY HUMAN RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEE

CONSENT FORM:

I, of

Hereby consent to be a subject of a human research study to be undertaken by

Susan Mellersh-Lucas, PhD candidate, Deakin University School of

Architecture and Design

I understand that the purpose of this research is into the implementation of ESD

but with the focus upon why the designer commits to ESD and how that

commitment is sustained.

Appendix A3

147

I acknowledge

1. That the aims, methods, and anticipated benefits, and possible

risks/hazards of the research study, have been explained to me.

2. That I voluntarily and freely give my consent to my participation in such

research study.

3. I understand that the results of the study will be used for research

purposes and may be reported in scientific and academic journals.

4. That I am free to withdraw my consent at any time during the study, in

which event my participation in the research study will immediately cease and

any information obtained from me will not be used.

5. That I will be given the opportunity to check the interview transcripts

before publication of any information attributed to me.

I agree that

5. I MAY / MAY NOT be named in research publications or other publicity

without prior agreement.

Signature: Date:

148

Appendix A4: Motherhood Statements

MOTHERHOOD STATEMENT 1

Within my thesis I argue that the act of design is processed through two different

strategies which satisfy two basic orientations:

design intervention strategies that satisfy public / professional needs and which tend to be

task-oriented.

designer transformation strategies that satisfy private / personal needs which are

primarily self-oriented.

I also argue that within the architectural discourse on designing for ecological

sustainability, the emphasis is far more overt on techniques for design intervention than

on techniques for designer transformation. Yet for real change to occur it is a known fact

that personal transformation is the key. So the purpose of this interview is to discuss with

you your thoughts about design as a transformative process and your own strategies to

bring about commitment to ecological sustainability.

Do you find yourself working on the two different orientations?


Within architectural practice, while there are many barriers to ecological sustainability,

there is also a growing awareness of the need to develop expertise in ecologically

sustainable design.

Expertise is understood to come down to attitude. Improving capability relies on

continual improvements that challenge beliefs, abilities and knowledge base2

What sort of society do you believe yourself to be part of?

2 Guest, Cameron B., Glenn Regehr and Richard, G. Tiberius, 2001. The life long challenge of expertise. Medical Education. v14 (3), pp. 433-442

Appendix A4

149

What role do you believe you provide?

What abilities do you believe are necessary for ESD?

Where do you gather your knowledge from?

What sort of an understanding have you come to about sustainable design?


To commit - place sustainability at the core of (architects’) practices and professional

responsibilities - is the first principle upon which the RAIA Environment Policy is based.

Examples given on how to do this involve the practitioner in ‘actively encouraging

clients to include sustainability as an integral principle…’ of their project and to

‘maintain(ing) commitment to the delivery of sustainable outcomes…’.3 These directives

encourage the outward-bound efforts of the practitioner to influence others. They are not

directives aimed at the prior step of forging practitioner commitment.

Where have you turned to and what have you sourced to forge your commitment to

ESD?


There is a lot of discussion about spirituality and its importance to living harmoniously

with the world. Architects are drawn to designing habitats that respect this need.

Buildings are discussed in terms of energy transfer potential eg ‘harmonising / energising

/ vitalising / refreshing / regenerating / respecting / relaxing. Space and form are seen as

opportunities to enhance psychic as well as environmental energies.


The thrust of human development is to satisfy human needs.

In acknowledging this the UN Bruntlandt Report definition for ecologically sustainable

development is: “A sustainable society meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’

‘Long-term societal and cultural transformation is only possible when individuals take

responsibility for their own development, transformation and engagement in the larger

social and ecological complex on which they depend’4.


3 RAIA Environment Policy - Appendix. 2001. B.D.P. Environment Design Guide, Gen 1. R.A.I.A. Australia. 4 Maiteny Paul. 2000. The psychodynamics of meaning and action for a sustainable future. Futures, Volume 32, Issues 3-4 , Pp 339-360

Appendix A4

150

Happiness is considered our ultimate goal; when asked, people overwhelmingly support

this as self-evident fact and requiring of no further justification5. It is our ultimate self-

oriented need in that it is considered both our highest aspiration and our most

fundamental need.

A further understanding of happiness coming out of the cognitive/behavioural sciences is

that we experience it on a continuum of ‘constant struggle’ that moves unbroken between

extreme misery and extreme joy6. This approach has spawned a number of clinical

programmes and professional development techniques within the health disciplines

influenced by or concurring with Buddhist philosophy that see suffering as common to

all sentient beings.


1.2 The need for an environmental ethic

Systems thinking within the sciences has developed through a number of theories

such as Gaia Theory within the biological sciences, Chaos Theory and Quantum

Mechanics within the physical sciences; and Autopoiesis and Structural Coupling

within the cognitive sciences. These ideas have broken down the distinction

between phenomena and their environmental conditions such that separation

between object and subject, mind and matter, and even living and non-living is

now understood as a much more graduated affair. Through these theories the

role humans play in bringing a lived world into being is seen as a co-creative one

of interdependence. This has spawned urgent calls to respect the complex logic

of the earth’s living systems as a unique and irreplaceable phenomenon within the

universe.

Does systems thinking have any bearing on your design strategies?

How does ecologically sustainable development fit into this scenario?

5 Layard Richard. 2005. Happiness: Lessons from a new Science. Allen Lane, Penguin Books. 6 Eifert, Georg H; Forsyth John P; Hayes; Steven C. 2005. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety Disorders. New Harbinger Publications. Retrieved 13.09.05 http://www.newharbinger.com/productdetails.cfm?SKU=4275

151

Appendix D1: Figure 7.2a (detailed view)

Professional practice

Art of Building

Sustainable DesignArchitecture Design


Empirical

Experiential

scope

Practice typologies

Empirical

Traditional

Experiential

Value typologies

Private

Public

reflectiveleadership

connectednesscommitment

self-reflectiveopportunism

RAIAprofessional development

advocacyethics


Empirical

Experiential

art v science

Practice typologies

Empirical

Traditional

Experiential

Value typologies

Private

Public

theory v practice

feedback opportunities

trace of the dance design

clientsethical practice


Empirical

Experiential

building type

Practice typologies

Empirical

Traditional

Experiential

Value typologies

Private

Public

holistic practicegood design

Personality driven

Professional developmentRAIA

precautionary principlechallenging the status quo


Experiential

Practice typologies

Empirical

Traditional

Experiential

Value typologies

Private

Public

connectedness

commitmentself-reflective

as a service

ethics

knowledge bases

art v science

spiritualitymagic v control

sacred connections

professional v private need

conscience v comfortconscience driven

connectednesscommitment

self-reflective

definition

engineering energy

numeracy

TBL technology v sociology

economy of scale

meaning-making lived-world

Empirical

expertise Group v individual

reflective Sociology of space

logic v intuitionintuition

self-reflective

152

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING

50,591Words Coded 2,518Paragraphs Coded

303Coding References 11Sources Coded

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\knowledge typologies\empirical\art v

2,355Words Coded 62Paragraphs Coded 9Coding References 8Sources Coded

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\knowledge typologies\empirical\knowledge

5,627Words Coded

241Paragraphs Coded 28Coding References 9Sources Coded

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\knowledge typologies\empirical\scope


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\knowledge typologies\experiential\dynamic

966Words Coded 17Paragraphs Coded 3Coding References 1Sources Coded

Appendix D2: Art of Building Summary Report

Appendix D2

153

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\practice typologies\empirical\feedback opportunities

77

5

1

1

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\practice typologies\empirical\theory v


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\practice typologies\experiential\design


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\practice typologies\experiential\trace of the dance


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\value typologies\private\magic v control

1,071Words Coded

Words Coded

21Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

4Coding References

Coding References

4Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

154

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\value typologies\private\sacred connections

3,474

220

16

6

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\value typologies\private\spirituality


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\value typologies\public\clients


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\value typologies\public\ethical practice


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ARCHITECTURE\value typologies\public\professional v private needs

1,768Words Coded

Words Coded

66Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

12Coding References

Coding References

6Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

155

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\knowledge typologies\empirical\expertise

1,134

35

6

6

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\knowledge typologies\empirical\group v individual


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\knowledge typologies\empirical\reflective practice


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\knowledge typologies\empirical\sociology of space


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\knowledge typologies\experiential\intuition

688Words Coded

Words Coded

14Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

3Coding References

Coding References

3Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

156

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\knowledge typologies\experiential\logic v intuition

424

7

2

2

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\knowledge typologies\experiential\self-reflective practice


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\practice typologies\experiential\backspace


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\practice typologies\experiential\experiential feedback


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\practice typologies\experiential\sacred connections

2,050Words Coded

Words Coded

113Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

10Coding References

Coding References

3Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

157

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\value typologies\private\happiness

189

9

1

1

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\DESIGN\value typologies\public\as a service


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\empirical\architecture\building type


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\empirical\architecture\definition


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\empirical\architecture\energy

1,426Words Coded

Words Coded

117Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

7Coding References

Coding References

4Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

158

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\empirical\architecture\engineering

2,559

85

12

5

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\empirical\architecture\numeracy

2,000Words Coded 143Paragraphs Coded


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\empirical\architecture\scales of economy


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\empirical\architecture\TBL


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\empirical\architecture\technological v sociological focus

2,227Words Coded

Words Coded

122Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

9Coding References

Coding References

6Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

159

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\experiential\a science of lived-world complexity

584

51

3

2

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\knowledge typologies\experiential\meaning-making


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\practice typologies\empirical\good design


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\practice typologies\empirical\holistic practice


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\practice typologies\experiential\personality driven

198Words Coded

Words Coded

6Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

3Coding References

Coding References

1Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

160

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\practice typologies\traditional\business decision

2,245

98

11

7

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\practice typologies\traditional\group support


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\practice typologies\traditional\mainstreaming


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\practice typologies\traditional\professional practice


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\practice typologies\traditional\standards

1,806Words Coded

Words Coded

110Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

8Coding References

Coding References

3Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

161

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\value typologies\private\conscience driven

497

24

4

3

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\value typologies\private\conscience v comfort


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\value typologies\public\challenging the status quo


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\ESD\value typologies\public\precautionary principle


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\knowledge typologies\empirical\scope

2,431Words Coded

Words Coded

88Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

12Coding References

Coding References

6Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

162

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\practice typologies\empirical\leadership

1,025

60

6

4

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\practice typologies\empirical\reflective


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\practice typologies\experiential\commitment


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\practice typologies\experiential\connectedness


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\practice typologies\experiential\opportunism

1,123Words Coded

Words Coded

42Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

4Coding References

Coding References

3Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D2

163

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\practice typologies\experiential\self- reflective

2,725

100

11

7

Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\practice typologies\traditional\professional development


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\practice typologies\traditional\RAIA


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\value typologies\public\ethics


Tree Nodes\Appendix D2_the ART of BUILDING\PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE\value typologies\public\public advocacy

5,606Words Coded

Words Coded

219Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

24Coding References

Coding References

9Sources Coded

Sources Coded

164

Appendix D3: Figure 7.2b (detailed view)

Personal settings

Art of Dwelling

Existing conditions

Meta self-awareness

self-reflective practice

Financial / economic

Political

Professional

euphemism for survival

Cultural / social

denial / inertia

improvement through

technology

Individual

conscience v comfort

sacred connections v

alienation

arrogance

RAIA

practice constraints

being aware of being self-awarePrivate self-information

goals / aspirations

sustainable lifestyle

beliefs / attitudes

Buddhism

Humanism

emotionsself-memories

propensity

make things better

Christianity

Atheism

happiness

Suffering passion

standardsinterests

art integrity commitmentvolunteering

important

attitudesValues / opinions

ethics humility couragesacredness of life

sensationsperceptions

phenomenologySacred connections

love

Public self-information

social relations

other’s opinions

abilities / skills

behaviours / actions

choosing to believe

propensity

Sangha / likemindedness

narrow / broad

opportunistic

good listener

be a good example

165

Appendix D4: Art of Dwelling Summary Report

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\BIOFILIA


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\BUDDHISM


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\as part of the biosphere


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\aspirations


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\commitment


Appendix D4

166

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\ethics

1,038Words Coded 29Paragraphs Coded 6Coding References

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\existential concerns


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\improvements through technology


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\interdependence



Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\intuition



Appendix D4

167

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\knowledge v understanding

149Words Coded 2

2

Paragraphs Coded Sources Coded

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\sacred connections v alienation


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\scenario building


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\self reflectively


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\strategies for sustainability


Appendix D4

168

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\thru critical thinking

825

49

3

3

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\DWELLING\widening the scope of architecture


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\ECOLOGY


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\HAPPINESS - productivity


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\IMPORTANT

2,007Words Coded

Words Coded

51Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

14Coding References

Coding References

7

Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D4

169

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SACREDNESS OF LIFE

998

32

2

1

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SELF-REFLECTIVE PRACTICE


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUFFERING - denial


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUST. WORK PRACTICES


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUSTAINABILITY\barriers

4,285dords Coded

Words Coded

212Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

17Coding References

Coding References

4Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D4

170

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUSTAINABILITY\community empowerment

727

61

5

4

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUSTAINABILITY\ethics of sustainability


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUSTAINABILITY\euphemism for survival


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUSTAINABILITY\indigenous examples



Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUSTAINABILITY\lead

314Words Coded

Words Coded

16Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

3Coding References

Coding References

1Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Appendix D4

171

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUSTAINABILITY\quality of the built environment

953

11

4

3

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUSTAINABILITY\satisfying need


Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\SUSTAINABILITY\self transformative



Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\WORRYING

1,243Words Coded

Words Coded

41Paragraphs Coded

Paragraphs Coded

7Coding References

Coding References

3Sources Coded

Sources Coded

Tree Nodes\Appendix D4_the ART of DWELLING\TRANSFORMATION - suffering

172

Appendix E1: Art of Building Narrative Report

Nodes\Appendix E1_Art of Building\Knowledge domains\Generative domain\art of scenario-building



Nodes\Appendix E1_Art of Building\Knowledge domains\Representative domain\articulatiFn of meaningful spaces


Tree Nodes\Appendix E1_Art of Building\Knowledge domains\Technical domain\architectural sciences


Tree Nodes\Appendix E1_Art of Building\Practice domains\Collective domain\tradition


173

Appendix E1


Tree Nodes\Appendix E1_Art of Building\Practice domains\Reflective domain\oeuvre


119Coding References 11Sources Coded 11

Tree Nodes\Appendix E1_Art of Building\Practice domains\Experiential domain\immersion

Cases Coded

174

Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\human development scenarios\overdevelopment


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\human development scenarios\underdevelopment


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\group dynamics\Advocacy_opportunism_leadership


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\group dynamics\office culture


Appendix E2: Art of Dwelling Narrative Report

Appendix E2

175

Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\group dynamics\participatory design


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\personal dynamics\critical reflection


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\personal dynamics\happiness_self-interest


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\personal dynamics\integrity_intuition


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\personal dynamics\passion_courage_humility


Appendix E2

176

Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\personal dynamics\propensity


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\personal dynamics\suffering


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\sustainable design\critiquing existential fear


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\sustainable design\critiquing functionalism


Tree Nodes\Appendix E2_Art of Dwelling\self-transformation practices\personal dynamics\phenomenology

Words Coded Paragraphs Coded Coding References Sources Coded

1,558

68

9

3

Glossary

177

Glossary

Creativity Creativity denotes a non-instrumental openness to discovery

through an absence of wilful consciousness akin to game-play.

Consilience Consilience provides a suitable explanation of the resolution of

different and often immicible ideas (or ‘aha’ moments) in design,

as well as for accommodating the contingency that is characteristic

of complex systems like human/built environment interactions.

Design Design is considered a third way of knowing, different from both

the humanities and the sciences for its stimulation of creativity

through game-play. Design as game-play involves deliberative

visioning typically developed through haptic processes such as

drawing and modelling.

Design intervention

This refers to an orientation of design practice and its effect upon

the built environment. This orientation is explicit, outward- and

task-oriented.

Designer transformation

This refers to the effect of design practice upon the performance of

the designer. This orientation is implicit, inward- and self-

oriented.

Intuition The definition of intuition is taken from the field of experimental

psychology wherein intuition is considered a complex set of

cognitive, affective and somatic processes with no apparent

intrusion of deliberate, rational thought.

Glossary

178

Meditation Meditation is an overarching term for a formal approach to self-

transformation characterised by a four-step programme of

preparation, concentration, meditation and dedication developed

within Buddhism that targets critical thinking and emotional

sensibility to bring about value change.

Praxis Praxis is a concomitant preferencing and choicemaking based on

aesthetic judgement that is embedded in ethical know-how to

guide the flow of practical activity.

Self-reflection Self-reflection is an introspective mode of discursive thinking that

engages with concepts and feelings of self and ego.

Self Reflective Practice

Within the Buddhist tradition, SRP is promoted as a value-change

programme that leads to transformation. This definition is the one

used throughout the thesis.

Subjectivity Subjectivity emphasises the first-person perspective and the

embodied process of cognition that is both intuitive and reflective.

Sustainable design

Sustainable design refers to a design approach first articulated in

the UIA/AIA Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable

Future (1993) in response to the Bruntland Report (1987) that

fosters participation, protection and precaution in the interests of

both the wider earth community and future generations.

Sustainability Sustainability defines an ecological mindset based on Gaia theory

and a hierarchy of human development practices fostered by the

Glossary

179

Bruntland Report (1987) that explicitly promotes ecosystem

wellbeing as the context for interpersonal and personal wellbeing.

Transformation

Transformation refers to value change in terms of a gestalt or

wholesale change. This type of change is a profound change

beyond the natural state of openness to change derived from

everyday experiences.

Documents

Self-reflective practice in sustainable design Volume Two30032398/mellershlucas-self... · Appendix C4: JT_1st interview_13.10.06 1 - 52 (CD) Appendix C5: LH_1st interview_20.10.06