Drawing atmosphere: A case study of architectural design for care in later life

TY - JOUR

T1 - Drawing atmosphere

T2 - A case study of architectural design for care in later life

AU - Martin, Daryl

AU - Nettleton, Sarah

AU - Buse, Christina

N1 - © The Author(s) 2020

PY - 2020/12

Y1 - 2020/12

N2 - In this article, we use an entry to an international architectural student competition on future care to explore how social norms about older bodies may be challenged by designs that are sensitive to the spatial contexts within which we age. The power of the ‘My Home’ design by Witham and Wilkins derives from its hand drawn aesthetic and thus we consider the architects’ insistence on drawing as a challenge to the clear and unambiguous image making typically associated with digitally aided architectural designs. The hand drawn images of ‘My Home’ prompt a focus on care as enacted through the relations between material environments and things, and the atmospheric qualities these relations evoke. Throughout our analysis, we argue for greater attention to the ways in which embodied practices, everyday affects and materialities can be represented within architectural design, and the role of hand drawing as a creative methodology in this process.

AB - In this article, we use an entry to an international architectural student competition on future care to explore how social norms about older bodies may be challenged by designs that are sensitive to the spatial contexts within which we age. The power of the ‘My Home’ design by Witham and Wilkins derives from its hand drawn aesthetic and thus we consider the architects’ insistence on drawing as a challenge to the clear and unambiguous image making typically associated with digitally aided architectural designs. The hand drawn images of ‘My Home’ prompt a focus on care as enacted through the relations between material environments and things, and the atmospheric qualities these relations evoke. Throughout our analysis, we argue for greater attention to the ways in which embodied practices, everyday affects and materialities can be represented within architectural design, and the role of hand drawing as a creative methodology in this process.

KW - Architecture

KW - Atmosphere

KW - Care

KW - Drawing

KW - Embodiment

KW - Materiality

U2 - 10.1177/1357034X20949934

DO - 10.1177/1357034X20949934

M3 - Article

SN - 1460-3632

VL - 26

SP - 62

EP - 96

JO - Body and Society

JF - Body and Society

IS - 4

ER -