Design research and a shift in architectural education and practice

Abstract

Research, once associated only with academia, now equally connects to learning and practice in architecture, as focus has shifted towards a wider design research community. Research has become inclusive of formerly marginalised areas such as process-oriented and practice-based research in the arts and humanities as well as applied commercial research undertaken by industry. Providing a first study of this shift, this paper explores why design research is of growing importance to architecture. It systematically analyses a selection of current cases at the intersection of architectural practice and education within the UK to survey existing design research approaches, and asks: How can design research transform and create new architectural practices and forms of education? Following this question, the paper discusses some of the design research models used across architectural practice and education.