Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979) provides a framework for considering the multiple, interacting settings that shape behaviour, cognition, and wellbeing across the lifespan; from immediate physical spaces to broader socio-cultural contexts.  This blog will delve into the theory, its origins, key terms, and relevance to architectural and spatial design. We will also explore how the theory applies to practical design work.

What does a staircase suggest you do? What does a bench quietly invite? In architectural design, not all communication happens through words. Some cues are built into the very shape and material of the environment itself. James J. Gibson’s Affordance Theory offers a way of understanding these unspoken signals, how we instinctively grasp what a space enables, invites, or discourages.

It was, and in many ways still is, the kind of season that doesn’t announce itself loudly, but quietly unsettles everything. It has led me yet again to a recognition that growth requires parting with old identities and embracing new, sometimes uncomfortable, realities. 

The theory of evolution is that any organism responds to the environment it inhabits by becoming more and more efficient over generations...

Christopher Frayling’s three facets of Design Research include Research into, through, and for Design. They represent different approaches..

The prospect and refuge theory proposes that humans are naturally drawn to spaces that give them opportunities to respond to their needs....