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I’ve been fascinated by architecture since I was young. Even before considering becoming an archaeologist, architecture was a career path I strongly considered… until I realized how much math was involved.

Now, I conduct excavations around extant buildings to test the soil for artifacts. Or, I’ll search for the presence of an extinct building’s foundation, which is always fun to find. My passion in architecture has since been reignited after thinking about the buildings of our past and their trajectory.

This week marks Part I of a two-part series on architecture. We will dive into what architecture is, how we as humans manipulate the world around us to construct these buildings, and seek to answer the question, “Why is modern architecture becoming dull?”

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What does our architecture say about us? (Part I)

I recently posted this poll on Instagram, asking people’s opinions about architecture. Is it becoming dull in the modern era? With a nearly unanimous “yes”, I began contemplating why this may be the case - why our contemporary buildings lack the artistic touch of structures in the past. I can’t say that I’ve come to a definitive answer, but I believe I’m heading in the right direction. In this video, which is Part I of a two-part series, I’ll share some of my initial, tentative ideas as to what modern trends in architecture suggest about us. 

Hint: architecture is a reflection of our psychology.

The Material World

Let’s begin with the material world which architecture is ultimately intended to save us from. Humans live in physical space - in environments that pose threats to our well-being or simply to our comfort. Most animals rely only on their own biological and social faculties to deal with threats in their environments. Some have evolved sharp claws for predatory behavior, and others have evolved lighting speed to escape those predators.

We are different. Our biological faculties are relatively meek. However, our cultural faculties are powerful. Culture can be roughly defined as the suite of non-biological behaviors and traditions passed from person to person, and it can be split into two domains: immaterial (or idealistic), and material. Immaterial cultural ideas include things like language and religious beliefs. Material culture includes those tangible aspects of our traditions; such as artifacts and structures, like pottery or castles.

Both forms gave us the edge over our competitors in the ancient wild, and they both persist today. For our discussion on architecture, the latter will be our primary point of discussion - though, as you will see, they aren’t totally separable.

Social scientists have long contemplated what material culture is and why humans use it. The person I like referencing most, who I think has developed the most intuitive framework of material culture, is archaeologist Lewis Binford. In his 1962 paper “Archaeology as Anthropology”, Binford succinctly categorizes material culture into 3 functions [1].

1. Technomic

2. Socio-technic

3. Ideo-technic

These sound complicated, but I promise they are not. Technomic function refers to when something is used for purposes more immediate to survival - it’s utilitarian. Socio-technic function refers to an object's social use. Lastly, ideo-technic refers to the ideological use of an artifact. 

To keep it simple, we can look at one basic artifact from all three angles. Take a candle for example. A candle is a material object that humans have intentionally altered to control fire. It is by definition material culture. The technomic function of a candle would be to produce light in a dark environment. However, it could be used in a socio-technic way if it's a decorative feature lit for a romantic dinner. If put in a menorah, or used during catholic mass, the candle would be serving an ideo-technic purpose. 

We manipulate the material world around us in one of these three ways and architecture is no different. 

Examples of Technomic Architecture

From the earliest dwellings that humans created to the city skyline of New York, the most fundamental aspect of constructing architecture is to act as a barrier between us and the environment. We may think that our modern ventilation and fancy appliances give us a great advantage over nature itself, but we often fail to recognize the brilliance of ancient architecture in how it shielded our ancestors from threatening climates. 

Fitch notes how the traditional architecture of non-industrialized communities is extraordinarily adept at fending off the elements. The thermal control of an igloo is a prime example of this. Alaskan natives and other people indigenous to the Arctic must regularly deal with extremely cold weather. Without shelter to help them manage these temperatures, frostbite would be inevitable.

The igloos they construct create thermal control in two ways. First, the dome shape defends against cold winter winds. Second, the material they use is seemingly counterintuitive, yet beautifully innovative. The dry snow blocks they use to build their igloos act as great insulators, trapping the heat. Who would have thought that building with snow and ice would actually keep you warmer? 

On the opposite end of the temperature spectrum, we can look at the heat and humidity of the tropics. In these regions, people often minimize the thickness and surface area of walls in order to maximize airflow. This is compensated for by large, steep roofs that deflect the persistent rainfall. The floors are sometimes raised as well, which has a dual purpose: to increase their exposure to breezes and make it more difficult for deadly snakes to enter their living spaces.

Ancient humans and modern indigenous people have surely always placed symbolic importance on their structures like we do today. However, I hope those examples clearly depict the most fundamental function of architecture - to construct living spaces that are actually livable.

Examples of Socio-technic Architecture

Let us now look at another time period to show a socio-technic example of architecture. In other words, how architecture is modified to account for human sociality. 

Early America must have been an exciting, confusing, and frightening place to live. Colonists came from Europe to explore these new lands in the 16th and 17th centuries. What they stumbled upon seemed largely uninhabited, until they were met by the natives - whose architecture was vastly different from what they were accustomed to and more similar to that mentioned in the previous section. The Lenape Longhouses of the Northeast come to mind.

Conflict was inevitable and the colonists had to devise strategies to develop strongholds and domestic buildings without being picked off by a broad spear. Nevertheless, they succeeded, and European-influenced architecture began to spread into the New World. Interestingly, the colonists often settled in the same locations as many native campsites, on hills with well-drained soils overlooking waterways. There’s something universal about “home”.

As colonial architecture developed in America, so too did the slave trade. If we look at the domestic architecture of the time, we see how the social stratification of landowners and slaves influenced floor plans. Archaeologist Jim Deetz, one of the pioneers of American archaeology, uses the Chesapeake region of the U.S. as an example [3].

Having learned about tobacco from the Native Americans, it quickly became a commodity amongst the colonists. They began producing it themselves and found that the lands around the Chesapeake and further south were particularly habitable for the crop. It was in such high demand that tobacco producers needed a substantial labor force. Indentured servants were the first iteration of this workforce.

These people were essentially contracted to work in exchange for access to America and to have their basic needs (like food and lodging) met by their masters. They were not forced to work. At this time, these workers often lived in the same homes as their masters, typically upstairs. As demand for tobacco increased, so too did the number of workers - which led to larger houses to lodge them.

However, as time went on, indentured servants became more dissatisfied with their masters’ adherence to their contracts and the outlines agreed upon. Masters were breaching those contracts and tensions rose. They reacted by constructing completely separate housing for the servants.

Additionally, if you were to dig an archaeological excavation abutting or around the foundations of these separate structures, you would likely find distinct artifacts. Around the master’s houses, you would find the typical Anglo-American ceramics like redware and stoneware. Yet, around the smaller slave quarters, you would find a very different style of pottery known as colonoware. 

Colonoware was once thought to be of Native American origin, but after recognizing its correlation with slave plantations and being so stylistically similar to pottery from Nigeria and Ghana, archaeologists have shown that it is African American in origin. 

Conclusion

With these concepts in mind, let’s think briefly about modern architecture. What does it say about us? How does it reflect our modern needs and desires - our modern psychology? It is similarly effective in keeping us safe from the dangers of nature, and we could certainly think of ways that it is molded to our sociality. 

For example, a typical office building in the year 2024 must be big enough to fit a large number of people. It will probably also have different-sized rooms for people with different titles. Bosses often have large offices overlooking the city, whereas employees are assigned to measly cubicles. 

I’ve provided the basic framework for us to now explore the final function of material culture - its ideo-technic function. This is what we will discuss in Part II of the series next week. In that video, we will define features of modern architecture and how they reflect trends in our cultural psychology.

References:

[1] Binford, Lewis. 1962. “Archaeology as Anthropology.” American Antiquity 28(2):217-225.

[2] Fitch, J. and Branch, D. 1960. “Primitive Architecture and Climate.” Scientific American Magazine 203(6):134-144.

[3] Deetz, James. 1996. In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. New York, NY. Random House Inc.

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