Lecture8 research methods in architecture research design

Research Design Concepts

Background  Differences Among Occupants  While readily visible distinctions are apparent (e.g. gender, age, etc.), many subtle

psychological, cultural, and social factors exist which may be extremely iimportant for the designer to consider but which cannot be readily identified. People have memories of past events, the baililty to learn, a cultural and biological heritage, and many other attributes which serve to distinguish individuals from one another.  For example, in the design of housing

for elderly people, bear in mind likely difficulties in walking , seeing, and hearing. These factors should be considered when planning illumination levels, passageways, emergency signals, and exists.

Background  Personal and Cultural Differences – – – – – – – – – – – –

Age Gender Health Education Economic Status Social Status Nature of Employment Ethnic Heritage Previous Experience Expectations Motivations Attitudes.

Background  Hierarchy of Needs  One of the most

comprehensive and widely used schemes for defining user needs was developed

by A. Maslow (psychologist), who treated human needs as an everchanging process. He assumes that complete satisfaction of needs is not possible because when one set of needs is satisfied, another one emerges.

Self Status Member of a group

Security

Food, Clothing, Shelter

Background  Architects and Social Scientists  The architect is usually a team leader (or member) coordinating the activities of

many experts working toward a group solution of a design problem. The most important role that the architect must play is his role as the professional liaison between arts/humanities and science/engineering.  The goal of the architect is to complete a building which is functional, yet permits the expression of creativity and individuality. The basic procedure employed in design is the manipulation of spaces, forms, material, and objects - all having three-dimensional (tangible) characteristics.  The goal of the social scientist is a better understanding of human processes or relationships. Study findings take the form of documents, frequently dealing with the solution of one problem and the identification of others. Written reports often include tables of statistical information and are not readily understandable by laymen, including architects.

Background  Conclusion  Poor communication between

social/behavioral scientists and engineers was a major obstacle to smooth operation of design teams.

The language barrier was very difficult to penetrate, especially among disciplines with rich bodies of theoretical and pragmatic data to call upon. The problem was best resolved whenever shared concepts and ideas served as bridges between the disciplines.

Research and Design Concepts  Systems Analytic

Approaches  A system is an organized

arrangement in which each component part acts, reacts, or interacts in accordance with an overall design which adheres in the arrangement. It includes all equipment and associated personnel integrated to perform a defined task.

Research and Design Concepts  The Performance Approach  The performance concept is an

organized procedure or framework within which it is possible to state the desired attributes of a material component or system in order to fulfill the requirements of the intended user without regard to the specific means to be employed in achieving the results.  The user is considered the starting point of the design. The key to successful design is user satisfaction with the end product.

Research and Design Concepts  The Performance Approach  To accomplish the satisfaction of the user with

the end product we must:  1) Determine the nature of user requirements as

a prerequisite for design, and  2) Be able to evaluate buildings after occupancy

to determine whether the requirements were met.

Research and Design Concepts  Activities  Activities are a link between the

user and the physical environment.

They can be considered as external manifestations of needs.

They can be related to other activities and further analyzed into components. Activity descriptions enable one to identify relationships with design characteristics - at the scale of buildings and even communities, as well as at the scale of desired features of objects.

Research and Design Concepts  Analysis of Activities

Research and Design Concepts  Annotated Plan

Research and Design Concepts  Architectural Programming  The American Institute of Architects

(AIA) has defined architectural programming as the process by which criteria are developed for the design of a space, building, facility, physical environment, and for any unit of the environment. It is the means through which data about the needs of the ultimate building user are determined and expressed for the instruction of the architect in the development of a design solution.

Research and Design Concepts  Architectural Programming  Programming enables the owner’s needs to be defined and translated into

specific design instructions. Conflicts must be identified and resolved during the programming stage. The analyses and reports produced during programming are the basis for design. They are the link between the owner’s needs and the architect’s plans.

Research and Design Concepts  Building Evaluation “Post occupancy evaluation is a means of learning how well the plan worked in practice and the extent to which the goals were achieved. “ (M. Brill, “Evaluating Buildings on a Performance Basis,” in Designing for Human Behavior: Architecture and the Behavioral Sciences, ed. J. Lang, Stroudsburg, 1974)

 Evaluation of the completed projects - post occupancy or post construction

evaluations - is conducted for several reasons: – – – –

To modify or correct and existing building, To provide guidelines for future construction of the same building type, To evaluate programming criteria and design effectiveness, To provide data on how people use and respond to the built environment.

 Evaluation must be an integral part of the total design process.  A major difficulty with many evaluations is that they concentrate on general

attitudes and prefernces of respondents to environments, without adequately specifying the design characteristics of the building being evaluated.

Research and Design Concepts  Design Characteristics  The complex activity called “designing” interconnects three constituent activities: – Imaging Imaging is the ability to go beyond the information given and form a mental picture of a part of the world. This activity is often called “real creativity” by laypersons.

– Presenting Designers sketch, draw plans, build models, take photographs, and in many other ways externalize and communicate their images. Designers present ideas to make them visible so that they themselves and others can use and develop them.

– Testing Appraisals, refutations, criticisms, judgements, comaprisons, reflections, reviews, and confrontations are all types of tests. Testing is a feed-back and feed-forward process, adjusting the relation between a design product as it develops and the many criteria and qualities the product is intended to meet.

Research and Design Concepts  Types of information Information used in designing tends to be useful in two ways: – as a heuristic catalyst for imaging – as a body of knowledge for testing

Research and Design Concepts  Design Characteristics 

Designers continuously modify predictions about their final results I response to new information and insight. The design process is thus a series of conceptual shifts or creative leaps. Designers aim to reach one acceptable response within a range of possible solution. This domain of acceptance is measured largely by how well a product is adapted to its environment and how coherent constituent parts of the peoduct are with one another. Conceptual shifts and product development in design occur as the result of repeated, interative movement through the three elementary design activities.

Research Projects  Research projects begin with a good definition of the research problem: – What do you know about the problem?

– What do you want to know about the problem?

– What do you want to do with the results?  Then you commit yourself to a way of working: focusing on a particular

problem and deciding on the research design and setting that will solve your problem best.

– What do you want to find out?

– What design will give you useful information?

– What setting will use your resources effectively?

Research Strategies  Research Approaches – – – –

Diagnostic Descriptive Theoretical Action

 Research Designs – Case study – Survey – Experiment

 Research Settings – Natural – Contrived

Research Approaches  Diagnostic Studies  Diagnostic studies help you deepen your understanding of a setting: they

provide suggestive evidence on a broad realm. They offer insight into the structure and dynamics of a whole situation. For trustworthiness of findings, diagnostic studies rely on the consistency, clarity, and coherence of the insights they develop in the situation being studied. Researchers who want more precise measurements of particular attributes of a group or situation may carry out a descriptive study based on conceptual frameworks developed in diagnostic ones.  Example: The Urban Villagers

Research Approaches  Descriptive Studies  Descriptive studies describe and measure as precisely as possible one or more

characteristics and their relations in a defined group. Developing clear concepts and translating these into something that can be counted as a manifestation of the concept are particularly crucial problems in descriptive research.  Example: Study of Fear Among Residents of the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project in St. Louis

Research Approaches  Theoretical Studies  Theoretical studies set specific

hypotheses suggested by experiences elsewhere or primarily derived from more comprehensive theory. Such studies tend to increase general insights and to focus more on the conceptual framework of a problem than on the precise nature of the group they are observing.  Example: Social Pressures in Informal groups

Research Approaches  Action research Studies  In action research studies changes are made and analyzed that have direct and

lasting consequences on people beyond those in the research project.

Comparative action research settings may occur naturally or may be created analytically by careful sampling.  Example: Twin Rivers New Town

Research Design  Case Study  Researchers use a case study design when they

want to develop intensive knowledge about one complex object. They are used to describe and diagnose single, internally complex objects: individuals, buildings, episodes, institutions, processes, societies.  A case study is appropriate when investigators are interested mainly in information specific to the particular study object and context, rather than information easily generalizable to a large population.

Research Design  Survey  A survey design is useful when

investigators want to find out in detail about a phenomenon, such as housing satisfaction, or about a class of elements.  Survey researchers who study large populations often choose to gather data that are easy to quantify and therefore less time-consuming to analyze than qualitative data.  For this reason frequent research methods used in surveys are mail questionnaires, observing physical traces, observing behavior, and interviews.

Research Design  Experimental  An experimental design is

appropriate when investigators want to measure the effects that an action has in a particular situation. In an experiment you want to be able to focus observation on a small number of attributes at one time. To do so, you need control, so that you can be as sure as possible that the effects you observe result from experimental changes.

– Control group and Experiment group – Before and After the action

Research Design  Parametric Study  Parametric research

consists of the systematic manipulation of one variable (Independent), and making measurements on another variable (Dependent) though to be directly influenced by the independent variable, while keeping all other conditions constant by means of control variable

Research Design  Multivariant Study  In many situations, identifying one or even a

restricted set of variables is difficult - especially in the case of behavioral studies of building environments where many physical and personal factors are present.

Research Settings  Natural Settings  Natural settings offer researchers the unique

opportunity to observe people in settings they choose to come to, engaged in activities a contrived setting could not re-create.

Natural settings are particularly appropriate for diagnostic studies in which investigators want to find out what is actually going on what elements, relationships, and dynamics are salient.  In natural settings you can also carry out an experiment, by manipulating a part of a physical environment, a particular social behavior, or a policy.

Research Settings  Contrived Settings  Contrived settings are planned and controlled research environments in which to

observe people and gather data from them. One such setting is the experimental laboratory, in which investigators control the setting, choose participants randomly, effect controlled changes, and measure some attribute of the subjects after those changes.

Research Evaluation  Validity  The validity of a measurement is concerned with

whether the property being measured is what should be measured - i.e., are we measuring the right thing?

Research Evaluation  Reliability  Reliability refers to

whether other researchers performing similar studies obtain equivalent results.

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