Architecture and urban design ‘frames’ space, both literally and discursively. In

the literal sense everyday life ‘takes place’ within the clusters of rooms, buildings,

streets and cities we inhabit. Action is structured and shaped by streets, walls,

doors and windows; it is framed by the decisions of designers. As a form of dis-

course, built form constructs and frames meanings. Places tell us stories; we read

them as spatial text. The idea of ‘framing’ contains this ambiguity. Used as a

verb, to ‘frame’ means to ‘shape’ things, and also to ‘enclose’ them in a border –

like a mirror or picture. As a noun, a ‘frame’ is an established ‘order’ and a

‘border’. ‘Framing’ implies both the construction of a world and of a way of

seeing ourselves in it – at once picture and mirror. In each of these senses, the

design of built form is the practice of ‘framing’ the places of everyday life. A

frame is also a ‘context’ that we relegate to the taken-for-granted. Built form can

‘frame’ its subjects in a place where not all is as it seems – as in a ‘frame-up’.