Supporting research in practice

This is an introductory essay to a special edition of the Journal of Architecture featuring essays from the RIBA President's Research Awards. It gives an account of work that I have undertaken with the RIBA on supporting the development of research in practice through a succession of AHRC funded research grants. The reconfiguring of the research awards towards practitioner research is one such initiative. This essay was delivered at the request of the RIBA and the Journal of Architecture and has not therefore been through a formal peer review procedure but remains an important output from my AHRC Research Fellowship Evidencing and Communicating the Value of Architecture

Explaining drug-resistant infection in community pharmacies through effective information design

This paper describes a research project in which information design, human factors, architecture and pharmacy academics worked with pharmacy professionals and pharmacy users to consider how to present information about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in a community pharmacy setting. Project outcomes – as a result of an innovative design competition – included five different design solutions that explain aspects of AMR within the context of a community pharmacy. The project raised awareness in pharmacy professionals of how design can be used to challenge ideas and encourage new ways of thinking to communicate public health messages. Two winning prototype solutions were installed in a Day Lewis pharmacy in Reading and evaluated by pharmacists and pharmacy users. We make preliminary recommendations for effective health communication in community pharmacies

Research at the RIBA: an institutional history 1958-1971

Exactly 50 years ago, the Council of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) launched a new policy and commitment to ‘architectural research.’ At its meeting on 7 December 1967, it set in motion a new programme to accelerate and coordinate the growth of research in architecture, not only in architectural schools but through research centres and in practices. In addition, it reinforced its commitment to building up the Institute’s own competence in research, ‘so that it can speak authoritatively on behalf of the profession in the formulation of national research policies and investment programmes. This paper seeks to historicise the formation, development and promotion of architectural research – what we are terming the idea of architectural research – in light of the Institute’s renewed commitment to a research agenda through the appointment in December 2017 of a Vice President for Research (an entirely new role) and the publication of a suite of resources aimed at ‘de-mystifying’ research in practice and promoting the evidencing of design quality and the value of the architect. These initiatives have their origin in the invention of architectural research as a distinct tradition and a post-rationalisation of what had gone before following on from the Oxford Conference in 1958. Furthermore, we situate the invention of this tradition not only within professional and educational debates of the post-war period, but also in the changing and fluctuating landscape of government policy on the promotion and funding of research, itself a response to a perceived cultural and political angst about the UK’s shortcomings in productivity and development. In contextualising and problematising the creation and fostering of a ‘research culture’ in the UK architecture profession over the last 60 or so years, we also uncover some of the assumptions behind the contemporary self-conscious pre-occupation with developing the research culture of architects. The paper begins with a discussion of historiography and methodology before moving to the research context of construction history and the role played by the RIBA Research Group in developing the idea of architectural research

Modelling the Influence of Landscape Management Practices on the Hydrology of a Small Agricultural Catchment

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

UNIVERSIDADE E COMPROMISSO SOCIAL: ATIVIDADES DE EXTENSÃO SOB A ÓTICA DA GESTÃO SOCIAL

Este artigo trata dos modelos de extensão universitária adotados pela Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul. Sua criação envolveu a demanda popular de diversos movimentos sociais organizados. Para que o desenvolvimento institucional crescesse em simetria com o desenvolvimento local foi concebida a Comissão de Ensino, Pesquisa e Extensão, focando na participação popular para tomada de decisão. O objetivo deste artigo aborda o estudo do catálogo no qual as atividades de extensão são apresentadas a partir de análise documental, e em paralelo com entrevista com o Pró-reitor de extensão e cultura na busca do enquadramento gestional das atividades de extensão. Uma matriz dos tipos mais comuns de gestão foi elaborada e cada projeto foi alocado na mesma. Como a identidade da UFFS tem em seus alicerces pedagógicos uma base crítica e voltada para cidadania, a comparação frente ao novo paradigma da gestão social tornou-se necessária. O artigo busca caracterizar se a UFFS está reproduzindo a extensão da maneira que outras federais perpetuam ou se as sementes em seus alicerces contribuem para a deliberação cidadã na relação instituição e sociedade. Uma crise ronda a ―universidade‖ no Brasil, por isso atividades em sintonia social que buscam legitimar a transformação societária através de mecanismos pedagógicos nunca foram tão importantes

Cultural value of architecture in homes and neighbourhoods

This paper provides an account of the Cultural Value of Architecture in Homes and Neighbourhoods, (CVoA), a project developed with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The first stage of the project was a critical review of ‘grey literature’ since 2000, industry based research on the value of architecture subdivided into themes: overall value; health and wellbeing; neighbourhood cohesion and heritage and belonging. Findings from the review revealed a marked absence of evidence of the value of architecture and an over preoccupation with the final building, the product of an interdisciplinary team not just Architects, as well as a general confusion about what it is that Architects do. Further consultation has led to the development of a framework for defining and communicating the skillsets of Architects and for developing an evidence base for their value. Our target audience is non-Architects as we are concerned with making the profession more inclusive hence our desire to create simple definitions and terminology

Design value at neighbourhood scale

Report summarising the findings of an interdisciplinary systematic review of literature on design value at neighbourhood scale prepared for and with the UK Collaborative Housing Evidence Centre (CACHE) and through extensive consultation with industry. It offers a working definition of design value as a basis of future research work in this area. The report is novel and original in that it is interdisciplinary and that it combines a systematic methodology with consultation

Data to support study "2D networks of metallo-capsules and other coordination polymers from a hexapodal ligand"

Data to support study of coordination polymers of hexakis(isonicotinoyl)cyclotricatechylene (L) including those of [M3L2] composition with M = Re, Co, Cu or N