What is ‘architectural design research’?

The September 2007 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Research Symposium was particularly and perhaps unexpectedly well attended this year. This review speculates on the context for this renewed interest in research in architecture. The audience was swelled by many more practitioners than the organizers expected, architects interested in understanding more about ‘reflective practice’. This evocative term, credited to Donald Schon, was given new force on the day by keynote speaker Leon von Schaik's account of his Melbourne Masters Architecture initiative. Subsequent speakers reported here included Piers Gough, Sean Griffiths, Kathryn Findlay, Jane Rendell, Deborah Saunt, Alex de Rijke, and Susan Francis who tackled, from various directions, the principal question emerging on the day: ‘What is design research as applied to architecture?’ Speakers presented built and unbuilt projects as ‘design research’. In one notable case, the designer denied absolutely any research dimension to his work, anxious that an increased level of consciousness would dismantle inspiration. How might what the general academic research community considers as research, rigorously applied methodology, and unprejudiced analysis, have affected the projects shown? Is it helpful for design to be cast as research? Is there a missing third category, a funding stream for gathering innovative design work to add to those of ‘teaching and learning’ and ‘research’? Might this new stream stimulate more than self-reflection, a much-needed innovative design programme outside conventional practice, but within academic institutions collaborating closely with practice?

Le Symposium de septembre 2007 du RIBA (Institut royal des architectes britanniques) consacré à la recherche a rencontré cette année un succès particulier et quelque peu inattendu. Cet article s'interroge sur le contexte de l'intérêt renouvelé pour la recherche en architecture. Les participants comptaient dans leurs rangs beaucoup plus de praticiens que les organisateurs n'attendaient, des architectes cherchant à mieux comprendre la pratique restrictive. Ce terme évocateur, attribué à Donald Schon, a reçu le soutien du principal orateur, Leon von Schaik, évoquant son initiative Melbourne Masters Architecture initiative. Parmi les autres orateurs, on notait Piers Gough, Sean Griffiths, Kathryn Findlay, Jane Rendell, Deborah Saunt, Alex de Rijke et Susan Francis qui se sont attaqués sous des angles différents à la principale question de la journée: « Qu'est-ce que la recherche conceptuelle appliquée à l'architecture?». Les orateurs ont présenté des projets construits et non construits en matière de ‘recherche conceptuelle’. Dans un cas remarquable, le concepteur a rejeté toute dimension de recherche dans son travail, insistant sur le fait qu'un niveau de conscience plus élevé détruirait l'inspiration. Comment ce que la communauté des chercheurs académiques en général considère comme recherche, méthodologie rigoureusement appliquée, et analyse sans préjudice pourraient affecter les projets présentés? Est-il utile que de la conception soit classée dans la recherche? Existe-t-il une troisième catégorie manquante, un flux de financement pour rassembler les travaux de conception novateurs et les ajouter aux travaux d'enseignement, d'apprentissage et de recherche? Ce nouveau courant pourrait-il stimuler davantage que l'autoréflexion, un programme de conception novateur très nécessaire en dehors des pratiques classiques, mais au sein d'institutions universitaires collaborant étroitement avec les praticiens?

Mots clés: pratique architecturale, recherche conceptuelle, politique publique, pratique réfléchie, programme de recherche, stratégie de recherche     

What price the components?

Are bricks cheaper in France than in, say, Denmark? Are metal partitions more expensive in Western Germany than in, say, the Netherlands? An attempt to answer such questions has been made by a study published in France. Despite all the usual reservations about such exercises, including the fact that the originating data is now probably a year or more old, the figures may be of interest.     

Beyond the romantic and naı¨ve: the search for a complex ecological aesthetic design language for landscape architecture in New Zealand

Landscape design is an expression and repository of cultural values and beliefs, and in Aotearoa, New Zealand, the designed landscape faces particular challenges. Globalization is seen as a potential threat to landscape identity, which is even more significant for a country which has built its economy and self-image from its unique natural landscape. The potential for resistance is limited by the small size and youth of the profession of landscape architecture in New Zealand. While traditions of farming and gardening extend back to early European settlement in the mid nineteenth century, and beyond to indigenous Maori practices of land modification, professional landscape design is a relatively recent development (the first tertiary course in landscape architecture began at Lincoln College (now Lincoln University) in 1969). Landscape design in New Zealand draws its vocabulary from the power of the country's natural heritage landscapes, convinced that a naturalistic aesthetic exclusively represents environmental health. Some of the core values of New Zealand society are, however, overlooked by designers. The need to develop a critically informed design language which includes the farming landscape along with the natural one is argued. The invention of such a language, referred to as a complex ecological aesthetic, is seen as a potential source of design expression that is invigorated by the tension between mechanistic and natural landscape aesthetics. It therefore has the potential to promote environmental health, while being regionally grounded, and can help face the challenges that globilization poses to the landscape.     

The past will guide us: What the future could bring according to the last 40 years of IJPM?

This article examines all papers published in the International Journal of Project Management over the last 40 years (1983–2022), identifying research themes. By performing keyword co-occurrence analysis, keywords were clustered into five groups, which served for identification of the most prominent research themes shaping the Journal's publishing history - Performance Management, Risk and Construction Management, Project Governance, Project Planning and Control and Project Success. The results shed light on how these research themes developed and are interconnected over time, while the findings collected using a focus group method have provided the insightful understanding of the future trends in the field of Project Management, Organizing and Studies. It may be expected that future publishing brings a greater number of articles covering challenges of organizations, teams and individuals faced by the 4th Industrial revolution, digital transformation and sustainable development goals (SDGs), as well as articles on project finance and investment-related topics, and articles addressing a project's benefits and values. The main findings of this article may significantly contribute to researchers and PhD candidates in defining the thematic orientation of their studies, educators in creating programs which meet more accurate future demands in project management, and editors for specifying the scope of journals or conference proceedings in order to make them more influential in the research community. This paper may, moreover, serve in the phase of research-design modeling and for those performing bibliometric analyses within the other scientific areas with the intention to potentially anticipate the future research thematic-orientation in their analysis.     

Some Thoughts on the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Cities

Through the concepts in the preservation plan for the historical and cultural city of Shenyang,this paper at-tempts to discuss and explore various issues such as the understanding and implementation,contents and concepts,preservation and development,heritage and redevleopment of the historical and cultural city,with a hope to providethis profound topic some references for consideration.With the economic and cultural development of the country,more and more attention has been paid to the pres-ervation and the utilization of the historical and cultural relics.Shenyang is one of the second group of the historicalcities designated by the State Council in 1986.Preservation plan and protective measures are now being formulatedfor this city.The following paragraphs outline some views in respect of the preservation of historical and cultural cities.     

Cultural and creative industries and regional diversification: Does size matter?

This paper aims at analysing how the presence of workers employed in cultural and creative industries (CCIs) is related to regional specialized diversification. From a theoretical perspective, CCIs drive economic development and local innovative capacity by facilitating processes of cross-fertilization of ideas. This study estimates an entry model analysing the ability of Italian provinces to successfully create new sectoral specializations. The results indicate that the relationship between the share of employees in CCIs and the probability of creating new sectoral specializations is non-linear, highlighting the need for CCIs-led policies to achieve a certain level of critical mass to be successful.     

What Happened to Ecology? John McHale and the Bucky Fuller Revival

Since the early 20th century, the environmental impulse in architecture has waxed and waned. Anthony Vidler considers this cyclical phenomenon, particularly in relation to the Independent Group in Britain during the 1950s, which culminated in John McHale's discovery of Richard Buckminster Fuller in 1955 and the full-blown Bucky Fuller revival of the 1960s. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does experience enable or impede the design process?

The authors describe how, at the heart of engineering design lies problem-solving, the lifeblood of which is experience. Experience presents us with proven solutions, it tells us about solutions that are known to be flawed, it suggests prototypical solutions than can be adapted to new purposes, and it dramatically reduces the effort we need to exert to solve problems. It makes the cumulative development of technology possible because it means we don't have to return to first principles every step of the way     

What is the worth of values in guiding residential preferences and choices?

The demographic, socio-economic and socio-cultural shifts that have taken place in Western economies in recent decades have generated a broader variety in housing behavior. For this reason, some researchers argue that socio-demographic characteristics alone no longer suffice to predict the housing demand. They should be supplemented with ??lifestyle?? variables. However, the worth of lifestyle for the prediction of the housing demand is a highly debated topic. The purpose of the current study, therefore, is to explore the worth of lifestyle (operationalized as values) in the prediction of residential preferences and choices. Data were collected through telephone interviews in January and February 2010. Respondents were asked to indicate the importance of 29 values as a guiding principle in housing. Furthermore, respondents who had indicated that they were willing to move (n?=?930) were asked about their preferences for a number of dwelling characteristics, such as tenure and dwelling type. Respondents who had indicated that they were not willing to move (n?=?667) provided their residential choices. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses were used to explore the relationship between values and residential preferences and choices, after correction for socio-demographic characteristics. The results showed that values might have some additional worth for predicting residential preferences and choices, but the relationship seems to be rather limited.     

Reform and regulation of the Portuguese rail sector. What has failed?

In 1998, and in the context of the European Directives, a reform of the Portuguese rail sector was implemented, through the vertical separation of the two basic rail activities, and an access charging system with economic regulation was introduced. This study sought to understand the Portuguese reform and its outcomes, particularly, at the level of the infrastructure manager's productivity, where losses were detected. Although access charges are being defined under a price-cap regulation regime since 2005, no progress was found in the cost recovery by the infrastructure manager. The paper concludes with suggestions to improve the current regulatory model.     

What rights and whose responsibilities in water? Revisiting the purpose and reassessing the value of water services tariffs

Access to water and sanitation are recognized as human rights by the United Nations, reflecting their vital importance to every person's life. At a fundamental level - delivering minimum standards of water services to meet basic human needs - it is a simple equation. People are rights-holders and States are responsible under international law to provide those services. Rights-holders can claim their rights and duty-bearers must guarantee the rights to water and sanitation equally and without discrimination. This paper explores the relationship between the human rights to water and sanitation, the Sustainable Development Goals, water services and the role of water service tariffs in helping or hindering delivery of a broad range of societal objectives, including human rights and sustainability. Two key questions emerge: (i) What are the rights that apply in these circumstances and who is responsible for addressing those rights? (ii) How can the viability of the water service system be maintained without imposing dramatic price increase, and without compromising the social and human right to water in good quality and affordable conditions? In this paper we argue that human rights to water and sanitation, and the tariffs that are applied to them, should not be addressed as technical problems but rather as social and political issues of justice. We conclude that the re-politicisation of water, and of the setting of water tariffs, would help ensure that the responsibilities upon Governments for delivering human rights to water and sanitation are clear.     

What Is Planning? Definition and Strategy

A profession, such as planning, needs an explicit definition, a satisfactory something to profess. The purposes such a definition must serve are touched upon, but whatever other characteristics the definition has it must be “strategic,” that is, adapted to the internal and external necessities of the planning game. A number of going definitions are examined and summarily rejected, and a new start is attempted. The complexities of what is actually intended by “planning” are given fresh consideration. A “clouded clarity” is aimed at: something clear enough to make certain vital distinctions, but not so clear as to introduce an artificial distinction or corner one in an untenable position. The much neglected side of planning as “Art” rather than technology is sketched as to its nature and pleaded for as to its place. A final cast is made—final to the paper, but we would hope initiatory to an extended conversation—at a definition of the planner as a rational artist or artist of rationality. It is in his spanning of the terms of such an antinomy that his peculiar role is believed to lie.     

Does the smartest designer design better? Effect of intelligence quotient on students’ design skills in architectural design studio

Understanding the cognitive processes of the human mind is necessary to further learn about design thinking processes. Cognitive studies are also significant in the research about design studio. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of designers intelligence quotient(IQ) on their designs. The statistical population in this study consisted of all Deylaman Institute of Higher Education architecture graduate students enrolled in 2011. Sixty of these students were selected via simple random sampling based on the finite population sample size calculation formula. Thestudents’ IQ was measured using Raven’s Progressive Matrices. The students’ scores in Architecture Design Studio (ADS)courses from first grade(ADS-1) to fifth grade (ADS-5) and the mean scores of the design courses were used in determining the students’ design ability. Inferential statistics, as well as correlation analysis and mean comparison test for independent samples with SPSS, were also employed to analyze the research data. Results indicated that the students’ IQ, ADS-1 to ADS-4 scores, and the mean scores of the students’ design courses were not significantly correlated. By contrast, the students’ IQ and ADS-5 scores were significantly correlated. As the complexity of the design problem and designers’ experience increased, the effect of IQ on design seemingly intensified.     

Review and Exploration of the Development of Planning for the Conservation of the Famous Historical and Cultural Cities in China

To comprehend the development of the famous histori-cal and cultural cities in China and their conservation plan-ning, it is necessary to understand, first of all, the back-ground of their history and present condition. This back-ground has taken shape in the historic development of thecities and is influenced by many complicated factors of thepresent time. To discuss these factors in simple way, theycan be summarized as follows:The impact of the historical and cultural ideas;The impact of the physical and environmental condi-tion;The impact of the present socialand economicsituation.The impact of the historical and cultural ideasChina is a country with ancient civilization. TheChinese cultural has been shaped through development, in-heritance and harmony in a history of 5000 years on the ba-sis of the ancient Huaxia Culture with the Yellow River andthe Yangtse River as the main arteries.The rising of ancient cities in China can be traced backto over 3500 years ago. China is a multinational country. Int     

Cultural Heritage and the Three-Position Theory——Respect for Tradition and the Future of Landscape Design Methodology

In the era of globalization, the inheritance issue of regional culture should by prudentially faced by each type of cultures, especially the non-mainstream ones. As to the development of modern Chinese landscape architecture cause, a lot of unavoidable century tasks are in the face of the landscape architecture designers in China, such as: how to inherit and develop Chinese outstanding garden     

Is ecosystem structure the target of concern in ecological effect assessments?

The species sensitivity distribution, a technique currently used to derive water-quality standards of chemicals, is associated with a set of inadequately tested assumptions. One of these assumptions is that ecosystem structure is as or more sensitive than ecosystem function, i.e., that structure is the target of concern. In this paper, we tested this assumption for a simple freshwater ecosystem exposed to different toxicants. Using an ecosystem model, we calculated no observed effect concentrations (NOECs) for ecosystem structure (ecosystem structure-NOECs) and function (ecosystem function-NOECs) for each of 1000 hypothetical toxicants. For 979 of these toxicants, the ecosystem structure-NOEC was lower than or equal to the ecosystem function-NOEC, indicating that the tested assumption can be considered valid. For 239 of these 979 toxicants, both NOECs were equal. For half of the 1000 toxicants, the structure of lower trophic levels (i.e., phytoplankton) appears to be more sensitive than the structure of higher trophic levels (i.e., fish). As such, ecosystem structure-NOECs are primarily determined by the sensitivity of the structure of lower trophic levels. In contrast, ecosystem functions associated with higher trophic levels (e.g., total ingestion by fish) are more sensitive than functions associated with lower trophic levels (e.g., total photosynthesis by phytoplankton) for 749 toxicants.     

Sustainable green electricity,technological innovation,and ecological footprint: Does democratic accountability moderate the nexus?

Electricity generated through fossil fuels degrades the environment. Hence, the promotion of green electricity should be the foundation for sustainable development. In this context, the present work probes the impact of green electricity consumption (GEC), technological innovation (TEI), democracy (DEM), and economic growth (GR) on the ecological footprint (EF) and assesses the moderating effects of democracy on EF from 1995 to 2018 in six ASEAN nations. The empirical results show that renewable electricity, TEI, and DEM promote ecological quality. Interestingly, democracy not only alleviates the level of EF but also reinforces the favorable impacts of technological innovation on environmental quality.