ABSTRACT
Contemporary architectural design characteristically deploys hard material thresholds to define spatial arrangements and areas for predetermined use of space. Within this context building performance is seen to relate to structural and environmental conditions, an area thought to be characteristic of engineering and thus largely seen and treated as some kind of post-design optimization. There is, however, an alternative approach to performance-driven architectural design based on a spatial paradigm that correlates material and gradient environmental thresholds and their capacity for mutual modulation. In this context notions of both ‘structure’ and ‘environment’ need to be understood in a wider sense, beyond the singular function of load-bearing and mechanical ventilation, air conditioning and heating. ‘Structure’ is here defined as the interrelation or arrangement of parts in a complex entity with particular spatial, formal and behavioral attributes and characteristics, the latter of which are indivisible from environmental performance. ‘Environmental performance’ is defined as the multitude of interactions between interrelated material and climatic constituents of the human habitat.
