The method of architectural anthropology: Six Suggestions

Drawing on three empirical settings of designing/archiving/dwelling as ongoing, collaborative processes in which people and materials are caught up in a complex web of ecological relations, this chapter offers a reflection on the methodological tactics of architectural anthropology. Moving beyond the existing trends of “subjectivist” and “critical-historicist” approaches, to be able to truly offer an enquiry into the current conditions and future possibilities of life in the world we all inhabit, architectural anthropology needs to perfect and renew its methods. Offering an argument for a richer architectural anthropological practice, I formulate six methodological suggestions: first, to adjust the speed of enquiry and to suspend explanation; second, to follow in concreto the paths and flows of non-humans and the connections they trace; third, to stay on the ground as that site where little can be seen, but can be seen well; fourth, to learn from the visual epistemology of architects and mobilize design visuals as a form of generating knowledge; fifth, to renew the descriptive techniques that better capture the ontological granularity of architectural processes; sixth, to increase our ability to intrude in the design worlds, to interfere and make difference.