Decoding the Context as Place Interpretation

"Many books are available today to provide us with methods for urban analysis, most of them guided by rational principles imported from the exact sciences, most probably because arguments for investments are usually based on communicative rationality. I do not dispute the fact that these books dedicated to site analysis represent fundamental theoretical and methodological contributions, already capable of providing well-argued answers to the current debate on decoding context: on approaches, strategies, evolution, relevant scales and levels of analysis, consequences in design and architectural education. Against the background of this professional tradition, I discuss two major phenomenological difficulties of the methods of decoding context and translating it into architectural language: the delimitation of context in interpretation and the limits of traditions in context analysis, based on predefined criteria and parameters. The highlighted difficulties suggest the need for a more flexible design methodology guided by place-specific hermeneutics."