Theisis 1.1 : Architectural Research Methodologies

The beginning of a year-long thesis design project, students choose the topic of their ultimate final design project and undertake extensive background research relevant to the topic of their choice. With approval from the Faculty, students will choose a thesis committee of three instructors to oversee the students’ progress towards their final research; this thesis committee will remain in place through the final thesis courses in year 5 semester 2. At the beginning of the course, a few lectures on research methodology and design project programming will be given by the Faculty, but the bulk of the semester will be devoted to self-directed study by the student, with feedback from the thesis committee. Students are expected to undertake a thorough site analysis, background research for their given topic, and develop a coherent programming document which will inform the design beginning in the following semester. The course concludes with a written thesis.

Having successfully completed the module, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

i. The process of architectural research, programming, and documentation; including site analysis, program development, and presentation.

ii. Using architectural research to form a platform for design processes.

iii. Apply research results to architectural programming.

iv. Use architectural research to produce presentation documents which are both a means and an end to the final project.

v. Use various methodologies to inform research and gain a strong breadth of results.

vi. Analyze data collected through research and use computational abilities to produce results and presentations.

vii. Create informative graphic presentations.

viii. Perform thorough self-directed research, analyze results, and develop an argument to support their decision-making process.

ix. Find relevant sources to topics at hand, including literary sources, architectural precedents, site and climate data, demographics and human usage data, person interviews, research of regulations and codes, etc.

x. Determine the needs of a particular user group based on background research and interviews.

xi. Develop appropriate responses to a needs-based problem.