Design Research Method (Architecture)

Discursive and Non-discursive Design Processes

by Kinda Al Sayed

FUNCTIONALISM AND THE CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL DISCOURSE: A REVIEW OF FUNCTIONALISM REVISITED BY JON LANG AND WALTER MOLESKI, Ashraf M. Salama (2011), International Journal of Architectural Research, Vol 5, Issue 2, July 2011, PP.127-131

by Ashraf M. Salama

One more important contribution after ‘Creating Architectural Theory’ which represents one of the classical writings... more One more important contribution after ‘Creating Architectural Theory’ which represents one of the classical writings on the theories of architecture. In this book, redefining functionalism in architectural theory is the ultimate task of Jon Lang and Walter Moleski. The authors argue, and rightly so, that it is insufficient to define functionalism as merely the utility of buildings and urban spaces. Rather, functionalism is conceived within a broad range of purposes of the built environment, which are important to architects and designers today, and the way in which people experience these intended purposes. People experience buildings either as environments or as objects, both of which are necessary forms of experience. While buildings perceived as objects possess aesthetic value, buildings understood as part of an environment enhance our understanding of that environment, its purposes and meanings.

The Architect Who Mistook His Dissertation for a Film. Promises and challenges of a research by design doctoral program

by Mattias Ekman

Presented 5 May 2011 at "When Architects and Designers Write, Draw, Build, ? a PhD" symposium in Aarhus (http://symposium2011.aarch.dk/)

By paraphrasing Oliver Sack’s famous book title, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, I... more By paraphrasing Oliver Sack’s famous book title, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, I wish to strike a note of ambivalence for this reflection on my ongoing doctoral project. I will present and try to disentangle some of the issues that have affected the work, and hopefully contribute to the discussion on doctoral education in architecture, particularly practice-oriented programs.

Design Research between Design and Research

by Nicolai Steinø

Paper for “When Architects and Designers Write, Draw, Build, ? a PhD”. The 2011 symposium of the Nordic Association of Architectural Research, Aarhus School of Architecture, May 4-6, 2011

co-authored with Thomas Markussen, Assistant Professor, PhD, Aarhus School of Architecture

Submission draft

The discourse on architecture and design research in Denmark in the past thirty years has been stuck in a unproductive... more The discourse on architecture and design research in Denmark in the past thirty years has been stuck in a unproductive dichotomy between research through design on the one hand and a phantom image of academic and theoretical, word-based research on the other.

Advocates of the research through design strand have argued, that architecture and design research must follow an architecture and design methodology – designing – and be communicated by means of architecture and design media – images and artefacts. Essentially, this view sees no difference between architecture and design research and practice, as expressed in the notion of research as ‘artistic innovation work’.

On the other hand, the pressure to expand research in architecture and design has seen a movement towards adopting traditional research paradigms from the technical and social sciences and humanities. For many architects and designers, this has been seen as an untimely invasion of paradigms which are not only alien to the architecture and design culture, but also fundamentally unable to capture the essence of architecture and design and hence to convey any meaningful new knowledge in the field.

The argument of this paper is that both positions are equally wrong. Design is the act of creating something new; something which wasn’t there before. Research is the act of creating new knowledge and is therefore in itself a design process. And just as design is a dialectic process of action and reflection, so is research. Hence, the main difference between design and research is in the object; design creates artefacts (physical or abstract) and research creates knowledge.

Strategic Research Management: The Case of the Architecture and Design Section of the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology

by Nicolai Steinø

This working paper investigates the potentials of strategic research management as a means to improve the research... more This working paper investigates the potentials of strategic research management as a means to improve the research performance in academia. The relevance of this investigation is suggested by the introduction of a new performance measurement system, the Bibliometric Research Indicator (BFI) and the increased linkage of performance to budgets for the Danish state universities.

The study takes its point of departure in strategic management and performance measurement theory, and is based on a case study of the Aalborg University Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology (ADMT) section of Architecture and Design (AD).

The paper concludes that improved staff-management dynamisms and peer coaching and learning among researchers are important in order to strengthen the departments's research performance, while performance measurement and incentives, if introduced, must be designed to fit the special characteristics of knowledge workers.

Transparency or Drama? Extending the Range of Academic Writing in Architecture and Design

by Stanislav Roudavski

Roudavski, Stanislav (2010). 'Transparency or Drama? Extending the Range of Academic Writing in Architecture and Design', Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 3, 2, pp. 111-133

Discourses on epistemology in a variety of disciplines have established the need for diverse and case-specific... more Discourses on epistemology in a variety of disciplines have established the need for diverse and case-specific approaches to writing. This need is as actual in practice-based research and the relevant fields would benefit from better support of creative experimentation with academic expression. In order to demonstrate that advances in this area are necessary, this article examines advice and criteria for writing offered by a typical writing guide. The discussed examples demonstrate that while the recommendations of such guides are useful, their emphasis on standardisation is also limiting. The article contrasts the advice common to writing guides and other prescriptive documents with the current state-of-the-art practice in qualitative research, pointing out productive alternative approaches.

Doctoral Thesis: Anuradha Chatterjee, UNSW The troubled surface of architecture: John Ruskin, the human body, and external walls.

by Anuradha Chatterjee

The meaning of the architectural surface was thoroughly reconsidered by architects and historians in England and... more The meaning of the architectural surface was thoroughly reconsidered by architects and historians in England and Europe between early and mid-nineteenth century. There were two major trends. The first one was historicist. Ornament and colour was considered important because it represented the origins of architecture. The second approach was rational and tectonic. It suggested that an honest surface had to be created by emphasizing the structure and by truthfully expressing materials.

An unusual response to these debates was John Ruskin’s history of medieval and Renaissance architecture. This was published as The seven lamps of architecture (1849), and the three volume study, The stones of Venice (1851-1853). Ruskin’s writings were difficult to grasp. On the one hand, they were fragmented, historically inaccurate, and lacking in explanatory power. On the other hand, they emphasized surface ornament, without ever indicating its architectural ‘use’. As a result, nineteenth and twentieth century historians and architects declared Ruskin’s writings as being irrelevant to architectural theory and practice.

By examining Ruskin’s writings on architecture through the theoretical lens of dress, body, and gender, the thesis demonstrates that he proposed the theory of the adorned “wall veil”.This was a two-part theory. Firstly, architecture was defined by the presence of planar walls. The masonry structure of these walls was masked and decorated by a seamless dress-like surface, consisting of relief and polychromatic ornaments. Secondly, Ruskin distinguished between the ideal and the corrupt dress. The ideal dress celebrated the spiritual aspects of the body (surface, skin, and colour). The corrupt dress represented the scientific image of the body (depth, bones and muscles, and form). The ideal dress was reflected by the surfaces of medieval buildings, and the
corrupt dress was mirrored by the Renaissance architectural surface.

Through these arguments, the thesis makes two major contributions. Firstly, it shows that Ruskin’s views were consistent with the architectural modernism of the twentieth century, in which the free façade and the atectonic surface were key concerns. Secondly, it establishes that Gottfried Semper’s writings were not the sole origin of the debates on dress and architecture. It shows that Ruskin developed a critical theory of dress by synthesizing debates on gender, science, and spirituality. He used this theory to suggest a new approach towards architecture.

Grasping the Green Void

by Anuradha Chatterjee

Twist and Flow: Thinking through ‘From Form to Formless’ Exhibition

by Anuradha Chatterjee

Twist and Flow: Thinking through ‘From Form to Formless’ Exhibition, Published by City of Sydney, http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/customshouse/whatson/documents/FormtoFormless-DrAnuradhaChatterjee.pdf