Architectural Adaptation as Praxis

Abstract

Since industrialization, modern architecture has appropriated the notion of adaptation. Defined as the adjustment of a building to the environment and its users, architectural adaptation has been mainly carried out via a narrow technological approach. Thus, digitalization has emerged as the latest ‘smart’ update. The limits of technological adaptation become especially evident with architecture in aiming to solve an ecological and social crisis on both a global and local level. In this paper, we argue for reconceptualizing adaptivity in architecture to (re)integrate processual, social, and aesthetic dimensions. We propose a new architectural understanding of adaptivity that includes currently excluded agents and involves them in communication and adaptation processes. As we focus on the intertwining of technical developments and cultural practices, that is, the interactions of human and non-human agents in architecture, we seek to describe architectural adaptation as an inclusive spatial praxis. This may aid in inventing new ways of life built upon sustainable nature-culture-technology relationships within society.