Design Research Methods—Applied Theory and Studio

Abstract

Today, the curriculum at schools of architecture is generally subdivided into design studio (practice) and the adjacent scientific or scholarly subjects ranging from natural sciences to technology to humanities, often with their own separate faculty, degrees, and institutional structures. This separation is widely experienced as a fragmentation of a discipline that claims to be integrative and wholistic. This essay provides a sketch for an alternative pedagogical format of integrated design research methods and studio at the graduate level, which could help bridge these perceived institutional gaps, but also offer a research agenda of its own kind. Design Research Methods is framed here as an applied theory, since exemplary design approaches themselves are selected, analyzed, comparatively discussed, and serve as a primer in the studio environment, while in turn the studio tests various theoretical concepts, design approaches, tools, and methods, and provides feedback to theory. This applied theory is not meant to replace traditional forms of critical inquiry, reading, and writing but should serve as a complementary addition that empowers students to define their own research and design agenda for their thesis year and beyond.