The Application of Architectural Research to Practice, 1972

THE COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION

OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER XVII Is

THE APPLICATION OF ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST SEMINAR ON ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH IN COMMONWEALTH AND UNITED KINGDOM UNIVERSITIES HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, JANUARY, 1972

Explanatory Note THIS is

the seventeenth in a series of 'Occasional Papers' published under the imprint of the Commonwealth Foundation. The aim is to ensure that the experience gained by citizens of the Commonwealth, to whom the Trustees of the Foundation make grants, becomes freely and widely available to professional colleagues working in relevant fields throughout the Commonwealth.

It should be emphasized that the views expressed in this Paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Trustees of the Foundation, either individually or collectively.

Further copies of this Report may be obtained on application to the Administration Officer, Commonwealth Foundation, Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1, England.

MARLBOROUGH HOUSE

June 1973

TERMS OF REFERENCE AGREED MEMORANDUM ON THE COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION (As published following the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Meeting of July 1965) interchanges between A Commonwealth Foundation will be established to administer a fund for increasing It will be the purpose alth.

Commonwe the throughout fields l professiona in s organisation alth Commonwe s. interchange such foster to order in needed is it where assistance provide to Foundation the of maintain a close liaison 2. The Foundation will be an autonomous body, although it will develop and with the Commonwealth Secretariat. Like the Secretariat, the Foundation will be accommodated at Marlborough House.

3. Within the broad purpose indicated above, the Foundation will include among its aims the following objects.

To encourage and support fuller representation at conferences of professional bodies within the Commonwealth.

To assist professional bodies within the Commonwealth to hold more conferences between themselves.

To facilitate the exchange of visits among professional people, especially the younger element.

To stimulate and increase the flow of professional information exchanged between the organisations concerned.

On request to assist with the setting up of national institutions or associations in countries where these do not at present exist.

To promote the growth of Commonwealth-wide associations or regional Commonwealth associations in order to reduce the present centralisation in Britain.

To consider exceptional requests for help from associations and individuals whose activities lie outside the strictly professional field but fall within the general ambit of the Foundation's operations as outlined above. ary could usefully develop informal contacts with the Commonwealth Parliamentwith Foundation 4. The concerned ns organisatio existing of activities the with duplication of risk the avoid To .

Association cultural activities and the Press, the Foundation should not initially seek to assume any functions in these fields. a distinguished private 5. The policy of the Foundation will be directed by a Chairman, who will be Governments, and a Board citizen of a Commonwealth country appointed with the approval of all member of will consist of of Trustees who should be expected to meet at least once a year. The Board Trustees nominate one member of the independent persons, each subscribing Government having the right to capacity.

Commonwealth Board. These nominees, even if officials, will be appointed in a personal eneral orThe an officer appointed Secretariat will be represented on the Board of Trustees by the Secretary-G by him. for a period of not more 6. There will be a full-time, salaried Director who will be appointed, initially than two years, by Commonwealth Heads of Government collectively acting through their representatives in London. He will be responsible to the Board of Trustees.

7. The Director will require a small personal staff: general office services will be provided by the Commonwealth Secretariat. on an 8. It is hoped that Commonwealth Governments will subscribe to the cost of the Foundation has indicated agreed scale. Payment of the first annual subscriptions will be made as soon as the Director that a bank account for the Foundation has been opened. It is hoped that, in addition, private sources may be willing to contribute to the funds of the Foundation. r and Auditor9. The accounts of the Foundation will be audited annually by the British Comptrolle General, whose report will be submitted to the Board of Trustees. The financial year of the Foundation will be from July 1st to June 30th.

10. The budget of the Foundation will be subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees 11. The British Government will draw up the necessary documents to set up the Trust and take any further steps needed to constitute the Foundation as a legal charity.

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE This report describes the proceedings and conclusions of the first Commonwealth Seminar on Architectural Research. The Seminar took place under the auspices of the Edinburgh University Architecture Research Unit from 5 to 10 January 1972. Representatives of 20 Commonwealth and United Kingdom Universities met to discuss their experience of promoting and organising architectural research. In addition observer's attended from local and central government, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Commonwealth Association of Architects.

The main theme of the Seminar was the application of architectural research to practice and teaching. In addition to discussing specific papers and exchanging experience and knowledge, the aim of the Seminar was to generate a system of communication between centres of research activity throughout the universities of the Commonwealth. In addition to discussion an exhibition of research work was held, together with visits to relevant projects in Scotland.

The Seminar was jointly sponsored by the Commonwealth Foundation, whose Trustees made a grant towards overseas Commonwealth attendance in the sum of £1,900, by the Commonwealth Association of Architects and the University of Edinburgh. The report which follows will, it is hoped, prove of interest to all those who see merit in present or future Commonwealth co-operation across the broad professional front.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Terms of Reference of the Foundation

1

Introductory Note

2

List of Participants

4 6

Opening Session:

The Architecture Research Unit—Objectives and Organisation

Session 2:

Individual presentations by participants

13

Session 3:

Architectural Design Research in the United Kingdom

41

Session 4:

Architectural Research and Practice

57

Session 5:

Concepts of Architectural Research

61

Session 6:

Objectives and Directives

62

Session 7:

Communication and Implementation

65

Session 8:

Organisation and Finance

68

Concluding Session:

Summary and Conclusions

70

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LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Mrs. P. Apps, Land Use and Built Form Studies, University of Cambridge, School of Architecture, 16 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, England.

Mr. G. Atkinson, Head of Design Division, Building Research Establishment, Garston, Watford, England.

Mr. B. Beckett, Chief Architect, Scottish Development Department, 83 Princes Street, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Mr. A. Bijl, Research Architect, Architecture Research Unit, University of Edinburgh, 55 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dr. J. Brine, Lecturer, Department of Urban Design and Regional Planning, University of Edinburgh, 60 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dr. R. Cammock, Medical Architecture Research Unit, Northern Polytechnic, Holloway, London, England.

Mr. T. Colchester, Secretary, Commonwealth Association of Architects, 66 Portland Place, London, England.

Professor R. Cowan, Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Professor G. Desbarats, Dean, Faculte de L'Aménagement, 2375 Côte Sainte Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Mr. C. Doidge, Unit for Architectural Studies, Department of Architecture, University College London, Gower Street, London, England.

Dr. J. Gibbons, Lecturer, Department of Architecture, University of Edinburgh, 16-18 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Professor A. Hardy, Professor of Building Science, School of Architecture, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Dr. D. Hawkes, Land Use and Built Form Studies, University of Cambridge, School of Architecture, 16 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, England.

Professor D. Hinton, Director, Birmingham School of Architecture, City of Birmingham Polytechnic, Corporation Street, Birmingham, England.

Professor T. Howarth, Dean, Faculty of Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture, 230 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Professor P. Johnson-Marshall, Professor of Urban Design and Regional Planning, University of Edinburgh, 60 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Mr. F. Joyce, Reader, Unit for Inter-disciplinary Research, University of Aston, Gosta Green, Birmingham, England.

Mr. R. King, Director, Fell Housing Research Unit, School of Architecture, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

Mr. S. Larbi, Lecturer in Architectural Science, Faculty of Architecture, University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.

Professor Sir R. H. Matthew, Professor of Architecture, Architecture Research Unit, University of Edinburgh, 55 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Mr. H. Moss, Unit for Architectural Studies, Department of Architecture, University College, London, Gower Street, London, England.

Professor A. Prakash, Principal, Chandigarh College of Architecture, Chandigarh, India.

Professor C. Robertson, Director, Architecture Research Unit, University of Edinburgh, 55 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Mr. A. Rodger, Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture, University of Edinburgh, 16-18 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland (formerly Department of Architecture, University of Khartoum).

Mr. J. Skakke, Director, Housing Research and Development Unit, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.

Dr. J. Taylor, Director of Research, Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York, Kings Manor, York, England.

Mr. C. Thunhurst, Medical Architecture Research Unit, Northern Polytechnic, Holloway, London, England.

Professor C. B. Wilson, Professor of Architectural Science, Department of Architecture, University of Edinburgh, 16-18 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Mr. D. Wisdom, Department of Architecture and Civic Design, Greater London Council, County Hall, London, England.

Editors of Proceedings Professor Charles Robertson, Dr. John Gibbons.

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OPENING SESSION INTRODUCTION: SIR ROBERT H. MATTHEW The purpose of this meeting is a very simple one, and I think you are all familiar with it. In July, we sent out a short note explaining very briefly why we were staging this meeting, and I would just like to say a brief word about it. First of all, it has been thought of as a simple job of bringing together architectural research units in the Commonwealth. Why the Commonwealth? For the practical reason that there is a Commonwealth fund in existence. That fund was earmarked to encourage professions in the Commonwealth. It started the Commonwealth Association of Architects, whose first meeting was in Malta. We have been able to call on this Fund, provided that its use is restricted to the Commonwealth. There are other reasons, of course. Architectural Education throughout the Commonwealth is based on one system of education. Also, we all still speak English, which is a great help. It seemed, therefore, a useful thing at some stage to hold a meeting of this kind to bring together units in existence. The question was when.

Timing was partly related to the situation in Edinburgh. We have been going for quite a number of years.

Why "Architectural" Research Units? We restricted the range in order to enable the meeting to be handled easily as a discussion group rather than a formal seminar. The Seminar is therefore confined to the field of Architectural Research and excludes the well defined field of building research and town planning.

In today's meeting, the initiative is taken by Charles Robertson to start the ball rolling, in order to throw up the principal kind of problems involved. In the course of seven years, I have visited the bulk of schools in the Commonwealth, and made contact with most of the recognisable units in existence—I was impressed by the fact that the same problems are arising everywhere. The Edinburgh unit has come across all conceivable problems.

With these few words of introduction, I would start off, the meeting with Charles Robertson's paper.

THE ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH UNIT—OBJECTIVES AND ORGANISATION: Charles Robertson, Director, ARU, University of Edinburgh.

A Research Unit was founded in this University by Professor Robert Matthew in 1959 to undertake studies in housing. Three important points of policy were stated in the early proposals for setting up the Unit. They were:— Page six

that the work, in addition to architectural design, should include social and building cost studies and consequently staff of the Unit should include a sociologist and a quantity surveyor in addition to architects. that research work should be related to practice; the initial research studies should be used to establish design criteria for two actual building projects to be carried out by the Unit. Subsequently these projects were to be examined in use after occupation. that the Unit's staff after a period of research and practice would form a reservoir of teachers for the undergraduate course.

The Research Unit was established prior to the undergraduate course, which consisted initially of only the two final years. Students were selected from departments in other colleges and universties, for example, the Art College in Edinburgh and Cambridge University, not offering at the time themselves any honours degrees course or any full degree course leading to final RIBA exemption. Some time later, the course was extended into a full five years honours course similar to that which we now have. The original programme for the research unit was designed to span over five years. It was financed by the Nuffield Foundation (L35,000), Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, now the Science Research Council (l0,000), the Carnegie Trust for Universities in Scotland (2,500), and the University of Edinburgh.

The Nuffield Foundation supportcd all the architectural staff and the sociologist. DSIR supported the quantity surveyor, the Carnegie Trust money was specifically for travelling and the University provided services full-time of a Senior Lecturer as Director, a secretary, partial services of a technician, accommodation, heat and light and a small departmental grant of £600 to cover documentation.

Towards the end of the five-year period the first building project at Prestonpans had been completed and the "in-use" studies had commenced. It had been preceded by social surveys of the area and of the tenants about to take up occupation.

The second building project at Cumbernauld was in the process of detailed design and working drawings and was attempting to develop some of the aspects of the design criteria set up for Prestonpans using a different form of housing. Traffic surveys of vehicles in housing areas in East Kilbride, Cumbernauld and some parts of Edinburgh had been completed and an attempt had been made to develop a technique for comparing various low cost housing schemes on a technical, economic and social basis. The sociologist had carried out studies in ownership of housing, particularly in the field of co-operative or joint ownership and although the proposals to establish an experiment in the Cumbernauld project did not materialise, a Housing Association was set up in the University which subsequently sponsored several cost rent and cooperative ownership schemes in and around Edinburgh. The sociologist has since developed his interests further and some years ago became the first representative of the Housing Corporation in Scotland and now holds a full-time appointment in that capacity. The quantity surveyor had carried out cost studies on various projects, and investigated various quantity surveying methods and in particular those relating to the operational bill of quantities. He subsequently Page seven

received a further grant from the Nuffield Foundation to pursue his interests in quantity surveying and methods of contract and published his work in April 1966 in a report "Studies in Integrated Building Cost Information".

From these studies the Unit was developing clear lines of interest: one was in the field of design criteria related to low rise high density housing; another in the relationship of ownership and management to design; and another in methods of communicating design proposals to the contractor through bills of quantities and contractual methods.

As the end of the grant period approached, fresh application was made to Nuffield and DSIR for further grants to continue the work. Nuffield, however, are not in the habit of repeating a grant once having established the Unit and were only prepared to help the quantity surveyor pursue his particular interests. The grant arrangements of DSIR were in a state of change and no help was received from there. Small grants were obtained after much perseverance from the Ministry of Public Building and Works to investigate design decisions in another project the Unit had commenced (which will be discusesed later) and from the Carnegie Trust to assist in the writing up of the Prestonpans project, which was subsequently published. The members of the Unit, however, at that time felt that the work of the Unit must continue and by a happy coincidence we were able to be appointed to design five 17 storey point blocks for the City of Salford using prefabricated large panel construction. This project, although not pursuing directly the interests of the Unit at that time, allowed the Unit to mature as a practice organisation handling large scale building projects. Also, since fees were paid on the normal RIBA scale and overhead costs low, it was possible to achieve a small surplus on income to employ a minimum of research staff—not related to the project. The country at that time was in a building boom and commissions for building work were not ttoo difficult to achieve. Consequently, about the same time through negotiation with the Ministry of Housing and Local Government a commission was obtained from the Borough of Sunderland to undertake the design of 168 dwellings of low rise high density nature. The purpose of the study, however, was to investigate the use of an operational bill of quantities and to a certain degree operational drawings. The Unit supplied the architectural services, the County Borough of Sunderland supplied the quantity surveying services in co-operation with the Building Researach Station, and the Unit and BRS jointly monitored the work as it proceeded. Although the results have been used in seminars in various parts of the country, it has never been published.

Again about this time the University of Edinburgh appointed the Unit to build an extension to the Laboratories for the Department of Zoology and a small sub-section of the Unit was set up to deal with laboratory design. This section has subsequently built three other laboratory buildings for the government and has been concerned with the integration of services and structure, the use of movable and adaptable laboratory furniture and to a certain degree, dimensional co-ordination. Reports on its various activities have been published and a senior member of the team has taken part in a University Party on Laboratory Design Criteria in this University, a report of whose work has also been published.

The method of financing live building projects and consequently the Unit, has been through Page eight

normal commissions and normal RIBA scale of fees. All members of the Unit are salary earning and therefore the Unit is non-profit making. Fees are paid to the University and since the work is of an educational and research nature, no tax is paid by the University on these fees. The full fee is therefore used for furthering the work of the Unit. In addition to continuing to supply accommodation, salary for one secretary, the £600 documentation grant, but no longer the salary of the Senior Lecturer, the University has allowed us to use the total fee income for the work of the Unit. It has also acted as the Unit's bankers carrying the Unit's liabilities over short periods of time between the earning of fees and the receipt of the actual fee. Although research grants have been slow in coming in, we have therefore been able to continue and expand our activities into establishing an organisation capable of undertaking considerable building projects and of supporting a nucleus of research staff capable of developing their fields of interest.

By this method from Unit income, the sociologist was sponsored to undertake a further study of single storey courtyard housing, not designed by the Unit but exhibiting and developing some of the features of the Prestonpans scheme, and the results have been published. An appointment with the London Borough of Lambeth to undertake a design for 300 houses to investigate design criteria enabled the Unit to pursue the interests of low rise high density housing. This project is at its completion stages and it is intended to follow up tenant reaction.

Running parallel to this, the Greater London Council agreed to an appointment for a research and investigation study over nine months on low rise high density design criteria, following this with an appointment for the design of 300 dwellings in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets using the design criteria evolved from the initial research study. This project is currently at tender stage and after completion it is also intended to follow it up. The first stage of the GLC work has been published.

The practice work in Salford developed into a further appointment to continue system building into five other point blocks and into a very close collaboration with a large Manchester contractor who was used on both these projects in assisting him in a design/build or package deal series of contracts. All this work, amounting to several million pounds worth of building, has developed in the Unit a deep interest in building methods and standards and opened up new areas of dealing with building contracts. None of the work, however, has been published.

Three years ago the Scottish Special Housing Association approached the Unit to investigate the possibility of using computer graphics to aid them in their large scale housing programme.

A substantial grant was subsequently received from SSHA for a two year period and this has led on to further substantial grants from the Association and also from the Science Research Council, together with the former Ministry of Public Building and Works (now the Department of the Environment). This work will be described later by Mr. Bijl. The important point here is that this kind of commission could be attracted largely because the Unit had established a staff of some considerable experience in practice; with an understanding of practice problems and a variety of research skills that could provide a nucleus for developing research work.

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Having described in a broad way the kind of work that has developed and to a certain degree a policy in developing it, one must turn to the problems and shortcomings of an organisation of this nature and perhaps this is best done by examining it under the three headings—practice, research and teaching.

Practice To establish a practice anywhere from scratch with no previous work, the client must be satisfied as to the capabilities of the people within the practice. We were fortunate of course in being headed by Sir Robert Matthew and our credibility was established almost immediately. My own background before coming to the Unit had been ten years in practice and the other architects who joined the Unit subsequently had also had good practice backgrounds. Building up the efficiency of a practice, however, requires continuity of senior people, so that the standdards set can be continued. Practice work is a fluctuating thing and can vary from high levels of activity to low levels of activity in a fairly short space of time. We have seen in Britain recently a considerable slowing down of building activity and many practices being faced with redundant staff. A normal good practice, of course, would set aside reserve money in good years to offset low income in other years. Pursuing ARU policy, however, using surplus income almost to the maximum every year to maintain a nucleus of research people, no reserve fund has really been possible. Indeed it can be argued that if a reserve fund had been developed, little or no research activity would have taken place and this, in my view, would have been wrong. We have reached this year a considerable slowing down in our practice activities with the regrettable result that our practice staff has had to be reduced. In stretching the finances in this way, it is extremely difficult to maintain reasonably long-term appointments for senior men, causing uncertainty in their own careers and a feeling of some insecurity. All members of ARU staff are on shortterm contracts varying from one year to three years. This of course cannot lead to stability within the practice and a continuance of good practice standards.

An integration of practice, research and teaching has been the policy of ARU since its inception; with practice as the base. It is necessary, however, to achieve a continuing flow of practice work. ARU, although carrying out a great deal of work, has been unable to achieve continuity.

This may best be achieved by some positive link to a large authority—a city or county authority —or in the future to one of the enlarged regional authorities, supplying the research and development needs of that authority and perhaps some continuing, mid-career educational opportunities for the authority's staff.

Research Developing credibility is the first object and I believe ARU policy has been successful in doing this. Support for research, however, remains a problem for our work as for others. Sponsored research from SRC, SSRC, Foundations etc., is almost exclusively project orientated with the consequent problem of continuity of staff at the completion of projects. Group research Page ten

(and most architectural research falls into this category) requires large funds and means of providing staff with some longer term security and the possibility of a career. Fortunately, in architecture, research work is very often aimed at specific problems of a fairly practical nature especially that commissioned by an executive authority and the results may often be used to earn funds to bridge the gap between contracts at a later stage.

Finance to support publishing of results, typing and secretarial assistance is another problem with some sponsored research projects. Until now ARU has through its practice been able to provide overheads of this nature, but with the fall-off of practice work this service is now in jeopardy. The department administration in the University is normally expected to supply secretarial assistance but in practice it is usually fully committed to teaching needs.

Teaching It is in teaching that ARU has made the least progress. Although many members of staff are used for teaching (up to 10 in any one session), the contribution has tended to be unco-ordinated and not as useful to the students as it might be. The biggest demand for ARU help is normally in tutoring final year and postgraduate theses. The accumulated practical and research experience is now considerable and a more co-ordinated approach is under consideration, where the practice section of ARU would become the core of a consortium of practices to provide the equivalent of a teaching hospital.

Continuity of work, continuity of staff and sufficient staff to cope, are again the main problems.

The Chairman thanked Professor Robertson for his paper and a discussion took place.

Discussion The main points made in the discussion are recorded below together with the names of participants associated with the points.

Twenty years ago, although there was willingness in the local authority, the local architects' association objected to "live" projects for students. In setting up the research unit some years later, these objections were carefully observed and projects were arranged outside the city.

ARU's activities have since never been restricted by narrow geographical limits.

(Professor Matthew) It is necessary to work for authorities or clients (as in ARU's case at Salford to develop industrialised components) where the research and development expertise can meet the client's (Professor Johnson-Marshall) needs.

The objections to a University based practice very often come from those practitioners who complain of students' lack of practical knowledge and experience.

(Professor Hinton) Page eleven

Two problems occur in a University practice which give rise to complaints: The freedom with which Universities can obtain work When teaching members of staff are in a position to make a profit in addition to salary.

(Professor Hinton) In Montreal staff members who are registered architects are allowed to practice but are restricted in earnings to two-ninths of their salary for any extra earnings entering the University's accounting system.

(Dean Desbarats) In Edinburgh the ARU staff are all on salary (including the Director and Professor) and no profit is earned by individuals.

(Professor Matthew) The Department of Architecture in Edinburgh is now in the process of introducing a new course structure which includes a 4 year honours degree. In this reorganisation it is essential for the Department and the Research Unit to be fully integrated. There is a need for a nucleus of research people in the ARU to have permanent positions in University.

(Professor Wilson) The orginal research unit was set up in a pragmatic way. It seemed to me that buildings were not being designed as well as they might be to meet modern conditions; schools of architecture were relatively detached from practice and there was little application of the need for research.

We entered the field of housing partly because of the national need and partly by chance.

Our proposals to examine a particular form of house, build it and then appraise it in use were attractive to the various grant giving bodies who eventually gave us the money we needed to start.

(Professor Matthew) There is little research going on in India. I am now involving my students in projects where they obtain plans of well-designed buildings and interview the architects. They also talk to the users to determine their response.

(Professor Prakash) The Building Science Section of the School of Architecture began as a Research Unit. After five years of operation it became apparent that the results of our research were not being applied, as architects were reluctant to read research publications unless a specific design problem required it. It was realised that the only way to obtain feed-back from the application of research results was to become involved in the design of actual buildings. This came about by architects asking for design advice and eventually resulted in our becoming involved in projects as consultants. In addition, the School of Architecture set up a Live Project Office. We now realise that unless research units are in some way involved in the practical problems of building design and construction, it is very difficult to identify the priorities in research subjects.

(Professor Hardy)

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SESSION TWO Individual presentations by participants: Chairman Charles Robertson Chairman In this second session we are going to take contributions from the floor and expand upon the background of the organisations that are represented here. I believe in this way we shall see common problems emerging as well as identifying unique problems relevant only to particular cultural and social backgrounds.

We have representatives here of Commonwealth Schools of Architecture. In addition we have representatives of the Commonwealth Association of Architects, the Scottish Development Department, the Building Research Establishment and the Great London Council. Some members of the University of Edinburgh staff have also experience of teaching in other parts of the world which may be of value to add to the proceedings.

I will therefore call on the participants in turn to explain to the Seminar the structure and origins of the organisations they represent.

Mr. F. Joyce, University of Aston The Joint Unit for Research at Aston is a multi-disciplinary group, which was set up and funded by the University. There are at present seven full time members of staff. The steering group is run by four heads of departments, two of whom are also heads of Polytechnic departments. Staff includes geographers, Engineers, Town Planners and sociologists. Initial research was into acoustic problems of the urban environment. At present we are not seeking any financial support as all our staff are salaried permanent academic staff. We are however exploring contractual relationships with other organisations. Professor Hinton who, as Director of the Birmingham School of Architecture is a member of the steering group, is better qualified to explain the broader structure in the University of Aston and Birmingham School of Architecture.

Professor Denys Hinton, University of Aston in Birmingham Like some other Schools of Architecture, the research which has developed in Birmingham has been pragmatic and based largely on the interests of members of the teaching staff. Support work has been carried out in the senior years of the undergraduate course and in a few cases carried through to work at M.Sc. level, but until recently this has not been co-ordinated by a Research Unit.

For many years the School has operated a Live Project Unit, the aims of which have grown from providing practical experience for undergraduates to providing an embryonic development unit.

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In 1971 the University of Aston set up a Joint Unit for Research on the Urban Environment.

Its Director is a Reader and he is supported by a modest research establishment founded by the University, working under a Steering Committee consisting of the four Professor Heads of Architecture, Building, Civil Engineering and Planning.

This Unit has begun work in Urban Planning Studies and will expand in areas related to the four departments seeking research contracts from the Research Councils, Central and Local Government and from industry.

The strongest area in Architectural Research is Environmental Science where David Walters and Antony Sealey have both established reputations respectively in Noise Acoustics and Climatology. This is paralleled by a good deal of consultancy work on the one hand, and a particular interest and its application to teaching on the other—thus combining the areas referred to in the wide interpretation of practice given in the seminar papers.

The same combination of Research/Development and practice is also a feature of the Live Project Unit in its present form. This Unit has its own Principal, responsible for its professional administration and will, as well as continuing to provide, in various forms, practical experience for students, work increasingly as an agency for specialised research—in close collaboration with the Joint Unit for Research on the Urban Environment enabling it to take on the Development aspects of Environmental Research and to refer to the Joint Unit areas which throw up Research needs. The growth pattern is therefore likely to be: A Continuation of research programme by individual members of the teaching staff and associated work in consultancy.

B Promotion of higher degrees by research C Enlargement of the development role of the Live Project Unit.

D Expansion in the work on the Joint Unit.

E Feed back into undergraduate course.

F Co-ordination by research A—E. S. 0. Larbi, Faculty of Architecture, University of Kumasi, Ghana.

Before considering the details of research activities, one has to examine the field of architectural practice in my country. Ghana to some extent is a country of extremes. It contains communities in need of the most basic forms of shelter and community amenity side by side with those requiring sophisticated forms of accommodation in a modern urban environment. Similarly, the means used to achieve the results demanded, cover as broad a range, from construction in swish to building pre-fabricated-post-tensioned reinforced concrete structures.

It is also to some extent an illogical and contradictory place. Much of this contradiction has its roots in the old colonial concepts, and also in the political and economic situation resulting from the changeover to self-rule. Planning and building regulations are either out of date or Page fourteen

local based on arbitrary rules unrelated to established principles of modern building. Most exist. authorities do not even recognise that architects The architectural profession is a late corner in the history of professional practice and the history just of research in Architecture does not date back more than about thirty years. There are litan metropo the in are whom of 90% nearly country, the in over a hundred architects practising areas of Accra and Kumasi. A fair proportion of these are expatriates. The Public Works ts Department is the largest in the country; other practices vary in size from about 4 architec . architect the for ion informat any hardly contain s Librarie to the one-man practice. The Public great. is design for ion informat l The need for the supply of technica The Faculty of Architecture of the University of Science and Technology and the Building on and Road Research Institute (BRRI) of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences situated science. ental the University Campus undertake fundamental and applied research in environm The former West African Building Research Institute, a predecessor to the BRRI, covered considerable grounds in many areas of building research mainly in the context of West Africa needs and, to a small extent, of Ghana in particular. Research is therefore needed to serve the of an expanding architectural profession in Ghana. ture.

The education and training of Architects in Kumasi began in 1958 as the School of Architec School this 1963, In gy.

Technolo of College Town Planning and Building as part of the Kumasi became a Faculty of the University. A revised structure was set up during 1963 and 1964 covered ing broadly the requirements of Architecture, Planning, Building Technology and associat Research Development. and The Faculty comprises the Department of Architecture, Building Technology, Planning Planning Physical and ic Econom the cover offered courses The .

Housing and Planning Research processes, the Design Processes and the Production and Management processes of the Building Industry.

A Faculty projects office was established within the Faculty two years ago, to provide consulthe tancy service. All members of the teaching staff can undertaken consultancy work through for ities Faculty Projects Office. This term, a Teaching Office has been set up to offer opportun students and staff to work jointly on live projects.

Education and training is based on inter-disciplinary study and applied research. The Departon a ment of Housing and Planning Research relates its work closely to resource development ent wide basis. Emphasis is given at present to urban and rural low income housing. The Departm provides a feedback of information for teaching in the Faculty and offers a consultancy service, mainly to Government agencies etc.

West In all courses, emphasis is given to Environmental Studies in the context of Ghana, the teaching the for available ge knowled of wealth a is There African region and continental Africa. being of Architecture, Planning and the associated building processes, one of the problems Page fifteen

to ensure appropriate teaching for the requirements of Africa, and to endeavour to maintain current international standards.

However, if to this reservoir of learning, is added the necessary basic technological inventiveness, then the emphasis and balance of teaching becomes a study of the development of science and the application of technology in terms of the total environment. The Faculty therefore concentrates on the problems of designing for the environment and on the prediction of the future requirements directly related to the development of Ghana.

Research activities related to the total environmental can be broadly classified into two: Applied Research, and Fundamental Research Applied Research is here used to denote that type of research activity aimed at providing solutions to problems in specific areas of design. It may comprise the collection and analysis of climatic data as a necessary part of the design process. Although meteorological data can be obtained for a number of stations for periods of up to 50 years, it is common that new projects such as new towns or agricultural establishments are several miles away from the nearest Met. Station. In other words, in a developing country, the absence of such data makes it necessary that studies are always done whenever there is going to be a new project.

The design of facades with a view to providing adequate openings for ventilation, air movement, lighting, avoidance of glare and exclusion of the sun, all require expert handling. In a tropical country solar control and the provision of adequate facilities for air flow are essential but tend to be ignored. On all projects in the Faculty, whether theoretical projects by students or live projects by the teaching staff in the Faculty Projects Office emphasis is placed on maximising or minimising the effects of the elements. It is difficult to expect the small practices in the country to undertake investigations in these fields. It is therefore necessary to document these projects so that they can be made available for use later.

Fundamental Research may be used here to include basic research aimed at developing certain theories. This type of research at the subjective level may include physiological responses to the built environment or the collection of data on, say, sky brightness with a view to establishing absolute levels for daylighting. This type of research requires sophisticated equipment and is time consuming. Very little has been done in this direction and, as a result, it is impossible to come by any data on, say, the physical performance of building materials under Ghanaian climatic conditions.

The Faculty therefore proposes to undertake research in the following priority areas: Thermal Performance of building material under Ghanaian conditions: Airflow in and around buildings; Daylighting.

Page sixteen

Sand cement blocks, soil cement blocks, timber in its various forms, mud and various corrugated sheets are the commonest materials for wall and roof constructions. The commonest materials for ceiling are hardboards, asbestos cement slates, soft boards and plywood. Data available, such as U-valves and Thermal Diffusivities of these materials are not applicable to West African conditions because they were established under temperate conditions of Europe and America.

For the purposes of fundamental research we are constructing two buildings within the Faculty.

The first building consists of a permanent concrete roof and flexible walls. The second structure consists of a flexible pitched roof and walls. Some of the building materials used in the country will be tested on these two structures. Various forms of shading devices will also be tested with a view to establishing their effectiveness. Daylighting and ventilation studies will also be carried out. This exercise is aimed at providing a feed-back for both practice and teaching.

Applied research and teaching are backed by a regular supply of information. Studio projects normally begin with the study of a town or parts thereof. The physical environment as well as the socio-economic structure are studied before any proposals are made. In the advanced countries statistical data are readily available. However, in Ghana, students and the teaching staff have to collect and analyse such data.

Documentation becomes an important aspect of research and practice. Some of the Faculty's publications receive a wide reading and circulation and they are a useful source of information for practising architects and research students. It is proposed therefore to establish a documentation centre within the Faculty to be responsible for publication.

Some of the activities undertaken by the Faculty are set out here in detail. These comprise: Live projects by the Faculty Projects Office.

Research and development of resources by the Department of Housing and Planning Research.

Urban and Rural Housing Studies.

Resettlement and New Town Projects.

Terraced Houses on the Campus The Faculty Projects Office has undertaken the design of several schemes within its two years of existence. The first project to be built is a terraced housing scheme for Senior Members of Staff. Terraced housing has not been popular among Ghanaians. Hitherto all staff houses were planned as free standing single family houses with parklike gardens around. The houses were conceived for high standard living, offering opportunities for higher densities, use of cheaper locally produced material and the introduction of a more rational method of construction. They are also designed to provide acceptable environmental conditions indoors. At the design stage the thermal performance of the walls and roofs was theoretically assessed. Two of the units were constructed with soil-cement blocks manufactured by the Faculty using a press also designed by the Faculty's Housing and Planning Research Department.

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Currently we are carrying out user studies. Temperature readings have been taken, simultaneously in the living room of the middle unit and in the living room of an older house for comparisons. The results are being analysed.

Further studies are planned in the following areas: Ventilation rates Acoustics Daylighting Agricultural Development Bank The Agricultural Development Bank is the most ambitious project to be designed by the Projects Office. This is a 15 storey block of offices with two levels of basement. This will be the tallest building in Ghana when completed. It was therefore necessary that a thorough investigation of the soil structure and the micro-climate be carried out at the design stage.

The site changed several times as a result of the discovery of faults in the sub-structure and each change affected the orientation and hence required a fresh look at the design as a whole. The Faculty carried out the climatological studies upon which the detailed design of the subshading was based. The Faculty's wind tunnel (the only one in the country) is being modified and when this is completed models of this scheme will be tested in order to establish the distribution of wind pressure across the tower block.

Pilot Studies: The Department of Housing and Planning was established to carry out both research and development. The Department has constructed low cost model houses in timber, mud, stabilised earth and sand-cement blocks. Some of these are in and around the University Campus. The principal objective of these projects is to demonstrate the techniques in low cost rural and urban housing. Materials are selected from the point of view of structural and economic performance.

Theoretical calculations are done to give an indication of the internal environment. These need to be followed up with actual measurements inside the built form.

Resettlement and New Towns: Under the Government's rural housing scheme, a number of model villages are planned and a few are under construction. The Department of Housing and Planning Research, with considerable expertise gained from resettlement work in connection with the Volta River Project, are responsible for the design of a new township for Nsutam. Site selection, soil investigation and climate analysis were important pre-requisites for the scheme. Like all the other projects, resettlement work provides feed-back for teaching and practice.

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Research into Multi-Family Rental Houses in Kumasi: Rapid urbanisation is one of the problems facing the country at present. Houses are needed to cater for the migrant urban population as well as for the natural growth in the population.

The State Housing Corporation is unable to build enough houses to cater for these needs.

Private Builders build "Multi-Family Rental Houses" in the cities and towns. These houses although not designed by architects and offering minimum facilities for cooking and even toilet, provide the migrants with an atmosphere of communal living which is common in the rural areas. Research so far has been limited to measured drawings and socio-economic surveys.

It is, however, proposed to extend the research to include environmental factors such as room temperatures, acoustics, etc. Finally, proposals will be made for future development in this field of housing.

In conclusion, it is necessary to realise that the Ghanaian research architect is always venturing into the unknown. Techniques of building remain comparatively primitive. The largest and the most widely used unit of walling material is the sand-cement block. There has been hardly any advance in methods of construction. Quite apart from the limitations imposed on building by economic factors, present day construction techniques will be unable to meet the demands of rapid population growth, urbanisation and industrialisation.

Research is needed in the development of the physical resources of the country. Research needs to be co-ordinated with practice and documentation. One finds therefore a progressive Faculty of Architecture influencing, to a disproportionate extent, the trend in architectural practice through applied and fundamental research, professional practice and documentation.

Finally, it must be emphasised that none of the research activities outlined is capable of producing any results that will make a meaningful impact on the architectural profession and the building industry. Our objective should be to bridge the technological gap between the advanced countries and ours. What difference will it make in terms of real need for houses if one comfortable house is produced? What difference will it make if a thousand people are employed to produce 50 houses in, say, two years in a country which needs about 10,000 houses per annum?

The building industry in Ghana needs "a kick in the pants" so that it will wake up from a deep slumber. Science and technology should be harnessed in a co-ordinated approach if they are to be effective. This may require efforts in a regional basis or perhaps on a wider continental scale.

Charles Doidge, Henry Moss, Unit for Architectural Studies, University College London.

The Unit for Architectural Studies got under way about five years ago in a unique way. University College realised that it had a space problem and that more use of existing facilities would have to be made. The School of Architecture was therefore commissioned to undertake a small Page nineteen

research project, aimed at looking at the space problems of the College and with the objective of trying to develop design tools which would help future buildings. Professor John Musgrove was appointed the Director of the project. Since this beginning six projects have been undertaken supported by the College, DES, SRC and the Overseas Development Administration. These projects have shown the need for more fundamental questions to be tackled. Support from the SRC is helping to take the applied aspects back to the theoretical end of the research spectrum.

The research undertaken by the Unit for Architectural Studies was therefore traditional in its organisation; there was one permanent member of the University staff. Other members were employed on contracts with the possibility of renewal. There is a 2 year forward programme.

Ross King, Department of Architecture, University of Sydney, Australia.

The Fell Research Project was established in 1968 in the Faculty of Architecture as a result of a bequest to the University by the late Ian Buchan Fell, a Sydney architect. It operates as a separate unit within the University, but is also able to use the resources of the Departments of Architecture, Architectural Science, and Town and Country Planning, and it normally tries to work in areas common to the interests of those Departments.

The Project mainly operates as a unit of full-time research workers in differing disciplines, but it also supervises research students whose work is related to its activities, or who, in the opinion of the University, would benefit from the association.

Object The Project has been established to study HOUSING, specifically in Australia.

Housing is here understood more broadly than the simple fact of residential dwelling space or the design of dwelling units. It is seen rather as the residential or housing quality of settlements, particularly of urban areas.

Residential quality is probably a difficult concept to comprehend and to analyse, particularly as our expectations become more complex. Once the Australian cities could grow comparatively simply: land could be subdivided, the speculative builders (the state housing authorities included) would build houses, sometimes very sparsely over great areas of land, the local government council might pave some of the roads, and the utilities authorities connect the sewer eventually! A few shops could start after a while, and over a considerable time reasonable shopping centres might develop. The result could end up very good indeed, though only after a long period. But today the expectation seems to be that new residential areas (and old ones) should have much higher standards of urban services. These certainly include full servicing of residential land (electricity, water, sewerage, drainage), made road, "open space" AND, increasingly, complete shopping facilities the day you move into your new house, schools operating locally, kindergartens and baby health centre, a hospital, playing fields and recreation centres, pubs and clubs (including clubs for adolescents and for the aged), reasonable access to tertiary education and entertainment and sports, churches and a library and so on, .

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including tertiary employment and of course reasonable access to adequate employment quality that we seem to have residential of aspects all are for women and for adolescents! These come to expect.

For many in Australia—in the better established suburbs of the cities, for example—the realisation comes very close to the expectation. But in the great majority of newer suburbs, and perhaps in the majority of country towns and in their hinterland, there seems to be an increasing gulf between expectation and realisation (although of course it may well be aspects of the country towns in particular seem to point up positive expectation that are most awry qualities of residential communities that seem to feature less and less in our expectations: a strong sense of community and social cohesiveness, for instance). But the gap between residential expectation and residential realisation is even wider for many in the 1970s automobile-dominated community: the workman's wife in her suburb without adequate public transport (rendered uneconomic by the automobile, and so its service allowed to run down), and with the family car driven to the husband's factory or the railway station, can become isolated in a low-density world, unable to drive to her drive-in shopping and entertainments, with great distances for her children to get to school. in the "automobile city" the poor, and even the lower middleincome, become unable to use the city in the form to which it has evolved, and the women in particular can be the great disprivileged. For the rich, however, this city caters better and better as residential habitat.

So what are "housing needs" in the context of this broader understanding of residential quality and expectations? With its great general affluence the 1970's city has been assured of a dwelling stock whose technical and space standards are immensely high, both in a national historical and in a world context. The city's failures as residential habitat seem therefore the more severe: the very poor, the old, wives and children of the middle and lower income—all those for whom this city has ceased to cater—are at least as severely disprivileged as any groups of the past, and it could well be argued that social and economic differences continually widen rather than diminish; with the changing role of the family and declining family responsibility for the aged, the plight of the aged and the dwellings they are forced to occupy are frequently horrifying; with the changing housing market—and the changing housing finance market—more and more people seem to find that the housing which our expectations dictate as needs, is increasingly beyond their reach, so that while the rich can afford more and more in this golden age, the poor may have to accept less!

The Project aims then to study housing in this context of an increasingly complex understanding of residential quality, of an increasing gulf for many between expectations of residential quality and realisations, and of increasing evidence of a major breakdown in the system for the supply of housing and of housing finance in Australia. .

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Programme More specifically, the Fell Project is attempting to define and describe "HOUSING NEEDS" in Australia.

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Two approaches are being used. First, a case study approach is being taken to the question of perception of residential quality: how do people actually see the quality of residential areas, what are its characteristics, and so what are the values underlying that perception. Values are different for different groups, for people in different areas and of different backgrounds, and they vary with age; thus perceptions of quality and concern for various aspects of that quality also vary. A number of studies of this have been completed, mainly by research students attached to the Project, and others are under way.

Secondly, a survey is being made of housing conditions in the metropolitan area of Sydney.

Clustered random sampling is being used, and housing is being described by characteristics of space and technical standards, locational quality or convenience (covering such things as access to employment, to shopping, to educational facilities, to recreation and so on), and physical environmental quality. We are attempting to explain characteristics of the use of this dwelling stock in terms of these characteristics of the stock itself. (It is at this level of understanding the use of the dwelling stock, including locational behaviour, that the two aspects of the study are integrated: characteristics of the stock, and perception of its characteristics.)

It is hoped that from this work understanding and measurement of "housing need" in Sydney can be determined.

It is also intended that this study be duplicated in Melbourne and in Canberra, but at present our resources do not permit this. However, a related study of the town of Yass in NSW is currently under way. Yass has a number of advantages for this work: it has not been too severely hit by the current rural recession, it has very good communications, and even reasonable access to certain urban services in Canberra nearby, and it has good recreation opportunities. Its size of some 4,000 people makes it fairly manageable for thorough survey. It is hoped that differences in characteristics of its dwelling stock and in values and behaviour of its residents, compared with those in Sydney, will help to an understanding of both communities and of their needs.

A further major aspect of residential quality that we are studying is the development of government policies that affect that quality. An analysis of governments' housing, urban and economic policies, and of the relationships between these at the Commonwealth and state levels, is now nearing completion. A further section of this work, looking at the role and effect of local government controls on residential development and environmental quality, is also under way, with an emphasis on the quality and control of medium density residential areas.

Little work is being done on the performance of individual dwellings or dwelling types (other than the study of medium density housing just mentioned). A number of projects by research students have been carried out on problems and needs of housing for aborigines, old people, and other groups, and other studies again have been made of the detached house, but current resources have not permitted any large-scale work on these areas. One subject on which an exception has been made, however, is that of mobile and transportable housing: even though the technology of dwelling production is not a major area of the Project's interest, it is already clear from our other work on the performance of the housing market and industry that a major Page twenty-two

revolution is needed and coming, and that the mobile and transportable dwellings industry will be both an instrument and a beneficiary of this revolution, as it is proving to be in the United States. This aspect of the work is continuing.

Results of the programme are published by the Project in Reports, Research Papers, and other formats, although as with any similar organisation we find that at any one time a great majority of our work will not be in a published form. Enquiries are therefore invited on any aspect of the programme where published results seem inadequate.

Dean T. Howarth, Faculty of Architecture, Urban & Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture, University of Toronto, Canada.

My Faculty consists of three separate Departments; the Department of Architecture, the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and the Department of Landscape Architecture.

Most members of the academic staff are tenured and full-time; they are salaried and do not rely upon research funds for support. Research is in its infancy in most, if not all, North American Schools of Architecture due, primarily, to a lack of a research tradition.

In addition to active individual and group research programmes in our planning department, and at graduate level in architecture, we embarked some years ago on research into special problems of building in the north (in arctic and sub-arctic regions) and of living in domed spaces. We have received financial support from the Federal Government and will shortly produce our first research report on this subject. The member of staff in charge of the programme has travelled extensively in the north recently and examined related Russian and Scandinavian experiences.

Two members of staff have been working for several years on a project for recording early (pre 1850) buildings of architectural importance in the Province of Ontario; this is government supported. One of my colleagues has been helping to set up a national inventory of such buildings for the Federal Government in Ottawa. In the technical field we have had individuals working on methods of improving concrete finishes. A number of architects in private practices carry out their own independent research sometimes sponsored by Government agencies or by industry. Two such projects of especial interest have to do with air curtain systems and a method of pre-fabrication for energy conservation under northern conditions.

Three major publications recently by members of staff have established our reputation as one of the major centres of historical research in Canada—Eric Arthur's "Toronto No Mean City"; Anthony Adamson's "The Ancestral Roof", and James Acland's "Medieval Structure: The Gothic Vault".

Bruce Beckett, Scottish Development Department.

The function of the Architects' Division of the Scottish Development Department is primarily to provide advice and service on building policy aspects of fixed investment in services for which Page twenty-three

the Secretary of State has statutory responsibilities. There is a secondary role which is growing in importance, i.e. a building design and procurement service mainly in the Scottish Home and Health Department field for penal institutions but increasingly for live building demonstration projects for the other three Departments.

The primary function is discharged in six principal ways: by advising, in association with the Quantity Surveyors and Engineers, on building standards' implications, in so far as they affect the planning of investment (space x quality = cost). by similarly creating control mechanisms, techniques and methods in association with administrative divisions. by operating these mechanisms in association with administrative divisions. by providing a building information service. by undertaking research and development work. by building joint development projects with Local Authorities, Hospital Boards, etc.

The responsibilities of the Architects' Division arise out of the work of the four Departments of the Secretary of State for Scotland, and cover a wide range of building types and building activities which are dealt with by separate Ministries in London. These interests range from regional planning to the equipment of individual spaces in buildings. They provide a special opportunity to co-ordinate standards of space, performance, efficiency and cost, building techniques and components for Scottish geographic, climatic, social and legal conditions. It is thus possible to consider the environment as a whole, and to secure consistency of policy and methods across a wide spectrum of classes of user. This unique opportunity leads to a facility for bridging the gaps between different responsibilities; for considering the balance of provision in different fields; and for developing multi-function buildings, where appropriate, with significant advantage.

To-day, building techniques involve an integrated system of structures, services, and cost equations; elements which develop in parallel and which are fully interdependent. Consequently cost advice to administration, divorced from design advice is as unreliable as design advice which is not fully compatible with costs, planning or engineering requirements. Just as building solutions are comprehensive, the simple division of advice into its component parts is no longer reliable or realistic. Failure to recognise this trend would lead to an administration in the broadest sense, which could easily find itself subordinating its true end, i.e. a building development policy based on objectively-determined priorities and standards—to the mere saving of money. If that were to happen, it would produce not economy but delay and frustration. All these considerations underline the significance of the research element in the work of the Architects' Division.

The Division carries responsibility for advice and research and development in Housing, Health, Education and Welfare, and Special Buildings which include Prisons, Agricultural Page twenty-four

Colleges, Research Institutes, Fire Stations, State Managed Hotels, Crematoria etc. It works in close collaboration with the Department's Engineers, Quantity Surveyors and Planners.

Housing: Control procedures in the public sector (local authorities, New Towns, Scottish Special Housing Association etc.); research and development projects leading to published guidance on standards and performance; development of housing techniques; improvements of existing housing and environment. The Group aims to have at all times at least one live demonstration project in the pipeline.

Health: Research and development on the following: design, standards and costs for hospital departments, including the development of industrialised building; and the new programmes for health centres. The work involves collaboration with medical staff and leads to joint development projects with Regional Hospital Boards.

Education and Welfare: This Group provides an architectural service to the Scottish Education Department consisting essentially of research and development but also involving collaboration with Local Education Authorities in their current programmes, and buildings required by the Social Work Act of 1968. The Group also undertakes the design and contract administration of live development projects on behalf of Education Authorities.

Special Buildings: Executive Prison and State Management building programmes including new projects using industrialised building methods and requiring the improvement of social standards of accommodation and new Prisons embodying advanced methods of security. The Group also provides an architectural advisory service on Agricultural Colleges, Research Institutes, Fire Stations, Police Stations, Slaughterhouses and Crematoria. This Group is responsible for executing an annual building programme in excess of £2,000,000 per annum.

Building Regulations: Scottish Building legislation is acknowledged to be amongst the most advanced of its type. The Group advises Administration on technical aspects of this legislation, and is engaged in research and development on the next generation of building regulations. This work presents opportunities for skilled and practised architects with imagination, and an intellectual appreciation of the contribution which progressive building legislation can make towards better buildings and environments in the future.

Intelligence and Research: This is a multi-disciplinary Group which brings together the skills of the building professions with scientists. The Group is responsible for liaison and integration or research with other Government Departments and research bodies including the Universities; its officers administer research contracts and co-ordinate the research effort in the Architects' Division. This Group provides scope for research-orientated architects and surveyors, with an interest in scientific methodology, programme analysis and building economics etc.

Patricia Apps, Dean Hawkes, Land Use Built Form Studies, University of Cambridge, School of Architecture.

The Centre for Land Use and Built Form Studies was established in October 1967 as a research Page twenty-five

division of the University of Cambridge School of Architecture. It is supported by research contracts and grants.

The broad aim of the centre is to foster research and to advance knowledge in the fields of architectural design and physical planning with special emphasis on the quantitative study of activity systems and built environments. The common method of the Centre's work is to formulate mathematical and logical models which make it possible to characterise and to explore the ranges of spatial patterns which accommodate various activities. This method is shared by studies ranging over the continuum of physical scales from the individual building to the urban region. Thus the work consists on the one hand of the quantitative and geometrical description of the spatial and physical form of the building, the site or the urban area; and on the other the modelling of patterns of activity at these scales.

The staff consists of some sixteen full time research workers in several disciplines with about the same number of post-graduate doctoral candidates and visiting associates. The centre is directed by Lionel March who is responsible to the Professor of Architecture, Sir Leslie Martin.

The research is mainly in the field of quantitative methods, mathematical and logical models, and computer aids for building and environmental design, planning, development and management.

Sponsors have included the Centre for Environmental Studies, Department of Education and Science, Department of Health and Social Security, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Housing Research Foundation, Department of the Environment, and the Social Science Research Council.

The purpose of these notes is to place on record the attitudes which inform the work of Land Use and Built Form Studies. In compiling these notes we have drawn upon the paper, Modern movement to Vitruvius—themes of education and research, given at the RIBA on 11 January 1972

by Lionel March, since this describes the LUBFS philosophy better than anything we might say.

In his paper Lionel March refers back to the 1959 Oxford conference on architectural education and in particular to Sir Leslie Martin's summary: "A strong case can be made for the development of schools of architecture in universities and for the transfer to universities of schools in other institutions. The characteristic feature of architectural education is that it involves widely different types of knowledge. From the point of view of the university this raises two considerations. If architecture is to take its proper place in the university and if the knowledge which it entails is to be taught at the highest standard, it will be necessary to establish a bridge between faculties, between the arts and the sciences, engineering, sociology and economics. Furthermore, the universities will require something more than a study of techniques and parcels of this or that form of knowledge. They will expect and have a right to expect that knowledge will be guided and developed by principles: that is by theory.

"Theory", as one speaker said, "is the body of principles that explains and interrelates all the Page twenty-six

facts of a subject". Research is the tool by which theory is advanced. Without it, teaching can have no direction and thought no cutting edge."

In this paragraph lie ideas which still influence our thought in Cambridge. The theoretical content of our work was referred to by Sir Robert Matthew in his opening remarks. These placed us at one end of a spectrum of research activity which at its other limit relates closely to the day-to-day needs of architectural practice. Our only qualification of this picture is to remind that theory and practice are mutually dependent.

The following extract from Lionel March's lecture states our position: "It is, I believe, the prime purpose of universities and research laboratories to increase the body of theoretical knowledge. Because of the level of generality required, and the long-term nature of the enquiry, I do not see this work being undertaken within architectural practice. And yet it is crucial to the well-being of our practice. I believe it is for university departments to do research to increase our fund of knowledge, and it is for others to apply this knowledge to practical purpose. This may require some intermediary but any such organisation should, in my view, be outside the university. To mix practice with research within the university is to dilute the unique opportunity to the academic to take a long, cool view away from the hurly-burly of day-to-day decision-making and compromise. In this I count myself a staunch defender of what the American sociologist Robert Nisbet has called the academic dogma. The dogma says: "Knowledge is good". As Nisbet claims: "Not necessarily knowledge in the service to self-survival, nor to power, nor to affluence, nor to religious piety; but knowledge in its own service. The kind of knowledge that springs from the itch of curiosity, from dispassionate, disinterested desire to obtain objective knowledge of nature, society and man."

Having established our standpoint, we can now describe our experiences in research which are relevant to the session subject defined at this seminar.

Our objectives are adequately described in general above and in particular in the description of our work. It is perhaps worth stressing that our objectives at all levels cannot be separated from theoretical concepts and certain methodologies nor from the influence of the state of the technologies which we utilise. The implementation of many of our theories would be impossible without the computer. Technology is, however, a tool which we use and is not an end in itself in our work. We must state that our work is not concerned with computer-aided design in the sense that the computer becomes a drawingboard-side aid for the practising architect. We are concerned about the relationship between the results of our research and practice, but not about the relationship between computer aids and the design process.

It is convenient to group together our experiences under the three session topic heads, Research, teaching and practice, implementation and communication. Sir Leslie Martin's summary at the Oxford conference outlines a framework for the relationship between research and teaching.

After something less than five years LUBFS is contributing to teaching in the Cambridge school in a number of ways. Staff members of the centre give lectures and lecture courses on their respective basic subjects and personal enthusiasms ranging from statistics, computer Page twenty-seven

programming and lighting studies on to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, the de Stijl movement and the biological analogy in architecture. The beginnings of a longer-term contribution are now apparent in that the methods and results of the research are being introduced into the school.

Clearly there is a time-lag here since there is a responsibility to allow work to reach maturity before it is taught.

The main explicit connection between LUBFS and practice exists via Applied Research of Cambridge. There is a company formed in 1969 with members of the centre as shareholders to develop the centre's skills in the field of computer applications in architecture and planning.

There were two main reasons for setting-up this organisation: first, the general desire to see aspects of research applied in a relatively short time cycle and secondly, to establish some mechanism which could accept commissions for work which were seen to relate to our work but which did not have "academic" content. The quotation from Lionel March above insists upon maintaining the independence of the work of the university department from the problems of direct application in practice.

An important point to mention is the way in which ARC has benefited from the centre's existence. The main contributions have been in the centre's solutions of fundamental problems and, an important element, in the centre establishing a confidence that a marriage between computer methods and architecture and planning is both possible and desirable. ARC is a fully independent, commercially orientated company operating from its own premises and with a staff which now, after two years, numbers sixteen. These are drawn from a wide range of academic backgrounds. The members of the centre occasionally contribute to ARC by acting in a consultancy capacity in the early stages of projects. LUBFS's research findings are communicated to ARC chiefly through the centre's Working Paper programme as they are to any other body. Also in the early stages of development research-directed computer programs have been transferred although it has been found that these invariably have to be totally rewritten within ARC for successful commercial application. Indeed much of ARC's work consists in tailoring computer packages for special client needs. In its experience, the universal computer program is either a myth, or grossly inefficient.

The centre communicates information about its work in a number of ways. The most common medium is the Working Paper series. These are published by the centre and are generally fully detailed descriptions of research theories, methods and results and are intended primarily for consumption by other research workers, although their circulation extends beyond this relatively small circle. There is, in addition, a small number of Working Papers which set out the historical background leading to some of the centre's work. Working Papers are supplemented by Technical Notes which aim to present descriptions of techniques used in research in a straightforward manner. The Notes each deal with a single topic.

At the end of a research contract a Final Report is produced which outlines the work done.

The content of individual Working Papers is summarised and the opportunity is taken, where appropriate, to show the implications of the work for research or practice.

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Finally, on the subject of published material, we should mention the forthcoming first volume in a series of Cambridge Environmental Studies to be published by Cambridge University Press.

This will present a group of essays mainly about the centre's work at the urban scale. Future volumes will deal with other aspects of the work. In this way the established work will be preserved in more permanent form than the Working Papers and will also reach a wider public.

A significant "spin-off" from the centre is the book Geometry of Environment by Lionel March and Philip Steadman. This was published by RIBA Publications in 1971.

On the topic of Finance in research, LUBFS experiences the problems of most of the institutions represented at the seminar. The difficulties of being able to offer any kind of career structure to staff when the whole of the work is supported by relatively short contracts are a part of our experience. With this problem in mind it becomes necessary to define subjects for grant applications which one feels will be favourably received by sponsoring bodies. In our situation in Cambridge, where our main aims are not "product-orientated", this means that we must compromise some of our goals in order to maintain the institution. In some respects this is no bad thing, but from the point of view of senior staff it is difficult for them to develop ideas fully and to find time to write and lecture when they feel a responsibility to a sponsor and a particular piece of work.

The solution must lie in removing a nucleus of senior staff from the problems of contract support.

If we return to Lionel March's paper, he made a plea for a shift in emphasis in the teaching staff of university schools of architecture so that a balance is achieved between those who teach and practice and those who teach and research. Then research orientated teachers could direct programmes of work to be carried out by research students aided by professional research assistances drawn from related disciplines.

This brings us to the subject of the multi-disciplinary team. The staff of LUBFS is drawn from many fields including architecture, planning, geography, mathematics, computer science, engineering and operations research. We do, however, have serious reservations about a simple education between multi-disciplinary teams and success in environmental research. We can best explain by describing the growth of the centre. Our first concern is with architecture— in a very broad definition. The first members of the centre all came from an architectural background. Because they were motivated in their work by a deep understanding of problems derived from architecture, they acquired for themselves knowledge and skills, for example in mathematics and computer science, to enable them to progress. As the work developed new people with specialist skills were brought in so that, gradually, the centre became multidisciplinary. There are three points which can be made from this experience. First, the centre became multi-disciplinary as real needs for other skills were demonstrated. Secondly, few of the people have remained specialists. Architects might understand aspects of mathematics, computer science and physics. Computer scientists have certain insights into architecture which many architects would envy. A consequence of this is that the people brought in can make fundamental contributions to our thinking rather than simply being used to supply specific skills and information. Finally, there is another dimension to the way in which our work cuts across disciplines.

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We have built-up working contacts with other institutions and university departments so that advice and help can be sought on problems without the need to have permanent staff with the "missing" skills. This seems to be an economic use of resources. We believe that an "informed narrowness" in an institution encourages excellence within its defined field. Provided centres of excellence connect with each other the disciplines can come together better than if the skills are spread thinly amongst a large number of institutions.

Professor A. C. Hardy, School of Architecture, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne The Building Science Section of the School of Architecture has a variety of functions. It is basically a multi-disciplinary postgraduate research department which also provides courses on Environmental Design to the School of Architecture. It operates outside the University by providing a specialist consultancy service to architects in the fields of heat, light and sound, as well as investigating environmental failures in buildings. It is this latter function which identifies the areas for future research.

The Section has concentrated its research on the integrated fields of heat, light and sound in relation to both human requirements and the performance standards for buildings. At any time three main research projects are in operation, one in each of the physical fields. The research teams do not, however, work in isolation, but are closely interrelated to avoid the situation which can arise when the results of an isolated project can produce design parameters that will conflict with another field. In addition, as the research teams tend to cover a wide range of disciplines, a specialist from one team will often be a useful contributor to another team's work, whereas such specialist advice could not be employed full time on all the projects.

Although the Professor is an architect and his main function is to identify research projects, obtain the necessary outside financial support and process the research results into useful design parameters for architects, no architects are employed on the research work itself. This is because it has been found that most architects have an inadequate scientific background to be research workers and tend to predict the results of experiments and adjust the measurements to fit their predictions.

Most research projects are for a three year period with the possibility of a further two year extension. The basic research team consists of a Senior Research Associate, who already has research experience, a postgraduate research student, a technician and a part-time secretary, who may also undertake routine data processing. The greatest part of the research funds are obtained from Government sources. Research Associates or students are eligible for a two year MSc (Environmental Design) or a three year PhD qualification by research.

The Environmental Design Courses for the School of Architecture are specifically designed to integrate the results of research and to give students experience in designing buildings to performance standards. The first year studies the external site conditions and the conditions required inside the building for human needs, so that the comparison of the two sets of data identifies the performance standard required for the building enclosure. Second year is basically Page thirty

the teaching of prediction techniques and their application to design decision making, and third year the process of designing buildings to overall performance standards. This direct relationship between research and studio work provides a situation where the effects of new design parameters on the overall building design can be assessed.

Consultancy work has developed due to the realisation by the Section that the published results of research were not being applied in practice and that advice was being sought by architects at too late a stage in the design process. Development work in advanced building design has been carried out in light industrial buildings, primary and secondary schools and in large scale open office design. Involvement in such schemes also provides access to the occupied buildings for the purpose of obtaining feed-back information by both measurement and questionnaire techniques.

The investigation of building failures tends to be a small part of the work of the Section. Its importance lies in the identification of the reason for failure and the development of design parameters or prediction techniques that can avoid the failure occurring, due to inadequate information at the design stage. In fact, almost all the major research projects have been based on field studies of environmental failures that have revealed the need for more information to be made available to the designer, so that alternative design decisions can be checked for performance standards.

The Section occupies a building specifically designed for its purpose, comprising a number of laboratories which are used mainly for the calibration, assembly and development of equipment for measuring the physical environment; a large thermal test chamber for the thermal analysis of full size models of forms of construction, an artificial sky room and wood, metal and electronics workshops. There are individual study rooms for staff and research workers, a research library, seminar rooms and, in another building, a double reverberant chamber. A large demonstration laboratory is used exclusively for teaching purpose. A mobile laboratory with its own independent power supplies is available for field work.

Jeremy Taylor, Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York.

The Research Section of the Institute was formally set up by the University in January 1971 with the appointment of a full time Research Director. The creation of this unit was given impetus by the need for a research capability to extend and complement the Institute's established educational role as a centre for mid-career education amongst the building professions. It also answered the pressures for research to examine certain problems being identified by the Institute's own architectural practice.

The mid-career short courses at the Institute have over the years developed around certain aims and ideas—architectural history and conservation of buildings were amongst the earliest of these and emphasis has also been placed on courses concerned with questions of management and the design process. The particular approaches of the Institute are now being further clarified by the provision of the first year long Diploma courses in Conservation Studies. As a Page thirty-one

context to these approaches there is in addition, the City of York—seen as a potential workshop for studies in upgrading the urban environment in the Esher report—and the educational contribution of the University of York.

These related threads: mid-career learning, the updating of information and techniques for course members, teaching methods themselves and the experience of a conservation situation have all helped to state the nature and likely direction of the Research Section. The work undertaken therefore follows from a set of related circumstances—educational process, location, defined research need—with each piece of research being supported by outside funds. Recent projects include: A research contract for the Building Research Station was in progress during 1969 and 1970 at the Institute. This was commissioned to enquire into the communication of BRS's own research results to architects in practice, whether present methods were effective and whether the design of published material was itself in a suitable form. A report entitled Architects and Information was submitted to BRS in 1971 and formed the subject of a special colloquium at BRS to consider the recommendations.

Since February 1971 research has been developed on the conversion of existing town housing stock as a source for student living accommodation. This was financed initially by the University of York, with a special interest for its own future housing needs. The study also went on to survey conversion work of this type carried Out SO far in other universities and polytechnics throughout the UK. A report on the work to date, House Conversions for Students, was issued as the Institute's third Research Paper in February 1972.

The area of enquiry on this topic is now being widened to consider the potential of house conversions for single young person accommodation generally, and since April 1972 is being supported by a new grant from the Department of the Environment.

The work will include an examination of three case studies of urban centres where Higher Education Institutions and the "young and mobile" housing sector face a dwindling resource of available accommodation. The processes by which conversions might be used to relieve such housing pressures, and an assessment of suitable housing stock for this, will be among the points investigated.

3.

From autumn 1972 a one year research study is being financed by the National Council for Educational Technology into the Design of Learning Spaces. This will survey the design and suitability of a range of typical learning environments in secondary and tertiary education in the UK; specific emphasis will be put on the needs for new teaching and learning methods and use of new educational technology. The study will also consider whether adequate channels of communication exist at present between educational innovators, those who commission educational buildings and their designers.

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The results will, it is hoped, provide an initial "state of the art" survey which should show up present levels of knowledge and identify problem areas. An important part of this study will be to explore the presentation of results in alternative, or "non-book" forms including the use of packages of audio visual information, films or videotapes.

4.

Also commencing in 1972 is a two year project funded by the Architects Registration Councils of the United Kingdom to evaluate the present Learning Needs of MidCareer Education for the Building Professions. With the expansion of mid-career courses for the building professions, and with a desire to examine questions of effectiveness for different types of course attender, this work seeks to establish how current teaching methods relate to the motivation, experience and expectation of individual students. The research programme will also include an appraisal of the use of relevant new educational media in continuing education of this type.

The projects at present being undertaken allow for the development of the Institute's interest in the "Communication of Research Results to Practice"—an interest which initially has concentrated on the use of the written word in the project for the Building Research Station, but which will now be exploring in addition the use of self paced learning techniques and the mid-career situation itself as useful alternatives.

This concern for what happens to research results is of growing importance when the volume of research for the environmental sectors is increasing and the suitability of results, for transfer to the relevant user groups, is still very much left to chance. This suggests that once a project is undertaken we must also consider carefully its continuing activity after the formal project time; this could call for a small group to be maintained to keep up expertise in the particular subject areas, update information and carry out innovative studies such that the Institute will be able to offer a research consultancy service to clients and design teams. For the latter there is also the benefit at the Institute of the interaction with the related York University Design Unit architectural office which can handle executive commissions, assist with prototype work or incorporate test procedures in relevant schemes.

Main outputs from the projects will be in the form of Research Papers, or the publication of work by journals, plus the emphasis already mentioned on alternative visual or "non-book" formats. Coupled to these there is a further feedback of general concepts and research findings into the Institute's courses. As graduate studies develop allied to the long courses, for instance with the Conservation Course, they in turn will be able to explore subsidiary problems and offer theses and working documents to supplement the main research areas.

John Skakke, Housing Research and Development Unit, University of Nairobi, Kenya.

The Housing Research and Development Unit was started on the recommendations of a research team from the United Nations that in 1964 was evaluating the housing situation in Kenya.

Among other recommendations issued by this research team was a suggestion that the GovernPage thirty-three

ment of Kenya in co-operation with the then "University College" should take action to encourage research and development activities in the sector of low cost housing.

The suggestion was adapted in a government declaration in 1966, and in the University's development plan 1967-70 the suggestion was detailed into a concrete description of a Housing Research and Development Unit.

Early in 1967 an agreement was reached between the Ministry of Housing and the University which contains the following points on the objectives of the Research Unit: to explore social, technical and economic problems of housing and community planning and to help to establish appropriate standards; to build up a body of knowledge in preparation for advanced training in the fields of urban and regional planning and environmental science; to assist the Government of Kenya by advising on social, technical and economic aspects of housing and community planning; to produce prototype designs, to test building systems and to assist in the construction of experimental housing projects including community facilities in collaboration with public or semi-public bodies; to participate in the teaching of subjects concerned with housing and planning in University College.

The frames for the Housing Research and Development Unit were thus established and the Unit started in February 1967 with a staff consisting of an Architect Planner, an Economist, a Sociologist and supporting staff. There are at present 10 staff.

The main activities are defined in the basic papers as:— Documentation, Formulation of Standards, Development of Prototypes and Erection of Experimental Buildings.

This "Feed-back method" includes all activities, economical, social and technical.

Ruth Camnock, Colin Thunhurst, Medical Architecture Research Unit, Polytechnic of North London.

The unit started life in the Southend School of Architecture some six years ago and has existed in its present setting for less than five years. Its instigator was its present Director, Raymond Moss, who had experienced the difficulties of the national Hospital Building Programme from within a Regional Hospital Board Architects' Department, had worked in the DHSS' Architects R & D Group and wanted a broader base from which to try to "establish criteria for improving the design of health and welfare environments".

He retains a part-time commitment to the DHSS development work, which provides a salary supplement comparable to that derived from fees for building projects in some other units.

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He and his deputy are salaried staff in the Department of Architecture at the Polytechnic, though the latter is only part-time, and has additional teaching commitments unrelated to the unit. The rest of the research staff depend entirely on their project contracts, and come and go according to their success in obtaining such contracts. At present there are two more architects, a mathematician and a biochemist. One of the architects is also a doctor, and the biochemist has been teaching in a school of architecture.

The unit has very little contact with the undergraduate school, apart from ad hoc service teaching, but it has taken the unusual step of actually setting up a postgraduate course in Health Building Planning, whose students, as yet mainly from overseas, provide an excellent sounding board for its research workers' ideas. Much of the teaching is done b outsiders, and a full-time tutor has recently been added to the establishment, so that this should remain, from the Research Unit's point of view, a stimulus and not a burden. It seems likely to provide a source of useful research assistants—though it is too recent an innovation to be sure about that.

Achievements, as indicated by the list of publications, might seem to be unco-ordinated snippets because they appear under the labels of the various administrative divisions and building types within the health field. In fact most of them are linked by a thread which is becoming steadily stronger: a concern for the briefing stage of building projects, for communication between designer and building user, for the user's view of his building and ultimately for the designer's view of the user's organisation and his concept of his design objective. Health buildings presented an immediate challenge—comparable to the challenge of the existing out-of-date housing which faces the unit in York. But, though they are providing an excellent vehicle for the development of ideas, it is no part of this Unit's policy to restrict its work to the health field. Indeed as it progresses from its initial applied research projects toward more basic issues, the possibility—and relevance—of generalisation increases.

Progress in this direction presents a major practical problem—that of funding. Much of the work, so far, has been sponsored by the DHSS, and the topics—bedspacing in hospital wards, reception and waiting facilities in health centres, a mathematical model to derive the arrangement of spaces in outpatient departments from the operational policies, etc.—reflect the priorities of a government department pressing for practical answers to short-term problems.

The unit is certain that more fundamental studies of long-term issues will yield bigger dividends, dividends for the architectural profession and for the built environment as well as for the health service, but its chief sponsor is only interested in the last of these three—so there is need for all the ingenuity and influence the unit can muster to keep itself in existence long enough to develop proposals and win support for such a programme.

Dean Guy Desbarats, Faculte de l'Amenagement, Universite de Montreal.

Research is organised within our Faculty structure. The "Faculté de l'Aménagement" includes two departments: the "Ecole d'Architecture" and the "Institut d'Urbanisme".

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The "Ecole d'Architecture" offers three major programmes: —architecture —landscape architecture —industrial design The "Institut d'Urbanisme" offers a post-graduate interdisciplinary programme in urban and regional planning.

A modest and fluctuating university budget allows us a part-time research officer and full-time secretary as administrative support for the teaching staff research work.

The "Research Committee" is a committee of Faculty Council. This committee is mandated to propose research policies to council, and to promote research generally within the Faculty.

The majority of research projects have been proposed and moneys obtained by individual staff members, even in the case of group projects.

The University has occasionally given small grants to help start new projects, or to bridge gaps in financing between phases of a project.

Our research office registers can guarantee complete reporting on research work administered through University accounts. Our Faculty members have the right to carry on personal projects; they are theoretically supposed to register these with administration, but we know that our records are far from complete in this category of research work.

Students, graduate and undergraduate, are encouraged to participate in research work, and our University allows, under certain conditions, remuneration for this participation.

Our Faculty research office has been recently empowered to administer contracts for the experimental teaching-practice that our Faculty has begun to operate this past year. This is a transitional mechanism, operating in anticipation of the completion of the teaching-practice charter.

All University administered research contracts come under the jurisdiction of the Vice-Rector for Research, who directs the University's main Research Office. Our research officer acts as administrative intermediary between teaching and research staff and this University Research Office.

Among the main research directions that we have tried to promote in the Faculty, the following can be noted: the development of an information base for the Faculty, computer applications in design and planning, industrialisation of the building industry, citizen participation in urban planning activities.

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David Wisdom, GLC Department of Architecture and Civic Design, Housing and Town Development Branch.

The municipal government of London is shared between the London Boroughs and the GLC under the London Government Act of 1963. Among its other functions the GLC is responsible for a considerable amount of public housing, and this work is very largely carried out by the Housing Branch of the Architects Department. The exceptions are Thamesmead, which, because of its size and complexity, is managed by a separate Division, and some smaller schemes for which private architects are commissioned.

A wide variety of work is carried out by the Branch. Schemes vary from 110 persons per hectare to 336 persons per hectare in density, and up to 4,000 dwellings in size. Dwellings have been built in association with other authorities under the Town Development Act in places as far afield as Andover (Hampshire) and Wellingborough (Northamptonshire). The Branch is also carrying out an extensive programme of modernisation and rehabilitation of older dwellings.

Value of work under construction at the moment is of the order of £100,000,000.

The Branch is organised in three constructional Divisions supported by a Central Services Section. The CSS provides policy and programme co-ordination and specialist functions such as preacquisition site investigations and feasibility studies, children's playspace and equipment design, design of murals and research and development.

The R and D Group was set up originally with three objectives: to evaluate new materials and construction techniques for housing: to develop building components where no satisfactory commercial alternatives existed: to develop type plans.

At a later date a sub-group was set up to investigate the application of systematic design processes to the work of the branch.

Changing circumstances have now brought about a review of these objectives.

Available sites are increasingly more difficult to develop economically and the architect is required to deploy greater skill to satisfy rising Client expectations within rigid central government financial control. Because of this the architect must take a very close look both at the precision of the design brief and at the efficiency of his design process.

For these reasons future R and D work will include a greater concentration on systematic design methods, the development of building in use studies, and the formulation of more accurate design criteria.

Allan Rodger, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Khartoum.

The Democratic Republic of Sudan is not and never has been a member of the Commonwealth.

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Until independence in 1956 it was the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan—a condominium administered by the British Foreign Office under a joint arrangement between Britain and Egypt.

The educational system of the country has been based on British precedent. Until recently all secondary education was in English. The University of Khartoum works almost entirely in English.

The first architects to work in the country were British. These were then followed by a very small group of Sudanese and others most of whom trained in Cairo. In the late 50s a department of architecture was formed in the University of Khartoum. It was staffed almost entirely by British architects. At about the same time a small group of students went to the Department of Architecture in Leicester. The graduates of the School, together with the Leicester graduates now dominate the architecture profession in the country and staff the Department of Architecture. Their education, whether it has been in Sudan or UK, has been in the mainstream of the British architectural education tradition.

The Sudan Institute of Architects is not a member of the Commonwealth Association of Architects but it has a well established relationship with it and, through the Department of Architecture, has taken part in a series of meetings of the Association to consider the problems of architectural education in East Africa.

The Department produced its first graduates in 1962. The most successful students from this and succeeding years were appointed to junior posts on the academic staff of the University.

After a probationary period as senior scholars they were eligible for postgraduate scholarships for study abroad. Several took master's degrees and doctorates at the University of Edinburgh and Liverpool. Others took the diploma course in tropical architecture at the Architectural Association.

During the early days of the Department a strong emphasis was placed on research. It was essential that this should be so since the information necessary for the realistic development of project work was not available. As part of the undergraduate work studies were made of several traditional villages. This was then published as the Bashagra and Kereiba Reports. These described the nature of the extended family and the interrelationships within the villages. The relationship of the villages to their trade and agriculture was also studied and related to the overall form of the villages and their relationships to their catchment areas. The materials, skills, availability of labour for building and constructional technique were carefully recorded.

For historical purposes, surveys were made of the now abandoned city of Suakin on the Red Sea. These early studies established the need for a very close relationship between architectural research and practice and education. This relationship has had a strong influence on the development of architectural practice and on the work of the Department of Architecture in both of which it retains a central position.

Over the years many building projects were undertaken by the Department of Architecture.

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The senior scholars and several members of the university department staff worked on the projects Wherever possible students were involved in the various stages of the work. Extensive background research into briefs was undertaken by students as part of their course work.

Others were involved in the development of designs. Wherever possible site visits gave students opportunity to monitor work in progress and also to take part in reviewing the building and managerial techniques employed. The work done was mainly for the university staff itself or for government or government agencies. It included (1) a temporary mosque for the university campus, (2) a pharmacy building for the university located on the main ceremonial approach to the Republican Palace, (3) development of the agriculture faculty at Shambat, (4) a development plan for the Department of Architecture (and to date, the construction of the first phase of this plan), (5) student hostels for the university, (6) university staff housing, (7) the Department of Geography and (8) botany laboratories, (9) many small university alteration projects.

All these projects were new concepts for Sudan. There was therefore little or no precedent; each involved a significant research and development content.

The staff of the Department were also undertaking private commissions (within certain limits set out by the university authorities). This undoubtedly contributed to the quality of the undergraduate teaching but also resulted in a rather small amount of staff research being done.

One important exception to this was a very significant study of the thermal behaviour of mud brick and fired brick buildings which led to a series of publications through the National Building Research Station and was completed in the form of a PhD thesis.

After the political changes of July 1969 and the wide scale nationalisation of 1970 private practice became very restricted both inside and outside the Department of Architecture. But the new government organisations quickly began to pose new problems and some of them were submitted to the Department of Architecture for consideration. Two facts may be particularly important in this flow of work to the university. Firstly, because of the short period over which architects have been graduating in Sudan, the number of students within the undergraduate course is approximately the same as the number of members of the profession, and secondly because the postgraduate training facilities which have been made available for the university staff have allowed these people to gain considerable experience of research work, very few outside the Department have any such experience.

The corollary of the large student numbers in relation to the profession is that good supervised profession practice and practical experience for young graduates cannot be assured. It is therefore especially important that all graduates have some good project experience under the supervision of the university staff before they graduate. Many of them may be required to work on their own in some remote location right from the beginning of their career.

Thus within the university there is capable and experienced leadership and a large, readily available, work force eager to take part in important development projects while at the same time advancing their educational objectives.

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This new phase of development has resulted in staff and student involvement in the briefing and development phase of a number of important government projects. They have also been consulted on building material projects. Research by members of staff has increased considerably both on these sponsored projects and within the academic framework of higher degrees for which several members of staff are now working. Almost all the research work is on topics which have a direct bearing on the development of the country and include (1) Development of traditional mud brick construction in the form of vaults, (2) a study of the deterioration of mud walling due to rainfall, (3) a study of the flow of water and water vapour in traditional buildings, (4) a study of the cost of housing for government officials and means of reducing this cost, (5) a review of the effects of surface water drainage on the urban form of Khartoum, (6) a review of the problem of dust in the environment with particular reference to Khartoum.

It is hoped that this deep involvement of the Department of Architecture in research and development work will continue. Not only is it of great benefit to the country but it has also helped forge a strong link between research and practice which should prove to be an important factor in the long term growth and effectiveness of the architectural profession in Sudan.

The Chairman thanked the participants for their presentations and a discussion took place.

Discussion The main points made in the discussion are listed below.

One of the issues to be taken up is that, although we are not doing any practice, we have this problem of making our research relevant to practice problems.

(Mr. Joyce) The general introduction of practice training as part of a syllabus disrupts the programme of work in the school.

(Professor Hinton) The Polytechnic required that the practice unit originally maintained a minimum of six months working capital. The actual effectiveness of this and productivity of the unit was unrealistic.

(Professor Hinton) In Kumasi, out of fees earned by staff for practice work, the University takes 20% for faculty research funds and 10% for University development; the remaining 70% goes to the participating staff. Kumasi also has full-time permanent staff in the Department of Housing and Planning Research undertaking projects.

(Mr. Larbi) One of the biggest problems in research is the discontinuity created by the short term contracts offered to research workers; the difficulty in getting a continuity of financial support; the consequent uncertainty of staff contract renewals and the availability of resources between or during contracts to work on submissions for new work.

(Mr. Doidge) (Professor Robertson) (Professor Wilson) Theoretical work, e.g. on understanding the causes of high standards of residential quality, Page forty

appears to be uncommunicable to the practising architect; although sought after by economists, sociologists, etc. Through these other disciplines the research results are affecting buildings, (Mr. King) through the briefing of developers rather than "architecture".

There is no tradition of research in Canada. I believe that research method as an educational discipline for the undergraduate, or postgraduate student is more important than the topic.

(Dean Howarth) Lists of funding agencies for research are normally based on scientific categories into which (Dean Desbarats) architecture does not fit.

Research Councils and funding agencies should be made aware of the career structure problems for research workers; and the need for adequate funds for the preparation of research documents.

(Professor Johnson-Marshall) Schemes for the exchange of research and development staff between Central Government (Mr. Beckett) (and other agencies) and Universities should be encouraged.

Cambridge University researchers have set up a private limited company to communicate results (Dr. Hawkes) of computer aided design into practice.

In the field of environmental physics, architects are not suitable as research workers.

(Professor Hardy) There is a need to establish links between research units to share staff in an effort to overcome (Dr. Taylor) the short-term discontinuous contract problem.

Very often, although the customer states the research problem, he does not understand it.

(Dr. Cammock)

SESSION THREE Architectural Design Research in the United Kingdom.

Chairman: Charles Robertson Chairman: I would like to give the floor to Bruce Beckett who is to present a paper on the context of architectural research in the United Kingdom.

Architectural Design Research in the United Kingdom: Bruce Beckett, Chief Architect, Scottish Development Department.

Architectural design research may comprise either research into the design process itself or research into the various elements of a design which give it "commodity; firmness and delight".

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Under the second heading, research for architectural design may thus shade off into ancillary subjects, yielding information which greatly helps and influences design (for example, operational research into methods of organising the work in a specialised type of building); but which is itself remote from the greater part of the design process as a whole and often not best undertaken by architects.

This paper is in five main parts, it begins by attempting to define the problem, it then goes on to present a conceptual model of architectural research developed by Mr. Dan Lacey, Chief Architect DES. In the third part it lists the main agencies where research is carried out and for what purposes it is carried out. The fourth part reviews the current situation and is substantially based upon data produced by Mr. John Redpath, formerly Director General of Research and Development in the Department of the Environment. The fifth and final part is a summary plus conclusions and a suggestion for a mechanism to determine priorities and to draw up a systematic programme of architectural design research.

I. DEFINITIONS AND IDENTIFICATION OF NEED There are at least three major activities which are often subsumed within the term "research": research itself, which comprises both fundamental research to advance scientific knowledge and applied research which has a practical end in view; development, which is the use of the results of research directed to introducing or improving useful materials, devices, products and processes; and routine testing and assessment. The situation is complicated by the debasement of the term "research" by journalists to mean little more than a search, often only a literature search; all too often the term "research" is used in architectural circles with this debased connotation. The instructions for Public Expenditure Surveys give a useful definition: research involves invention and new knowledge attained by recognised objective scientific method; development comprises prototypes, applying research results or improving products and processes; routine activity consists of testing recording or giving information and is not research and development at all.

Research in the construction industry enjoys a somewhat hostile environment. It is alien to a world of "practical men" who almost universally lack any research background and operate in an industry with no research tradition. These difficulties are compounded by a clash of ethic; on the one hand we find the scientific ethic, sceptical of judgement, expecting, even welcoming, criticism and correction; and on the other hand the professional ethic, reluctant to contradict or criticise colleagues or cast doubt upon their judgement. In the architectural world the situation is still worse since we are close to the artistic ethic whose principal characteristic appears to be, let us say, temperamental. Despite this, the construction industry wants and widely uses research results. There is continual pressure to improve services, save labour, build quickly, exclude noise from buildings, help the teacher to try a new method by providing a suitable building, save the hospital nurse's effort by more convenient design, avoid condensation in houses, reduce running cost of building—an endless list of needs by the industry for which the research effort can make a considerable contribution.

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Given that architectural research must exist in an unreceptive and confusing world it may be worth examining three major aspects in which research and practice impinge on each other; the need to identify research needs, to undertake research and to apply its results.

The identification of research can be tackled from two directions, by finding uses for existing knowledge or by finding problems as yet unanswered. The application of existing knowledge is heavily dependent on the existence of appropriate and adequate incentives, so that it works tolerably well in the field of hardware where products can be made and sold but is less successful in other fields: for example, the application of scientific method to user requirement studies has been very slow. Approached from the other direction of finding new problems we arrive immediately at the situation that either people do not realise that they have a problem or that it never occurs to them to ask whether it is a problem which science could solve or has already solved. The whole phenomenon of course is a legacy of our inadequate research tradition.

Recently in the Scottish Development Department we took a look at the problems of building on north sloping sites: four major house/road/site relationships were determined, a number of degrees of slope were identified and various other parameters such as car provision were considered to be of some consequence; all in all these produced some 300 possible solutions which it was proposed to examine by detailing and costing each proposal in turn. A prospect which filled the team concern with understandable dismay. Fortunately we were able to make contact with the Operational Research Department of Strathclyde University who agreed that the problem was a relatively simple exercise in mathematics and as a consequence of some three months, work the whole of the data required has now been obtained together with a good deal more besides. The problem is to know you have got a problem.

SDD architects share with the Building Research Stations an interest in setting criteria for user requirements. In the past, standards were based on experience, but with changes in standards of living, in environmental pressures and in technology, research is required to establish criteria and ways of meeting them. This side of construction research requires an expertise which is not at present available in Scottish Government Service. Universities have been generous in helping with small projects. For the future, I hope to see appropriate scientific officers within the Scottish Office. To say this, is to record our appreciation of the great benefit we have received from the staff at BRS Thorntonhall through the years. We are convinced this service should be extended.

A novel approach to the identification of research needs has been adopted by the Directorate of Research Requirements at DOE who have undertaken a positive and directed search by building scientists experienced in the industry and with a good scientific background. You will be familiar with the excellent biennial surveys they have produced and they are well known figures around the research laboratories of the construction industry. In addition they undertook work in two neglected fields of construction activity, computers and maintenance in the belief that by working in these fields they would throw up genuine research needs which have hitherto been neglected, a premise which has been substantiated in practice since both subjects have spawned research programmes offering excellent payoff possibilities. Research and Development in DOE Page forty-three

is being reorganised at present but some of the good work goes on. One of the most fruitful of all fields for the identificaton of research needs is the design or building organisation with its own scientific staff. An excellent model of this kind is the Building Division of the Department of the Scientific Adviser to the GLC where some 15 or so scientists work on the problems of specification, quality control, diagnosis of defects and remedial action associated with the GLC programme of new building and estate management. It seems that once designers have experienced the benefits of first hand scientific advice on building problems they become more active and demanding customers and need no further convincing of the benefits of research.

II. A CONCEPTUAL MODEL There have been a number of conceptual models of architectural design. In putting forward yet another, Dan Lacey's aim is to elucidate the relationship with research. Research is, of course, the source of a good deal of the essential information (including properties of materials, structural strength and stability, external climate, user requirements, consumer protection and mandatory standards) which is needed in architectural design. The conceptual model aims to show the relationships between the essential activities that comprise architectural design and the disciplines upon which they depend. Distinction is made between subject areas that lie very close to the practice of design and those which, despite their yielding data of immediate value to the architect, are remote from the design process per se and are generally a province of the more traditional disciplines.

The research output of the individual specialist disciplines, however, is seldom in a form suitable for use by the architect. Interpretation alone of this information would not suffice. Areas of importance to the designer lying between these research outputs and the design process itself remain neglected. Practitioners of the complementary disciplines are not motivated to fill the gaps; practising designers are motivated but not well placed to perform the functions of the architectural scientist. The Development Groups are one means of dealing with this "applications gap". Another, proposed by SRC, is the employment of "building" or "Architectural" scientists as leaders of multi-disciplinary research teams.

The use of the computer as a potentially cheap, accurate, rapid and convenient means of retrieving information from the bank of data upon which any design must be based is omitted from the model since the research output from almost all the disciplines listed could be provided in this form. There are, however, areas where the computer can contribute directly to design by deriving specific, perhaps optimised, solutions to, for example, town planning problems, space scheduling, circulation analysis and their attendant internal planning. These are included.

The model necessarily consists only of examples. It would lose clarity if the attempt were made to make it comprehensive and is designed to stimulate discussion on the areas of relative ignorance and the kinds of research that may be needed to create the required knowledge.

Members of the seminar are invited to consider the model, to seek agreement on the boundaries Page forty-four

of the area of architectural design research, to judge the degree of expansion of relevant research that is desirable and for which the manpower resources might be available and to express views on how further research in the neglected areas should be pursued.

Useful questions to ask in relation to the undertaking of research are who, why, what, and where. So far as research on design and building are concerned it seems to me that the role for the architect is to complete a cycle of innovation. He may participate at every stage—both finding a problem, and contributing to research and development on it—or he may merely ask the questions and discuss and use the answers. He has to ensure the relevance of research. I know of cases where the architect was left out from the cycle, and although much information was amassed and analysed it did not answer any useful question or allow any improvement in building practice. Of course we must look to the scientific disciplines for the fundamental stages —physicists, physical chemists, psychologists, sociologists, systems analysts and statisticians, as well as the architects, engineers and quantity surveyors trained in science.

III AGENCIES In the light of current political thinking it is wise to state the "why, what and where" of Architectural Design Research. My thesis being that the various components, eg Universities, Research Institutes and Stations, Industry, Private Practice, Local Government and Central Government all have interdependent roles to play in the mechanism of teaching, pure research, development of products and processes, projects and programmes of building and Research and Development for government policy formulation.

Universities in general could and should pioneer long range pure research on their own volition, eg invention of penicillin etc. (or was that really done in an obscure back room ?). Selected Universities can also be commissioned as centres of excellence to undertake specific research contracts for any of the other bodies in the system. The staff of several universities are linked to Consultant firms which can offer a specialised service in some fields such as model building and analysis, acoustics, machine intelligence or aspects of integrated design.

The Research Institutes and Research Stations have their roles to play vis-a-vis the Universities and Industry and customer authorities. Their approach has tended to be traditional and has been bogged down in applied research for the short and medium terms with a minimum of long term fundamental research. I would like to see them adopting a more sophisticated systems approach, taking a leaf out of CES's book, and making a very positive contribution by augmenting their capability with resources in the other components of the system. They also have a vital role to play in the field of determining objective standards free of industrial pressure for the lowest common factor.

Industry, both construction and manufacturing, should invest in and commission Page forty-five

applied research with a view to improving and developing their products and processes competitively, to see greater profitability and bigger shares of the market.

Private Practices are commissioned by both Central and Local Government amongst others to execute a variety of building projects. By and large most private practices do not possess much research capability, but they should have enough research appreciation to ensure more accurate interpretation of specific briefs into better projects and to initiate feedback to Development Groups, leading eventually to updated standards.

Building Authorities, be they Central Government Building Departments, Government Agencies or Local Authorities, will have an executive role more suited to short-term research and development in that they have programmes of buildings in the form of specific briefs—interpreting the generalised standards and regulations, produced by Central Government Development Groups, in terms of local needs. Tolerance should be exercised to allow the Hertfordshire type model to flourish, ie, an executive authority where fortuitously the administrators, architects and educators were of like mind and innovation flourished in a fertile ambience.

Central Government Advisory Departments for housing, health and education etc. operate in the R and D field to a variety of depths and time scales in liaison with the executive authorities, research stations and universities; the end product being advice to Ministers on "building development policy" which finds its expression in standards of space, quality and cost together with the size of the annual building programmes in the various fields. Another valuable end product is design guidance which emanates from multi-disciplinary development groups, groups where the skills and administrators, user specialists such as Doctors, Schools Inspectors, Nursing Specialists, Scientists, Housing Managers, Economists etc., are brought together with the building professions in a way that is unique to Central Government. This focus of contribution in context is a truly British invention in the best tradition of constitutional development.

In view of the fact that at a recent RIBA conference the universities made a unilateral bid to be the main research source for the industry I would like to suggest that the true importance of research undertaken by the architectural school lies less in the contribution which it makes to our stock of knowledge than in the extent to which it breeds a race of designers who value, understand and know how to use the resources of science. But none of this I trust will lead us into the mistaken assumption that a theory of architecture exists at present, nor could it exist on the basis of the type of architectural education architects receive at present. The professional institutions, the universities, BRS and the building research institutes, and central and local government development groups will need to work in systematic relationships with each other and with other progressive offices be they private or public to develop the components of a viable theory of architecture which will satisfy designers, users and passers-by alike at a cost which we can afford.

Page forty-six

Over the past three years the Construction Research Advisory Council has been considering the research needs of the construction industry on evidence arising from a series of reviews carried out by the Department of the Environment. These reviews have covered a wide range of topics including engineering services and environmental design, materials and components, economics, maintenance and computer applications. In a report published last October the Council set out its view of its role and work and of the requirements for further work. One of the objects of the report was to stimulate discussion and comment so that the Council could, where necessary, adjust its policies in the light of informed opinion.

IV THE CURRENT SITUATION At a meeting in 1971 the Council considered various comments on the report and, in particular, the views expressed by the RIBA Research Committee that little attention had so far been given to the needs for research in the field of architectural design. After discussion it was agreed that a meeting of those directly involved in design and research in this field should be held to examine the problem in greater detail and to make recommendations to CRAC. The initial problem in considering the research requirements is to define the scope and content of architectural design itself. The conceptual model referred to above sets Out diagrammatically the range of activities that might be considered in our discussions. We will need to consider the problems arising in the field of architectural design and whether and how research into these can bring improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of the design process and of designers.

If research can help, the next stage would be to define the requirements as precisely as possible and to consider where and how the research should be located and managed and what staff and expertise would be required. Finally, if research does lead to worthwhile results of possible practical application, we must ensure that adequate machinery exists to ensure the assimilation of research results into architectural practice.

The RIBA Research Committee, the Science Research Council Building Panel, Tom Markus and Geoffrey Broadbent have all recently set out strategies for research in this field.

The RIBA Research Committee The RIBA itself has not yet formulated a policy for architectural research but its Research Committee has published a paper for discussion. It notes the recent growth in research activity in schools of architecture but is concerned that this research has not been fully effective in influencing design. It suggests this is partly due to the different orientations and goals of designers and researchers and partly to the lack of formal methods of assimilating research results into practice.

The Committee suggests two lines of action to make architectural research more effective: the development of stronger links between design and research at all levels, and the development of a conceptual framework for research which would show the relevance of different kinds of Page forty-seven

research' to the professions' primary interest of making the design process easier and cheaper and making the product better.

The Committee believes that feedback from buildings should be used to identify the problems appropriate for researchers to solve and that the translation of research results into design tools should be seen as a research task. It considers it essential that more researchers should be involved in building projects and that the "bridge-builders" with interests in both architecture and research should receive more encouragement.

To meet the anticipated demand, the Committee sees the need to increase the numbers of suitably orientated and trained architects. For this reason it hopes that a way will be found to permit suitable students to qualify within a research orientated syllabus.

The Science Research Council The SRC Building Panel has considered its Council's role in supporting university research and teaching in building design (excluding structural engineering) and has produced an interim policy statement. It believes that within the national context, the SRC should give support to basic studies and education and should encourage the development of combined research, education and training centres. For research, the Panel would like to see the development within the Universities of multi-disciplinary teams working on broad programmes in welldefined problem areas.

To this end the Panel sees a need to encourage a limited number of research groups with expertise in one area to extend their research interests; to support research programmes of related projects in one centre; and to give priority to institutions having broad-based architectural or building scientists on their permanent staff, who are able to supervise the supported research. In the field of architectural design research, the Panel has singled out as important problem areas for study; communication and information flow, the design of space, user behaviour, the building envelope and design methodology.

Models of the Design Process In his "Building—Environment—Activity—Objectives model", Professor T. A. Markus has set out a conceptual model of the relationships in the building-user system. Simplifying the Markus model a good deal perhaps four main systems are identified:— the building system, the environmental system, the activity system, and the organisational objectives. Design and research activities can be examined and classified according to their relevance to the relationships within a given system or between pairs of systems.

Geoffrey H. Broadbent has adapted the Markus model in particular to take account of the external environment (site, climate and surroundings). He identifies three systems (the environment system, the building system and the human system) and views the architect's task as the Page forty-eight

design of a building system to reconcile and interrelate the other two. Broadbent also divides each of these three systems into two sub-systems, as follows Environmental System Cultural Context

Physical Context

Building System

Human System

Client User Internal Building Technology Ambience Require- Objectives ments

These two models do provide a useful outline of the design process but they do not indicate the relative importance of the various elements in the architectural design task or of areas of research interest. It could be argued that all branches of knowledge are in some senses relevant to architectural design, but given that the designer has only limited time, learning, storage and processing facilities, some order of relevance has to be accepted for practical purposes. This would be improved if an aesthetic system were added of which the sub-systems would be as nearly quantifiable as possible, to enable the whole process to be computer-aided but artistically directed.

The most recent comprehensive survey of research for the construction industry is the "Third Survey of Research and Development for the Construction Industry". This classifies and lists projects active in 1968 on the basis of questionnaires returned by the organisations doing the work. (The fourth survey of projects active in 1970, is currently in progress but the results will not become available until later.)

Research that was classified in the survey as Architectural Design, Function, Performance accounted for 19.9% (l,406,000) of construction research supported by public funds (Table 1). Nearly 70% of this architectural design research was carried out by government departments.

(Table 2). The allocation of this research work between the subject areas used in the survey is shown in Table 3.

Some of the research in architectural design active in 1968 was directed to particular types of building. Tables 4 and 5, classify the research undertaken by the type of building to which it was primarily directed where this is known. A large proportion (39%) was related to buildings in general (Col (2) Table 5). Housing research accounted for 24.2% of the research expenditure, a figure which includes 1.6% which was specifically related to older housing and its rehabilitation (Col (2) Table 5). In Col (1) of Tables 4 and 5, the value of new orders obtained by contractors during 1968 for each building type has been given so that these can be compared with the research expenditure in the public sector (see Notes on Tables 4 and 5 no 1). In order to facilitate comparisons of the value of new work with research expenditure on each building type, the research expenditure which is applicable to buildings generally has been allocated to building types in proportion to the value of the orders obtained for that building type. The Page forty-nine

ratio of research expenditure to value of new orders for each building type is given in Col (4) of Table 4. It will be seen that the building types almost exclusively in the public sector have the highest ratios (eg Health with 0.12%) and that those in the private sector have the lowest ratios (eg Shops 0.02%). To some extent this is a reflection of the fact that in the main the tables only refer to research supported by public funds. However, a rough check on the projects in the Third Survey indicated that about 90% of the research expenditure by the private sector was in the building types "housing", "education" and "generally applicable". The ratio of Architectural Design research to the value of new orders was 0.04%.

The Survey covers projects current in 1968. The lists of architectural and building research projects supported by the RIBA, the Science Research Council, in the BRS Research Programme 1971 which are attached and of those featured at the RIBA Research Fair at Strathclyde last January, do indicate something of the range of research now in hand.

In Table 5 the value of new work and the research expenditure for each building type is shown as a percentage of the totals for all building types. For each building type the difference between the percentage of research effort and the percentage of new orders is tabled in Col (4). Subject to the limitations mentioned above particularly about the likely differences in design complexity for different building types, the figures in Col (4) give an indication of the amounts of research expenditure that would be required to alter the present distribution of research between different building types.

TABLE 1 Distribution of Public Sector Research Expenditure by Subject-1968 Subject Division Construction Architectural Design Economics Engineering Materials Services

I

L'000s 305 1,406 706 2,819 1,300 527

4.3 19.9 10.0 39.9 18.4 7.5

Source: DGRD Survey 1968 "Architectural Design research is defined as 'Studies in the design of structures to provide a suitable environment for human use or occupation including the design of components and elements, functional performance and the needs and reactions of users and occupants'."

Page fifty

TABLE 2 % Distribution of Public Sector Expenditure on Architectural Design Research,

by type of organisation-1968

0/ /0

Government Departments Educational Establishments Other Public Authorities Research Associations

69.8 18.5 7.9 3.8

Source: DGRD Survey 1968

TABLE 3 % Distribution by subject sub-classifications of Public Sector Research Expenditure

in Architectural Design, Function and Performance 1968 Subject Sub-classification

Design of buildings, civil engineering works (includes building systems) Design of components and elements Performance of buildings, civil engineering works and components Dimensions and accuracy (includes resistance to moisture, wind, corrosion) Fire resistance and prevention Health and safety User needs Thermal environment (includes air movement) Lighting and colour Sound

& (000's)

0

270.1 142.4 125.1

19.2 10.1 8.9

64.4 85.6 7.8 321.4 65.9 41.4 154.0

4.6 6.1 0.6 22.9 4.7 2.9 10.9

Source: DGRD Survey 1968 Page fifty-one

TABLE 4 Distribution by Building Type (i) of Research Expenditure in Architectural Design, Function, Performance 1968 (ii) of the valve of new orders obtained by contractors in 1968 (1)

Building type

New orders obtained by contractors 1968 (jjm)

Housing Education, schools Education, universities Health Offices Industrial Roads and transport Entertainment Shops Other Generally applicable

1,258 186 31 140 110j 6781 280 1901 1071 2411

TOTAL

3,221

-

(2)

Research Expenditure (J'OOOs)

1 (3)

Research Expenditure with "Generally Research applicable" Expenditure allocated in as percentage proportion to of value of new orders new orders (J'OOOs) (3)/(1)

339 106 25 149 36 41 49 35 0 78 549

553 138 30 173 55 156 97 67 18 119

1,406

1,406

.

(4)

-

0.04 0.07 0.10 0.12 0.05 0.02 0.04 0.04 0.02 0.05 -

0.04

tEstimate only.

Sources: Annual Bulletin of Construction Statistics 1969 & Third Survey of R & D Note: Research expenditure refers only to the sector supported by public funds.

Page fifty-two

TABLE 5 % Distribution by Building Type (i) of Research Expenditure in Architectural Design, Function, Performance 1968 (ii) of the 'value of new orders obtained by contractors 1968 (1)

Building type

New orders % 39.0 5.8 1.0 4.3 3.4 21.0 8.7 5.9 3.3 7.5

Housing Education, schools Education, universities Health Offices Industrial Roads and transport Entertainment and culture Shops Other Generally applicable TOTAL

-

100

(2)

(3)

Research Expenditure with "Generally applicable" allocated in Research proportion to Expenditure new orders % % 24.2 7.5 1.8 10.6 2.6 2.9 3.5 2.5 0.0 5.5 39.1 100

39.3 9.8 2.1 12.3 3.9 11.1 6.9 4.8 1.3 8.5

(4)

Col. (3)Col. (1) +0.3 +4.0 +1.1 +8.0 +0.5 -9.9 -1.8 -1.1 -2.0 +1.0

-

-

100

Estimate only.

Sources: Annual Bulletin of Construction Statistics 1969 & Third Survey of R & D Notes: Research expenditure refers only to the sector supported by public funds.

NOTES ON TABLES 4 AND 5 1. Col. (1). New orders obtained by contractors are not a complete representation of all construction work. They exclude repair and maintenance work and work done by direct labour in the public sector. These account for around 30% of output.

Page fifty-three

2. Col. (1). In the Construction Statistics figures are not divided into some building types, in the public sector. We have allocated the non-housing work done for public corporations into offices, and industrial building types in the proportions of these two building types in the private sector. The public sector category "offices, garages, factories, shops" has been similarly allocated to the offices, industrial and shops building types.

Summary The Lacey conceptual model sets out the chief activities relevant to a contemporary design in such a way as to show the closeness of their relevance. He thus defines design in terms of the influences bearing upon it—social, economic, technical, physical, and so on. The model is set out in 2 dimensions. That from left to right indicates the relevance to design of various subjects, proceeding from basic applied research on the left, to development, design and its execution, and, finally, analysis of building on the right. In the vertical direction the model extends from broad urban scale at the top, to detailed design and production information at the foot of the page.

The agencies for research listed range from universities, through BRS, executive building departments to central government research and development groups and suggests that each in turn has a role to play in the systematic cycle of products, processes, projects and policy formulation; all of which are interdependent. Other interdependent sub-systems covered include pure research in related fields, applications, development, testing, construction, evaluation and feedback etc. The aim is to ensure that the various components are systematically related to each other and that they work in the appropriate fields with clearly defined objectives.

The review of the current situation refers to a definition of design as an integration of several systems, for instance, a human system, an environmental system and a building system (to which should be added an aesthetic system), so showing the possibility of a computerised systems approach to the various items set out in the conceptual model. These two definitions to present the content of architectural design in a structured way, and, continuing from here, an architectural design research programme could be planned as a whole, probing deeper where the subject most closely affects design, and avoiding the present fragmented list of unrelated subjects.

The paper presents two tables Nos. 1 and 3, which deal with the subject matter of research and development, but these tables group the information differently from the headings suggested in the conceptual model. Moreover, the tables do not distinguish between research and development and the latter has a high cost for some types of building, relative to research, so that as the information is in the form of costs it cannot give a clear picture of the distribution of work between various building types. A more detailed analysis of the survey material available from the forthcoming 1970 Report is necessary. Indeed, it may transpire that as Table 1 shows, the expenditure on architectural design research is adequate at present, but Table 3 suggests that it is ill-distributed.

Page fifty-four

Tables 4 and 5 give the distribution of expenditure on architectural design research between types of building in relation to the size of the building programme for that type, and directly indicate fields with little supporting research and development, and fields where cost benefits might be high. Building types may be a convenient but misleading grouping; activity types which occur across the board may be a more rewarding if more complex way of determining priorities and needs.

Conclusions The principles on which priorities for research on architectural design might be allocated— assuming that a clearer breakdown of work in hand was available—might be :to investigate first subjects which are most, and then more relevant to design; to investigate gaps in systems which impede the application of existing relevant research covering other parts of that system; and maximum cost benefit.

The design process itself is, of course, the most relevant subject. However, there is at present, insufficient information available as to the extent of work in this field on which to base conclusions. Some qualitative aspects of design are difficult to quantify so that I would be averse to the suggestion that cost benefit was of itself a determinant; it is undoubtedly a good indicator and useful guide.

Table 2 shows that for public sector research and development on Design, the contribution of Government Departments dominates the expenditure. However, the Government expenditure itself is dominated by that of the research stations, and an analysis of the scale and nature of the contribution by Government Departments excluding the research stations, in comparison with that by Universities, would be helpful.

It is impossible to comment on the most effective agencies for research and development without a firm programme of requirements, and also an assessment of the efficiency of present joint working arrangements between, for example, a Government Department and a University.

This paper does not cover the extent to which architectural design research is or is not followed through and applied, nor does it give an estimate of the incidence of identifiable and avoidable design weaknesses. This is a necessary step, before recommendations for application of research and development can be formulated.

The Chairman thanked Mr. Beckett for his paper and a discussion took place.

Discussion The main points made in the discussion are recorded below: Changes are occurring within the British Civil Service both in its general structure and its attitude towards research. The administration are becoming increasingly aware that complex Page fifty-five

problems require specialised scientific and professional involvement and these problems cannot be solved by the "gifted amateur" alone. Research activity by all agencies should be looked at as a total system and should have more sophisticated management techniques. It often suits the administrator to put things into manageable compartments (e.g. separate research from development) when in practice the division may not be distinct.

(Mr. Beckett) In India the major amount of building is in the hands of central or state government which is an entirely engineer dominated system. Architects are therefore not able to initiate research and therefore there is a need that the Schools of Architecture should take this on.

(Professor Prakash) In Canada one government department (The Department of Industry) has taken the lead in initiating research and the building industry has developed a sense of solidarity.

(Dean Desbarats) Constant changing of the national building programme to take account of economic change adversely affects the way research can be carried out. Annual programmes should be filled along the Canadian lines, i.e. one year ahead programmes should be filled completely, two year ahead programmes should be 75% filled and three year ahead programmes should be 50% filled.

(Mr. Beckett) The relationship between central government and industry is very important. More co-ordination between departments is necessary together with a sense of mutual trust.

(Dean Desbarats) It is important to avoid being pre-occupied with short term gains causing us to neglect long term fundamental research which needs to be done.

(Professor Robertson) A system is developing whereby people with research experience can be seconded to central Government and work on ongoing large building programmes. Research workers can then move freely between Universities and Central Government thereby strengthening links between traditionally areas of pure and applied research, and development work.

(Mr. Beckett) (Professor Matthew) In Ghana the government looks to the Universities to undertake research and development work. Some kind of government co-ordination is now necessary.

(Mr. Larbi) In Australia local authorities and state governments are also dominated by the administrator and engineer. There are no research units doing basic research within the government, only development work. There are signs that the state governments are becoming more interested in research.

(Mr. King) The objectives of the Research Sub-Committee of the RIBA Board of Education are to give funds to promising but unestablished research workers and to define architectural research.

It has visited schools of Architecture in an effort to encourage and identify research activity.

A major problem is to expand the resources available for the support of research in architecture.

Architecture is badly represented in major research grant giving organisations—SRC, SSRC etc.

(Professor Wilson) Page fifty-six

The subject of architectural research is a relatively new one. It has taken 20 years to get fund giving bodies to realise that architectural research is as expensive as physics or engineering research. All applications for grants in Britain go to committees that are science or engineering dominated. People assessing applications for grants do not understand the architectural field, so researchers try to direct applications into fields that fund giving bodies will understand.

There is a need to have better architectural representation on committees of major fund giving (Professor Hardy) bodies.

A definition of the study of architecture needs developing. The model of design research developed by Mr. Beckett from the "users" viewpoint is very similar to the knowledge based model of an architectural curriculum developed at Montreal for teaching purposes.

(Dean Desbarats) Most industries set up their own research association. The Construction Industries Research Advisory Committee recently commissioned a small party to examine architectural research.

(Mr. Beckett) The RIBA has about £6,000 per annum for use as research funds.

(Professor Wilson)

A three year project costs a minimum of £15,000. There is a trend amongst applications to the (Professor Hardy) SRC for insufficient funds to be asked for.

The interdisciplinary nature of any interesting problem lies more in reassembling existing (Dean Desbarats) knowledge.

In Britain the initiative to expand research activity in environmental problems on to a broader inter-professional level has come from architects, e.g. Presidents Committee. In Edinburgh, Barrie Wilson serves on a newly constituted inter-faculty committee to examine environmental (Professor Matthew) standards.

SESSION FOUR Architectural Research and Practice: Chairman: Charles Robertson Chairman: Unfortunately the author of the next paper cannot be present to read it as he is ill.

In his absence therefore I propose to read the paper on his behalf.

Architectural Research and Practice: Aart Bzjl, AR U, (read by Charles Robertson) The theme of this paper concerns the setting up of research groups in universities, and the implementation of research results in architectural practice. The experience of the ARU CAAD Studies group is offered as evidence of the kind of problems which arise, to set a context for further discussion of similar or related issues which arise at other centres.

The particular technical content of research undertaken by the CAAD Studies group is not of Page fifty-seven

primary relevance to this Seminar, but some reference to this work will provide a useful background to the general points which follow in the second part of this paper.

PART 1: ARU COMPUTER AIDED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN The ARU CAAD Studies group is concerned with developing computer data structures and information retrieval systems which are easy for people to use, and which do not demand specialised computer science skills of the user. We are primarily concerned with developing convenient techniques of communication between designer and machine, which enable processing of the large amounts of detailed information normally associated with live building projects. Such techniques should eventually provide designers with an opportunity to make better informed design decisions.

We are not trying to achieve automatic computer generated design, nor are we trying to devise new analytical techniques for determining better design. We are trying to develop systems by which a designer can describe problems and formulate solutions to a computer, so that the computer is able to respond with results of applying existing analytical techniques; this provides the designer with computer evaluation of his evolving design solution. Once such systems are established and accepted by architectural practice, it should then be possible to incorporate future new and more sensitive analytical and evaluative design techniques. This priority on convenient communications between designer and machine has led to the use of interactive computer graphics. It is therefore possible to show a film of the visible aspects of our work, relating to our initial research project directed at two-storey housing.

The first project was sponsored jointly by the Scottish Special Housing Association and the Department of the Environment, to develop a computer aided system which could be integrated into existing SSI-IA practices. The SSHA operates with large stores of highly standardised construction information relating to the way different items can be put together to form complete buildings. This system does not require standardised house plans or building components.

Common range house plans are used for the majority of new building projects, but in every case a number of modifications are always necessary to meet the requirements of particular site conditions, building regulations or local construction practices. An initial objective of this research project was to enable the introduction of new information to existing information, so that the consequences of modification can be evaluated automatically in terms of cost. The system was developed to cope with rectilinear single or two-storey houses with level floor plans, constructed of no-fines concrete or brickwork. Applications currently provide computer analysis and evaluation of quantities and costing, construction, structure, daylighting and heating. Results of applications are presented in the form of computer generated text and drawings, which provide readily comprehensible information for people who are responsible for design and construction of buildings.

The showing of the film concludes the first part of this paper Page fifty-eight

PART 2: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE The following points refer to general issues which arise from particular experience at the ARU, as a basis for further discussion. It may become a function of this Seminar to arrive at a more general assessment of problems relating research to practice, and to indicate some possible solutions.

1.

Scope of research subjects: Broad; generalised context, may require little data; anticipates wide spread future application.

Narrow; particular context, may require a lot of data ; anticipates restricted application effective within a short-time period.

2.

Relevance of research to architectural practice: Intended for application to limited part of design process; generalised techniques operating with little data, e.g. analytical functions applied to outline sketch design; applicable to many diverse design organisations.

Comprehensive systems intended for application to a large part of the design process; dependent on large amounts of data relating to design environment, e.g. information on kind of buildings and construction which may be relevant to functions of detailed building design and production; applicable to a single design organisation.

3. Research concerned with process or product: Process, concerned with techniques for doing things; changing work practices; directed at efficient use of resources; research may be dissociated from quality of product, where the product is the result of process executed by others.

Product, concerned with the results of a process, e.g. a building or components of buildings; evaluation; research is closely associated with qualitative assessment of product, good or bad results.

4.

Process, systems or applications: Systems, the underlying logic which supports applications; closely related to theory; anticipates general relevance.

Applications, the use of a system in a particular given context, e.g. SSHA CAAD applications; likely to deviate from the strict logic supporting the system in order to fit in with existing practices.

5.

Scale of research effort: (a) Research by individuals; subject restricted by capacity of individual; results may have little influence on practice.

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(b) Research groups; varied and specialised skills; capacity to deal with complex

systems and large amounts of data; results relevant to real world problems of practice.

6. Research sponsorship: Contract research: covers most large scale research effort, employing groups of qualified staff; effective for limited time periods with no obligation to ensure continuity; projects have to be "sold" before they are started; early anticipation of research reults; possibly appropriate for the development of applications for use in practice.

University supported research; teaching staff expected to undertake some research, usually acting as individuals; low priority on employment of research staff; limited resources for large scale research efforts, but continuity assured; may be appropriate for theoretical studies.

Studentships; supported by government departments; apparently cheap but difficult to concentrate effort; divergent goals; poor continuity beyond two to three years; useful for dealing with research topics which can be isolated from long term developments, tendency towards theoretical studies.

7.

Implementation of research results in practice: Research directed at applications; implementation by one identified user or a group of unidentified users; knowledge of detailed circumstances of implementations; negotiations with people.

Research directed at complete revolution of practice, or at integration of new techniques into existing practice.

Research directed at a large or small part of the overall process involved in practice, i.e. at sketch design only or including detailed design and production information.

Introduction of unfamiliar techniques into existing practices; may produce crisis of confidence; resistance of the establishment to change.

Implementation of technical results in an existing organisation requires politica. acceptance, i.e. rational arguments must achieve a favourable subjective response.

Initially new techniques are likely to be costly, but should become cheaper over long term; improved use of diminishing resources; may enable things to be done which could not otherwise be possible.

Anticipation of cost benefit; calculations necessarily uncertain; cost effectiveness may only be evident over long time scale; requires act of confidence.

Discussion Professor Robertson introduced Mr. Harold Buteux, Chief Technical Officer, Scottish Special Housing Association. A discussion took place, of which the following were the main points: Page sixty

Before the ARU were commissioned by SSHA for the Computer Aided Design project a certain amount of work on computers had been undertaken by the Association. There is a fine line between research and development. The research undertaken by ARU could not have been done inside SSHA and in the same way the practical application of the results could only be satisfactorily carried out with the Association. In order to get maximum benefit from the system we are developing, the University also takes on a training role. We are at the stage now where selected staff spend two days a week at the University. Research of this kind needs to be followed up by appropriate training of the "users" staff. In this type of team working close liaison needs to be established and hardly a day passes without exchanges of information. The geographical (Mr. Buteux) relationship of the ARU and SSHA is a positive advantage.

There is as much work involved in applying research results to practice as there is in producing (Professor Robertson) the results.

Although some research was carried on within SSHA, most was commissioned from outside.

SSHA looked for the "pay off" in the application of research results to find new research (Mr. Buteux) projects. Some research evolves from outside the academic environment.

The system described in Mr. Biji's paper is specifically for SSHA purposes. A stage is envisaged when it might be generally applicable to a number of different users, on varied building applications. Every building can be designed differently, supported by standard detail information, although standard type plans can also be used. The next piece of work is to compare approximate costings on alternative house layouts, working with more variable three dimensional (Professor Robertson) information.

The discussion on the paper was drawn to a close by the Chairman, and topics for each of the remaining sessions discussed. It was agreed that these topics should be concepts of architectural research, objectives and directives, communication and implementation of research, and organisation and finance.

SESSION FIVE Concepts of Architectural Research: Chairman Charles Robertson The Chairman opened the session and asked for contributions from the floor. The main points made in discussion are recorded below.

There is some difficulty in defining "architectural research". Henry Wooten said, "in architecture the end must direct the means". What is architecture? Vitruvius said "architecture is a science acquired through theory". Architectural research must be seen within the context of the design process. Particular models worth examining further were those by Geoffrey Broadbent and Christopher Jones. Research was concerned with identifying and quantifying requirements and selecting priorities.

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Two aspects of design and research that can be identified are "strategy" and "tactics". Their relationship is very important. Tactics dealt with essentially practical problems—management, information handling and communication. Strategy dealt with the theory and intellectual end of the process and was concerned with objectives. Research workers involved in strategy need to have wide experience of architecture and to be highly intellectual, whereas tactical problems are much easier to solve and work is developing adequately in this field. (Mr. Atkinson) Architects should not just be concerned with the design of better buildings but their role should extend to the overall use of buildings. They should be involved with the building throughout its life. At UCL they had examined the use of space within buildings and found the space rate for students varied widely. In an examination of time they found that most people were not in UCL: for most of the time; in fact the system would break down if they were there. With the help of a computer they developed a model of timetabling for the University as a whole. They had met considerable difficulties, particularly between departmental requirements. Traditional room names (lecture room, etc.) had been abandoned and the computer takes a list of types of spaces and information about people who need to use them. The computer then does timetabling and space allocation. They were carrying Out research to enable the user to operate his building more efficiently and this may be a role that needs expanding. The car industry was a good parallel to consider with its extensive back-up organisation to product sales.

(Mr. Doidge) Most design failures result from lack of knowledge of the consequences of designers' action.

In architectural research at present the methods being used are those of design. This was not the way to carry out architectural research. Research in architecture needs to concentrate on improving prediction techniques. Architects will always be needed to participate in research but are not by training necessarily suited for it.

(Dr. Hawkes) Much of our research is initiated by investigating building failures—usually at the request of architects. We found that the main causes of failure have been due to inadequate consideration of performance at the design stage. Architects generally tend to design with increasing technological complexity rather than to perfect well tried traditional building construction.

(Professor Hardy) One of the fundamental issues is persuading the architect that he has to go back to first principles.

Architectural schools have been design orientated for years. Change is now needed to a research based education with schools of architecture becoming research centres. (Dean Howarth)

SESSION SIX Objectives and directives: Chairman Professor Denys Hinton The structure of a curriculum in a School of Architecture has a very heavy bearing on the nature of research that can be undertaken. The main areas of knowledge that are of significance Page sixty-two

to teachers are pertinent to the kind of research that can be done. The knowledge systems of the University must be studied and its resources defined before research can be identified or competence assessed. One of the ways the University can relate to real life is by attempting to define what its resources are. At Montreal a system analysis has been carried out over the past (Dean Desbarats) four years on the curriculum.

A major source of subjects for research projects was by the investigation of design failures.

Other areas of research can be identified within the design process itself, when architects are required to make decisions that involve using prediction techniques. Similarly the development and refinement of existing research techniques was another source of research projects.

(Professor Hardy) The context within which a research organisation finds itself has a direct influence on its aims.

For example, the City of York had a conservation problem and it was only natural that the research programme of the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies should relate to this.

Similarly the situation within which they found themselves within a new developing University (Dr. Taylor) directed them into a research involvement in student housing.

The Rothschild report identified three end products of research: Products Process Operations We should be particularly concerned with the operations end.

(Mr. Atkinson)

Objectives will be very different in developing countries. In Britain the existence and compilation of background data is taken for granted. In developing countries the first priority is to undertake research to establish information, e.g. the establishment of well spaced meteorological stations. Outside pressures also influence the direction of research, e.g. in Ghana it is Government policy to concentrate on developing rural areas of the country. As they are supported by (Mr. Larbi) the Government, their research will naturally follow this direction.

In India, where the building of buildings as monuments still exists, the main priority is with the social and economic context. There is an increasing backlog of environmental needs. As there are no existing architectural research units in India, teachers try to develop research on their own. The magnitude of the problem can be illustrated by the fact that when communities were presented with new three room houses families chose to use one of these rooms exclusively (Professor Prakash) for religious ceremonies.

As Mr. Buteux pointed Out in yesterday's session, there is a "fine line" between research and practice. We are all associated with teaching and this can be a valuable link. Teachers organise information in packages and present it to people. This process should not only be restricted to undergraduates. The field of mid-career education should be expanded. In this way the teacher can become an ideas' broker for the communication of research results.

(Mr. Rodger) Page sixty-three

A continuum needs to be established with a well defined knowledge system. At Montreal the main areas were: Physical environment Man environment Planning theories Techniques of control Materials Processes Methodology Communication (Dean Desbarats) These were knowledge, not problem based areas.

Feedback in architecture is inadequate. It is expensive to obtain and there is no provision within normal architects' fees and commissions for it. Feedback on a large scale needs organising on a national scale. This should be one area of active involvement by research units in Schools of Architecture. To be effective the time scale in obtaining feedback is critical. The feedback process is as important for the profession as a whole as it is to the individual practice. The collection and dissemination of shared information should be given a high priority.

(Professor Hardy) (Professor Matthew) (Professor Wilson) (Dean Howarth) (Professor Robertson) Building regulations should evolve from feedback and require to be approached from an intellectual basis. Regulations should be positive statements developing from academic and research practice. Clear goals and objectives of regulations within a local framework require to be established. Research into aspects of Building Regulations needs encouraging and expanding.

(Professor Wilson) (Professor Matthew) (Dr. Hawkes) (Mr. King) (Mr. Atkinson) Within Australia, research into Building Regulations is a popular field in all Schools of Architecture. It is considered an important area, possibly because the responsibility for regulations (Mr. King) rests with state authorities and there is a wide variation of control.

There is a need to broaden the base of our education. We should be constantly seeking to improve our environment and questioning the role of the architect in this activity. What are the objectives of the environmental designer? The identification of goals are two prime objectives.

(Mr. King) Page sixty-four

Goals change very quickly and resources are diminishing rapidly. We still produce large permanent buildings. Change needs to be recognised and planned for.

(Professor Wilson) The prediction of availability of world resources is an important area of study for University (Professor Matthew) based research units on a global scale.

There are problems in having two separate activities taking place—one in research and one in practice. The teacher, however, has the flexibility and position to act as interpreter between these activities. There are positive advantages therefore in the University based research unit (Professor Hinton) which can become involved in teaching research and practice.

SESSION SEVEN Communication and Implementation: Chairman Professor Alex Hardy.

The chairman introduced the discussion by pointing out that there was little incentive for architects to read. In other professions it was essential to keep up to date by reading journals and there would be an adverse effect on performance if this did not happen.

Architecture does not fit into the normal academic research of universities. In other disciplines research is disseminated by printed papers given at frequent conferences, seminars and in learned journals. There is a political problem in publishing research if it does not coincide with (Mr. Thunhurst) views of sponsoring authorities.

The main problem in architecture is in deciding what form the communication of research results should take. It does not necessarily work to adopt other professions' approaches. If architects take little notice of research results, it may be because they are badly presented to them. The RIBA has started a journal aimed at teachers and researchers called Architectural Research and Teaching. We need to explore more avenues of communication.

(Professor Wilson) In research carried out at York on communication of research findings a significant factor had been found to be the status of the publishing or sponsoring organisation. For example, publications of the BRS were retained in libraries of the majority of architects. Alternative forms they were considering were tapes and visual packages including films. The success of mid-career (Dr. Taylor) courses was established as a means of disseminating information.

Traditionally research ended with the publication of a paper or report. We need to consider (Professor Robertson) how this research can be implemented and applied to practice.

(Mr. Thunhurst) In all projects in the BRS research programme there is an "application" phase.

(Mr. Atkinson) Page sixty-five

From the point of view of the practising architect he is faced with a proliferation of paper. He needs to know what is available and where the latest information can be found. The office librarian and library are essential tools of a modern public or private practice.

(Mr. Wisdom) Generally it is agreed that there are three main forms of research results: 1. Full research report • 2. Shortened application report 3. Abstract In addition there is the library index card with basic application data.

(Professor Hardy) One of the most irritating features of research is the length of time spent in deliberation by the sponsoring body. We recently completed a two year project well within the time only to (Mr. Doidge) experience that the client took one and a half years to think about it.

As a consumer of undergraduates in postgraduate planning courses it is possible to compare their performance in certain aspects with other graduates. We find their, approach to the study of knowledge is not as well developed as in other disciplines.

(Professor Johnson-Marshall) Material that is selected for use by architects often is related to its accessibility to them rather (Professor Hardy) than its quality.

Amount of information available to architects is so great that the main objective for them is to be aware of the location of it. At BRS index pages of periodicals are circulated to everyone (Mr. Atkinson) and articles of interest can then be examined.

Researchers frequently, in enthusiasm, 'go beyond their brief. The sponsor is then presented with material which is often outside his particular interest and which he is unable to use directly. This can therefore easily be lost and this situation is a cause of frustration to all.

Applied Research at Cambridge was set up as one way of overcoming this. (Dr. Hawkes) The major means of communication between architects are drawings. Research utilising visual media has the advantage of overcoming language barriers. In developing countries drawings may be the major means of communicating new skills. In Ghana artists are used to draw posters describing methods of making blocks and simple carpentry. Architects take these to rural settlements and people are taught how to make their own houses.

(Professor Prakash) (Mr. Larbi) There is a great gulf between text books available in schools in developing countries and new methods of construction being employed. In India, for example; construction is taught using British text books.

(Professor Matthew) We are trying to discourage students using text books and concentrating on experiencing buildings. ' (Professor Prakash) Page sixty-six

There appear to be different problems in developing countries, aggravated by the influence of the RIBA and western education. There is a need for a more detailed diagnosis of each (Mr. Doidge) country's particular problems.

(Professor Johnson-Marshall) Centres need to be established in developing countries to produce basic research. In Nigeria we recently produced a study of climate to help us in our work there. This handbook was of immediate use to practising architects and would have been better if it could have been produced by a research unit in Nigeria. Research units in these countries could be responsible for producing publications to aid education—both undergraduate and mid-career. There is, for example, a great need for an environmental physics text book in all countries. (Professor Matthew) Communication between research workers is also critical. Most contacts are established at international not national conferences, but there are not enough of these. A central information point needs setting up. An example on a national scale is the information office set up by the (Professor Hardy) Department of Industry in Canada with a very large budget.

(Dean Desbarats) There are examples of very efficient information systems working within industry, the Shell International keyword system for example. This system is very efficient and covers technical information for the whole Shell organisation. The Building Industry should have this type (Professor Hardy) of service.

Having established such a service, how do you persuade people to use it? We find at the BRS that it is always the same firms that use our advisory service. We try to operate this economically, in order to try to expand its activities. It is easy to sell computer services or reports but it is difficult to price information that is requested and given through telephone calls.

(Mr. Atkinson) For a research unit to be effective the communication aspect is very important. In a University context use may be made of advisory services which are generally being established to promote industrial liaison. It should be remembered that the application of research results is not a (Professor Robertson) problem confined to the field of architecture alone.

The communication of ideas to unwilling recipients is very important. Pressure needs to be put on politicians both locally and nationally. The press, radio and television could be made (Mr. King) more use of in this respect.

(Professor Hardy) In developing countries there is a danger that research results are directed at more prestigious foreign journals rather than in national journals. The professional career of the researcher is a factor in this and many countries do not offer any incentive for researchers to publish locally.

(Professor Prakash) Page sixty-seven

SESSION EIGHT Organisation and Finance: Chairman Ross King.

The chairman introduced the discussion by referring to the absence in Australia of any research units similar to those in the United Kingdom. There is a "research" University called the Australian National University. It has a large staff of 600 to 700 and a good budget. The staff have no teaching responsibilities but the University has a reputation of being unproductive.

An example of another type of research unit is the Applied Economic Unit at Melbourne University. In architecture in the whole of the last year only 12,000 dollars was given for research. At Sydney the Fell Research Unit was established through the generosity of a benefactor.

There is a lesson to be learned from the example of the Australian National University that security of tenure of research workers does not necessarily promote productivity. Results can (Mr. Thunhurst) often be stimulated by being insecure.

In the United Kingdom although there are many organisations sponsoring research, architectural research often falls between the responsibilities of individual organisations. For example, a recent application was made to 25 separate research bodies, none of which would accept they had responsibility for supporting the application. There is a need for a central register of the functions and terms of responsibility of all grant giving research organisations.

(Professor Robertson) There are advantages in having a multiplicity of research grant resources. In Australia there is only one central fund source and in times of economic pressure this tends to be cut back.

(Mr. King) The major research bodies are structured on out-dated notions. Present day activities do not relate to the structure of these research bodies. The SRC have tried recently to put more money into architecture from civil engineering. Most applications for support the SRC receive usually ask for inadequate funds. In making awards the Council is influenced by the experience of research workers. This tends to hinder new organisations from breaking into the field. Before money is awarded for research it is necessary to prove you can do it. In many cases you need (Professor Hardy) to do the research before you can be awarded the money.

Each committee of SRC has a budget for its annual awards. The committee can decide how they allocate their funds within their field. Applications are based on the subject and not on a formal University department structure. The secretariat keeps the committee informed on the distri(Professor Hardy) bution of their expenditure in relation to subject.

The medical profession have a better organised research structure. The MRC sponsors units attached to University departments. The Centre for Environmental Studies was established to support planning research. Instead of distributing funds to existing research organisations they chose to establish their own research organisation, which in the Social Sciences is now one (Professor Johnson-Marshall) of the largest in the United Kingdom.

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In recent years the United Kingdom aid programme has reflected an increasing awareness that research is one of the most valuable contributions which can be offered to the developing countries. Too often opportunities are missed because those in the receiving country, not being expert, are unable to identify problems far less see ways in which they might be tackled.

Because of this, it seems necessary that the two countries, developed and developing, should establish a continuing working relationship at a technical level with the express purpose of specifying the aid programme.

Once a developed country decides to run an aid programme it assumes that it has received some benefit from so doing. Whatever it is, Kudos, conscience or commerce, it is established by the very act of giving. But for the developing country—the other partner in the deal—these may all be disadvantages. His only propsect of benefit is in the success of the projects to be undertaken.

In the long run this is also the only real benefit to the donor. To achieve success it is necessary for a tough bargain to be struck and for all parties to the agreement, the politicians, the civil servant, the technical officers, etc., to have a strong interest in the success of the project.

This argument lies behind India's insistence that she will accept technical aid only when she can provide suitable staff to work alongside the expatriates and take over from them.

(Mr. Rodger) There is a need for factual information on the comparative expenditures of Commonwealth countries on architectural research. A document could be produced analysing the percentage of funds going to architectural research in the Universities represented at the Seminar. This in (Professor Matthew) turn needs comparing to funds going to other disciplines.

(Professor Howarth) (Professor Wilson) Apart from the statistics of the situation, the classification of architectural research work being developed needs recording. The Department of the Environment in Canada is establishing (Dean Desbarats) such a classification.

Poor staff student ratios in Schools of Architecture and the large number of staff student contact hours required in architectural education make it difficult for teachers to devote time to research.

This tends to encourage the establishment of full time research units. (Professor Wilson) A nucleus of permanent research staff are essential to develop meaningful research programmes in Universities. The University of Montreal funds a research director and secretarial staff in (Mr. King) our Faculty.

(Dean Desbarats) Other departments in Universities still adhere to the traditional pattern of teaching staff undertaking research and do not have full time research units. Many teaching staff even under the pressures of inadequate staff/student ratios can still be involved in research by supervising programmes of postgraduate study.

(Professor Wilson) (Professor Hardy) Page sixty-nine

Different kinds of research need to be tackled in different ways. Some research can be tackled at weekends and evenings. Architectural and planning research needs tackling by large full time research groups involving different disciplines where appropriate.

(Professor Johnson-Marhsall)

CONCLUDING SESSION Summary and Conclusions: Chairman, Professor Sir Robert H. Matthew.

The Chairman introduced Dean T. Howarth who had been asked to summarise the proceedings.

Dean Howarth's comments were as follows :Despite a widely ranging discussion and a valuable exchange of views, no clear definition of architectural research had been forthcoming during the symposium. However, five areas of common interest had emerged which required action. They were:— I. Research funds—sources and availability Professional relationships The research worker Subject areas for research Communication of results 1. Research Funds We agreed that within our fields of architectural and environmental research supporting funds were inadequate. The figures produced by Mr. Beckett demonstrated this, and it is evident that we must work towards improving the situation in the countries we represent. We must also try to improve the quality of people involved in research, and to increase their productivity.

We agreed that there were dangers inherent in a situation where research funds were centralised and distributed by one agency—a government agency for example—because they could be reduced, or varied in accordance with an economic or political situation. Two sources of research funding were mentioned in addition to government sponsored research; these were industry and private donors. We agreed that it would be useful if we produced a statement setting out for each of our Universities the distribution of research grants to the various disciplines.

The idea of an architectural research unit engaged in practice was new to many people, and its effect has not yet been fully realised. The need to build up a reserve fund during periods of building activity to offset lean periods was mentioned as important. The legal aspects of professional liability for work carried out in the name of a University was drawn to our attention.

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ACTION A comprehensive report on National and International sources of funds for architectural research should be produced together with a guide to methods of application for research grants.

A list of existing research units should be prepared describing their objectives, modus operandi, and progress.

Information would be welcomed on experience in sharing the expensive equipment used by individuals and research teams in other disciplines.

Ways and means must be found of encouraging our professional institutes to take a more direct interest in research and help to improve the status of and facilities for research scholars and students.

2.

The Profession

The problem of educating the profession not only to use the results of research but to share the responsibility for research, was discussed. Very few professional architects have taken postgraduate research degrees, and they should be encouraged to return to the University to do this.

For many architects the responsibility for the building they have designed ends with its completion. Architects should be concerned more about building performance. We agreed that architects were not, and should not be, solely interested in a building as a shell, but in the total environment to which it belonged, and the social process that helped create it.

The profession should have access to more objective data on which design decisions could be made.

ACTION Researchers should report to the profession more often on the findings and relevance of their work.

Professionals should be encouraged to participate more directly in research programmes, particularly in areas of building performance.

We should encourage the profession to make use of expertise and facilities that exist in University research departments.

It was also suggested that ways and means should be found of educating school children at all levels in architectural and environmental matters—and also politicians and other decisionmakers. The methods and techniques for doing this might be a suitable topic for research.

3.

The Research Worker

It was stated that experience in professional practice is essential before undertaking research training. Views were expressed that about five years' experience was really needed before an Page seventy-one

individual could be expected to embark upon a career in research. The suitability of the architect as a research worker was also questioned. It was claimed that the research worker is required to have intelligence, compatibility and an aptitude for detailed, concentrated and systematic work —attributes that do not distinguish all architects. The problem of tenure for research staff, where continuity of effort is frequently important, was also discussed. It was claimed that the established research unit could help in this situation by providing not only a base, but a nucleus of full time staff. A difficult period was always encountered when a research project was being finished and another was not yet in sight. For the research worker this was a period when he was looking for a new contract; for the organisation it was a time of grave concern and maximum pressure.

Concern was expressed at the reluctance of many countries to recognise the relevance of research experience as equivalent to practical experience in preparation for professional registration (licensing).

The design process and the role of research in it was also discussed. The need to break down traditional approaches was emphasised and the need for multi-disciplinary research units was mentioned.

ACTION A register should be established of research workers, their qualifications, and fields of interest. This should then be circulated to research institutes.

The possibility of arranging the exchange of research staff on a secondment basis should be investigated.

Presentation should be made to Governments and Professional Institutes on the need for establishing greater continuity in research programmes and funding.

4.

Subject Areas

It was agreed that the development of "Centres of Excellence" should be encouraged. There was a danger of duplication of effort in the proliferation of work going on at many centres.

The term "centre of excellence" has been used to define a research project, or projects ranging from those based on one exemplary individual with specialised knowledge, to the large, multidisciplinary research unit containing extensive laboratory facilities.

Three main divisions of architectural research were identified, but there was considerable overlapping.

Fundamental or basic research Applied research—concerned with problem solving Development research—concerned with application Page seventy-two

The importance of the relationship between these divisions was discussed—for example, knowledge of fundamental research in a field should be considered essential before beginning a programme of applied research.

The importance of inter-disciplinary research and of adequate communication between areas of research activity was stressed in this context.

It was agreed that the researcher should discipline himself by tackling only the problems he is competent to deal with. There is a danger of the architect over-extending himself and getting involved in areas where others are better qualified to work than he.

It was pointed out that there is invariably in these meetings a strong tendency to view world problems through western eyes and this must be corrected. The provision of shelter in developing countries was one of the world's greatest needs, and special solutions must be sought.

It should be remembered that the west has not been particularly successful in providing shelter for its own poor and dispossessed peoples.

A particularly valuable yet much neglected research area is that affecting government policy including, for example, planning controls and building by-laws.

ACTION Architectural Research must be properly defined and we should attempt to clarify subject areas.

An order, or priority, must be established within this classification.

5.

Communication of Results

The "discipline" base of our profession should be changed to a "knowledge" base. We must try to find ways of quantifying our needs. The shift in importance from the textbook to the magazine in our libraries was emphasised, and the problems of communication within a discipline and profession, and across disciplines and professions were discussed at length.

It was agreed that ways and means must be found of improving communication between researchers, academics and professionals. New methods are emerging that are far more appropriate than those in use at present.

Communicating with policy- and decision-makers was vitally important, especially with regard to communicating unpopular information.

ACTION The publication of the proceedings of this Seminar.

Consideration should be given to the possibility of producing a regular publication in the form of a newsletter for researchers.

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The importance of international gatherings such as this Seminar should be emphasised.

We must consider how regularly we should meet, or whether some other form of communication could be as effective.

Participants should bring to the attention of their respective governments and Universities the aims and objectives of this Seminar and our final report might be used for this purpose.

DISCUSSION The Chairman thanked Dean Howarth for his summing up and asked whether there were any points participants would like to add to this. The summary was accepted and the following comments made:— The situation in the different countries represented at the Seminar varied considerably.

We tend to discuss the two extremes, usually the United Kingdom and developing countries.

Countries like Canada and Australia have quite different problems.

(Mr. Colchester) The academic structure of research qualifications varies widely; there is no uniform pattern. What, for instance, is the present status and function of the bachelors and masters degrees in architecture? Which should be the first "professional" degree? Should the masters be a "research" degree and who will decide?

(Dean Howarth) The degree structure in Schools of Architecture needs re-examining. In Edinburgh a new course is being developed which offers opportunity for identification and education of students with research potential at an earlier stage.

(Professor Wilson) Concluding Remarks: Professor Sir Robert H. Matthew We have an assurance of funds from the Commonwealth Foundation to enable the proceedings of the Seminar to be published. If we are to establish a regular newsletter to communicate between ourselves, then we must look for supporting funds. Until a feasibility study to examine this could be undertaken, the ARU would certainly be prepared to act as central co-ordinator or postbox for the group. We are now all aware ofproblems faced throughout the Commonwealth and this Seminar has been very productive. We are all agreed upon the desirability to have future regular meetings. We must, however, realise that annual meetings would not be economic.

In addition we must consider the venue of future meetings. It would be desirable to hold the next meeting in a developing country, probably in three or four years' time, or as funds permit.

Finally, in closing this Seminar, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed towards making it possible: the Commonwealth Foundation and the Commonwealth Association of Architects for the grants which made it financially possible; the staff of the Architecture Research Unit for the preparatory work involved in organising the Seminar; and lastly all the participants who have travelled so far and made such a valuable contribution to its success.

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PREVIOUS PAPERS IN THIS SERIES *No. I. 'Social Work Training Needs in East Africa.' Report on Regional Seminar in Uganda, December 1967. *No. II. 'Medical Education in Papua/New Guinea (with special reference to the Teaching and Practice of Obstetrics).'

Professor J. Lawson, F.R.C.0.G., November 1968. *No. III. 'Professional Managers in Indian Industry.' G. J. West, F.C.C.S., F.R.S.A., General Secretary, British Institution of Works Managers, December 1968. *No. IV. 'Mental Health Problems in the Developing World.' Report on Mental Health Workshops in Edinburgh (1968) and Kampala (1969). *No. V. 'Quality in Education.' Report on a Conference of Inspectors of Schools from the Asia/Pacific area of the Commonwealth, Singapore, 1969. *No. VI. 'Speech and Hearing Problems in South East Asia.' 1969.

No. VII. 'East Coast Fever.' Final report of Edinburgh/East African Veterinary Expedition, 1969.

No. VIII. 'Conference of Librarians from Commonwealth Universities in Africa.' Report of Proceedings at Lusaka, August 1969. *No. IX. 'Work Study Practice.' Report on a Regional Commonwealth Work Study Seminar, Singapore, May 1970.

'Orthopaedic Problems in the Developing World.' Report No. X. on a Commonwealth Lecture tour by Professor R. L. Huckstep, Makerere University Medical School, July-September 1970.

No. XI. 'Manpower Planning in the South Pacific.' Regional Seminar in Fiji, July 1970.

No. XII. 'Communications and University Teaching with particular reference to the Caribbean.' A Report from the Inter-University Research Unit, Cambridge.

No. XIII. 'The Role of the Professions in a Changing World.' Report on a Conference held at the Professional Centre of Singapore, October 1971. *

Now out of print.

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No. XIV. 'Human Ecology in the Commonwealth.' Report of a Symposium held in London in November 1971 by the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council.

No. XV. 'Adult Education and National Development.' Report of a Commonwealth Planning Seminar held at the University of Manchester-in October 1972.

No. XVI. 'The Commonwealth Foundation Race Relations Bursary Scheme.' Report of a Conference in London, September 1972.

First Major Publication 'Professional Organisations in the Commonwealth' (detailing upwards of 1,000 professional and learned societies and Commonwealth-wide associations). Published by Hutchinson of London, June 1970. 511 pp.

Price £450.

Page seventy-six