These vernacular extractions, focused on self-awareness rather than self-promotion, point to a new generation of circumstantially driven design methodologies akin to the mindset found in both Asian and Nordic cultures. These regional architects are stimulating the idea that design can be discovered and created from the idiosyncrasies unique to a given site and situation and bring a new understanding to the virtues that built solutions can be revealed rather than merely placed.
A heightened attentiveness of cultural sensitivity as well as an instinctive understanding of materiality is orchestrating their architecture, which seems to be intrinsically linked to its location. Unlike the holistic design approach found in Asia and Scandinavia, our Western society often pursues unbalanced solutions, and the sensual and ethical issues of our architecture are addressed unevenly. The essence of this suggests symbiosis and should be defined with more clarity.
The idea of symbiosis finds its origins as varied as the disciplines to which its term has been applied. As a philosophy, symbiosis includes issues from economics to religion, as well as throughout biological constructs. Simply defined, symbiosis is the intimate living together of two dissimilar organisms in a mutually beneficial relationship.
This textbook definition favors the scientific realm of the living world, pointing to the mutualism developed by particular animals and microorganisms. Lacking the infrastructural finance to commit to research, our profession should look to concepts and technologies that are available or developing in nonarchitectural fields that have potential applications within architecture.
These influences will undoubtedly alter the definition of the existing architectural problem. The discoveries of contemporary design have foundations extending from fractal or dualistic propositions. Polar contrasts such as beauty and utility, form and function, architecture and the city, human scale and urban scale, exist in opposition.
