Academizing Architecture: Design as a Research Practice

An international comparison on research in architecture and design research

This cooperative project is funded by an ETH research grant and includes ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE (lead Monika Kurath), Michael Hagner, Science Studies, and Philip Ursprung, gta. It analyses the epistemic basis, form and content of design research in architecture at eight leading Western architecture schools in Britain, Germany and in the US.

Questions include: What are architects doing when they do research? How is the design practice distinguished from design research? What kind of translation processes are taking place in design research and what’s the difference between the analysed schools? The aim of this project is to contribute to a more profound understanding of a current topic that architecture departments are increasingly confronted with in context of current science policy trends, like the harmonisation and academisation of higher education and research: namely to define form and content of design research.