Architectonic potentialities non-literal affordances through the architect’s gaze in prevalent architectural typologies

Abstract

Whether shaped by routine activity or rediscovered through personal resonance, familiar architectural environments possess the potential for emergence when perceived through an attuned gaze that is sensitive to latent affordances. Shifting from the cultural modalities of the 20th century toward the micro-dynamics of everyday life in the 21st century, architects now face demands that extend beyond mere formal or technical concerns. This dissertation aims to propose an expanded view that leads towards the emergence of non-literal affordances through the architect’s gaze – a fluid framework that combines a triad of cognitive frameworks to inform metaphoric and poetic sensibilities through an object-oriented mindset. Drawing on Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this research critiques reductive epistemologies and advances a view of architecture in which human and non-human objects retain inaccessible depths beyond the literal ways of interpreting architectural environments by accessing alternative modes of knowing (Harman, 2022). Drifting towards non-literal modes of knowing opens the doors for perceiving affordances as not mere action opportunities waiting to be performed, but as mysterious relations shaped by sensual characteristics and indirect interactions. Enriched by Edward de Bono’s lateral thinking techniques, the framework mobilises metaphorical reframing to disrupt habitual logic, enabling architects to traverse rigid typological conventions and uncover hidden potentials. Methodologically, the study integrates a multidisciplinary discussion with typological case studies, an explorative fieldwork study leading to prose poetry writing and theoretical exegesis that reveals how non-literal affordances reframe familiar environments. The findings demonstrate that such affordances effectively emerge through poetic and metaphorical interactions, suggesting new strategies for adaptive reuse, typological reinvention and culturally grounded interpretations of the built environment (de Bono, 1993; Harman, 2022).