Using design to research messaging and bureaucracy in architecture

Abstract

Public announcements and funding campaigns for new buildings on OSU's campus provide concrete evidence of the use of rhetoric and persuasion to promote new buildings. When a client asks for an innovative new classroom design, an architect must prove they can design for their needs. Therefore, each element in an architectural visualization is carefully selected to convey desired messages. Marketing materials incorporating these visualizations are the direct product of this bureaucratic process for approving new designs.

Through documenting and analyzing marketing material for new buildings on OSU's campus in the last ten years, we can begin to understand the process buildings undergo before construction at OSU. Promotional videos, branding rollouts, and calls for donations show a carefully considered vision that OSU wants to project about its architecture. My analysis revealed this vision as I found direct links from phrases used in marketing to elements shown in architectural visualizations.

Informed by my analysis, I created a form that codified the process of designing a building on OSU's campus. The speculative paperwork makes explicit the clear aesthetic and approach that governs the design of new buildings on OSU's campus. The form is designed to ensure buildings are designed to please the institution's countless stakeholders.

This study used design as a method for research. The act of emulating, analyzing, and designing allows one to understand the subject matter deeply - engaging with it in ways that would never come up naturally in traditional methods of research. The result is a nuanced and layered synthesis of the subject matter.

A successful university must have clearly defined values. OSU codifies its institutional values and enacts processes to ensure they are upheld in the design of new buildings. Buildings on our campus, as well as buildings designed for any large client, are the result of these bureaucratic measures. Although the discipline of architecture typically emphasizes the unique role of the architect, this research clearly shows that systems exert significant influence on architecture. For architects to work effectively within these systems, a clear understanding of the systems at play is advantageous in the creation of a better built environment.