Placed Based Architecture vis-a-vis Other Architectural Approaches

Design as Art ... Frank Gehry - one of my personal favorite architects - is praised and vilified. He designs by playing with paper and coming up with various curvilinear shapes, then getting his closest associate to put those into actual scale drawings.

Design as Functionality ... Developers who create McMansions, pre-designed templated subdivisions, faceless apartment buildings, etc. Some of this is driven by safety considerations which drive codes in various counties and municipalities - standardization is the easiest way to make sure that each subsystem is going to not cause harm to any one - safe electric, leak free plumbing, etc. - and besides, we can do UL testing on safety with numbers and charts, but who can agree on aesthetics.

People Based Design ... Emphasis here is on ease and access. Closeness of shopping to housing, proximity of parks, easing parking and walkability, and design of open areas that are protective of privacy and/or conducive of conversation with neighbors.

Place Based Design ... Probably the most neglected approach - and probably the approach we'd most like to see - alongside an ecological preserve / no-build open space. Place based design starts with the site. Starts with the kinds of sensitivities the three of us share with regards to the five senses, a sense of being and connecting, awareness of the elements and the views, respect for ground and soil, consideration of the humblest of plants and other life forms, a sense of sky as well as land based surroundings, etc. 

Architecture for years has depended, for example, on cheap energy, and architects were for a long time not even taught that southwest orientation maximizes solar gain through glass. In fact, subdivisions are largely based on the old Roman war camps - easier to check on your soldiers when tents and so on are organized in rows. So houses face sidewalks and streets (car culture) and each other (ease of trash pickup and deliveries but don't say hi to your neighbors) - not oriented to ... sun / wind / land / earth / soil / water / and people in that context.