ARCHITECTURAL KNOWLEDGE: LACKING A KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM, THE PROFESSION REJECTS HEALING ENVIRONMENTS THAT PROMOTE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

Abstract

Results collected from outside the discipline coalesce into a knowledge system for architecture. Increasingly, this information does not come from the usual historical, philosophical and social sources, but instead from AI, biology, mathematics and neuroscience. This body of discovered and tested knowledge remains outside dominant architectural culture. Several distinct methods of data gathering necessary for adaptive design are reviewed here. Cumulative findings — from design patterns, eye tracking and visual attention scans, information compression via mathematical symmetries, physiological indicators, software trained on artificial intelligence, AI language models and user surveys — reinforce each other. They reveal that traditional architectural design concepts and methods generate a significantly healthier environment than what architectural practice offers. The analogy of an “expert system” is suggested as a means of incorporating the collected results into current practice. Curricular changes are needed to cover this material in schools, especially the understanding of architectural knowledge. Nevertheless, as any change threatens the architecture-industrial complex, this proposal faces strong resistance from both academia and the profession. Society must drastically revise architecture to promote human health and well-being directly.