The Information Hierarchy

The central thesis across all four books is that architectural errors occur when we invert the "Information Hierarchy." When we prioritize the visual style of a building (Layer 4) over the embodied experience of the user (Layer 1), we create environments that are alienating and indefensible.

This framework organizes the methodology into a single vertical stack, showing how the different books act as manuals for different layers of reality.

1. The Integrated Stack

Design operates on a hierarchy of reality. To create defensible environments, we must distinguish between biological constants and cultural variables. This stack applies equally to a physical building or a digital platform.

2. The Methodological Map

Understanding this stack reveals the specific function of my research and publications. The books are not separate theories but are distinct manuals for operating at different layers of this hierarchy.

• Addressing Layers 1 & 2 (The Constants): Making Architecture Through Being Human and Urban Design Made by Humans focus on the base of the stack. They create a framework for the sensori-motor and embodied social layers, identifying the biological constants and image schemas, such as CONTAINMENT, VERTICALITY, and CENTRE-PERIPHERY, that the human mind uses to comprehend reality before culture even intervenes. This is the manual for designing what is stable, defensible, and inherently human.
• Addressing Layer 3 (The Syntax): Revealing Architectural Design operates primarily at the social constructed layer. It provides the "grammar" for organizing these forces into a coherent social syntax. By defining how we use boundaries to create "socially constructed agreements," this work offers the tools to manipulate the inclusion and exclusion that define our public and private lives.
• Addressing Layer 4 (The Risk): The Hidden Lives of Algorithms examines the danger of the Cultural/Symbolic layer. It warns against the tendency to mistake the geometric symbol for the embodied reality it represents. When we confuse the map (the digital representation) with the territory (the embodied potential), we risk creating environments that are visually seductive but experientially hollow.

To design defensibly, we must understand which layer we are manipulating. You cannot solve a Layer 1 problem (human orientation) with a Layer 4 solution (style).

3. The Crisis of Inversion

A critical structural failure in contemporary design is the inversion of the stack.

We often witness a design culture that prioritizes the cultural semantic (what a building means or looks like) over the ontological (how a building is and performs) or embodied semantic (how we intuitively experience the space). In education and practice, we often reward the provocative image or the complex cultural narrative while ignoring the fundamental human requirement for spatial coherence.

In Revealing Architectural Design, the issue is discussed as the confusion between a concept and an idea without a methdological link between the two that transfers valid information. The methodological error occurs when a designer believes the Concept is the design. This results in "thin" architecture—buildings that function as large-scale sculptures or diagrams but fail to provide a coherent embodied experience.

In The Hidden Lives of Algorithms, we discuss the danger of the digital as the outcomes are often judged at the cultural level of what it looks like or how it represents. This can easily create environments that look correct as images but fail as embodied human experiences.

When we design from the top down—starting with the visual style—we create work that relies entirely on cultural validation. If the fashion shifts or the theory goes out of date, the building loses its value. To design defensibly, we must reverse the stack or work on all four layers simultaneously. Good luck.