Architecture as Extensive Mind

The relationship between man and architecture is usually assessed using behavioral
science. However, this research intended to study architecture as a cognitive component
using 4E cognition. This is different from the effect of environment on cognition which
is often theorized as externalism within frameworks such as environmental psychology.
This approach introduces architecture as an essential part of the mind and cognition.
The main research question was: how does architecture act as the causative component
of cognition? The main purpose of this study was to provide a new understanding of the
nature of architecture and consequently, a new discourse to be established with architecture,
particularly in the case of interactive and adaptive architectures which practically act as an
extension of the body (prosthesis). At the strategic level, the research method was logical
argumentation which, at the level of measures, based the analysis of architecture, as the
extensive mind, on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment, as the external logic
of the argument. This study answered the research question by proving the essential role
of metaphor in embodied cognition and consciousness and then, the role of architecture
in generating primary and mixed metaphors. Therefore, here, metaphor is not considered
a literary device but the foundation of abstract concepts and is strongly dependent on the
characteristics of the body of the agent and the function of the body within the environment.
The results of this study showed that architecture, as a body, acts as part of the extended
mind or as an Exogram and architecture, as space, is the creator, weight-giver, and changer
of primary metaphors by means of our sensory-motor behaviors and thus acts as an extensive
and integrated mind