Re-centering architecture’s humanistic principles of home : an explorative study into the architect-client relationship across private individual dwellings

Abstract

Architects have the capacity to design dwellings that inform our inner world, and conversely, our inner world can shape the way we perceive and interact with these dwellings. Traditional architectural practices have often emphasised a clear distinction between the architect and the user, treating users as passive recipients rather than active participants in the design process. However, architecture does not exist in isolation; it is lived, interpreted, and continually reshaped by a deeper understanding of the occupant’s needs, desires, behaviours, and beginnings. This dissertation draws on the social complexities between architects and users in the design process, taking a phenomenological and post-analytical approach to the architect-client relationship, challenging the conventional notion of the architect as the sole author of the creative process and emphasising the central role of the user. Investigating the role of memory, identity and emotional experience in shaping our interaction with and understanding of architectural spaces allows the creation of environments that are attuned to the physiological, psychological, and emotional needs of their users. Emphasising that the concept of home does not respond to a singular, fixed definition but is a result of an ongoing process influenced by our emotional understanding and shaped through a process of co-creating, negotiation, and shared authorship. In doing so, the study reframes the home as a site of relational meaning, creating a link and value in combining architect knowledge and human knowledge. Through semi-structured interviews with architects and clients, this study explores themes of; embodied narratives and absent pragmatism; how liminality and foresight frame home as both a present condition and a space of future potential; and how spatial thresholds reflect control and identity. It also examines the ethical tensions as architects balance professional guidance and personal autonomy. The research ultimately calls for a rethinking of the role of the client, repositioning architecture as a process that prioritises well- being, identity and participatory engagement, towards domestic architecture that prioritises both spatial intention and lived experience.