Affordances of Visualised Future Environments

Architects produce models, sketches, and digital renderings to visualise the design for the end users to imagine the space. Occasionally, these mediums prompt clients to articulate their memories and experiences activated by the visual cues in the image. However, understanding how visualisations afford spatial memories and experiences is rarely considered in the design process. Visualisations that afford place memories can deliver greater insight into the imagined affordances of the client and can be used as a method to evaluate what is proposed. Conversely exploring such methods can also provide architects with an understanding of other affordances imagined by the end user. This study examines a visualised future environments in Melbourne, Australia. through video manipulation of an existing underutilised post-industrial waterscape environment. The Docklands urban precinct in Melbourne, Australia is a waterside development that has transformed the former docks and Victoria Harbour however, it has been criticized for lacking a sense of place. A general view is that sense of place is the experience of a particular setting that links a person’s set of values to the place. A sense of place is ‘an internal, personal experience’ that creates an attachment to place. This study explores visualisations that affords associations with place memories and spatial experiences. Based on our findings, we proposed a framework to help researchers and designers elicit different aspects of the participants tacit experiences.

keywords: design affordance; visualisations

• with: Damian Rogers (lead), Anita Kocsis
• year: May 2022 – September 2023
• for: Architecture, Media, Politics, Society
• download: Article