Journal of Engineering and Architecture

Exploring the Role of Materiality in Modern Architecture
Alejandra Estrada

Abstract
This article unveils a study based on the content analysis of 6,400 digital books on philosophical materialism published in the 20th century. The universe of speech was classified according to the overall number of citations received between January 2004 and January 2016, from different databases and using digital tools. The aim of the study was to create a model that enabled a conceptual description of the idea of materiality present in modern architecture, based on the method of content analysis. After doing so, it was possible to establish five categories of content characterized by a strong union of context and totality, with enough descriptive capacity to guide the pursuit for association in the discourses of modern architecture. Thereafter, 126 codes were identified in some of the selected historiographies of architecture. They were used to measure degrees of similarity among categories and codes to ultimately identify a system of concepts that could help to define the idea of materialism in architecture. The coding trend was focused on the category known as “idealism”, and it was confirmed that modern architecture was not conceived based on a formal object but governed by cultural conventions.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jea.v6n1a5