Design as Research
The inaugural RIBA Research Symposium was held on 3 October 2005, focusing on the topic of architectural design pursued as a form of creative research, in the context of architectural offices and academic collaborations in the UK.
In recent years the architectural profession has seen the rise of new research-oriented activities that extend and challenge existing ideas of architectural practice. In a profession that has for many years focused design work and thinking on one-off or singular building and planning commissions, architecture is finding itself increasingly drawn towards ways of working and new kinds of projects that emphasise sustained, extended, forms of research. Areas of research include new digital and other design systems; new building materials and construction technologies; new forms of design related to the management of client spaces, facilities and other resources; new kinds of creative, multi-disciplinary and collaborative working environments; and the new ways in which traditional 'built' forms of space and structure relate to today's expanded media, product, and design environment. At the same time new graduate and design programmes have been established whose interest is in pursuing these and other related topics; to the degree that professional and academic interests are now converging in many new and unexpected ways around the topic of design as research.
The 2005 Symposium was convened by Brett Steele, Director of the Architectural Association, and featured the work of contemporary architectural practitioners in the UK, engaged in inspiring research-oriented activities on topics that included simulation studies, new building systems and advanced geometries.
RIBA President Jack Pringle opened the day, and Paul Finch chaired a roundtable discussion at the end.
Other speakers were:
Charles Walker, Arup AGU
Frank Duffy, DEGW
Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Foreign Office Architects
Hugh Whitehead, Foster & Partners
Alan Penn, UCL Space Syntax
Patrik Schumacher, Zaha Hadid Architects