Beyond Technical Performances—Affordances as Qualitative Building Performances

Abstract

This paper extends the notion of building “performance” through a discussion of the impact of a building on its users’ performance and the concept of architectural “affordances” affecting the culture of space. The objective of this study was to identify “architectural cues” impacting and empowering learning cultures and behaviors related to new approaches in education and working processes for the 21st Century. The study explores the influence of affordances of motions (Gibson, 1979) and emotions (Griffero, 2014) on learning-related activities, behaviors, and feelings while focusing on the needs of individuals and teams in a collaborative culture. Through content analysis of awarded projects and post-occupancy evaluation of the newest building at the Illinois Institute of Technology, a set of codes and affordances were developed to be used as identifiers in evaluating how spatial context affects motions, behaviors, activities, and emotions. Affordances suggest activities that influence behaviors and feelings and have the ability to empower the users’ social, academic, and working performances. Hence, affordances influence culture and are referred to in this work as building cultural performances.