MetaPhysics of architecture: An integral theory framework for sustainability

This essay criticises prevalent current sustainable architecture and proposes a conceptual framework for sustainable design practice. It argues that sustainable building standards, have failed to capture a more multi-dimensional and inclusive worldview, and therefore many influential architects have neglected implementing such principles. An analysis of literature shows that a large body of research published in the field of sustainable architecture takes a positivistic perspective and that few published articles have looked at sustainable architecture from the standpoint of the critical humanities, allowing non-positivistic viewpoints.

The proposed conceptual framework, adapted from Ken Wilber’s integral theory and substantiated through the lens of Gumbrecht’s identification of a culture of meaning and a culture of presence, provides an opportunity to oscillate between positivistic and non-positivistic ideologies and between subjective and objective values. The framework’s usefulness is demonstrated through case studies of Glenn Murcutt’s work. Architects are invited to practise sustainability through this integral framework: to entangle subjective and objective, individual and collective approaches, and to exercise the physics and metaphysics of sustainable design through consideration of the culture of meaning and the culture of presence.