Perspectives on Architectural Design Research

“Architectural design research is a multi-faceted and rapidly developing field. From established authors to emergent voices, from digital design to curating, this collection of diverse and well-crafted essays forms a wonderful introduction to the range of approaches currently being taken in this lively subject area. Through its three-pronged enquiry into ‘what matters? who cares? and how?’ the volume also provides sustained and critical analyses of some of the -fascinating tensions at play in an area, which can be located between thinking and making on the one hand, and rigour and creativity on the other, as well as the sometimes divergent demands of professional design and academic research.”

Jane Rendell, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London

Perspectives on Architectural Design Research is a collection of short essays, projects and edited transcripts that offers current perspectives on design research in architecture and aligned disciplines. Contributors include international figures Donald L. Bates, Richard Blythe, Nat Chard, Murray Fraser, Dorita Hannah, Jonathan Hill and Vivian Mitsogianni. What emerges from the multiple perspectives is that contemporary design research – transdisciplinary, multi-scalar and concerning place, people, space and time – provides a collective and subtle mechanism that is propositional and transformative. The shared optimism of the contributors is that this propositional mode of research can be of catalytic value for contemporary culture and society.

Jules Moloney is Professor of architecture and Interdisciplinary Design at Deakin university, australia. The distinctive approach he brings to his research and teaching is based on expertise in digital technology and the importance of grounding computational design within the wider context of theory and practice. Jan Smitheram is senior lecturer in architectural Theory at Victoria university of wellington, whose research looks at the relationship between performance, performativity and affect. Simon Twose is an academic and practicing architect who focuses on design research, looking particularly at the crossings and transference between architectural drawing and built space.