Enquiry The ARCC Journal for Architectural Research

Atmosphere as a Language in the Dystopian Cinema

2025-11-21T14:43:05-05:00

This study examines the atmospheric language of dystopian cinema, focusing on Alex Proyas’s Dark City (1998), through a tripartite analysis of atmosphere, film, and language theories. It posits that cinematic atmosphere functions as a distinct mode of communication, employing architectural representations and sensory elements to convey meaning. Utilizing Gernot Böhme’s atmosphere generators, Michael A. K. Halliday’s metafunctional linguistic theory, and Roland Barthes’s semiotic framework—particularly his expansion of denotative and connotative levels—the research analyzes audience interpretations through ideational sketches and interpersonal discussions to reveal the generators. Findings show that Dark City’s atmospheric design effectively communicates themes of control, isolation, and existential anxiety. Ideational sketches predominantly represented “things,” “non-things,” and “bodies,” while interpersonal discussions highlighted “movements” and newly proposed categories, perception of space and control, time, and narration. The integration of Barthes’s model further illuminates how denotative categories emerging from visual data often give rise to connotative meanings articulated in verbal responses, demonstrating the interdependence of these semiotic layers. Keywords such as “oppression,” “surveillance,” and “darkness,” consistently identified, underscore the film’s (con)textual structure. The study demonstrates that audience interpretations validate the film’s ability to evoke emotional responses, highlighting the active role of viewers in constructing cinematic meaning. Future studies could explore cross-cultural dimensions of this atmospheric language and the impact of emerging technologies on cinematic atmospheres, further enriching our understanding of film as a complex communicative medium.

Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Application

2025-11-30T09:01:52-05:00

The global furniture industry generates approximately 300-450 million tonnes of waste annually, directly undermining UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption). The Circular Economy offers a structured response to this problem by prioritizing material loops that reduce extraction and extend value. For design education and practice, this translates into Circular Design Principles that operationalize circularity at the scale of furniture, material assemblies, and interior fit-outs. Despite their significance, architecture and interior design education programs inadequately prepare students to address these challenges through circular spatial strategies. This study presents a comprehensive three-component investigation examining circular design integration in Indian design education. First, a curricular analysis of 30 leading architecture and interior design programs was conducted to establish the instructional context for circular design in India. This was followed by a detailed examination of 17 studio briefs using content analysis to assess how sustainability is being incorporated in the learning objectives. Lastly, an empirical study with 23 third-year architecture students using sequential mixed-methods was conducted to evaluate knowledge-practice gaps in circular strategies integration. The findings reveal critical deficiencies across all stages. While sustainability terminology appears in 93% of architecture programs, no institution explicitly integrates circular design as a core competency. Studio brief analysis reveals that sustainability appears in some learning outcomes but remains operationalized through material substitution only. Student assessment shows only 28% naturally incorporate sustainable strategies, achieving 34.8% accuracy in identifying circular principles, with 65% demonstrating severe perception-reality gaps. The study demonstrates that current educational approaches treat sustainability as secondary, rather than integral. These findings necessitate systematic curriculum integration of circular design principles to develop specialized competencies in future designers. These systemic deficiencies, triangulated across curriculum, pedagogy, and student outcomes, orient this research to identify specific leverage points for reform.It offers a replicable framework for examining student understanding and provides curricula designers, educators and policymakers with evidence-based recommendations for effective circular design integration.

Exploring The Importance of Balconies in Amman's Resdiential Buildings During the Covid-19 Lockdown

2025-11-21T11:05:12-05:00

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about profound and lasting changes in how people engage with their residential built environments, elevating the importance of balconies in urban housing settings. In Amman, Jordan, a city characterized by high residential density, distinct climatic conditions, and rich cultural living traditions, balconies have transformed from peripheral architectural elements into vital semi-outdoor living spaces. These spaces have played a critical role during lockdown periods by supporting residents' physical activity, mental health, and social interaction, thereby mitigating some of the adverse effects of prolonged home confinement. This study employs a comprehensive mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative data from an online survey of 150 residents alongside in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 participants, to investigate evolving balcony usage patterns. It particularly focuses on how physical characteristics—including balcony size, orientation, and shading—affect the ability of these spaces to adapt to varied user needs. The findings underscore the multifunctionality of balconies as restorative environments that foster inclusivity by accommodating people of different ages and abilities, while also revealing ongoing accessibility challenges that need to be addressed. Ultimately, this research offers evidence-based, climate- and culture-sensitive architectural and urban design recommendations aimed at enhancing residential resilience, promoting social equity, and ensuring the sustainability of urban living spaces in the post-pandemic era.

Artificial Intelligence in Design Education

2026-02-14T08:46:05-05:00

Background: Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming integral to design practice, yet its integration into interior architecture and design education faces challenges, creating a potential gap between academic preparation and industry needs. There is an urgent need for evidence-based strategies to integrate AI effectively while upholding core pedagogical values.

Objective: This study systematically reviews recent literature on AI integration in interior architecture and design education to identify current patterns, pedagogical models, challenges, and opportunities, with specific implications for CIDA-accredited interior architecture and design programs.

Methods: Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, the author searched five databases (2021–2025) and screened records based on pre-defined eligibility criteria. Data from 80 included peer-reviewed studies were extracted and synthesized using thematic analysis, guided by postdigital pedagogy and human-centricity lenses.

Results: Eight key themes emerged: (1) AI use is heavily concentrated in early design phases; (2) integration paradoxically reinforces the need for human-centric skills and judgment; (3) literacy demands are evolving from prompt fluency toward broader AI literacy; (4) pedagogical models are diversifying but often lack formal structure; (5) AI's role is expanding beyond generation to analysis and critique; (6) AI increasingly operates within larger technological ecosystems; (7) a quantifiable education-practice gap persists, particularly in later design phases; (8) Affective factors (motivation, anxiety) significantly influence adoption.

Conclusion: AI in interior architecture and design education is advancing fastest in early ideation but remains comparatively underdeveloped in later, standards-intensive phases, indicating that the central curricular challenge is not whether to adopt AI, but how to position, bound, and assess it so that it strengthens auditable human judgment. In response, this paper proposes a CIDA-aligned curricular framework and phased implementation roadmap that link early creative leverage to later-stage rigor through phase-aware AI roles, transparency artifacts, ecosystem thinking, and human-centered evaluation.

Urban Microclimate and Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Hot-Arid Cities

2026-02-26T22:28:05-05:00

Outdoor thermal comfort is a critical determinant in the quality of urban life in hot-arid climates, particularly within newly developed governmental districts. This study employs a sequential mixed-methods approach to evaluate outdoor thermal comfort in the Governmental District of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital. A systematic literature review following the PRISMA protocol, supported by bibliometric analysis, was conducted to identify effective climate-responsive mitigation strategies. The study area was classified into five thermal zones using K-means clustering to assess microclimatic conditions before and after the implementation of integrated design interventions. Simulation results based on Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), selected as the primary outdoor thermal comfort index due to its widespread application in ENVI-met-based hot-arid studies, reveal substantial thermal improvements across all zones, with improvements exceeding 10 °C in specific areas. Thermal stress classification indicates a shift from extreme heat stress to moderate and slight stress levels, indicating the thermal mitigation potential of the applied interventions. The findings provide a zone-based analytical framework with potential applicability to climate-responsive urban design in comparable hot-arid environments.