Analysing the Twentieth-Century House

Abstract

Whereas Part I of this book provides a detailed review of the intricacies of the box-counting method, Part II presents an application of this method to a specific project: a review of the formal complexity of eighty-five canonical designs. This chapter describes the method used for this larger research project, its rationale, limitations and scope. It includes a detailed discussion of the stages in the research process and the use of calculated and derived measures to characterise and compare the properties of individual designs and sets of designs. It concludes with a short, hypothetical example of the way the results of this research will be visualised and interpreted throughout the later chapters.