Session 4: Architectural Research and Practice

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

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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-ordina- tion 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)

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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 bodies. (Professor Hardy) 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 SRC for insufficient funds to be asked for. (Professor Hardy) The interdisciplinary nature of any interesting problem lies more in reassembling existing knowledge. (Dean Desbarats) 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 standards. (Professor Matthew)

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

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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

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