This paper examines the architecture of Amman/Jordan. Immersed in tradition, but also open and cosmopolitan, modern Amman went through a series of political, cultural, and economic transformations, which resulted in developing an expansive and a multiple sense of identity. This is reflected in its architecture; largely diversified in scale and style ranging between modernity and tradition, from aesthetically pleasing to visually displeasing, and from culturally acceptable to totally alien. Through visual observation, this paper examines the architectural scene of Amman and attempts to give a preliminary classification of such diversified trends. The paper identified seven architectural trends ranging from the contemporary to the regional and neo-traditional. The afterthought of the paper concluded that these trends can be further grouped into three categories; formal contemporary, contextual, and eclectic, reflecting a more general attitude towards modernity, tradition, and development.

This study aims to uncover the hidden geometry that regulates and orders the design of the Douglas House by Richard Meier. Richard Meier, over a five decade career, has been associated with a recognizable design language that has a clear set of formal characteristics and design themes, including among others: geometrical order exemplified in the use of modules and proportions and visual layering that organizes space in his buildings through the arrangement of successive planes across the visual field. Taking the Douglas house as a case study, the aim of the study is to show how these themes and motifs are employed in a particular building with a particular emphasis upon the geometrical ordering of building plans and elevations and the modular and proportional systems entailed in this ordering. This choice of emphasis is not coincidental: while other aspects of Meier's language may be equally important from the point of view of the perceptual qualities or the aesthetic judgment of his buildings, geometrical ordering most closely regulates and interacts with the overall arrangement of formal elements of the building. The study concludes that the final form of the house depends on the interaction between a design program and a formal language but is not determined solely by any. Abstract spatial themes such as reversal and twin phenomena also materialize in the physical form of the building through the artful manipulation of design elements.

Configuration is defined as the entailment of a set of co-present relationships embedded in a design, such that we can read a logic into the way in which the design is put together. We discuss conceptual shifts during design with particular emphasis on the designer's understanding of what kind of configuration the particular design is. The design for the Unitarian Church offers an historical example of such shifts, authorised by Kahn's own post-rationalisation of the design process. We subsequently construct a formal computational experiment where the generation, description and re-conceptualisation of designs is rendered entirely discursive. The experiment serves to clarify the nature of conceptual shifts in actual design, and the reasons why a reading of such shifts cannot be based on discursive evidence only but necessarily requires us to engage presentational forms of symbolisation as well. Our examples demonstrate how a conceptual shift within a particular design can lead to the discovery of a new potential design world. In the historical case, the conceptualisation of a new design world remains implicit and inadequately specified. But the theoretical experiment allows us to make explicit how geometrically similar configurations that arise from the application of one set of generative rules may possess systematic but entirely unanticipated perceptual properties, subsequently incorporated in new generative rules.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding an architectural building by qualitatively discerning the complex issues involved in building design and systematically integrating them into a theoretical construct. The premise behind this framework is that, in design, a better understanding of what to design leads to a more informed understanding of how to design, resulting in a more structured and innovative architectural work. Using a grounded theory method, this paper postulates an ontological framework that recasts the Vitruvian triad of utilitas, venustas, and firmitas into spatial, intellectual, and structural form, respectively. More importantly, it expands this triad to include architectural thinking manifested as a formative concept as an integral component of any architectural work, and situates a design in its related context. Thus, this paper aims to close a gap in many architectural frameworks. The framework provided here offers a level of robust understanding of architecture that can become a foundation for a more effective and rational architectural design practice. This foundation can be used as a basis for structuring architectural forms, as well as describing and analyzing existing works of architecture. Its value exceeds theory framing and extends toward architectural pedagogy as a theoretical framework in teaching design studio.