Phenomeno-Parametrism: Translating Place Experience into Parametric

Abstract
Parametric practices in contemporary architecture have the capacity to generate form and optimise performance. However, “place” is often treated as a problem that can be translated into measurable variables. As a result, central aspects of lived experience, bodily orientation, rhythms of movement, thresholds, cue density, atmosphere, and memory, tend to remain outside the generative logic, or they return only as stylistic or formal effects. This paper proposes “Phenomeno-Parametrism” as an approach that builds an operational bridge between the phenomenology of place and parametric design. In this framework, a “parameter” is not an isolated number; it is a rule, a relation, and a constraint that can shape patterns of perception and use.
The paper argues that parametrism can function as a methodological interface. It can make readings of place legible, comparable, and open to revision, without claiming to “measure” place as a single objective fact. The guiding question is: “What changes when parametric design is used to encode experience rather than only form and performance?”
The research is developed through a focused case study that examines how readings of “Genius Loci” can be translated into a generative rule set. The process is anchored in Kevin Lynch’s framework of urban legibility paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks—as presented in “The Image of the City” book. These elements provide a clear analytic structure and support the extraction of experiential indicators such as visual sequences, threshold intensity. The indicators are then reformulated as a reviewable parametric grammar. The aim is to produce variants that remain coherent with place character, while resisting the reduction of atmosphere to a purely aesthetic signature.

Keywords: genius loci, phenomenology of place, Kevin Lynch, parametric architecture, generative rules, critical atmosphere.