Abstract
With the rapid increase in architectural research activities over recent years, the repertoire of research methods has grown and matured. This essay takes a closer look at the methods that rely upon explorative design as the central activity of knowledge creation. Its first aim is to provide a comparative overview and critical examination of the available methodological typologies to enable their future development. The second aim of the essay is to employ these design-based methods to devise a framework for architectural research as a ‘hybrid method’. This framework promotes the simultaneous application of differently composed amalgams of design-based research methods based upon analyses and insights taken from a specific architectural research project led by the author. The purpose of elaborating on the idea of the hybrid methodological mode is to help establish it as a part of the current repertoire of architectural research methods – today often framed from a ‘mixed method’ perspective that generally categorizes methodologies into either qualitative or quantitative. The essay proposes that the ‘hybrid method’ discussed herein covers a different typology of approaches, beyond this qualitative/quantitative distinction, and that its application in design-based research presents valuable opportunities for knowledge production and communication that should not be overlooked in the future development of architectural research methods.
Highlights
Because research methodologies can obviously take a myriad of sub-forms in actual projects, the synthetic distinction that is proposed here between the three main categories – i.e. artistically driven, architecture-centred, and science-inspired – is primarily for purposes of differentiation and designation
The second amalgam consisted of three sub-methods: ‘explorative experiments’ from the artistically driven category, design experiments inspired by the scientific ‘experimental method’, and ‘research by critical design’ from the architecture-centred typology
The hybrid mode of design-based architectural research discussed in this study provides an outlook that extends beyond the qualitative/quantitative framing of the ‘mixed method’ approach
Summary
Because research methodologies can obviously take a myriad of sub-forms in actual projects, the synthetic distinction that is proposed here between the three main categories – i.e. artistically driven, architecture-centred, and science-inspired – is primarily for purposes of differentiation and designation. In contrast to artistically driven or architecture-centred approaches, this methodological category encompasses the most structured, rationalized and systematic methods of design-based inquiry that seek to develop legit, verified, useful explanations, solutions or optimizations of problems.
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