Sociology of architecture is the sociological study of the

built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human a ...

and the role and occupation of architects in modern societies.

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

is basically constituted of the aesthetic, the engineering and the social aspects. The built environment which is made up of designed spaces and the activities of people are inter-related and inseparable. It is for us to understand this interrelationship and put it down appropriately on paper.

Social institutions Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...

are many and these social institutions sometimes need functional spaces to allow the people using the building to benefit from all aspects of both, the purpose of what inhabits the building and by the varied structure and organized flow of communication. The way the buildings are designed to fulfill the needs of these social institutions /social requirements can be said to be the compliance of social aspects in architecture.

Cultural sociology

Architecture is the visual shape ("Gestalt") of society, and within that, all the various building types (architecture of consumption, of mobility, of the political and religious, as well as factories, prisons, cinema buildings, etc.) could become objects of architectural sociology. For example: how a specific architecture 'expresses' the structure and principles of a given society.

Classical sociology of architecture

Such

sociological analysis Social research is a research conducted by social scientists following a systematic plan. Social research methodologies can be classified as quantitative and qualitative. * Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable ...

of architecture can be found in the classic authors of sociology in

Marcel Mauss Marcel Mauss (; 10 May 1872 – 10 February 1950) was a French sociologist and anthropologist known as the "father of French ethnology". The nephew of Émile Durkheim, Mauss, in his academic work, crossed the boundaries between sociology and ...

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish ...

Norbert Elias Norbert Elias (; 22 June 1897 – 1 August 1990) was a German sociologist who later became a British citizen. He is especially famous for his theory of civilizing/decivilizing processes. Biography Elias was born on 22 June 1897 in Bresla ...

, Michel Foucault,

Ernst Bloch Ernst Simon Bloch (; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinkers ...

Siegfried Kracauer Siegfried Kracauer (; ; February 8, 1889 – November 26, 1966) was a German writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic, and film theorist. He has sometimes been associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. He is notable for a ...

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence ...

Maurice Halbwachs Maurice Halbwachs (; 11 March 1877 – 16 March 1945) was a French philosopher and sociologist known for developing the concept of collective memory. Halbwachs also contributed to the sociology of knowledge with his ''La Topographie Legendaire de ...

Karel Teige Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the '' Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the ...

and others.

Sociology of architectonic artifacts

The sociology of technology offers approaches to a sociology of (architectonic) artifacts. Initially, this sociology is interested in technical matters. While buildings (as art and technic) are not in the core of this discipline. The perspective of architecture as artifact would be the question of 'interactions' between architecture and subject: how a very specific architecture suggests certain ways, movements, perceptions.

Urban sociology and sociology of space

The term "

social space A social space is physical or virtual space such as a social center, online social media, or other gathering place where people gather and interact. Some social spaces such as town squares or parks are public places; others such as pubs, websit ...

" is used by

and others (in contrast to architecture or built environment) in a more abstract sense: as social constituted spatial structures. Georg Simmel founded such a

sociology of space The sociology of space is a sub-discipline of sociology that mostly borrows from theories developed within the discipline of geography, including the sub fields of human geography, economic geography, and feminist geography. The "sociology" of ...

and always watched the architecture of society. Simmel unfolded also an

urban sociology Urban sociology is the sociological study of life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a normative discipline of sociology seeking to study the structures, environmental processes, changes and problems of an urban area and by doin ...

(his articles were read in Chicago school): in his question of the specific ways of life in big cities ( "Big cities and life of spirit", 1903). Urban sociology primarily deals with social structures ''within'' the city: their points are for instance processes of segregation, urbanization and the decline of cities. Recently, there is a research focus on "differences of cities", which will be more associated with a sociology of architecture.

Ronald Daus Ronald Daus (12 May 1943, Hannover) is a German university Professor of Romance philology and cultural studies at the Free University of Berlin involved in multi- disciplinary studies. Daus researches in the field of study "Neue Romania" (New Ro ...

is introducing new concepts in this area, studying the history of extra-

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an Megacities..

References

*Paul Jones, ''The Sociology of Architecture: Constructing Identities'',

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

Press 2010 (in print). *Leslie Sklair, "The Icon Project: Architecture, Cities, and Capitalist Globalization", Oxford University Press, New York, 2017. *Heike Delitz, ''Gebaute Gesellschaft. Architektur als Medium des Sozialen'', Frankfurt/M., New York 2010. *Heike Delitz, ''Architektursoziologie''. Reihe Einsichten. Themen der Soziologie, Bielefeld 2009. *Joachim Fischer/Heike Delitz (eds.), ''Die Architektur der Gesellschaft. Theorien für die Architektursoziologie'', Bielefeld: transcript 2009. * Olivier Chadoin, ''Etre architecte : les vertus de l'indétermination - de la sociologie d'une profession à la sociologie du travail professionnel'', Presses Universitaires de Limoges, 2007. *Heike Delitz, ''Die Architektur der Gesellschaft. Architektur und Architekturtheorie im Blick der Soziologie'', in: Wolkenkuckucksheim - Cloud-Cuckoo-Land - Vozdushnyi zamok. Internationale ZS für Theorie und Wissenschaft der Architektur, 10. Jg. H. 1 (Sept. 2006): »From Outer Space: Architekturtheorie außerhalb der Disziplin« (http://www.tu-cottbus.de/BTU/Fak2/TheoArch/Wolke/deu/Themen/051/Delitz/delitz.htm). *Herbert Schubert, ''Empirische Architektursoziologie'', in: Die alte Stadt 1/2005, 1-27 *Joachim Fischer/ Michael Makropoulos (Hg.), ''Potsdamer Platz. Soziologische Theorien zu einem Ort der Moderne'', München 2004 *Bernhard Schäfers, ''Architektursoziologie'', Opladen (Leske + Budrich) 2003 * Gieryn, Thomas: What Buildings do, in: Theory and Society 31 (2002), 35-74 *Guy Ankerl, ''Experimental Sociology of Architecture. A Guide to Theory, Research and Literature'', Mouton de Gruyter Publ. (

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

, Paris, New York)549 p. 1983 (paper) Hardcover {{ISBN, 90-279-3219-0. *Anthony D. King (ed.), ''Buildings and Society: Essays on the Social Development of the Built Environment'', London 1980 *Robert Gutman, "Architecture from the Outside In: Selected Essays by Robert Gutman (ed. Dana Cuff, John Wriedt), Princeton Architectural Press, 2010. "People and Buildings" (ed. Robert Gutman, Nathan Glazer), Transaction Publishers, 2009. "Architectural Practice: A Critical View," Princeton Architectural Press; 5th edition, 1997.
www.architektur-soziologie.de
task force Sociology of architecture in the German Sociological Association * Espaces et Sociétés « Sociologie et architecture : matériau pour une comparaison européenne », Olivier Chadoin et Viviane Claude (Coord), n°142, juin 2010. * Chadoin Olivier, « Le sociologue chez les architectes – Matériau pour une sociologie de la sociologie en situation ancillaire », Sociétés contemporaines, n°3/75, 2009. * Chadoin Olivier, "Sociologie de l'architecture et des architectes", Marseille, Editions Parnthèses, 2021. Environmental design Environmental sociology

Cultural sociology

Classical sociology of architecture

Sociology of architectonic artifacts

Urban sociology and sociology of space

See also

References