Immaterial in architecture: A conceptual review

Abstract

This study aims to provide a critical investigation of how the concept of immaterial in architecture takes place in different approaches, including its variations and connotations, and explore the potential horizons of the problem. The investigation is based on academic architectural literature reached through ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Google Scholar scientific databases. Following a qualitative research approach, the study provides a critical reading that employs a mixed method combining conceptual review and reflexive thematic analysis. As a methodology, a keyword search about immaterial, covering connotations of the concept, is conducted in architectural academic literature. The findings, located under three themes, are related to two different paradigms; the positivist/materialist paradigm and the existentialist/ontological paradigm. The positivist paradigm, which adopts Cartesian subject-object distinction, is statistically dominant in literature. In contrast, the existentialist/ontological paradigm, which adopts subject-object unity, is statistically recessive even though the existentialist/ontological paradigm corresponds to the literal meaning of immaterial. This approach’s strong relation to the problem is found worth investigating deeper, and the research is expanded to include the terms metaphysical, ontological, and existential, which are connotations of immaterial. In conclusion, just as the immaterial aspects condition the formation of the space at a material level in the materialist paradigm, the ontological concepts in the existentialist paradigm are evaluated as immaterial aspects that condition the formation of the space and spatial experience at an ontological level.