Drawing place: An inquiry into the relationship between architectural design media and the conceptualization of place

The objective of this research study is, at the most general level, to get a clearer understanding of how the concept of place is dealt with in architectural design; that is, how designers come to understand and critique a design project in terms of how it might feel to inhabit the place once constructed. It is an inquiry into a way of thinking about design that privileges the experiential and personally meaningful qualities of a built environment. The more specific objective is to identify key factors that prove helpful in the designer's ability to conceptualize place. Thus, it is an inquiry into the use and function of design media---an inquiry with a specific interest in how designers use media and how media contributes to the understanding of a provisional and imagined work from an experiential point of view.;This study is structured around two sets of questions: the first concerns the effects of various media on the designer's conceptualization of place; the second compliments the first through seeking methods and factors that designers use in practice to achieve this kind of understanding. Both lines were undertaken together through a combination of methods that included in-depth interviews, media projects, and textual research. Data analysis yielded two levels of patterns, one corresponding to specific forms of mediation, and the other to the general media usage. In the first, patterns which document the effectiveness of particular media are presented. With the second, six factors are presented which were found to favor the conceptualization of place above and beyond any particular medium.;The study developed three summary conclusions: (1) The relationship between media and place is indirect; (2) Design media, despite the individual differences in effectiveness, are as a whole ambiguous in favoring the conceptualization of place; (3) The relationship between media and place is defined by a particular mode of engagement best described as empathetic insideness.