Architectural Research: Incorporating Myth and Science

Despite an apparently common assumption that science and myth are totally incompatible approaches to architecture, especially as related to architectural design, the author argues that science and myth are both explanations of phenomena, each different, but both valid. Positing the desirability of a research and design process that would take advantage of both approaches, it addresses the problems of existing conceptual categories and the possible productive relationship between myth and science for architecture. Anthropology is then proposed as a paradigm for an architectural research that could address both science and myth, and this is illustrated with examples of research and design studio instructio