Architectural Research Methods: A summary

Architecture 5365 Joseph Bilello

The Design Research Writing Process

Understanding Values in Architecture

The Research Question

Find a good compelling question in architecture Doctorate level: a question that is new and advances the state of the art Masters level: a question that advances the state of the art Compelling to extent, you are motivated!

Identify a good research question

1. Identify the issues, problems, ideas, etc. that really interest you in architecture? 2. State it in the form of a problem that needs to be solved? Write about why it is significant

Significance of the Problem/Question

Why is this an important question to be answered? What implications might having an answer have?

Thesis statement/question
Natural Disaster Fire Containment Dispatch Center, San Francisco, CA. Undergraduate Thesis: As a mechanical assemblage that emulates organic qualities, architecture can successfully mediate difficult building performance circumstances. Jason Russell, thesis student, 1995. Joseph Bilello, schematic design and design development advisor.

Example
Where should the Church Go?: Church design for a non-denominational church. Lubbock, TX Thesis: prefabricated component parts can be used to design a church facility that is not only inexpensive, but also endows a sense of spirituality. Kreg Robertson, thesis student, 1997-98.

Koolhaas: XL,L,M,S
Diminishing the Fear of Bigness: The Main Library at National Dong-Hwa University, Taiwan. Thesis: The design of large facilities should bring humanistic scale throughout the entire facility so that certain architectural characteristics can be perceived in their relations to human beings. Wei Hsin Kao, thesis student 1997-98.

The prospect of embodying through architecture

Architecture can recreate the existence of a person in a space. By addressing the existence of a person who was interested in the question, "what is?" architecture can create a change of perception in one's sense of being. Alec Suresh Perera, thesis student, 1997-98.

Perera presentation layout

Final presentation layout. Suresh Perera, A Cenotaph for Marcel Duchamp

Architecture as Connection: Linkage theory

Architecture as Connection: A New Community Center. Las Cruces, NM. Thesis: The reestablishment of an urban environment depends on defining the relationship between existing ideas, traditions, and values and new visions or directions. Architecture will reconnect downtown to its immediate urban environment and to the community of Las Cruces. Myles Kraenzel, thesis student, 199798.

Can architecture save lives?

The Architecture of Windstorm Protection: Elementary School, Quitman, Texas. Thesis: Architecture can provide significantly improved protection, in the event of a disastrous windstorm, through technology transfer, building form considerations, and building material innovations. Bryan Ziegler, thesis student, 1998-99.

Example: theory-based research

Formulate a research problem that will test a theory Theory: an explanation of observed events in terms of the structures and processes that are presumed to underlie them

Perform a literature review

1. Find out what is already known about the subject through doing a literature review. 2. After you know what is already known, your question my need to be reformulated so that you have a question in need of an answer, rather than a question that has already been answered

Design a research method

1. Figure out how to go about getting answers to your question, that is, design a research method for getting the information that could lead to an answer to your question 2. This must be done extremely carefully because there are many potential pitfalls

Collect the Data per the Research Method

1. Gather the data per the research methods that you have identified 2. Structure/organize the data by the categories that you have predetermined are important for the data

Interpret the data

1. Describe the data gathered 2. Explain what does the data mean in relationship to the research question(s) that you are asking?

Draw conclusions based on your interpretations

1. Based on what it means, what conclusions can you arrive at that answer to your original questions? 2. What new questions emerge?

Thesis research topics: Other examples

Health:Alzheimers or aging and design Urban design and windstorm mitigation Housing: The crisis in global housing New typologies/new forms emerging in new ways (extruding Kandinsky) 21st century workplace Visualization: Kahn, FLW Adaptive use of Walmarts

Material Possibilities Will Have no Bounds as Composites and Performance Based Materials Become More Commonplace

Observation

COLLECTING RESEACH DATA WITH QUESTIONARIES AND INTERVIEWS

Validity and reliability

Validity: the appropriateness, meaningfulness and usefulness of specific inferences Reliability: the extent to which other researchers would arrive at similar results if they studied the same subject

Pre-testing the Questionnaire.

Small sample Place for criticisms State in your own words (respondent) what do you think the question means Questions should be revised and retested until they are understood accurately

Case Study Method in Architecture

The study of particular instances
( a case = a particular instance of a phenomenon) Right: The future of
manufactured housing. Architectural Record December 1999

What are Case Studies?

In general, case studies are the preferred strategy when how and why questions are being posed when the investigator has little control over events when the focus is on a contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context
Robert Yin in Case Study Research : Design and Methods

Deciding to Build: University organization and the Design of Academic Buildings: A Case Study

Classroom Laboratory Administration Building

Historical methods in Architectural Research

The American Architect in Practice: 1700-1930

Experimental Research Methods in Architecture

To determine whether the observed relationship is one of cause (an independent variable) and effect (dependent variable) Causal relationships

Experiment Vocabulary
1. (the independent variable= the experimental treatment=intervention = the variable to be manipulated)
Example: the tornado cannon projectile and its speed

2. the dependent variable = the variable that is measured to determine the effects of the experimental treatment
- The wall system being tested

The Architectural thesis year

Thesis research Theory Facility Select Select Thesis Schem. program Design Project Project Implement Implement Design Develop ment Resolve Resolve

Context

Select

Project

Implement

Resolve

Thesis Research Matrix

topic or theory Research Question
decision-making

Facility type
campus buildings

Context
at this time In the US, CA (example taken from my diss)

Significance of the Problem

societal need an unresolved problem

the horizon for the

Why is this important now? Why is it important, where when, or by whom it is placed

threshold of problem building type

Literature review

what is known about what is known about multidimensional understanding this question this building type? site what has been built? intellectual context, political, to what end? economic, social-cultural, technological, etc

Research method

experiment = repetition, qualitative method = triangulation, interpretive method interpretive method = distill and write

to answ er my research question here is the best w ay

data gather and sort

question and method specific

data analysis

question and method specific

conclusion synthesis

synthesize and new C12 questions that emerge

Relating elements of research method to processes in producing architecture literature observationinterview review site selection site analysis circulation systems social behavior and its design influence environmental factors regulations affecting development space requirements cost estimating and budgets design and construction scheduling Zoning, code and deed restrictions functional standards of building types site design land forms and geology contour modification site drainage traffic, parking and utilities site planning history development restrictions topography and drainage parking layouts barrier free access site arrangement and circulation architectural history structural technology structural theory computation methods wood steel and reinforced concrete connections of materials conventional structural systems long span structural systems earthquake design wind design HVAC water electricity and lighting fire protection acoustics energy conservation techniques materials and methods of construction

survey

experimentstatistical analysis