Architectural knowledge

El Patronato Municipal de la Vivienda construye el barrio habitacional de Montbau entre 1957 y 1969. Éste se sitúa en Valle de Hebrón (distrito de Horta), en la ciudad de Barcelona, en un terreno de 31,7 ha con vistas al mar. Se trata de uno de los núcleos satélite edificados para dar respuesta a la creciente inmigración que la ciudad recibía. El plan se estructura en dos unidades residenciales básicas, un grupo de viviendas, un jardín y un parque forestal. La primera de dos fases del plan es de la autoría de Guillermo Giráldez Dávila, Pedro López Iñigo y Xavier Subías i Fages. Centrando nuestra atención en las secciones transversales de algunos bloques de viviendas de este proyecto, verificamos que una de ellas, la del bloque N (realizado entre 1966 y 1968), resulta singular pues el conjunto de patios y núcleos de escaleras provocan un quiebre de medio piso entre los forjados. Dicho quiebre origina una tipología habitacional única en todo el barrio, en la cual a distintas áreas de cada apartamento corresponden diferentes niveles. López y Subías, ambos arquitectos del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, participaron en una visita a la exposición internacional Interbau de Berlín, en Septiembre de 1957. Dicha visita había sido organizada por el alcalde Josep Maria de Porcioles y Santiago Cruilles, con el objetivo de tomar conocimiento de los nuevos modelos urbanos internacionales. Revisando dos libros que seguramente consultaron Giráldez, López y Subías, encontramos una planta y una sección que presentan fuertes semejanzas con el bloque N de Montbau. La primera aparece en el catálogo de la exposición internacional Interbau de Berlín; la segunda, en el libro editado a propósito del Congreso CIAM de 1959. Planta y sección corresponden al edificio Hansaviertel en Berlín, de los arquitectos J. H. van den Broek y J. B. Bakema, que formaba parte de la referida exposición. Así, esta comunicación trata de la recreación del proceso que podría haber conducido a Giráldez, López y Subías a la invención del bloque N a partir del proyecto de van den Broek y Bakema. Esta comunicación trata, además, de analizar cómo es que, partiendo del edificio en torre para Hansaviertel, en Berlín, los arquitectos podrían haber proyectado un bloque habitacional con corredores con vista hacia los espacios públicos de Montbau. Con este artículo, se espera contribuir para el estudio de la influencia de las exposiciones internacionales en la arquitectura moderna española.

The existing bibliography about the Marseilles Housing Unit by Le Corbusier - one of the most important housing projects of the 20th century -, explores primarily the study of the unit's apartments. However, Le Corbusier gives us some clues that make us believe that what exists on the top of the housing block has great relevance. In Les maternelles vous parlent, he focuses his observation on the roofs of the Marseilles and Rézé-les-Nantes' unités, and publishes, as in uvre complète, an unusual image, where the box-like volume that corresponds to the Marseilles Housing Unit appears only as a white stain, as a base whose only function and aim is to support the objects that are placed on its top. Like Le Corbusier when he drew this image, this dissertation presents the roof as the main object of the composition, a belvedere from which we gaze at the corbusian city, and the starting point from which we formulate the Question concerning the Gathering Place - the same interrogation that Le Corbusier formulated in the moment of the design of this exemplary roof terrace. This question is very relevant in our days, every time we try to define the idea of a gathering place that fits our time, and whenever we come across the difficulties that it implies.

It is commonly accepted that there is a "break with the past" in the genesis of the public places of Le Corbusier's cities, and that these meeting places imply a separation between past and present. This idea is based, on the one hand, by the misinformed interpretation of some of Le Corbusier's remarks - given that his statements, making use of expressions such as "machinist civilization", "the new spirit", "the architecture of tomorrow", cloud and obscure all of the links to the past -, and on the other hand, by the concealment of the paradigmatic references of his public places, caused by the blinding power of its innovative character.

However, we realize that, while sketching these places of communal representation, Le Corbusier recreates the magnificent and picturesque spatiality of the public places of Antiquity, places of representation and glorification of the community that were at the core of the foundation of our culture, and that constitute the essence of our tradition: the greek agora, and the roman forum. Through a refined historical sense but also through abstraction - which amounts to one of the most precious conquests of modern thought - and through the voluntary suspension of temporal compartmentalization, as well as the subsequent evolutionary explanations and cataloguing, Le Corbusier makes use of a synchronic vision of the public places of Antiquity, tying the past to the present, establishing intersections between them.

It were the drawings and models of the roof terrace of the Marseilles Housing Unit and other public places by Le Corbusier, that afforded me the clues, as well as his writings and the records of his travels and research, indication of the elements that he may have seen in the past and used while sketching. From then on, it was possible to follow a deductive path to reach the hypothesis and, simultaneously, its confirmation, to a conclusion that emerged from an uncompromised point of view over the object of study. After getting rid of a web of preconceived ideas, on which a biased idea of modernity was built, it is possible to demonstrate that the corbusian gathering place of the postwar period, does not establish a break with the historical past, but it is evidence of the unshakable continuity of human endeavour.

Salama, A. M., & El-Ashmouni, M. M. (2022). Cultivating a space for decolonizing architectural knowledge. DArjournal: International Journal of Architecture in the Islamic World, 1(1), 26-49.

Joining the calls for dissolving past dominant geographies of architectural knowledge this essay calls for the need for decolonized voices that should emerge in parallel to the western canons of architectural authority. The essay contextualizes what is commonly understood as Muslim societies by reflecting on the contemporary global forces and the associated professional realm. It conceptualizes an understanding of what is 'Islamic' about architecture and then offers a discerning argument on decol-onized architectural knowledge. It argues that 'Islamic' in architecture is about the system of values rather than images or forms and that, operationally and practically, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) is a model that reflects these values through the awarded projects and the associated discourse while empowering the construction of a decolonized space of architectural knowledge in Muslim societies.

This article discusses some conceptual frameworks and notions used in, or with the potential to further develop, theories and understandings regarding the specific processes and forms of knowledge in creative practices of architecture, design and art. More articulate conceptual frameworks are not only of importance for strengthening disciplines and practices, but can also make valid contributions in wider societal contexts in relation to contemporary challenges in built environments. With the point of departure in the notions “material practice” by Stan Allen and “making disciplines” by Halina Dunin-Woyseth, theoretical frameworks and approaches by, for example, Andrew Pickering, Nigel Cross, Albena Yaneva, and Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari are discussed. The contemporary world has brought challenging societal developments and complex transformations of built environments, but new tools have also enabled other forms of design experiments, including non-verbal languages and various model worlds. The article argues that we must constantly study the contemporary situation, but also reflect upon our means of designing and production, as well as our forms of working and collaboration. New relationships between theory and practice, between research and practical designing, between academia, architectural practice and different actors in society, must be articulated and established through conscious strategies.

The Beaux-Arts programme was structured around a series of anonymouscompetitions that culminated in the grand prix de ‘l'Académie Royale’, more wellknown as the ‘Grand Prix de Rome’, for its winner was awarded a scholarship and aplace at the French Academy in Rome. During the stay in Rome, the ‘pensionnaire’would be expected to regularly send his work in progress back to Paris. Contestantsfor the Prix were assigned a theme from the literature of Classical Antiquity; theirindividual identities were kept secret to avoid any suspicion of favour.These competitions ensured that the fundamental hierarchy of the members of theacademia (the teachers and juries: who defined what good art and architecture was)and those that would ascend to it (the students: who were prized and hence were thegood artists and architects) and perpetuated a secular way to ascend to stardom.The use of competitions in the traditional ‘studio’ class is still a current practice inuniversities. The class is provided with a ‘live’ project or a model case study problem, asite and a context, a fixed timetable, and each student is expected to research inarchitecture in order to present (using predetermined models and mediums) his finalconclusions (statements). Each personal architectural research is in fact subjected toan ‘informal’ (unstated) merit competition (were the teachers take the part of clients,sponsors and juries), to a peer evaluation, in order to prove its author’s right to, stepby step, become a graduated architect. The research is validated by the competitionand assures the originality of the research, its significance and rigour.There are of course mixed feelings towards competitions by different parts -architects; clients; juries or sponsors – and in face of personal past experience. Yet, itis undeniable the role and value of competitions in the process of generating aqualitative built environment. In general, competitions can bring out the best inpeople and are a way to achieve excellence in design. It can be stated that a largemajority of competitions is experienced daily either as users or as passers-by sincemost public buildings in Europe are subjected to competitions procedures.Therefore, along their professional practice, licenced architects outside the academiaand in praxis, seem to continue a personal architectural research within professionalarchitectural competitions. There are evidences that, besides the investment indeliberate or improvised practice’s business strategies, architects use competitions asfundamental research opportunities.So I intend to put forward that competitions served once (and still do) as a specificway of peer evaluating the architectural research in academia. Architecturalcompetitions are in fact a time and a space were academia and praxis connect andmay, to certain extent, constitute prove of Schon’s research-in-action and Till’sevidence of “architecture [as] a form of knowledge that can [, is] and should bedeveloped through research”.

"The architectural practice of using orthostats—sculpted wall slabs in stone—in monumental buildings is usually understood as an idiosyncratic phenomenon in the Upper Mesopotamian cities of the Iron Age. Late Assyrian and Syro-Hittite rulers of this period are known for sponsoring building projects that incorporated carved orthostats into their architectural corpus, lining the monumental walls of ceremonial and public spaces. These orthostat programs were commemorative in nature and often took the form of pictorial narratives that structured and animated the ceremonial spaces of the Iron Age cities. Irene J.
Winter was among the very first to address critically the problems of representation in the narrative relief programs of Late Assyrian palaces, while breaking new ground in developing a contextual approach to study Syro-Hittite monuments within the artisanal networks of the early first millennium BC. In a number of articles, she eloquently demonstrated that architectural technologies and material styles offer exceptional opportunities to study cultural interaction between the Assyrian empire and the Syro-Hittite polities. As the following discussion was sparked in part by Irene Winter’s work on networks of cultural interaction, it seems appropriate on this occasion to present this paper on the architectural significance of the orthostats."

This paper is written for architectural researchers, practitioners and educators who explore the potentials of networked, location-aware, rich-media computing. Augmented and networked environments open new possibilities in urban and architectural design. At the same time, their adoption by the mainstream is underpinned – and constrained – by commercial motivations. To be able to counter the consumerist interpretation of inhabitable augmented environments, the field of architecture needs to foster a critical discussion of cyberspace. In turn, architectural education needs to provide students with the knowledge necessary to adopt cyberspace for creative purposes. The purpose of this paper is to invite further discussion and experimentation in this area.

In four different texts, Le Corbusier suggests that his collective housing project, Immeuble-villas, of 1922, may have been influenced in its design by a monastery. He was referring to a Carthusian monastery in Galluzzo on the outskirts of Florence known as the Charterhouse of the Valley of Ema, founded in 1342 by Niccolò Acciaioli and which he visited during the trips of 1907 and 1911 that initiated him to the world of architecture and the decorative arts. Various authors mention this analogy, repeating the architect’s own words. However, data available in the archives of the Le Corbusier Foundation show that Le Corbusier’s knowledge of the Carthusian Order was not based on his experience of one monastery alone. If the young Jeanneret had come across the Florence Charterhouse when he went off in search of the tomb of Cardinal Angelo Acciaiuoli, when he fell in love with that monastery he discovered the Carthusian typology. An expedition through “Le Corbusier’s charterhouses” is therefore no more than an incursion into the etymology of modern collective housing.

In the XVIIth century, the Portuguese architecture received a great contribution from a self-taught group of experimented professionals. In this context, some books from de library of the architect Fr. João Turriano are a considerable document to clarify the importance of the artistic literature in the learning process of building at time. Considering it, this paper is the result of a recent study into how hand-notes taken down by Fr. João were on the basis of his project for Santa Clara-a-Nova monastery (1647) in Coimbra. We hope these pages may suggest further research on those minor architects who, as Turriano, greatly contributed to the Portuguese artistic scene after 1640's.

The Stockholm exhibition 1930 has an aura of something mythical, iconic to many people, not only architects. Part of the mythical character has to do with the fact that it soon after its appearance in the summer months of 1930 was taken down and disappeared, and there are now very few actual physical traces on the site to see and visit. The project behind this book is interesting in relation to this, but also from several other perspectives, and this text brings forward three aspects of interest. First, and perhaps most obviously, the work in this book tries to in a new way reconstruct the material architecture that is since long gone, to give more insight and knowledge about the exhibition and its architecture. Another interesting aspect is the method used: to in architectural research use the making of models and architects’ design tools to get and communicate this specific knowledge. One of the interesting things with this project is that it does so in the realm of architectural history, both in educational situations together with students and as a method for research in the history of architecture. This leads to a third interesting aspect, namely a specific view on and role of architectural history. These three aspects can be seen as important characteristics of the education and research in architecture at Chalmers since long time. Chalmers Architecture has a tradition of a strong interest for and engagement in the everyday life, of the close interaction and exchange with practice and especially its material aspects leading to what we often discuss as the “material culture” of architecture, and of a view on history as an essential part of how to understand contemporary practice and to be able to create architecture for today and the future. Architectural history is central in how we transfer architectural knowledge, and is part of the basic research in architecture of high relevance for architectural practice. This introduction to the book dwells on the two last aspects; on the specific method of making models, and on the view on history.

This paper discusses the challenges of teaching architectural design theory in a world transformed by the digital revolution. Design is changing in dramatic ways and architecture is changing with it but a well-defined body of knowledge that can serve as a foundation for digital architectural design has – as yet – not been established. Relevant concepts, methods and precedents originate in many fields that are typically well beyond the scope of reading suggested to (or encountered by) students of architecture. This material is highly dynamic, often contradictory and, typically, of varying quality. Presenting this developing body of knowledge to students is a difficult challenge. A suitable pedagogical approach ought to reflect the heterogeneous and volatile nature of the contemporary design discourse enabling critical analysis of existing design practices, evidenced defence of one’s own creative work and successful communication with many heterogeneous stakeholders.

Keywords: critical pedagogy; digital architectural design; architectural theory; architectural education.

The space created on top of Le Corbusier apartment buildings became, already in the 30s, a new territory for the urban planner. This territory was quite similar to the public space at the ground level of corbuserian cities of the epoch. This article therefore researches the possibility that the same basic concerns and the same projective mechanism were employed both to design the toit-terrasse of the unité d'habitation in the 1940s, and the public space, at the ground level, of the cities in which this housing model was applied.

Con frecuencia, se asume que los espacios públicos de las ciudades proyectadas por Le Corbusier preconizaron una ruptura en relación a la historia. Es común pensar que estos espacios no se asemejan en nada a los que, hasta entonces, se habían realizado. Por un lado, esta creencia es alimentada por el desvanecimiento de las referencias paradigmáticas en sus proyectos de espacio público, a través de la evidencia ofuscante de su carácter innovador; por otro, por la interpretación deficiente de algunas observaciones del propio autor – proliferando en sus obras literarias expresiones que enturbian cualquier evocación del pasado, como civilisation machiniste, l’esprit nouveau, l’architecture de demain. Es preciso liberarnos de la maraña de ideas preconcebidas sobre la que se ha construido una idea poco objetiva de modernidad. Así, a partir de un análisis cuidado de la génesis de dos espacios públicos corbusierianos paradigmáticos del período inmediatamente posterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial, se podrá demostrar que los espacios de la vida pública de Le Corbusier no sólo no establecen una escisión con el pasado histórico, sino que son en sí mismos testimonios de la inexorable continuidad de la creación humana a lo largo de los tiempos. Demostrarlo es el objetivo del texto aquí presentado.

Academic research in architecture has mainly become a theoretical activity driven away from its subject’s core, focusing in complementary fields. Analytical investigations are common – concerning historical character, theoretical, constructive or technological – as well as propositional thesis – mainly regarding construction and technology. Yet, you can find much investigation in this scientific area, which find its significance in other domains. However, project-based theses in architecture, in which there are no antagonism or exclusion between theory and practice but rather promote complementarity, are quite scarce. This paper aims to answer the question that seems natural and consistent with the above scenario: how can we define a new paradigm, in which architecture would be understood and portrayed as a system for producing and spreading knowledge?

The existing bibliography about Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseille – one of the most important housing projects of the 20th century – is concerned primarily with the study of the apartments within the block. However, Le Corbusier has hinted that what exists on the top of the building is of great relevance. In Les maternelles vous parlent, he focuses his attention on the roofs of the Marseilles and Rézé-les-Nantes’ unités, and in his Œuvre complète, publishes an unusual image where the box-like volume that corresponds to the Marseilles Housing Unit appears only as a white stain, a base whose only function is to support the objects placed on top of it. From this perspective, the roof becomes the main object of the composition, and the roof garden, practically ignored until now, is revealed to be a key element of his urban design. In planning the roof terrace, Le Corbusier shows that the classical public square is not an antiquated concept, and that this new space, when updated and endowed with new life, reflects man’s inherent need for a space where members of the community can gather.

O Ministro da Reconstrução e do Urbanismo francês encarregou Le Corbusier da realização do projecto de uma Unité d'habitation para Marselha em Agosto de 1945. No entanto, apenas em 8 de Março de 1946 surge um desenho axonométrico que representa com alguma definição o que se passa na cobertura deste edifício. Durante cerca de 7 meses, a tipologia habitacional absorvera por completo Le Corbusier, mas por o paralelepípedo linear correspondente ao conjunto das habitações constitui um pedestal que coloca em evidência os elementos que suporta. Dos 2387 desenhos do atelier relativos ao projecto Marseille-Michelet Immeuble, que se encontram na Fondation Le Corbusier de Paris, 195 apresentam registos que dizem respeito à cobertura. Desta primeira representação da cobertura da Unité de marselha à arquitectura construida, três características irão permanecer em todos os elementos do projecto. Esta similitude estrutural em todos os desenhos permite-nos fazer uma aproximação ao conteúdo essencial deste toit-jardin.

Continuing the themes that have been addressed in The Humanities in Architectural Design and The Cultural Role of Architecture, this book illustrates the important role that a contradiction between form and function plays in compositional strategies in architecture. The contradiction between form and function is seen as a device for poetic expression, for the expression of ideas, in architecture. Here the role of the terms "form" and "function" are analyzed throughout the history of architecture and architectural theory, from Vitruvius to the present, with particular emphasis on twentieth-century functionalism. Historical examples are given from Ancient, Classical, Islamic, Christian, Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Mannerist, and Neoclassical architecture, and from movements in the twentieth century to the present. In addition philosophical issues such as lineamenti, Vorstellung, différance, dream construction, deep structure and surface structure, topology theory, self-generation, and immanence are explored in relation to the compositions and writings of architects throughout history.
This book contributes to the project of re-establishing architecture as a humanistic discipline, to re-establish an emphasis on the expression of ideas, and on the ethical role of architecture to engage the intellect of the observer and to represent human identity.

O objectivo da presente investigação consiste em entender, através da análise dos discursos sobre o habitar, o passar do tempo no interior da arquitectura doméstica portuguesa, até ao final da década de 1960. Depois de diversas convulsões políticas nas primeiras décadas do século XX, Portugal inicia em 1928 um período que dará origem ao Estado Novo e que implicará mais de quatro décadas de um regime no qual o ditador, António de Oliveira Salazar, desempenhou o papel fulcral. Neste contexto, os papéis da família, da mulher e da casa vão sofrendo alterações às quais os arquitectos não ficam indiferentes e com as quais se relacionaram de modo diverso.
Na primeira parte do estudo, são identificados dois momentos antecessores essenciais para a compreensão dos anos 1960. O primeiro inicia se na passagem do século XIX para o XX e organiza-se em torno da figura do arquitecto Raul Lino e da discussão da "casa portuguesa". Para além da análise realizada sobre o conceito de habitar, subjacente aos diversos trabalhos publicados por este arquitecto, cruzam-se as suas propostas com as de outros autores menos relevantes. Foram igualmente comentados os projectos de habitação colectiva de Lino, tentando reconhecer neles reflexos do habitar reclamado. Relativamente a este período levantam-se, entre outras questões, a da passagem do paradigma unifamiliar para o da habitação colectiva e as intuições, presentes ou não consoante os autores, próximas de uma perspectiva antropológica do habitar. Como segundo grupo de produções antecessoras, são trabalhados textos de Francisco Keil do Amaral, Fernando Távora e Manuel Vicente Moreira, assim como as propostas apresentadas ao 1.º Congresso da Arquitectura Portuguesa (1948), no grupo de trabalho dedicado ao tema da habitação.
Na segunda parte do presente estudo, propõe-se construir um entendimento sobre a ruptura que a década de 1960 representa para a reflexão sobre a arquitectura doméstica portuguesa, através das múltiplas escritas, produzidas por arquitectos e por outros técnicos directamente implicados nestas preocupações. O amadurecimento e a rigor colocados na generalidade dos trabalhos produzidos acontecem associados a uma profunda atenção à realidade. É reconhecível, numa linha com raízes anteriores, o desejo de melhorarem a acção projectual para que seja possível produzir um habitar digno e valorizador do viver doméstico. Já no início do século, a arquitectura como produção desejavelmente antropocentrada podia ser encontrada nas propostas de Raul Lino; desta vez, porém, a preocupação é objectivamente a da habitação colectiva. Assim, a família anónima a mapear passa a ser caracterizada através, principalmente, da quantificação. As acções distintas da teoria, da crítica e, mais tardiamente, da história, começam a acontecer em crescente cumplicidade com o projecto. A procura da cientificidade, da transdisciplinariedade e a ideia da Arquitectura como conhecimento encontram eco nos múltiplos discursos de que os arquitectos passam a ser parte activa.
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The following research entails both an effort to single out any significant changes in Portuguese residential architecture during the 1960's and the ensuing discourses that took place along with it. From 1928 on and in the aftermath of the many political convolutions of the first two decades, Portugal enters a period in its history called Estado Novo, a period in which dictator Oliveira Salazar plays a major role for more than forty years. During this time, the role bestowed to the family, to women and the housing unit itself will suffer changes that were eventually addressed by architects in many different ways.
The first part of this study will engage an analysis of two previous key moments, required for any understanding of the 1960's. The very first of these starts at the turn of the century and revolves both around the figure of architect Raul Lino and the concept of "casa portuguesa". In addition to Raul Lino's inquiries on the subject of the single-family home, manifest in the various of his published works, there will be a chance to engage less known authors as well. At this point, Lino's several apartment building projects will be contrasted with his thoughts on the subject of residential architecture. Among other issues, the observable change of focus from the single-family home to the apartment complex will be taken into account. It will also be questioned whether or not any of the authors engaged in the debate were anything close to holding an anthropological inkling when dealing with this subject. A second cluster of documents addressed in this research comprises several texts from Francisco Keil do Amaral, Fernando Távora and Manuel Vicente Moreira, all forerunner to our period of focus. There will be yet time to introduce the concluding remarks of the working group dedicated to the housing issue at the 1st Congress of Portuguese Architecture (1948).
The second part of this research attempts a thorough insight of the significant changes brought by the 1960's into the subject of residential architecture in Portugal, accomplished in part with the help of a number of texts from architects and other professionals engaged in this issue at the time. The majority of the documents produced in this period show a degree of complexity and thoroughness by no means unrelated with an increased awareness of the problems themselves. Rooted in previous events somehow, it is easily
recognized a genuine wish to improve the project stage in order to accommodate the proper articulation of a dignified habitat that can value domestic life. If a concept of anthropocentric architecture can be found in Raul Lino already at the dawn of the century, the apartment block is the prevailing issue by the 1960's. Consequently, the anonymous family is now subjected to quantification. The various distinct fields of theory or criticism and history later on, are now complicit with the project itself. The search for a scientific bearing, as well as more transdiciplinarity, the very idea of Architecture as knowledge, reverberate in a multitude of discourses fashioned perhaps for the first time by architects themselves.

Este artigo não se centra no resultado do trabalho de Le Corbusier, mas nos três primeiros passos que o levam à criação - Regarder, Observer, Voir - e, mais especificamente, nos seus desenhos de viagem, procurando reflectir sobre a posição relativa desde a qual observa: a de estar acima.

this paper is written for architectural researchers, practitioners and educators who explore the potentials of networked, location-aware, rich-media computing. Augmented and networked environments open new possibilities in urban and architectural design. At the same time, their adoption by the mainstream is underpinned – and constrained – by commercial motivations. to be able to counter the consumerist interpretation of inhabitable augmented environments, the field of architecture needs to foster a critical discussion of cyberspace. In turn, architectural education needs to provide students with the knowledge necessary to adopt cyberspace for creative purposes. the purpose of this paper is to invite further discussion and experimentation in this area.

A investigação em arquitectura tem sido, genericamente, uma actividade teórica que tem estado afastada do âmago da disciplina, orientando-se para âmbitos complementares. São comuns as investigações analíticas – de carácter histórico, teórico, construtivo ou tecnológico –, e as teses propositivas – sobretudo no âmbito da construção e da tecnologia. Há ainda muitas investigações nesta área científica que em boa verdade encontram melhor enquadramento noutros domínios – como o das ciências sociais, para citar apenas um exemplo. No entanto, raras e quase desconhecidas são as teses com base projectual, e em que não exista contraposição nem exclusão entre teoria e prática, mas sim plena complementaridade. Esta reflexão parte então de uma pergunta que parece bastante natural e consequente em relação a este cenário: de que modo poderá ser estabelecido um novo paradigma, desmistificando e concretizando o conceito de investigação e formação avançada em arquitectura com base na investigação em projecto? Este almejo parece exigir o impossível: que a experiência particular da concepção arquitectónica – tradicionalmente entendida como intuitiva e irrepetível e, por isso, inefável – se transforme num veículo para o conhecimento universal. Nesse sentido, parece fundamental colocar o principal problema a enfrentar – o da necessidade de alcance do campo problemático –, o que leva a uma possível hipótese metodológica no âmbito de um curso de doutoramento.

Why do pure forms in architecture today undergo a season of great success, even though they represent a theme investigated by man since the origins of civilization?
This essay — a prologue to the book "Pure Hardcore Icons -A Manifesto on Pure Forms in Architecture" written by Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski — partners of the research and design powerhouse WAI Architecture Think Tank — investigates this theme with references to the evolutionary approach in the field of design: an approach that is even more relevant today than it has been in the past.

Salama, A. M. (2012). Evaluation Research and Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) in Architecture and Urbanism: Consumption Versus Production of Knowledge. In S. Mallory-Hill, W. Preiser and C. Watson (eds.), Enhancing Building Performance. John Wiley and Sons, New York, PP. 277-284. ISBN # 978-0-470-65759-1.

Discourses in architectural and urban education corroborate that a university’s mission should advance a learning environment that cultivates exploration and critical thinking. Today, inquiry and investigation are viewed as activities central to architectural and urbanism pedagogy, presenting new opportunities for academics to strengthen undergraduate courses, to enhance their role in shaping education in architecture, and to improve the overall quality of pedagogy. Over the past two decades however, influential literature was introduced to the academic community in architecture (UIA-UNESCO Charter, 1996; Boyer and Mitgang, 1996) indicating that architectural education does not take full advantage of the unique opportunities available in higher education institutions. Links between education, professional practice, and academic research are often oversimplified. Opportunities to enrich and strengthen professional education through exposure to research processes are missed.

This chapter underscores the value of evaluation research, as a form of inquiry based learning (IBL). It argues for exposing students to primary source materials and for educating them about the production of knowledge. This is proposed in order to complement traditional teaching practices that emphasize secondary sources information and the consumption of knowledge by offering students ready-made interpretations. Primary sources enable students to get as close as possible to what actually happened, or is happening during a historical event or time period. Evaluation research is an important paradigm which would invigorate the capabilities of future architects to be more culturally and environmentally responsive, critical thinkers, and engage in the production of knowledge.

Recent research in software architecture has reasserted an emphasis on keeping track of design decisions and their rationales during the development process, that is, on maintaining architectural knowledge (AK). This knowledge takes the form of explicit assets, interrelated in decision networks. We argue that the relationships structuring these networks contain valuable information, specially those describing negative semantics. For this reason, we have extended an architecture-centric, model-driven development process, ATRIUM, ...

A polemical look at how architectural knowledge is produced, disseminated, and received.

In the vast literature on architectural theory and practice, the ways in which architectural knowledge is actually taught, debated, and understood are too often ignored. The essays collected in this groundbreaking volume address the current state of architecture as an academic and professional discipline. The issues considered range from the form and content of architectural education to the architect's social and environmental obligations and the emergence of a new generation of architects. Often critical of the current paradigm, these essays offer a provocative challenge to accepted assumptions about the production, dissemination, and reception of architectural knowledge.

Contributors: Sherry Ahrentzen, U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Stanford Anderson, MIT; Carol Burns, Harvard U; Russell Ellis, UC Berkeley; Thomas Fisher, U of Minnesota; Linda Groat, U of Michigan; Kay Bea Jones, Ohio State U; David Leatherbarrow, U of Pennsylvania; A. G. Krishna Menon, TVB School of Habitat Studies, India; Garth Rockcastle, U of Minnesota; Michael Stanton, American U, Beirut; Sharon E. Sutton, U of Washington; David J. T. Vanderburgh, Universit Catholique de Louvain, Belgium; and Donald Watson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The strategic geopolitical location and developing economic status have made Bangladesh one of the few sites in South Asia for post-WWII international cooperation and aid from the West. But the architectural academic departments in Bangladesh have not yet been fully examined through the interacted lens of the historical legacy of transnational development and the development of decolonised knowledge. This paper therefore aims to weave an initial narrative on the production and co-production of architectural disciplinary knowledge in Bangladesh from the 1960s to the 1990s, based upon the reading and reinterpretation of two architecture departments directly or indirectly influenced by international aid. The US-aided Faculty of Architecture in the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in Dhaka is approached as the first key example. BUET has been a production site for architectural disciplinary knowledge since the early 1960s to date, which has served as a crucial driver in developing and shaping the later established twenty more schools of architecture within the country, including the second selected example, the Architecture Discipline of the Khulna University (KU). The project of development aid and decolonisation is approached along three sub-themes: the contextual rationale of two sites; the development, adaptation and evolving process; and the architectural disciplinary legacy. Based upon a literature review of selected archival and contemporary sources, supported with oral histories, this paper interrogates to what extent foreign-aided architecture department(s) has contributed to the local architectural capacity of disciplinary teaching, research and practice in Bangladesh. Additionally, it narrates the journey of Western modernist knowledge of architecture from firstly legitimized over, to then balanced and co-produced with the local indigenous knowledge of human settlements. It finally addresses an uncompleted decolonisation project in modern Bangladesh, which combines and crossovers the globalized and generalized knowledge of architecture discipline with its own locally living heritage.

An important challenge in Agile Global Software Development (AGSD) is architectural knowledge vaporization, i.e., the loss of technical knowledge due to a lack of documentation. In a previous work we identified that technical knowledge is usually available in unstructured textual electronic means (e.g. chat, mail, blogs, etc. – also known as
UTEMs) used by AGSD workers during development, although not necessarily easily accessible. Also, we proposed the concept of Knowledge Condensation as a means to recover knowledge from UTEMs, by introducing a structure to their contents along with means to retrieve knowledge. In this work we present our first step towards a Knowledge Condensation tool, through a prototype tagging mechanism to structure
architectural knowledge during UTEM interactions. We evaluated the prototype and obtained the following results: (1) a high perception of usefulness and a high projected intention of use; and (2) the identification of 6 tagging behavior profiles from participants. These tagging behaviors can be grouped as (i) participants who tag as expected, (ii) participants who tag more than expected, and (iii) participants who tag less than expected. These results suggest that it is important to cope with “little or no tagging” and “excessive tagging” behaviors to implement knowledge condensation based on UTEM tagging. Furthermore, we identified that tagging could be a good option
to structure UTEM interactions, and to retrieve architectural knowledge from UTEM logs. Future work includes improving the tagging mechanism prototype based on the participants’ suggestions and overall evaluation results, and implementing a searcher prototype to further evaluate the concept of knowledge condensation based on tagging of UTEM interactions.

The radical orientation towards the future; the notion of novelty, experimentation and creativity makes an architectural competition a fascinating object — not least for manage- ment studies. In the paper at hand we discuss findings of an ethnographic study on the jury assessment sessions of four recent architectural competitions in Switzerland. We consider these meetings as a laboratory from which we might gain a better understanding of collective decision making processes in general, that is, beyond the scope of design competitions.
We point out that the relevant criteria for assessment of architectural propositions are not given in advance; rather they emerge during, that is, through the jury’s decision making process: while the board of jurors explores the space of potential solutions as generated by the submitted architectural propositions. Therefore, we believe that a competition jury’s decision making (or sense making) process tells us a lot about dealing with complex situations. Situations that do not just display a variety of actors (humans and non-humans) but in particular a high degree of intertwining of the involved actors. # 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The radical orientation towards the future; the notion of novelty, experimentation and creativity makes an architectural competition a fascinating object – not least for management studies. In the paper at hand we discuss findings of an ethnographic study on the jury assessment sessions of four recent architectural competitions in Switzerland. We consider these meetings as a laboratory from which we might gain a better understanding of collective decision making processes in general, that is, beyond the scope of design competitions.

We point out that the relevant criteria for assessment of architectural propositions are not given in advance; rather they emerge during, that is, through the jury's decision making process: while the board of jurors explores the space of potential solutions as generated by the submitted architectural propositions. Therefore, we believe that a competition jury's decision making (or sense making) process tells us a lot about dealing with complex situations. Situations that do not just display a variety of actors (humans and non-humans) but in particular a high degree of intertwining of the involved actors.