{"id":558,"date":"2025-07-31T09:45:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=558"},"modified":"2025-08-01T15:08:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T15:08:25","slug":"design-and-architecture-needs-a-new-vocabulary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/design-and-architecture-needs-a-new-vocabulary\/","title":{"rendered":"“Design and architecture needs a new vocabulary”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"People<\/div>\n

Changing some common terminology in architecture and design could be an important first step towards solving systemic issues, writes Katie Treggiden<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Language shapes how we see the world around us, literally.<\/strong> Some studies suggest<\/a> that native speakers of languages with different words for similar colours \u2013 for example “galazio” as its own word for “light blue”, as distinct from “blue” or “ble” in Greek, or “pink” as a separate term for “light red” in English \u2013 are more able to distinguish between them.<\/p>\n

The native Australian Pormpuraaw community, who don’t have equivalent terms for left and right but instead use compass points, can orient themselves more quickly and accurately<\/a> even in unfamiliar environments. And a 2018 study<\/a> found that participants reading otherwise-identical descriptions of someone either “battling cancer” or “on a journey with cancer” were more likely to expect the patient to feel guilty when given a terminal diagnosis if the term battling was used.<\/p>\n

\n

Our descriptions of design influence not only our perceptions, but also how decisions get made<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If words matter, we need to watch our language. Our descriptions of design, architecture and the built environment influence not only our perceptions, but also how decisions get made and who feels welcome in the spaces we create.<\/p>\n

Take the term “planning permission”. It evokes approval bestowed by distant and uncaring officials \u2013 something we rail against when it doesn’t go our way.<\/p>\n

But planning authorities should act on behalf of local and future communities, both human and in the natural world. So what if we used the phrase “community consent” instead? This shifts the emphasis of the consultation process from box-ticking to active listening, and the relationships involved from “them and us” to “all of us” \u2013 as well as reminding authorities of their duty to the communities they represent.<\/p>\n