Architecture, Modernity, and Design

Architecture is the study and practice of designing the built environment, encompassing not only individual buildings but the urban fabric, landscapes, and social conditions they shape and are shaped by. It sits at the intersection of technical discipline and cultural practice, meaning that a hospital, a housing block, or a public square is simultaneously a structural problem, a historical artifact, and a statement about how a society organizes itself. Researchers working in this area are actively debating how modernist ideals of progress and universality hold up against the particular needs of specific communities and ecosystems, especially as climate change forces a reckoning with what sustainable design actually requires beyond surface-level certification. Central open questions include how historical and postcolonial contexts should inform contemporary urban development, and whether architecture can meaningfully address social inequality or whether its capacity for change is ultimately constrained by the economic forces that commission it.

Works

114,700

Total citations

81,358

Keywords

ArchitectureUrbanismModernismSustainabilityDesignLandscape