Evaluative Place-making of the Arts and Craft Movement: A Sustainability Framework

This paper outlines four tenants of the Arts and Craft Movement (1850 – 1920, active until 1940s) as a novel sustainability framework. How do we maintain place-making and honor history in a local and sustainable context while by default being part of an emerging pervasive global community?

Through the critical examination of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and a reconsideration of aspects of Nature, Vernacular, Craft, and Materials, the authors propose a framework for sustainability. Core elements of said framework, namely Integrity, Physicality, Dignity, and Functionality, afford designers an innovative means of analyzing problems with an aim to achieve more meaningful spaces, more potent places, and a more sustainable environment.

keywords: Architectural History, Place-Making, Sustainability, Systems Thinking, Conceptual Framework