Communicating the dialectic between subjective ‘creativity’ and objective ‘rigor’ in design research : a case study of a multi-vocal mode of architectural criticism

Abstract

The objectivists’ distant view from the subject of study has long been prioritized overcreative subjective perspective in academia. This is while due to a certain level ofpersonal interpretation of any experiment, the pure ‘rigor’ of scientist approachescould be also challenged. However, acknowledging the advantage of multidimensionalexploration, this paper follows the notion of ‘oscillating subjectivity’,with a constant shift between projection of the object and the subject inrepresentation of a phenomenon. This position will be explored through a new modeof architectural criticism with a multi-vocal interpretation, which switches betweenthe inhabitation experience of the design outcome and a distant objective criticism ofthe design product. The critique will be represented textually and visually on a wellacclaimedpublic space, Olympic sculpture Park, through creating links between thedesign process, existing critical reviews as well as sensorial inhabitation of the space