Review of practice-led research in art, design & architecture

This review report sets out the outcomes of a 10 month investigation to describe the landscape of practice-led research in Art, Design and Architecture (ADA) in the UK and beyond. We were asked for a qualitative review but of course it has been important to gather some numbers to check and illustrate our observations. We have consulted widely, both face to face and in the virtual world, with experts and novices in the UK and around the world. We have tried to strike a balance between the natural desire of our colleagues to debate the more contentious aspects of this territory (they were never going to forgo that opportunity) and the equally strong wish of the AHRC that we should provide a clear description of what is happening. We have collected some diverse examples of research and subjected them to various examinations. We have also examined a selection of research projects funded by AHRC and other projects by creative practitioners, funded by a non-research organisation. From all this we have been able to describe the landscape in a straightforward sense: We have measures of the proportions of ADA academics involved in practice-led research. We have clarified differences in the ways that the different ADA disciplines engage with practice-led research and identified some problems that indicate possible future support strategies. We have discussed some problems with general definitions of research and identified issues that should be addressed to ensure that the AHRC definition can be applied to the full range of practice-led research. We have picked out some specific case examples that illustrate the range of contexts, methods and contributions made by practice-led researchers, and more are described in detail in Appendix F. We have also sought to assess how this research relates to the wider international picture in which the UK appears to have a strong position in both volume and development of research. We have also set out some issues that affect this community of researchers: What strengths and weaknesses have we observed and where is there a need to support development? Do the AHRC definition of research and guidance on practice-led research provide an effective framework? We have illustrated the state of development of research in ADA, and some reasons why it is less robust than might be expected from such long established disciplines. We recommend that the career path of researchers in ADA needs some attention and make some suggestions about how that could be achieved. We have also indicated some areas of inquiry that might be supported to advance the theory and methods of practice-led research. In particular we have come to the conclusion that conventional ideas of contribution to knowledge or understanding may not be serving us well. This is significant to fine artists but we believe that it relevant across ADA and a shared effort to develop appropriate new models would be a constructive development. The full set of recommendations can be found in chapter 5

Investigar en arquitectura: tres mitos y un modelo

Existe, todavía, de manera sorprendente, un debate sobre qué es investigar en arquitectura. Al menos aquí, en el Reino Unido, no debería existir confusión alguna al respecto, ya que la Asociación de Arquitectos (RIBA) establece en su carta fundacional que la razón de ser de su institución es: “Lograr que la arquitectura se desarrolle y promocionar la adquisición del conocimiento propio de las diversas ciencias y artes que la conciernen.” De manera muy significativa, nuestra carta fundacional señala que el desarrollo de la arquitectura está conectado, de forma inextricable, con la adquisición de conocimiento. Cuando confrontamos esta afirmación con la definición de la investigación que hace el departamento estatal correspondiente (RAE): “Investigar debe entenderse como una indagación original con la finalidad de obtener conocimiento y comprensión”, se podría deducir que investigar debería ser el centro de las actividades de las asociaciones de arquitectos (RIBA). Por todo ello, este articulo acepta, de entrada, que la arquitectura es una forma de conocimiento que puede y debe desarrollarse a través de la investigación, y que la buena investigación debe distinguirse por ser una investigación original, significativa y rigurosa. Para sostener este punto de vista, es necesario, ante todo, abandonar tres mitos que perviven hoy en día en las investigaciones sobre arquitectura y que son responsables de su considerable retraso.Peer Reviewe

Moving targets: researching the real

Resumen de la ponencia realizada con motivo del Primer Congreso AURS 2012. Traducción de Samantha Galloway CuadratPeer Reviewe

Beyond Discourse: Notes on Spatial Agency

This article investigates the word ‘agency’ in relation to the role, responsibility and power of the architect. Using Anthony Giddens’s formulation of agency, we discuss the transformative potential of architecture where the lack of a predetermined future is seen as an opportunity and not a threat. Four episodes describe related instances of architectural practice as spatial agency: muf, OSA, Santiago Cirugeda and The New Architecture Movement. The paper concludes with an urgent call for architects to face up to their political and environmental responsibilities

Architecture and Contingency

The paper makes the argument that architecture is through and through a contingent discipline, but that architects have to a large extent attempted to deny this contingency through a retreat to notions of order, beauty and cleanliness. This stance can be traced from the first principles of Vitruvius, with his simplistic, but pervasive call for coherence, through to Le Corbusier, with his cry for architecture to be rid of contingent presences. Using the arguments of Zygmunt Bauman, it becomes clear that this rejection of contingency is not a trait of architecture alone, but of modernity as a whole. From this it is clear that the denial of contingency is not simply an issue of aesthetics and visual order, but a much wider one of social control and cultural cleansing. Whilst architects might acknowledge the former, they are less good at dealing with the latter. The paper consciously mixes the high with the low in its sources and style, in a very partial prompt that architecture needs to open up to such transgressions. It is, as a reviewer of the paper rightly said, a bit of a rollercoaster ride

Economie dell’architettura

La caratteristica distintiva di “Ardeth” è che questa rivista è interamente focalizzata sui progetti di architettura. Ciò sposta l’attenzione dagli aspetti visibili dell’architettura stessa, in particolare la produzione degli edifici e il concomitante dibattito su gusto, forma e tecnica, ma anche dalle comuni narrazioni della figura eroica del singolo architetto, ritenuto il “creatore” dell’architettura. Questo spostamento è una mossa necessaria perché gli architetti sono solo una piccola par..

Editorial. The Economies of Architecture

The defining virtue of “Ardeth” is that the journal is solely focussed on the projects of architecture. This shifts attention from the visible aspects of architecture, most obviously the production of buildings and the attendant discussions around taste, form and technique. It also moves away from standard narratives of the hero figure of the individual architect who is deemed to have ‘created’ architecture. This is a necessary move because architects are only a small part of architectural an..