I teach environmental systems, systems integration, and research methods. I also direct the UHCoA Building Performance Lab.
My research is in two tracts: 1. the complex and wicked aesthetic bridge between physical and strategic aspects of design, and 2. architectural education as a discipline unto itself. Address: 122 Architecture
University of Houston
Houston Texas USA
77204-4000
Most schools of architecture place the design studio at the center of the cuniculum. The studio s... more Most schools of architecture place the design studio at the center of the cuniculum. The studio serves as the proving gTotmds for a curriculum that supports it: courses in history. building construction, theory, structures. and environmental contrOls systems. Applying lessons from these supponing disciplines. lessons which may contribute meaningful fann and deepened integrity to the design project, are often not adequately addressed because of the already broad array of design concerns which need attention in the studio. However, the outcome is that the student's sense of the meaningful issues to be addressed during the design process are narrowed. and their notion of significant technology is undennined. Within their first two years of design studio. most students haven't yet been introduced to topical issues of climatic forces and environmental control systems. Implicit in sequencing ECS courses at the more advanced levels of study is the assumption that later on these technical issues can be layered onto the design skills established during the first two years of the studio experience .. The shoncoming here lies in the previous design experience which has established a paradigm largely blind of environmental contribution.While a more quantirarive study of energy and environmental controls may be most appropriately addressed during advanced levels ofarchitecrural study. we feel it is vitally imponant that an appreciation and conceptual understanding of sun. light, wind. and sound, be developed during these fonnative studio settings. Without this basis. instructors at advanced levels are faced not only with course content, but with students who are unconvinced that addressing environmental factors is essential to good design. The potential for sun. light, wind. and sound to impan rich and meaningful fonn to design.is an idea that can be non-intrusively applied at the most basic levels of studio instruction. At this level a strong appreciation of environmental forces and their positive effect on the ways people experience the built environment can enrich and deepen a student's studio worle, and may lay the groundwork for an ethic of design which is sensitive to the needs of both people and the environment
We review three dimensions of architecture's complicity in institutionalized social oppression an... more We review three dimensions of architecture's complicity in institutionalized social oppression and offer a transdisciplinary lens for transformative opportunities. Equity deals with the history of elite classes dominating the common populace, and rulers in marble palaces and servants in dirt floor homes. Social justice is then a contemporary residual of class discrimination and a force of emancipation toward equal access to public resources, aspirational prosperity, and well-being. Finally, sustainability attends to underlying damages that accrued in previous eras of short-term thinking, unfair commodification of resources, and institutionalized greed. This paper is not, however, an exercise in political, legal, planning, or technical solutions. Instead, we frame the relation of architecture and institutionalized oppression within the concept of intersectionality (i.e., the complex social dynamic that compounds those multidimensional problems). To balance architecture's naïve and negligent guilt, we conclude with emerging opportunities in architecture towards promoting broad welfare, social justice, and class equity. Three such opportunities are discussed: social activism, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability.
ABSTRACT: This paper examines how discourse promotes progress in architecture as a discipline. Mo... more ABSTRACT: This paper examines how discourse promotes progress in architecture as a discipline. More specifically, a framework of meta-discourse is proposed for such progress through “scaffolding” among the four realms of architectural investigation: design, research, forensics, and education. Scaffolding here refers to progress made by the interaction of professional, academic, occupational, and disciplinary actors. Historical-interpretive and qualitative methods provide supporting evidence for how such disciplinary realms and actors within them overlap, interact, provoke, and scaffold the entire discipline
This paper describes evaporative spray roof cooling systems, their components, performance and ap... more This paper describes evaporative spray roof cooling systems, their components, performance and applications in various climates and building types. The evolution of this indirect evaporative cooling technique is discussed. Psychrometric and sol-air principles are covered and a simplified method of evaluation presented. A life cycle energy savings example is discussed. Benefits of roof life and roof top equipment efficiency and maintenance are covered as well as water consumption and performance trade-offs with alternate methods of roof heat gain control. Testimonials and case studies are presented. The gradual migration of business, industry, and populace to the southern United States was largely brought on by the advent of the practical air-conditioner, cheap electricity, and the harshness of northern winters. But while "wintering at Palm Beach" has been replaced by "Sun Belt industries" ; the compression-refrigeration cooling cycle is about the only thing separ...
An aesthetic theory is offered to bridge between the strategic and physical aspects of architectu... more An aesthetic theory is offered to bridge between the strategic and physical aspects of architectural design, and the model of such bridging is shown to reflect human cognition of the several generative complementary pairs: real and ideal, affect and effect, immediacy and foresight, sublime and intelligent, and appreciation and understanding. Sections of the book address postindustrial complexity, architecture's encounters with complexity, and the veracity of this aesthetic across the domains of architecture: practice, profession, education, and disciplinary knowledge.
Through a case study analysis method, this book offers a bridge between strategic and physical de... more Through a case study analysis method, this book offers a bridge between strategic and physical design thinking. Thirty-one case study buildings are examined in depth and several typologies are treated: laboratories, offices, airports, pavilions, residences, high tech, and sustainable. Methods are treated in the first four chapters as: site, structure, envelope, services, and interior. Other subtopics include use and categories of precedent, precepts, and trends.
Since the mid-twentieth century, postindustrial transformation into the information age has in-du... more Since the mid-twentieth century, postindustrial transformation into the information age has in-duced a series of consequential but piecemeal changes in design education. Aside from educa-tional tools and strategies; this transformation im-pacts design methods, techniques of fabrication and, most importantly, the societal institutions that designers serve. Our sequential but intermittent re-sponses to the advent of computational decision-making, cybernetic feedback, integrated sys-tems, evidence-based validation, sustainability, human capital, and other emergent aspects of in-formation society continue to encourage such educational innovation. In light of the fractured and episodic nature of our response to change however, we must now ask how the basic premise of design should be proactively reframed as a radical new idea for a radically new epoch. For Beginning Design Studies (BDS), this new premise should be made explicit and kept central to our students’ education.
ABSTRACT: This paper examines how discourse promotes progress in architecture as a discipline. Mo... more ABSTRACT: This paper examines how discourse promotes progress in architecture as a discipline. More specifically, a framework of meta-discourse is proposed for such progress through “scaffolding” among the four realms of architectural investigation: design, research, forensics, and education. Scaffolding here refers to progress made by the interaction of professional, academic, occupational, and disciplinary actors. Historical-interpretive and qualitative methods provide supporting evidence for how such disciplinary realms and actors within them overlap, interact, provoke, and scaffold the entire discipline
Definitions and perceptions of professionalism are continually challenged and transformed by publ... more Definitions and perceptions of professionalism are continually challenged and transformed by public need, government
interaction and institutional organizations. When the goals of those three entities are focused on near-term results, this
poses a significant threat to the integrity, value and relevance of professional services. When the individual and corporate
professional’s profit margin, corporate shareholder responsibility and news media sensationalism are factored in, this
short-termism dynamic is greatly magnified. Built environment professions are seen as particularly vulnerable to this
threat, given that investments in buildings and infrastructure have long-life and high-performance service
expectations. This Commentary responds to the Building Research & Information special issue entitled ‘New
Professionalism’ (2013, volume 40, number 1) and situates the predicament of built environment professionals within
an emerging historical transition: that of the post-industrial information society with its characteristic knowledge
workers and cybernetic bases of production. Long-term virtues of the built environment mission such as
sustainability, public good and evidence-based design are shown to be reflections of the transition from industrial era
short-termism to post-industrial systemic foresight. This Commentary supplements the special issue papers with a
discussion on the broader academy’s potential role in breaking the stranglehold of contemporary short-termism in the
built environment professions.
ABSTRACT: Various dimensions of architectural investigation are inherently hindered by the lack o... more ABSTRACT: Various dimensions of architectural investigation are inherently hindered by the lack of a native
framework. Consequently, what counts as disciplinary advancement in architecture has seldom risen to the
towers of novel truth-value or the ramparts of reliability as in other disciplines. Architectural knowledge as a
whole seems to be mired in a treacherous moat of crocodiles where sharp teeth are often what matters
most. This paper proposes a new framework wherein four separate gates of investigation lead to the citadel
of new wisdom, Castle Neos. Those gates are named Research, Design, Forensics, and Education. Each
mode of investigation constitutes a worthy activity that opens a gate to significant architectural contributions.
Each mode is also articulated by its own methods, strategies, settings, and tactics; as well as its own
measures of truth value, novelty, and generalizability. The inclusive term “inquiry” is used here to both
distinguish and integrate the equal bases of the four investigations. Formulation of that proposed framework
for architecture constitutes a descriptive and normative theory because it explains the unique nature of
architectural inquiry and offers a coherent means for incorporating it into current disciplinary knowledge.
One pair of castle gates opens to the north and to the south: Design and Research. The short but broad
connecting street between them crosses at Analysis Lane and Synthesis Court, but along the way,
Philosophers Row and Method Way vary as to your right and left according to your gate of arrival. Another
primary road connects the West Forensic Gateway to the East Education Portal. Spread across the four
quadrants of the castle, the intersecting alleys and by-ways abound with a variety of productive
investigations.
Introduction: local symptoms, global interactions:
Common architectural expressions of the emer... more Introduction: local symptoms, global interactions:
Common architectural expressions of the emerging postindustrial era usually involve rustbelt iconography, urban restoration, and economic revitalization. The larger manifestations are, however, more epochal than adaptive reuse. Indeed, more profound urban transformations were portended many years ago. Thus, the more fundamental questions we must turn to are not about urban renewal or virtual architecture. As worthy as those projects are, they only responding to superficial representations. Instead we must anchor back to the underlying postindustrial forces. Evidence suggests that those forces involve separation of local scale symptomatic perceptions from systemic global
interactions. This ultimately mandates a new appreciation of
design complexity. The City is not a machine; it is an organism.
ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the conference category of “Architectural Engineering Education”... more ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the conference category of “Architectural Engineering Education” and relates to recent published esearch by the author (e.g., Bachman, Two Spheres, Routledge, May, 2012b). A new model of architectural design education is roposed based on theory unifying the rational strategic sphere f design with the emotive physical sphere. The framework of this new model incorporates recent developments in neuroscience (Kelso) as well as aesthetic background (Scrutton) and hermeneutic philosophy (Gadamer). Precursor research Integrated Buildings, Wiley 2003) was presented at the 2003 ACSE Conference in Austin, Texas. Works by Wilson Consilience), Snow (The Two Cultures), Gould (The Hedgehog…) and Bateson (Ecology of Mind) were influential in their
collective urge toward comprehensive rather than Balkanized approaches to the inherently complimentary aspects of art and science in all human pursuits.
Using the human brain as a working illustration, systemic complexity is argued as the distinguishing difference between brain organ and animated mind. Frankenstein’s creature Adam is the negative example of mechanistic reduction. The istinctions of a mere building from the higher quality of architecture are equally profound. Parallels are drawn to the complex and dynamic behavior of buildings and building rojects. The paper concludes by mapping this theory onto a
corresponding new curriculum.
In the surge of scientific revelations concerning chaos, cybernetics and systems theory since the... more In the surge of scientific revelations concerning chaos, cybernetics and systems theory since the Second
World War, architecture has been drawn into several encounters with dynamic complexity. Architects have
often danced with this complexity, but there has never been a full embrace – the encounters only amounting
to skirmishes between two radically different perspectives. Increasingly however, these two histories of design
and science are convergent, drawn together by forces of post-industrial knowledge, society, globalization,
economic interdependence and ecological sustenance. Through past literature, that convergence can be framed
by four modes of architectural complexity – wicked, messy, ordered and natural – but the history of these
encounters has seldom been couched in terms of their teleological and dynamic influences, nor have their
separate operations been characterized or connected in a way that adds coherence. This paper addresses
this missing history by making explicit distinctions between each of the four modes of architectural
complexity, tracing their early proponents and characterizing their operations.
This paper addresses the session theme of
how building case studies can be “successfully
integr... more This paper addresses the session theme of
how building case studies can be “successfully
integrated into the curriculum of professional
architectural education” in the specific context
of comprehensive design. The basic argument
is that analytical methods of building case
studies are a necessary educational
complement to the synthetic approach of
design studio. The term “reverse architecting”
is coined here to suggest the same mode of
thought associated with “reverse
engineering,” i.e., working backwards through
the original development cycle by starting
from an exemplary end product and
reinventing the process of discovery.
ABSTRACT: This paper examines how architecture is building a clinical database similar to that of... more ABSTRACT: This paper examines how architecture is building a clinical database similar to that of law
and medicine and is developing this database for the purposes of acquiring complex design insight.
This emerging clinical branch of architectural knowledge exceeds the scope of everyday experience of
physical form and can thus be shown to enable a more satisfying scale of design thinking. It is argued
that significant transformational kinds of professional transparency and accountability are thus
intensifying. The tactics and methods of this paper are to connect previously disparate historical and
contemporary events that mark the evolution of this database and then to fold those events into an
explanatory narrative concerning clinical design practice. Beginning with architecture’s use of
precedent (Collins 1971), the formulation of design as complex problems (Rittel and Webber 1973),
high performance buildings to meet the crisis of climate change, social mandates of postindustrial
society (Bell 1973), and other roots of evidence, the paper then elaborates the themes in which this
database is evolving. Such themes include post-occupancy evaluation (Bordass and Leaman 2005),
continuous commissioning, performance simulation, digital instrumentation, automation, and other
modes of data collection in buildings. Finally, the paper concludes with some anticipated impacts that
such a clinical database might have on design practice and how their benefits can be achieved through
new interdisciplinary relations between academia and practice.
Abstract: The teaching-of-research as systematic inquiry can provide a specific home in architect... more Abstract: The teaching-of-research as systematic inquiry can provide a specific home in architecture curricula for 1) nurturing numerous underserved aspects of designerly thinking and 2) complimenting the more freeform intuitive pursuits that usually typify design inquiry. Those benefits will be elaborated in this paper via the presentation of the six year development of one such undergraduate course. This paper also correspondingly examines research-on-teaching in the architecture academy as an equally underserved and increasingly vital activity. The same six year history of one course will be given as a viable model for the synergy of these two activities: teaching-of-research, and research-into-teaching.
Common Ground: definition, proposition, and wisdom in design inquiry and research inquiry
The Teaching of Research: a sample course on Architectural Research Methods
The Research on Teaching: pedagogy, scholarship, and assessment
The Classroom and Studio as Teaching Laboratories: data collection, analysis, and application
One Course on the Teaching of Research
Most schools of architecture place the design studio at the center of the cuniculum. The studio s... more Most schools of architecture place the design studio at the center of the cuniculum. The studio serves as the proving gTotmds for a curriculum that supports it: courses in history. building construction, theory, structures. and environmental contrOls systems. Applying lessons from these supponing disciplines. lessons which may contribute meaningful fann and deepened integrity to the design project, are often not adequately addressed because of the already broad array of design concerns which need attention in the studio. However, the outcome is that the student's sense of the meaningful issues to be addressed during the design process are narrowed. and their notion of significant technology is undennined. Within their first two years of design studio. most students haven't yet been introduced to topical issues of climatic forces and environmental control systems. Implicit in sequencing ECS courses at the more advanced levels of study is the assumption that later on these technical issues can be layered onto the design skills established during the first two years of the studio experience .. The shoncoming here lies in the previous design experience which has established a paradigm largely blind of environmental contribution.While a more quantirarive study of energy and environmental controls may be most appropriately addressed during advanced levels ofarchitecrural study. we feel it is vitally imponant that an appreciation and conceptual understanding of sun. light, wind. and sound, be developed during these fonnative studio settings. Without this basis. instructors at advanced levels are faced not only with course content, but with students who are unconvinced that addressing environmental factors is essential to good design. The potential for sun. light, wind. and sound to impan rich and meaningful fonn to design.is an idea that can be non-intrusively applied at the most basic levels of studio instruction. At this level a strong appreciation of environmental forces and their positive effect on the ways people experience the built environment can enrich and deepen a student's studio worle, and may lay the groundwork for an ethic of design which is sensitive to the needs of both people and the environment
We review three dimensions of architecture's complicity in institutionalized social oppression an... more We review three dimensions of architecture's complicity in institutionalized social oppression and offer a transdisciplinary lens for transformative opportunities. Equity deals with the history of elite classes dominating the common populace, and rulers in marble palaces and servants in dirt floor homes. Social justice is then a contemporary residual of class discrimination and a force of emancipation toward equal access to public resources, aspirational prosperity, and well-being. Finally, sustainability attends to underlying damages that accrued in previous eras of short-term thinking, unfair commodification of resources, and institutionalized greed. This paper is not, however, an exercise in political, legal, planning, or technical solutions. Instead, we frame the relation of architecture and institutionalized oppression within the concept of intersectionality (i.e., the complex social dynamic that compounds those multidimensional problems). To balance architecture's naïve and negligent guilt, we conclude with emerging opportunities in architecture towards promoting broad welfare, social justice, and class equity. Three such opportunities are discussed: social activism, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability.
ABSTRACT: This paper examines how discourse promotes progress in architecture as a discipline. Mo... more ABSTRACT: This paper examines how discourse promotes progress in architecture as a discipline. More specifically, a framework of meta-discourse is proposed for such progress through “scaffolding” among the four realms of architectural investigation: design, research, forensics, and education. Scaffolding here refers to progress made by the interaction of professional, academic, occupational, and disciplinary actors. Historical-interpretive and qualitative methods provide supporting evidence for how such disciplinary realms and actors within them overlap, interact, provoke, and scaffold the entire discipline
This paper describes evaporative spray roof cooling systems, their components, performance and ap... more This paper describes evaporative spray roof cooling systems, their components, performance and applications in various climates and building types. The evolution of this indirect evaporative cooling technique is discussed. Psychrometric and sol-air principles are covered and a simplified method of evaluation presented. A life cycle energy savings example is discussed. Benefits of roof life and roof top equipment efficiency and maintenance are covered as well as water consumption and performance trade-offs with alternate methods of roof heat gain control. Testimonials and case studies are presented. The gradual migration of business, industry, and populace to the southern United States was largely brought on by the advent of the practical air-conditioner, cheap electricity, and the harshness of northern winters. But while "wintering at Palm Beach" has been replaced by "Sun Belt industries" ; the compression-refrigeration cooling cycle is about the only thing separ...
An aesthetic theory is offered to bridge between the strategic and physical aspects of architectu... more An aesthetic theory is offered to bridge between the strategic and physical aspects of architectural design, and the model of such bridging is shown to reflect human cognition of the several generative complementary pairs: real and ideal, affect and effect, immediacy and foresight, sublime and intelligent, and appreciation and understanding. Sections of the book address postindustrial complexity, architecture's encounters with complexity, and the veracity of this aesthetic across the domains of architecture: practice, profession, education, and disciplinary knowledge.
Through a case study analysis method, this book offers a bridge between strategic and physical de... more Through a case study analysis method, this book offers a bridge between strategic and physical design thinking. Thirty-one case study buildings are examined in depth and several typologies are treated: laboratories, offices, airports, pavilions, residences, high tech, and sustainable. Methods are treated in the first four chapters as: site, structure, envelope, services, and interior. Other subtopics include use and categories of precedent, precepts, and trends.
Since the mid-twentieth century, postindustrial transformation into the information age has in-du... more Since the mid-twentieth century, postindustrial transformation into the information age has in-duced a series of consequential but piecemeal changes in design education. Aside from educa-tional tools and strategies; this transformation im-pacts design methods, techniques of fabrication and, most importantly, the societal institutions that designers serve. Our sequential but intermittent re-sponses to the advent of computational decision-making, cybernetic feedback, integrated sys-tems, evidence-based validation, sustainability, human capital, and other emergent aspects of in-formation society continue to encourage such educational innovation. In light of the fractured and episodic nature of our response to change however, we must now ask how the basic premise of design should be proactively reframed as a radical new idea for a radically new epoch. For Beginning Design Studies (BDS), this new premise should be made explicit and kept central to our students’ education.
ABSTRACT: This paper examines how discourse promotes progress in architecture as a discipline. Mo... more ABSTRACT: This paper examines how discourse promotes progress in architecture as a discipline. More specifically, a framework of meta-discourse is proposed for such progress through “scaffolding” among the four realms of architectural investigation: design, research, forensics, and education. Scaffolding here refers to progress made by the interaction of professional, academic, occupational, and disciplinary actors. Historical-interpretive and qualitative methods provide supporting evidence for how such disciplinary realms and actors within them overlap, interact, provoke, and scaffold the entire discipline
Definitions and perceptions of professionalism are continually challenged and transformed by publ... more Definitions and perceptions of professionalism are continually challenged and transformed by public need, government
interaction and institutional organizations. When the goals of those three entities are focused on near-term results, this
poses a significant threat to the integrity, value and relevance of professional services. When the individual and corporate
professional’s profit margin, corporate shareholder responsibility and news media sensationalism are factored in, this
short-termism dynamic is greatly magnified. Built environment professions are seen as particularly vulnerable to this
threat, given that investments in buildings and infrastructure have long-life and high-performance service
expectations. This Commentary responds to the Building Research & Information special issue entitled ‘New
Professionalism’ (2013, volume 40, number 1) and situates the predicament of built environment professionals within
an emerging historical transition: that of the post-industrial information society with its characteristic knowledge
workers and cybernetic bases of production. Long-term virtues of the built environment mission such as
sustainability, public good and evidence-based design are shown to be reflections of the transition from industrial era
short-termism to post-industrial systemic foresight. This Commentary supplements the special issue papers with a
discussion on the broader academy’s potential role in breaking the stranglehold of contemporary short-termism in the
built environment professions.
ABSTRACT: Various dimensions of architectural investigation are inherently hindered by the lack o... more ABSTRACT: Various dimensions of architectural investigation are inherently hindered by the lack of a native
framework. Consequently, what counts as disciplinary advancement in architecture has seldom risen to the
towers of novel truth-value or the ramparts of reliability as in other disciplines. Architectural knowledge as a
whole seems to be mired in a treacherous moat of crocodiles where sharp teeth are often what matters
most. This paper proposes a new framework wherein four separate gates of investigation lead to the citadel
of new wisdom, Castle Neos. Those gates are named Research, Design, Forensics, and Education. Each
mode of investigation constitutes a worthy activity that opens a gate to significant architectural contributions.
Each mode is also articulated by its own methods, strategies, settings, and tactics; as well as its own
measures of truth value, novelty, and generalizability. The inclusive term “inquiry” is used here to both
distinguish and integrate the equal bases of the four investigations. Formulation of that proposed framework
for architecture constitutes a descriptive and normative theory because it explains the unique nature of
architectural inquiry and offers a coherent means for incorporating it into current disciplinary knowledge.
One pair of castle gates opens to the north and to the south: Design and Research. The short but broad
connecting street between them crosses at Analysis Lane and Synthesis Court, but along the way,
Philosophers Row and Method Way vary as to your right and left according to your gate of arrival. Another
primary road connects the West Forensic Gateway to the East Education Portal. Spread across the four
quadrants of the castle, the intersecting alleys and by-ways abound with a variety of productive
investigations.
Introduction: local symptoms, global interactions:
Common architectural expressions of the emer... more Introduction: local symptoms, global interactions:
Common architectural expressions of the emerging postindustrial era usually involve rustbelt iconography, urban restoration, and economic revitalization. The larger manifestations are, however, more epochal than adaptive reuse. Indeed, more profound urban transformations were portended many years ago. Thus, the more fundamental questions we must turn to are not about urban renewal or virtual architecture. As worthy as those projects are, they only responding to superficial representations. Instead we must anchor back to the underlying postindustrial forces. Evidence suggests that those forces involve separation of local scale symptomatic perceptions from systemic global
interactions. This ultimately mandates a new appreciation of
design complexity. The City is not a machine; it is an organism.
ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the conference category of “Architectural Engineering Education”... more ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the conference category of “Architectural Engineering Education” and relates to recent published esearch by the author (e.g., Bachman, Two Spheres, Routledge, May, 2012b). A new model of architectural design education is roposed based on theory unifying the rational strategic sphere f design with the emotive physical sphere. The framework of this new model incorporates recent developments in neuroscience (Kelso) as well as aesthetic background (Scrutton) and hermeneutic philosophy (Gadamer). Precursor research Integrated Buildings, Wiley 2003) was presented at the 2003 ACSE Conference in Austin, Texas. Works by Wilson Consilience), Snow (The Two Cultures), Gould (The Hedgehog…) and Bateson (Ecology of Mind) were influential in their
collective urge toward comprehensive rather than Balkanized approaches to the inherently complimentary aspects of art and science in all human pursuits.
Using the human brain as a working illustration, systemic complexity is argued as the distinguishing difference between brain organ and animated mind. Frankenstein’s creature Adam is the negative example of mechanistic reduction. The istinctions of a mere building from the higher quality of architecture are equally profound. Parallels are drawn to the complex and dynamic behavior of buildings and building rojects. The paper concludes by mapping this theory onto a
corresponding new curriculum.
In the surge of scientific revelations concerning chaos, cybernetics and systems theory since the... more In the surge of scientific revelations concerning chaos, cybernetics and systems theory since the Second
World War, architecture has been drawn into several encounters with dynamic complexity. Architects have
often danced with this complexity, but there has never been a full embrace – the encounters only amounting
to skirmishes between two radically different perspectives. Increasingly however, these two histories of design
and science are convergent, drawn together by forces of post-industrial knowledge, society, globalization,
economic interdependence and ecological sustenance. Through past literature, that convergence can be framed
by four modes of architectural complexity – wicked, messy, ordered and natural – but the history of these
encounters has seldom been couched in terms of their teleological and dynamic influences, nor have their
separate operations been characterized or connected in a way that adds coherence. This paper addresses
this missing history by making explicit distinctions between each of the four modes of architectural
complexity, tracing their early proponents and characterizing their operations.
This paper addresses the session theme of
how building case studies can be “successfully
integr... more This paper addresses the session theme of
how building case studies can be “successfully
integrated into the curriculum of professional
architectural education” in the specific context
of comprehensive design. The basic argument
is that analytical methods of building case
studies are a necessary educational
complement to the synthetic approach of
design studio. The term “reverse architecting”
is coined here to suggest the same mode of
thought associated with “reverse
engineering,” i.e., working backwards through
the original development cycle by starting
from an exemplary end product and
reinventing the process of discovery.
ABSTRACT: This paper examines how architecture is building a clinical database similar to that of... more ABSTRACT: This paper examines how architecture is building a clinical database similar to that of law
and medicine and is developing this database for the purposes of acquiring complex design insight.
This emerging clinical branch of architectural knowledge exceeds the scope of everyday experience of
physical form and can thus be shown to enable a more satisfying scale of design thinking. It is argued
that significant transformational kinds of professional transparency and accountability are thus
intensifying. The tactics and methods of this paper are to connect previously disparate historical and
contemporary events that mark the evolution of this database and then to fold those events into an
explanatory narrative concerning clinical design practice. Beginning with architecture’s use of
precedent (Collins 1971), the formulation of design as complex problems (Rittel and Webber 1973),
high performance buildings to meet the crisis of climate change, social mandates of postindustrial
society (Bell 1973), and other roots of evidence, the paper then elaborates the themes in which this
database is evolving. Such themes include post-occupancy evaluation (Bordass and Leaman 2005),
continuous commissioning, performance simulation, digital instrumentation, automation, and other
modes of data collection in buildings. Finally, the paper concludes with some anticipated impacts that
such a clinical database might have on design practice and how their benefits can be achieved through
new interdisciplinary relations between academia and practice.
Abstract: The teaching-of-research as systematic inquiry can provide a specific home in architect... more Abstract: The teaching-of-research as systematic inquiry can provide a specific home in architecture curricula for 1) nurturing numerous underserved aspects of designerly thinking and 2) complimenting the more freeform intuitive pursuits that usually typify design inquiry. Those benefits will be elaborated in this paper via the presentation of the six year development of one such undergraduate course. This paper also correspondingly examines research-on-teaching in the architecture academy as an equally underserved and increasingly vital activity. The same six year history of one course will be given as a viable model for the synergy of these two activities: teaching-of-research, and research-into-teaching.
Common Ground: definition, proposition, and wisdom in design inquiry and research inquiry
The Teaching of Research: a sample course on Architectural Research Methods
The Research on Teaching: pedagogy, scholarship, and assessment
The Classroom and Studio as Teaching Laboratories: data collection, analysis, and application
One Course on the Teaching of Research
Uploads
Papers by Leonard R Bachman
the proving gTotmds for a curriculum that supports it: courses in history. building construction, theory,
structures. and environmental contrOls systems. Applying lessons from these supponing disciplines.
lessons which may contribute meaningful fann and deepened integrity to the design project, are often not
adequately addressed because of the already broad array of design concerns which need attention in the
studio. However, the outcome is that the student's sense of the meaningful issues to be addressed during
the design process are narrowed. and their notion of significant technology is undennined.
Within their first two years of design studio. most students haven't yet been introduced to topical issues
of climatic forces and environmental control systems. Implicit in sequencing ECS courses at the more
advanced levels of study is the assumption that later on these technical issues can be layered onto the
design skills established during the first two years of the studio experience .. The shoncoming here lies in
the previous design experience which has established a paradigm largely blind of environmental
contribution.While a more quantirarive study of energy and environmental controls may be most
appropriately addressed during advanced levels ofarchitecrural study. we feel it is vitally imponant that
an appreciation and conceptual understanding of sun. light, wind. and sound, be developed during
these fonnative studio settings. Without this basis. instructors at advanced levels are faced not only with
course content, but with students who are unconvinced that addressing environmental factors is essential
to good design.
The potential for sun. light, wind. and sound to impan rich and meaningful fonn to design.is an idea that
can be non-intrusively applied at the most basic levels of studio instruction. At this level a strong
appreciation of environmental forces and their positive effect on the ways people experience the built
environment can enrich and deepen a student's studio worle, and may lay the groundwork for an ethic of
design which is sensitive to the needs of both people and the environment
interaction and institutional organizations. When the goals of those three entities are focused on near-term results, this
poses a significant threat to the integrity, value and relevance of professional services. When the individual and corporate
professional’s profit margin, corporate shareholder responsibility and news media sensationalism are factored in, this
short-termism dynamic is greatly magnified. Built environment professions are seen as particularly vulnerable to this
threat, given that investments in buildings and infrastructure have long-life and high-performance service
expectations. This Commentary responds to the Building Research & Information special issue entitled ‘New
Professionalism’ (2013, volume 40, number 1) and situates the predicament of built environment professionals within
an emerging historical transition: that of the post-industrial information society with its characteristic knowledge
workers and cybernetic bases of production. Long-term virtues of the built environment mission such as
sustainability, public good and evidence-based design are shown to be reflections of the transition from industrial era
short-termism to post-industrial systemic foresight. This Commentary supplements the special issue papers with a
discussion on the broader academy’s potential role in breaking the stranglehold of contemporary short-termism in the
built environment professions.
framework. Consequently, what counts as disciplinary advancement in architecture has seldom risen to the
towers of novel truth-value or the ramparts of reliability as in other disciplines. Architectural knowledge as a
whole seems to be mired in a treacherous moat of crocodiles where sharp teeth are often what matters
most. This paper proposes a new framework wherein four separate gates of investigation lead to the citadel
of new wisdom, Castle Neos. Those gates are named Research, Design, Forensics, and Education. Each
mode of investigation constitutes a worthy activity that opens a gate to significant architectural contributions.
Each mode is also articulated by its own methods, strategies, settings, and tactics; as well as its own
measures of truth value, novelty, and generalizability. The inclusive term “inquiry” is used here to both
distinguish and integrate the equal bases of the four investigations. Formulation of that proposed framework
for architecture constitutes a descriptive and normative theory because it explains the unique nature of
architectural inquiry and offers a coherent means for incorporating it into current disciplinary knowledge.
One pair of castle gates opens to the north and to the south: Design and Research. The short but broad
connecting street between them crosses at Analysis Lane and Synthesis Court, but along the way,
Philosophers Row and Method Way vary as to your right and left according to your gate of arrival. Another
primary road connects the West Forensic Gateway to the East Education Portal. Spread across the four
quadrants of the castle, the intersecting alleys and by-ways abound with a variety of productive
investigations.
Common architectural expressions of the emerging postindustrial era usually involve rustbelt iconography, urban restoration, and economic revitalization. The larger manifestations are, however, more epochal than adaptive reuse. Indeed, more profound urban transformations were portended many years ago. Thus, the more fundamental questions we must turn to are not about urban renewal or virtual architecture. As worthy as those projects are, they only responding to superficial representations. Instead we must anchor back to the underlying postindustrial forces. Evidence suggests that those forces involve separation of local scale symptomatic perceptions from systemic global
interactions. This ultimately mandates a new appreciation of
design complexity. The City is not a machine; it is an organism.
This paper addresses the conference category of “Architectural Engineering Education” and relates to recent published esearch by the author (e.g., Bachman, Two Spheres, Routledge, May, 2012b). A new model of architectural design education is roposed based on theory unifying the rational strategic sphere f design with the emotive physical sphere. The framework of this new model incorporates recent developments in neuroscience (Kelso) as well as aesthetic background (Scrutton) and hermeneutic philosophy (Gadamer). Precursor research Integrated Buildings, Wiley 2003) was presented at the 2003 ACSE Conference in Austin, Texas. Works by Wilson Consilience), Snow (The Two Cultures), Gould (The Hedgehog…) and Bateson (Ecology of Mind) were influential in their
collective urge toward comprehensive rather than Balkanized approaches to the inherently complimentary aspects of art and science in all human pursuits.
Using the human brain as a working illustration, systemic complexity is argued as the distinguishing difference between brain organ and animated mind. Frankenstein’s creature Adam is the negative example of mechanistic reduction. The istinctions of a mere building from the higher quality of architecture are equally profound. Parallels are drawn to the complex and dynamic behavior of buildings and building rojects. The paper concludes by mapping this theory onto a
corresponding new curriculum.
World War, architecture has been drawn into several encounters with dynamic complexity. Architects have
often danced with this complexity, but there has never been a full embrace – the encounters only amounting
to skirmishes between two radically different perspectives. Increasingly however, these two histories of design
and science are convergent, drawn together by forces of post-industrial knowledge, society, globalization,
economic interdependence and ecological sustenance. Through past literature, that convergence can be framed
by four modes of architectural complexity – wicked, messy, ordered and natural – but the history of these
encounters has seldom been couched in terms of their teleological and dynamic influences, nor have their
separate operations been characterized or connected in a way that adds coherence. This paper addresses
this missing history by making explicit distinctions between each of the four modes of architectural
complexity, tracing their early proponents and characterizing their operations.
how building case studies can be “successfully
integrated into the curriculum of professional
architectural education” in the specific context
of comprehensive design. The basic argument
is that analytical methods of building case
studies are a necessary educational
complement to the synthetic approach of
design studio. The term “reverse architecting”
is coined here to suggest the same mode of
thought associated with “reverse
engineering,” i.e., working backwards through
the original development cycle by starting
from an exemplary end product and
reinventing the process of discovery.
and medicine and is developing this database for the purposes of acquiring complex design insight.
This emerging clinical branch of architectural knowledge exceeds the scope of everyday experience of
physical form and can thus be shown to enable a more satisfying scale of design thinking. It is argued
that significant transformational kinds of professional transparency and accountability are thus
intensifying. The tactics and methods of this paper are to connect previously disparate historical and
contemporary events that mark the evolution of this database and then to fold those events into an
explanatory narrative concerning clinical design practice. Beginning with architecture’s use of
precedent (Collins 1971), the formulation of design as complex problems (Rittel and Webber 1973),
high performance buildings to meet the crisis of climate change, social mandates of postindustrial
society (Bell 1973), and other roots of evidence, the paper then elaborates the themes in which this
database is evolving. Such themes include post-occupancy evaluation (Bordass and Leaman 2005),
continuous commissioning, performance simulation, digital instrumentation, automation, and other
modes of data collection in buildings. Finally, the paper concludes with some anticipated impacts that
such a clinical database might have on design practice and how their benefits can be achieved through
new interdisciplinary relations between academia and practice.
Common Ground: definition, proposition, and wisdom in design inquiry and research inquiry
The Teaching of Research: a sample course on Architectural Research Methods
The Research on Teaching: pedagogy, scholarship, and assessment
The Classroom and Studio as Teaching Laboratories: data collection, analysis, and application
One Course on the Teaching of Research
the proving gTotmds for a curriculum that supports it: courses in history. building construction, theory,
structures. and environmental contrOls systems. Applying lessons from these supponing disciplines.
lessons which may contribute meaningful fann and deepened integrity to the design project, are often not
adequately addressed because of the already broad array of design concerns which need attention in the
studio. However, the outcome is that the student's sense of the meaningful issues to be addressed during
the design process are narrowed. and their notion of significant technology is undennined.
Within their first two years of design studio. most students haven't yet been introduced to topical issues
of climatic forces and environmental control systems. Implicit in sequencing ECS courses at the more
advanced levels of study is the assumption that later on these technical issues can be layered onto the
design skills established during the first two years of the studio experience .. The shoncoming here lies in
the previous design experience which has established a paradigm largely blind of environmental
contribution.While a more quantirarive study of energy and environmental controls may be most
appropriately addressed during advanced levels ofarchitecrural study. we feel it is vitally imponant that
an appreciation and conceptual understanding of sun. light, wind. and sound, be developed during
these fonnative studio settings. Without this basis. instructors at advanced levels are faced not only with
course content, but with students who are unconvinced that addressing environmental factors is essential
to good design.
The potential for sun. light, wind. and sound to impan rich and meaningful fonn to design.is an idea that
can be non-intrusively applied at the most basic levels of studio instruction. At this level a strong
appreciation of environmental forces and their positive effect on the ways people experience the built
environment can enrich and deepen a student's studio worle, and may lay the groundwork for an ethic of
design which is sensitive to the needs of both people and the environment
interaction and institutional organizations. When the goals of those three entities are focused on near-term results, this
poses a significant threat to the integrity, value and relevance of professional services. When the individual and corporate
professional’s profit margin, corporate shareholder responsibility and news media sensationalism are factored in, this
short-termism dynamic is greatly magnified. Built environment professions are seen as particularly vulnerable to this
threat, given that investments in buildings and infrastructure have long-life and high-performance service
expectations. This Commentary responds to the Building Research & Information special issue entitled ‘New
Professionalism’ (2013, volume 40, number 1) and situates the predicament of built environment professionals within
an emerging historical transition: that of the post-industrial information society with its characteristic knowledge
workers and cybernetic bases of production. Long-term virtues of the built environment mission such as
sustainability, public good and evidence-based design are shown to be reflections of the transition from industrial era
short-termism to post-industrial systemic foresight. This Commentary supplements the special issue papers with a
discussion on the broader academy’s potential role in breaking the stranglehold of contemporary short-termism in the
built environment professions.
framework. Consequently, what counts as disciplinary advancement in architecture has seldom risen to the
towers of novel truth-value or the ramparts of reliability as in other disciplines. Architectural knowledge as a
whole seems to be mired in a treacherous moat of crocodiles where sharp teeth are often what matters
most. This paper proposes a new framework wherein four separate gates of investigation lead to the citadel
of new wisdom, Castle Neos. Those gates are named Research, Design, Forensics, and Education. Each
mode of investigation constitutes a worthy activity that opens a gate to significant architectural contributions.
Each mode is also articulated by its own methods, strategies, settings, and tactics; as well as its own
measures of truth value, novelty, and generalizability. The inclusive term “inquiry” is used here to both
distinguish and integrate the equal bases of the four investigations. Formulation of that proposed framework
for architecture constitutes a descriptive and normative theory because it explains the unique nature of
architectural inquiry and offers a coherent means for incorporating it into current disciplinary knowledge.
One pair of castle gates opens to the north and to the south: Design and Research. The short but broad
connecting street between them crosses at Analysis Lane and Synthesis Court, but along the way,
Philosophers Row and Method Way vary as to your right and left according to your gate of arrival. Another
primary road connects the West Forensic Gateway to the East Education Portal. Spread across the four
quadrants of the castle, the intersecting alleys and by-ways abound with a variety of productive
investigations.
Common architectural expressions of the emerging postindustrial era usually involve rustbelt iconography, urban restoration, and economic revitalization. The larger manifestations are, however, more epochal than adaptive reuse. Indeed, more profound urban transformations were portended many years ago. Thus, the more fundamental questions we must turn to are not about urban renewal or virtual architecture. As worthy as those projects are, they only responding to superficial representations. Instead we must anchor back to the underlying postindustrial forces. Evidence suggests that those forces involve separation of local scale symptomatic perceptions from systemic global
interactions. This ultimately mandates a new appreciation of
design complexity. The City is not a machine; it is an organism.
This paper addresses the conference category of “Architectural Engineering Education” and relates to recent published esearch by the author (e.g., Bachman, Two Spheres, Routledge, May, 2012b). A new model of architectural design education is roposed based on theory unifying the rational strategic sphere f design with the emotive physical sphere. The framework of this new model incorporates recent developments in neuroscience (Kelso) as well as aesthetic background (Scrutton) and hermeneutic philosophy (Gadamer). Precursor research Integrated Buildings, Wiley 2003) was presented at the 2003 ACSE Conference in Austin, Texas. Works by Wilson Consilience), Snow (The Two Cultures), Gould (The Hedgehog…) and Bateson (Ecology of Mind) were influential in their
collective urge toward comprehensive rather than Balkanized approaches to the inherently complimentary aspects of art and science in all human pursuits.
Using the human brain as a working illustration, systemic complexity is argued as the distinguishing difference between brain organ and animated mind. Frankenstein’s creature Adam is the negative example of mechanistic reduction. The istinctions of a mere building from the higher quality of architecture are equally profound. Parallels are drawn to the complex and dynamic behavior of buildings and building rojects. The paper concludes by mapping this theory onto a
corresponding new curriculum.
World War, architecture has been drawn into several encounters with dynamic complexity. Architects have
often danced with this complexity, but there has never been a full embrace – the encounters only amounting
to skirmishes between two radically different perspectives. Increasingly however, these two histories of design
and science are convergent, drawn together by forces of post-industrial knowledge, society, globalization,
economic interdependence and ecological sustenance. Through past literature, that convergence can be framed
by four modes of architectural complexity – wicked, messy, ordered and natural – but the history of these
encounters has seldom been couched in terms of their teleological and dynamic influences, nor have their
separate operations been characterized or connected in a way that adds coherence. This paper addresses
this missing history by making explicit distinctions between each of the four modes of architectural
complexity, tracing their early proponents and characterizing their operations.
how building case studies can be “successfully
integrated into the curriculum of professional
architectural education” in the specific context
of comprehensive design. The basic argument
is that analytical methods of building case
studies are a necessary educational
complement to the synthetic approach of
design studio. The term “reverse architecting”
is coined here to suggest the same mode of
thought associated with “reverse
engineering,” i.e., working backwards through
the original development cycle by starting
from an exemplary end product and
reinventing the process of discovery.
and medicine and is developing this database for the purposes of acquiring complex design insight.
This emerging clinical branch of architectural knowledge exceeds the scope of everyday experience of
physical form and can thus be shown to enable a more satisfying scale of design thinking. It is argued
that significant transformational kinds of professional transparency and accountability are thus
intensifying. The tactics and methods of this paper are to connect previously disparate historical and
contemporary events that mark the evolution of this database and then to fold those events into an
explanatory narrative concerning clinical design practice. Beginning with architecture’s use of
precedent (Collins 1971), the formulation of design as complex problems (Rittel and Webber 1973),
high performance buildings to meet the crisis of climate change, social mandates of postindustrial
society (Bell 1973), and other roots of evidence, the paper then elaborates the themes in which this
database is evolving. Such themes include post-occupancy evaluation (Bordass and Leaman 2005),
continuous commissioning, performance simulation, digital instrumentation, automation, and other
modes of data collection in buildings. Finally, the paper concludes with some anticipated impacts that
such a clinical database might have on design practice and how their benefits can be achieved through
new interdisciplinary relations between academia and practice.
Common Ground: definition, proposition, and wisdom in design inquiry and research inquiry
The Teaching of Research: a sample course on Architectural Research Methods
The Research on Teaching: pedagogy, scholarship, and assessment
The Classroom and Studio as Teaching Laboratories: data collection, analysis, and application
One Course on the Teaching of Research