Environmental discourse of architecture

Abstract

This study attempts to examine the environmental discourse of architecture. The attempt to constitute a linguistic framework for the environmental discourse requires a critical understanding of the interrelationship among the following concerns: a) discourse as a ‘system of statements’ that prescribes the ‘theoretical formation’ of an object, b) architecture as a field in which several discourses (professional, technological, social, representational, theoretical, etc.) operate around their specific objects, c) environmental discourse as a discursive ‘formation’ which involves verbal or non-verbal ‘statements’ referring to the problematic of environment. The analysis of the linguistic figures such as clichés, interpretations and definitions, reveals the discursive power of language as a condition in which environmental discourse forms its discursive objects and produces discursive effects in architecture.