Indeterminacy as Value in Architecture

Abstract

The present socioeconomic instability indicates a growing need for architects to productively incorporate elements of uncertainty into the architectural design process. In such a climate, this paper problematises the conventional practice of designing for future users while determining all elements of programme and form during the design process, and instead argues for designing for the participation of future users and stakeholders by leaving certain elements open to interpretation, completion or change once the building is inhabited. Such an approach to design echoes the theoretical and practical considerations of a number of architects during the 1950s and 60s, who, in the face of the modernist paradigm crisis, saw potential in the application of various forms and levels of indeterminacy to architectural concepts to generate a new course for modern architecture, one that was rooted in an understanding of architecture as a dynamic and evolutionary process as opposed to finished form. Drawing on these theories, this paper explores the potential for their re-evaluation in the uncertain context of the twenty-first century. The relevance of indeterminacy as a design strategy in architecture today is considered firstly through a review of a growing current in contemporary design discourse explicating the value of this concept, before exploring its contemporary manifestations in architectural practice through an overview of several notable projects. In doing so, this paper aims to establish a renewed understanding of indeterminacy as a value in contemporary architecture.