Scale Assessment in the Design of Human-Built Environments through Hermeneutics

The lack of success in many civil engineering projects often results from a failure to grasp the concept of scale in design and planning. Understanding active environmental indicators and their impact is vital for determining scale. In the field of architecture and urban governance, "scale" encompasses various quantitative and qualitative aspects, which are diverse and complex, posing a significant challenge for comprehension. This raises the question: How can a designer effectively incorporate quantitative and qualitative measurements in the design environment, reflecting the project's scale, throughout the design process? Most scale errors occur when transferring the designer's vision from a mental image or sketch onto paper to match the actual dimensions of the physical structure in the external environment. While the designer (architect, urban planner, policy maker) may easily sketch on paper, the external environment is subject to invasion, occupation, and irreversible changes, which can lead to its degradation or enhancement. This issue prompts a philosophical investigation into how our limited human understanding can connect meaningfully with the vast external world. The research methodology is qualitative and practically oriented, aiming to present findings through logical reasoning grounded in hermeneutics and the concept of scale