DESIGN RESEARCH: METHODOLOGICAL EXCHANGES

RCA School of Architecture | Sam Jacoby

A series of discussions and workshops at the RCA on design research methods – supported by the London Arts & Humanities Partnership.

Royal College of Art

The series of workshops and presentations brings together different disciplines that use the same methods, but framed by different methodologies, or will discuss how the same problem is addressed through different methods and methodologies in different disciplines. We will specifically focus on design research in the context of spatial practices in the arts and humanities, however, the interdisciplinary events will also include social science-based practices.
The Royal College of Art has a rich history of innovation in art and design research, a tradition that this series of workshops and discussions wants to foster. For example, led by Bruce Archer in the 1960s, the RCA established the Department of Design Research, which was formative to developing contemporary design research practices that brought together design methods and design thinking with social science methods. 
Research within spatial design practices such as architecture, interior design, urban design, and urban planning, has had strong affinities with humanities and social sciences methods, including cross-over disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, and ethnography, since the Age of Enlightenment. However, since the 1960s, there has been a rising challenge to traditional methods of enquiry and the development of new research tools and approaches that have expanded the scope of what was initially considered design research by Archer and his contemporaries. This cross-pollination of research methods and subject matters has led to new interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary qualitative methods and methodologies being explored by designers, arts and humanities researchers, and social scientists alike. Especially design thinking and design discourses from the arts and humanities have hereby reshaped traditional social science-based research methods. 
This series of reading groups, roundtables, and practical workshops is organised by the <a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/schools/school-of-architecture/mphilphd-architecure/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">PhD Architecture</a> programme in the School of Architecture, Royal College of Art, and will explore the potential and challenges of current design research practices. 
The events are supported by the <a href="https://www.lahp.ac.uk" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">London Arts &amp; Humanities Partnership</a>. They are open to all researchers, especially LAHP PhD candidates and early career researchers from our partner institutions._________________________________________________________________________

<h3>Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, we have held two events online and will organise further events next academic year (2020-21). </h3><h3>Sign up for a ticket to be informed about future events</h3><h3>_________________________________________________________________________</h3>

EVENT 1: RESEARCH THROUGH VISUALISATION AND VISUAL MEDIA
Wednesday 22nd April 2020 | 14:00
How do different means or problems of visualisation define a disciplinary research question and method? How do we explore the production of knowledge through visual means? The session will explore various ways in which visual media takes a central role in the research process and is used as a mode of enquiry in studies of the built environment, its various users as well as their needs and experiences.
Speaker: <a href="http://rutbleesluxemburg.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Rut Blees Luxemburg</a> (Reader in Urban Aesthetics, School of Arts &amp; Humanities, RCA)
Session Leader: <a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/students/eleni-han/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Eleni Han</a>
PRE-SESSION READING GROUP
Wednesday 22nd April 2020 | 10:00
In preparation of the event, we will run an online reading group in the morning to read and discuss selected texts provided by our speakers: <a href="http://www.saskiasassen.com/PDFs/publications/strategic-geographies-challenge-of-their-visualization.pdf" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Link to text.</a>

Towering Inferno, <a href="https://roryhyde.com/About" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> </a>Rut Blees Luxemburg (1995)________________________________________________________________________________

EVENT 2: MATERIAL CULTURE AND DESIGN RESEARCH
Tuesday 2nd June 2020 | 14:00–17:00
This session looks at the archaeology and history of things, but also the different technologies that define them and their design. Spatial design and research into its practices often deals with physical objects and the technological means of making them. What are the different methods through which they can be analysed and what do the outcomes of analysis mean for design research? 
Speakers:
-<a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/people/don-slater" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> Don Slater</a> (Associate Professor (Reader) in Sociology, LSE)
- <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff104140.php" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Paul Basu</a> (Professor of Anthropology, SOAS, University of London)
- <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/185339" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Ben Highmore</a> (Professor of Cultural Studies, University of Sussex)
Respondents: 
<a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/students/bruna-ferreira-montuori/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Bruna Ferreira Montuori</a>, <a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/students/guillermo-ruiz-de-teresa/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa </a>and Zeynep Aydemir (session chair)

PRE-SESSION READING GROUP
Tuesday 2nd June 2020 | 10:00–13:00
In preparation of the event, we will run an online reading group in the morning to read and discuss selected texts provided by our speakers: 
- Basu, Paul (2017) The Inbetweenness of Things. In Basu, Pual (ed.) The Inbetweenness of Things: Materializing Mediation and Movement between Worlds. Bloomsbury, London. 
- Entwistle, Joanne, and Don Slater (2019) Light as Material/Lighting as Practice: Urban Lighting and Energy, Science Museum Group Journal 9, no. 9 . doi:10.15180/180906.
- Highmore, Ben (2019) Taste and attunement: design culture as world making. In: Julier, Guy, Folkmann, Mads Nygaard, Skou, Niels Peter, Hans-Christian, Jensen and Munch, Anders V (eds.) Design culture: objects and approaches. Bloomsbury, London.

Habitat Catalogue, 1971 ________________________________________________________________________________

The events are organised by <a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/more/staff/dr-sam-jacoby/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sam Jacoby</a>, Zeynep Aydemir, <a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/students/guillermo-ruiz-de-teresa/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa</a>, <a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/students/ioana-petkova/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Ioana Petkova</a>, and <a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/students/seyithan-ozer/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Seyithan Ozer </a>from the <a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/schools/school-of-architecture/mphilphd-architecure/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">PhD Architecture</a> programme at the Royal College of Art and are supported by the <a href="https://www.lahp.ac.uk" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">London Arts &amp; Humanities Partnership </a>Staff-led Activities Fund. 
The photo on top shows the Department of Design Research at the Royal College of Art some time prior to 1965. Photo by WJ Toomey (copyright holder unknown).

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