Peter Baldwin, of the University’s School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, is making the pitch as part of a project showcasing the need for a return to architecture’s intangible roots.

Baldwin says the immaterial is a critical and often overlooked aspect of the design and experience of buildings: “Architecture lacks any quantifiable metric, it is known through tacit understanding rather than material knowledge. Whilst we could take the greatest of buildings, and grind them to their constituent atoms, we would still not find a single particle of architecture. Architecture must therefore be something contingent, something brought into being through the interplay of presence and absence, solid and void, the tangible and the incorporeal.

“As we move towards a more digital society, and the industry becomes progressively focused on physical material considerations, we are leaving the human, sensory, and experiential aspects of architecture behind. This is quite at odds with emerging understandings of the world and intangible values of culture and heritage that are finding greater and greater traction within the broader fields of arts and humanities.”

He adds: “The point of the project is to wave a flag and to start generating some conversations. All the contributors to the project are looking at things in different ways, to try and understand what architecture can do if we are a bit more open with how we reengage with the immaterial and intangible.

“This isn’t to say that every building should be a temple, but I think it’s important we have an awareness of the nonphysical qualities and effects of space and what the wider impact that has on buildings occupants. For instance, there’s been plenty of research into the levels of daylight within housing and there’s a demonstrable benefit to being in a heavily glazed, mid-century modern house compared to the sort of brick box houses you’ll have seen built since the 80s. I suppose I’m interested in how Jaques Derrida’s model of Hauntology and his conceptualisation ‘Spectral’ as a third contingent state  would allow us to think about the physiological, environmental and psychological as aspects of building design.

“If the world is becoming less material and more fluid and we're seeing more and more opportunities for people to mix and meet in new ways then architecture’s current discourse, which is very much about the tangible, isn't engaging with that. We are surrounded, near constantly by our built environments, so I think it’s important that when we construct buildings, the design isn’t purely based on not getting too wet, too hot or too cold. It’s important we start having these conversations to explore the wider impact architecture can have on the public psyche.”