Abstract:

Research in the framework of the discipline of architecture is not per se an undefined problem. However, in project design, some concerns and problems recurrently arise as a tension between theory and practice and how they value each other. The text addresses some fundamental questions:
- What is research in architectural design?
- How can we effectively define the project as a research tool?
- How can we use architectural design research to transfer knowledge inside and outside the classroom?

To answer these questions, we will first define what we mean by architectural project and how we define design research (its structure). We will discuss the timing of the research process and how it influences the validation of the results by defining three terms: production, collection, and distance. A system of assessment of the results of architectural design practice is also proposed, based precisely on the distance between production and collection of research. This evaluation system is based on the measurement of three complementary parameters: in time order of appearance, relevance, influence and validity.

Finally, we deal with the ultimate purpose of research in the field of architectural design, which is none other than to improve decision-making processes when designing, to clarify objectives and methods, and their practical application in the development of our profession, to obtain a better architecture as a result. This implies two ways of transmission to professional practice: teaching and transfer (communication to working professionals). In this sense, we can define a design project under three different approaches: a document, an act, and a discipline. The latter is understood as an area of knowledge and as a field of research. A fusion of the action of designing with the object of the project is proposed to give the whole a new disciplinary dimension that becomes the cornerstone of the cultural evolution of architecture. Theory and practice are thus indissolubly linked as two expressions of a single act. Thought transcends the resolution of practical problems and strict rationalism to elevate itself to the category of a vehicle of knowledge, to be the basis of all progress in architecture and of all permanence.

Keywords:

Research by project design, arbitrariness, systematicity, architectural practice, experimental architecture, knowledge transference, relevance, influence, validity.