From Tectonic Theory to Architectural Practice: The EMU Student Services Building

This study examines how tectonic theory can inform the analysis of contemporary architectural practice through the case of the EMU Student Services Building. It develops a framework based on materiality, construction, detail, architectural experience, and the relation between design intention and construction realisation. Using a qualitative interpretive case-study approach, the research draws on drawings, project documents, photographs, on-site observation, and construction-process information. The analysis focuses on structural expression, material articulation, tectonic detail, spatial experience, and the transformation of tectonic intention from proposal to built form. The findings show that tectonic ideas are not transferred directly from theory into practice, but are negotiated through constructional constraints, material substitutions, and implementation decisions, particularly in the shift from the intended steel structure to the realised reinforced concrete system. Rather than treating tectonics as static, the study redefines tectonic expression as a negotiated process shaped by intention, material transformation, constructional limitation, and realised experience.