Architecture & the Built Environment

I spend a lot of time thinking about architecture and how it responds to the multitude of changes that occur in the built environment. Are there many shifts that occur over time? How does architecture adjust over those durations?

To consider these question we must first think about what architect Thom Mayne calls “concretezation,” meaning a solid form firmly rooted in the ground. In my interpretation, anything concretized has its architecture actualized and built in real space.

Could it be that society responds contextually to the built environment and relates to the architecture within those conditions? Thus, changing urban conditions are somewhat inconsequential to constructed forms. That architecture, solidified form and enveloped spaces, residing within their own confines, measures in its totality through the aspects of inferiority and exteriority.

The “inside-outside” interaction between architecture and the built environment begin to focus deeper notions of respond and relate. This illustrates the communicative aspects of architecture and urbanism. Architecture responds to challenges within the surrounding context and relates to the multifaceted solutions embedded in the built environment.

These semantic ideas begin to split into other various forms of architectural language meant to delineate intention and direction. Regardless, once a work has been constructed, its own architectural language will change when contextual shifts occur. The conditions of the built environment will evolve but the architecture remains the same.