Forum 10: Design Research
Like in many other countries around the worlds, one of the crucial changes in British architectural education over the last decade has been the emergence of design as a legitimate research area in its own right. What were once a few lonely voices are now finding growing support. The signs are manifold: the start of the first PhD by Design programmes in schools, the positive acceptance of design projects by the government's 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the major international design research conference held recently at the RIBA, etc. But if the tide is now turning the right way, this
prompts many questions. What actually constitutes research in design within a school of architecture? How does it relate to the research that is done by architectural practices? Should it try to bridge the gap between practice and academia, or maintain a distinction? Drawing on wide experience from around the globe, these and other related questions will be addressed in this forum.
