Qualitative Affects of Building Life Cycle: The Formation of Architectural Matter

Architectural design essentially organises matter as built form. Designers would therefore benefit from taking a more active approach to material formation; where matter is not perceived as inert, but instrumentalised for numerous designed agencies (Stuart-Smith 2011). The incorporation of generative design principles within pragmatic aspects of architectural production and consumption offers an alternative to engineered reductions in architectural expression often promoted for the sake of design efficiencies, and suggests an expansion of the domain that architectural design operates within. The Architectural Association’s Design Research Laboratory (AADRL) has been exploring the design of qualitative architectural affects through the rethinking of building life cycles as a design opportunity. Beyond quantifiable methods of building life cycle analysis, new strategies are emerging that challenge our assumptions about building life cycles; redefining relationships of matter and energy within aspects of architectural production.