On Performance. Addressing environmental phenomena in architecture, from representation to discourse

Abstract

In addressing the urgency to revise architectural drawings, under the pressing demands for sustainability, this essay considers theoretical underpinnings on architectural performance and specific case studies, centering on modernist and contemporary architects whose work has engaged with bridging concerns about form with energy efficiency, thermal comfort and climate control. The diagrammatic section, tracing tangible and intangible elements, emerges as an essential tool that has the power, on the one hand, to enable analysis and criticism and, on the other, to put forward and generate revised design approaches and spatial concepts. To grapple with the current socioecological issues, the article argues, we need to be reminded that environmental sustainability is equally a representational, a cultural and a design issue.