ABSTRACT
Steets demonstrates the fruitfulness of a sociology of knowledge perspective on architecture and the world of objects. She argues that looking at built space with reference to Berger and Luckmann helps to understand buildings as “material objectivations” that mediate processes of externalization and internalization in a specific way. She postulates that dwelling as a mode of internalization is always a dual process: It involves the development of body techniques, on the one hand, and the consideration of values and cultural meanings, on the other. These can be adopted or rejected. Empirical studies show that dwelling is based on an interaction between internalization and externalization. This interaction is a major cause of the permanent change unfolding in the built environment and, more generally, of change in society. The “inviting form” (Herzberger) seems to support these processes, whereas the functionalist form tends (at least in theory) to impede it.
