Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

While fundamentally a design discipline, architectural education requires an element of history and theory, grouped under the term "research." However, many students struggle with this part of their course. This practical handbook provides the necessary grounding in this subject, addressing essential questions about what research in architecture can be.

The first part of the book is a general guide to the fundamentals of how to do research, from assembling a literature review to conducting an interview. The second section presents a selection of case studies dealing with such topics as environmental psychology, the politics of space, ethnographic research, and mapping.

The range of methods explored illustrates the variety of possible approaches, with authoritative guidance on how best to deploy a research framework.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction: What is architectural research? (p. 6)
• The etic and the emic (p. 10)
• Depth and focus as a variable (p. 11)
• Context: methodology: theory (p. 11)
• Thesis: antithesis: synthesis (p. 14)
• Architectural History (not history of architecture) (p. 15)
• Architectural Social Sciences (not social science of architecture) (p. 16)
• Architectural Philosophy (not philosophy of architecture) (p. 16)
• The structure of the book (p. 17)
• Part 1 Fundamentals of Architectural Research
• Chapter 1 Defining your research question (p. 24)
• What do you want to find out? (p. 25)
• Defining your terms (p. 29)
• Framing a research question (p. 29)
• Exercises for developing A research question (p. 31)
• Chapter 2 Defining your research methodology (p. 36)
• How can you find something out? (p. 36)
• Conventional research methodologies (p. 37)
• Validating your approach (p. 45)
• Reflective practitioners and practice-based research (p. 45)
• Chapter 3 Building your literature review (p. 46)
• Establishing your held (p. 48)
• Finding relevant works (p. 48)
• Archival research
• Evaluating sources (p. 53)
• How to review a text (p. 56)
• Chapter 4 Cross-disciplinary working (p. 58)
• Defining your discipline (p. 59)
• Identifying cross-disciplinary texts or partners (p. 61)
• Finding common ground and a common language (p. 64)
• Practicalities of cross-disciplinary work (p. 64)
• Collaboration: frameworks and practicalities (p. 66)
• Chapter 5 Conducting and documenting fieldwork (p. 68)
• What is the field? (p. 70)
• Preparing for fieldwork (p. 73)
• Documentation: field notes and sketchbooks (p. 74)
• Recording media: photography, video, audio (p. 75)
• Analyzing your fieldwork (p. 78)
• Chapter 6 Conducting interviews and communication
• Who should you interview? Types of interview (p. 81)
• Recording and transcription (p. 83)
• Analyzing your interviews (p. 88)
• Chapter 7 Writing up (p. 90)
• Knowing your audience (p. 91)
• Your duty to the reader: structuring your writing (p. 94)
• Part 2 Practical Applications and Case Studies (p. 102)
• Chapter 8 Material culture (p. 102)
• The commodity status of things (p. 103)
• Entanglements of people and things (p. 108)
• Stuff as cultural indicator in Case Study: The cart at assemblage (p. 109)
• Chapter 9 Environmental psychology (p. 114)
• James Gibson and alternative approaches to space (p. 114)
• People-environment studies (p. 115)
• Case Study: 'Inflecting Space' (p. 116)
• Chapter 10 Architectural histories (p. 125)
• Historiography of architecture: historians and their histories (p. 126)
• Case Study: The architectural manifesto (p. 133)
• Chapter 11 The politics of space (p. 140)
• Politics and the language of architecture (p. 142)
• The right to the city (p. 145)
• Society of the spectacle (p. 146)
• Case Study: 'Cultures of Legibility' (p. 149)
• Chapter 12 Philosophy, phenomenology and the experience of space (p. 152)
• Applications of philosophy to architecture (p. 153)
• Linguistic analogies in architecture (p. 154)
• Dwelling and being-in-space (p. 157)
• Case study: Sensory notation (p. 160)
• Chapter 13 Ethnographic research (p. 164)
• Conducting ethnographic research (p. 164)
• Writing culture (p. 166)
• Using ethnographic research by others (p. 168)
• Case Study. Ethnographies of creative practice - experiment or ethnography? (p. 169)
• Chapter 14 Drawing, diagrams and maps (p. 175)
• A practice native to architecture (p. 176)
• The sketchbook as a storeroom for ideas (p. 177)
• Case Study: 'Getting Lost in Tokyo' (p. 178)
• Chapter 15 Conclusion: Theory and practice (p. 184)
• Glossary (p. 192)
• Endnotes (p. 194)
• Bibliography (p. 201)
• Index (p. 204)
• Acknowledgments (p. 208)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This well-written book calls for research to inform architecture. Lucas (Univ. of Manchester, UK) is interested in expanding architecture practice by understanding history as context and precedent, the social and cultural role of buildings, and the theory of what it means to build and dwell. He examines research methods appropriate to architectural humanities and debates the role of architecture as a discipline with theories of spatial production, social roles of space, and historical contexts. He also highlights the necessity for understanding space and place, and he engages philosophical theories in looking at what it means to occupy space. Lucas divides the book into two parts. In the first he presents fundamentals for conducting research and writing the thesis argument with a clear narrative. In the second he delves into research projects through a series of case studies, in chapters titled "Material Culture," "Environmental Psychology," "Architectural Histories," "The Politics of Space," "Philosophy, Phenomenology and the Experience of Space," "Reading Ethnographic Studies," "Ethnographic Research," and "Drawing, Diagrams, and Maps." Each study presents how a project was conducted and how that method influenced its outcome. Throughout Lucas endorses multiple approaches to finding new knowledge rather than replicating conventional practices. The volume includes 174 color photographs and diagrams. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals. --S. Dorothea Scott-Fundling, Marymount University