The field of research for this Ph.D. bridges the connection and or disconnection between sustainable architectural theory and sustainable architecture practice. Within each theme are subcategories that add to the complexity of these interactions. This research is broken into four phases, and as a brief outline, phase one focuses on two parts, part a, primarily focuses on existing theory, knowledge and literature, part b, focuses on contextualising sustainable architecture practice. The combination of these two parts will form the hypothesis and ‘red thread’ which will then be tested in phase two, simulated and introduced back into practice in phase three and finally in phase four understanding the best way to disseminate this knowledge. The overall tentative question is then, how can the gap between sustainable architecture theory and practice be improved and what are the different ways in which to do this, utilizing the vast amount of existing knowledge of sustainable architecture?

 

Due to the complexity of sustainable architecture, this initial phase (one) has tried to understand the topic as holistically and pluralistically as possible. Delimiting the literature study and subsequent mapping as little as possible to extend from the end of the industrial revolution (1840), which can be seen as a turning point for modern sustainable architecture theory, until current day. There has been no geographical limit, however, due to language barriers and only being able to read English it has resulted in literature either being limited to English publishing countries or major texts which have been translated - unintended delimitations have therefore occurred.

 

Creating these contextual maps from secondary sources has enabled an understanding of the interesting and crucial relationships between different information, people and theories. This has set up a strong and broad foundation of data, which will contribute to the field of research to help understand and clarify the ambiguity of existing sustainable architecture literature and information. This has also created a robust basis for my Ph.D. research as a whole.