Situated Empathy in Architectural Designand Research as Attentiveness to Ecological Relationality

Abstract

In the early 2000s, empathy emerged as a central concept in architectural discourse through human-centred design, participatory practice, and social-impact frameworks. However, in many contexts, this approach remains narrowly defined as affective identification with users and is often operationalised through brief consultations and extractive participatory exercises. This article argues that affective identification is insufficient for architectural research and practice committed to equity, decolonisation, gender inclusivity, social justice, and ecosystem resilience. It proposes reframing architectural empathy as attentiveness to human–non-human assemblages rather than as emotional projection towards human subjects alone. The paper tests this proposition through empirical insights from a participatory research-by-design study of learning environments in seven long-term refugee camps in Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya—sites characterised by climatic precarity, ecological stress, material improvisation, and continuous negotiation. Drawing on assemblage theory, actor-network theory, and relational theories of learning environments, it develops a model of empathy that is relational, procedural, reflexive, collective, and incremental, grounded in radical incrementalism and participatory action research. The article concludes that the future of empathy in architectural practice and research lies not in deeper emotional identification but in sustained ecological attentiveness, methodological reflexivity, and long-term accountability to human and more-than-human actors.