Adaptation as a Design Method in Architecture, Case Study: A House at Martha’s Vineyard

Most of the designer’s use of inspiration sources for problem solving and majority of them apply nature as inspiration sources, but these sources cannot restricted to only bio-inspiration sources. Because of the complexity and multi-aspect features of design, they can use of different methods of overcoming this complexity. This paper introduces and develops a new method for architectural design that has been called “adaptation” which is rooted in literature and textual sources. This method focuses on text-inspired sources such as novels, poetry, plays, historical stories and so on which have been converted to design media. To gain an in-depth understanding of the applicability of adaptation, a case study (Martha’s Vineyard designed by Steven Holl) is discussed to reveal the process of inspiration in the form of adaptation. The adaptation method can be used to reshape other types of art media into new forms. The results show that the adaptation method is an innovative approach by which designers can reform remarkable and archetypical works into new presentations. It is believed that the other kinds of local-related arts and textual sources of a nation can serve as a platform for adaptation. Additionally, this method enables the designers to regenerate the valuable and up-to-date ideas in new forms. Also this method is a try to lead the designers for representing the various ideas with different outputs. Finally, in order to develop the adaptation as a design method, a conceptual model is provided for future study to establish a framework in the field and identify types of adaptation.