Session 5: Concepts of Architectural Research

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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