A Short Exploratory Essay on the Term ‘Cultural DNA’ from the Perspectives of Physical and Virtual Architecture

Abstract

Today, information sharing is faster than ever. From this, we face fragmentation of information about ourselves in virtual spaces such as in online communication, social network, and storage services. A problem we face today is that because the locations of our behavior spaces are integrated that sometimes we get lost in our own virtual behavior spaces. In this exploratory paper, in order to find ways to ameliorate the segmentation of behavior spaces, we attempt to identify how virtual spaces can become more manageable at a human scale by making analogies between physical and virtual architectural components. To investigate what kind of components should be considered in physical space and how spaces have evolved in different countries to the modern times, and onto virtual spaces, we apply the concept of cultural DNA into account. We first clarify what cultural DNA is by organizing the ideas of many scholars; make our own definition of cultural DNA in design field; apply the definition to physical architecture, and finally end with making analogies between the physical and virtual architecture.