Architecture as Narrative: On Bernard Franken′s Ruminations on Characterization, Integration, and Imagination

Before invention of the printing process, architecture operated within society as a type of literal narrative. That does not mean that architecture is no longer the embodiment of meaning. Today the meanings, however, are simply different, corresponding to a different type of culture. This paper argues that it is still possible to approach, create, and understand architecture as a narrative discipline. Bernard Franken developed a series of spatial narratives derived from selected actual sites and implemented architectonic responses. Likewise, parallel ordering principles that included narrative elements, characterization, integration and imagination were examined, providing the structural framework for various formal and spatial experimentations. From a descriptive perspective the paper considers the architectural process as the imaginative opportunities of the narrative of architectural production in forms other than, but leading toward building.
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jaabe/6/2/6_213/_article