Considerations for Contemporary Design and Land Use Within Existing Historical Context

The inevitable changes to the built environment over time presents the question of what contemporary design is appropriate for existing historical context. This is inherently a wicked problem that is becoming increasingly important to designers in the 21st century. Wicked problems, as the connotation implies, are those that are multi-faceted, unique, and with innumerable possible solutions (Rittel, Webber 1973). Each individual architectural project is a cog in a city’s evolving machine, therefore no one project should ever be considered unimportant.

As Robert Venturi said in his “Gentle Manifesto”, a designer should strive towards “messy vitality over obvious unity” (Venturi, 1966). Finding a simple design resolution is difficult if not impossible in a complex urban city layered with centuries of architecture. It is not necessary to copy the historic building next door, nor is it appropriate to design as if a site has no neighbors. The surrounding context should be evaluated for its mass, scale, program, history, and materials, among others, to inform and inspire a contemporary designer’s work. This thesis offers no “solution”; rather a series of design considerations. These considerations are by no means prescriptive, however. My aspiration is that this thesis can be used by future designers as a tool to prompt discussion and discovery about their own site specific project.