The Business of Research: Knowledge and Learning Redefined in Architectural Practice
'Research' is the new buzzword. A quick survey of architects' websites around the world will show that the term features prominently among the range of services offered by contemporary practices. Professional institutions on both sides of the Atlantic also agree on the centrality of research, with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) aiming to ‘facilitate collaboration, research and innovation in practice’ and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) declaring that 'empowering architects to use and engage in research' is fundamental to its mission. This emphasis on research as an integral part of practice is indicative of a recent shift. Traditionally thought of as the domain of universities, with its value measured by the number of citations a paper/thesis received by fellow academics, today, and often, architectural research inhabits a grey area between academia and practice.
On the one hand, shifting funding models, globalisation and digital media have been forcing academia to question its scope and modes of evaluation of research, while on the other a wave of practitioners and new types of institutions, such as RMIT University in Melbourne or the London School of Architecture (LSA), have been recasting architectural education and theoretical speculation within practice. In so doing they have turned the traditional architectural studio into a learning environment that adopts and adapts academic models, and - more or less explicitly - posits architectural research as an end in itself as well as a potential source of business intelligence - as a means to self-generate future commissions and speculative opportunities that sometimes even shift the terrain of practice.
These modes of working seek to destabilise traditional roles of academia and practice by questioning their deep-rooted separation and demanding a new definition of the term 'research', one that is relevant to both parties as well as to the wider public. These are urgent issues to debate, particularly as, while both agree upon its centrality, there seems to be no consensus as to what effectively constitutes research, nor is there agreement on how its outcomes are to be assessed outside of codified academic systems.
In order to understand what form(s) and value(s) research assumes in this emerging landscape, this edition of AD gathers together contributions from international scholars, researchers and from a number of practitioners who have been recasting intellectual speculation and learning within their own studios. These considerations advance a series of hypotheses on the value of research beyond a purely academic context, and on how academia could participate in the contemporary cultural shifts happening within practice, while also raising questions in terms of opportunities and risks that arise when research is recast into the less regimented realm of practice.
Each title of Architectural Design is edited by an invited Guest-Editor, recognised as an international expert in their field.This issue, ‘The Business of Research’, wasguest-edited by DSDHA’s Deborah Saunt, Tom Greenall, and Roberta Marcaccio. In many ways, ‘The Business of Research’ arrived as a natural evolution from Deborah’s PhD, Orbits & Trajectories, from which DSDHA began its formal evolution from an architecture studio to a multidisciplinary spatial design studio.
Research has a significant role in operations at DSDHA and informs our design protocols at a fundamental level. In the last decade we have been awarded twice with the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851’s Research Fellowship in the Built Environment; the first in 2010 analysed the public realm around the Albertopolis in Kensington, and the second in 2016 that looked at ways of bettering London’s cycling infrastructure. The studio has also recently published reports such as ‘Retrofitting for Cultural Infrastructure’, ‘Highways & Footways Accessibility Guidelines’, and ‘Towards Spatial Justice’.