Research is the act of investigation or inquiry, carried out through careful consideration, observation, or study of a subject, aimed at contributing to knowledge of a topic. In other words, it is about ‘getting to know’ something. Design research is this same act of ‘getting to know’ but carried out through the processes and modes of design making, where we ‘get to know’, or find things out through making a design. These processes and modes might be common and shared across the fields of design and architecture or they may be quite specific or idiosyncratic to an individual. The knowledge employed in design research might be obvious, but often the ways this knowledge is employed or integrated in design making is tacit – that is not openly expressed or stated. Frequently our means of knowing through design making are taken for granted.
The aim of this course is to engage in research for and through design, with the intention to prepare students for a research-based thesis in the following year. The course aims to give you these understanding and skills:
- To develop research processes for and through design
• To locate, critically evaluate and employ appropriate scholarly literature useful to your design project
• To identify a research topic or field of inquiry, and structure a research proposal to be carried out through designing
• To identify a ‘community of practice’ in which your design activities can be situated and contextualised
• To identify, analyse and articulate the actions, processes and encounters of your design research
• To gain experience in making your research intelligible through integrated forms of written and visual language, presenting your research orally to fellow students as well as though the preparation of written texts.
This course proceeds from the understanding that learning is a social process, where we learn by engaging with others. In such ‘communities of practice’ we are supported in making our thinking intelligible, to ourselves and to others. We use written, spoken and visual languages to formulate and test our ideas with each other. In order to engage in this social process we must be prepared to share our work in progress, to ‘put things on the table’.