The possibility of transcribing trauma into architecture: exploring potential interdisciplinary research methods across architecture and criminology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

This research article is part of a broader project focused on Trauma-Informed Design (TID). It explores the relationships between trauma experiences and architectural spaces using qualitative approaches. Initiated in 2020, this study involved dialogues between an architect and two criminologists, using visual artefacts to explore trauma in architecture. Exhibited at the Italian Pavilion “Resilient Communities” during the Architecture Venice Biennale 2021, the study employed architectural transcriptions of a semi-structured interview to create an imaginary urban setting embodying trauma narratives. In this work, I explore the possibility of new research methods that can unfold embodied experiences of trauma in architecture. I will firstly recall the notion of trauma and how it has recently impacted fields like criminology and architecture. Using a meander approach, I will briefly refer to the process of “informal conversations” as a research method to identify the research problem, which is beneficial when research is conducted across different disciplines. Then, drawing on other scholars’ works, I will argue for trauma as an assumption capable of holding together notions like architecture, memory, and the body. Based on the stories that traumatised individuals tell, I will use a transcribed interview conducted by a criminologist with an individual as an explorative point to investigate deeper the relation between trauma and architecture. Assuming a practice-based research framework and aligning with Candy (2006) definitions, I will use digital drawings to explore these relations. I will briefly recall the importance of ethnographic drawings and consider transcriptions in architecture and their intrinsic value through the work of other architects and theorists. Assuming an embodied cognition approach, I will argue for the human body as the main vehicle in making transcriptions between individual narratives externalised in words and transcribed into architecture through the medium of drawing. According to practice-based research, as new knowledge is gained through creative outcomes, I would argue that representing the human body in these genres of transcriptions can constitute a “relational affordance,” a medium capable of operating in the transcription process while unfolding aspects often subsumed by written words. Through the practice of transcribing contents into architecture and externalising them in terms of architectural and urban drawings, I sought to unveil the possible meanings of representing trauma within architecture before looking for any trauma-informed “solutions.”
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Dusk of Design
Subtitle of host publicationExploring Multidisciplinary Approaches and Evolutionary Biology in Architecture
EditorsJose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Alessandro Melis, Paola Boarin, Priscila Besen
PublisherSpringer
Chapter13
Pages163-181
Number of pages19
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9783031768675
ISBN (Print)9783031768668, 9783031768699
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Jan 2025

Publication series

Name Integrated Science
PublisherSpringer
Volume34
ISSN (Print)2662-9461
ISSN (Electronic)2662-947X

Keywords

  • Architecture design
  • creative methods in architecture research
  • practice-based learning and improvement
  • TID - Trauma Informed Design
  • architecture transcription
  • digital creative research methods
  • human body
  • embodiment
  • interdisciplinarity
  • relational affordances

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The possibility of transcribing trauma into architecture: exploring potential interdisciplinary research methods across architecture and criminology'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this