Why Research Framework cannot be used in Architectural Design - an Introduction.

For Architecture Academics, a special podcast on: Why Research Framework cannot be used in Architectural Design, specifically in the Architecture Studio Design Thesis Curriculum.

An introduction to a topic addressing what is currently wrong with the way we teach architecture in universities where research and publication becomes increasingly important and how we have lost our way in producing credible architecture graduates. Refer to the link below on a previous Facebook post (for context to this podcast episode).

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19ziXahE2D/

© 2025 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob.

Transcript

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, welcome again to another Talk Architecture podcast episode with your host Naziaty Mohd Yaacob.

Now, I posted something on Facebook and I wasn't expecting it, but I got a few comments and they were of an opinion disagreeing with what I said, except for another comment, which agreed.

Now, what I commented was for academics to understand that design projects, for example, design thesis projects in the fifth year, the process of designing and ending up with the design need to be an architectural design process, not a research process.

So I had toyed about this idea before when I was an academic, but now I'm sincerely thinking that you can't mess about with the process of or the education of an architect. By, you know, tweaking the design thesis to be having outcomes that are similar to research or typically dissertations or PhD doctoral thesis as well.

It's true that you defend your design project, but it's not like defending in a viva.

So with great respect, I would like to look again at this post that I did.

I was excited that on Twitter or x.com, now that we know it, there is someone who coaches other people on PhD and research.

His name is Dr. Nack, NACKE.

And I was following him, and I was happy to see his favorite research proposal framework in a nutshell five stages or points, which I had done as well.

And he simplified it and put it out to people to understand it too.

So he stated that his favorite research proposal framework, number one, define the problem, two contextualize it.

That's good.

Three, review the literature for match aims to methods and five set realistic timelines.

What I did with his framework is to compare to design projects framework, because I could comment on this purely because I had to supervise students and also I was a researcher, which did a PhD thesis before and other research.

I had a lot of research grants as well.

And I also dabbled with the idea that you can get data or you can get articles from design thesis.

In fact, we did it for one Q1 ISI journal.

We did.

But it was in a way about not the outcome of the design is separate, meaning that the designer for that particular project got a design outcome and he learned as well about the research outcome.

But I suspect that he's not a great designer or a good designer.

Because when we were looking at this work at the end, me and the other studio masters, we were not satisfied with the final design outcome in a way that he would have pushed it more.

It was safe and that's consistent to his character as well in terms of creativity.

He could do a good PhD.

He could do a good research and he was a decent architect and probably is still, but knowing that he has a lot of potential and he could push the envelope, he doesn't want to push the envelope.

Now, this doesn't say, this, I mean, I could take any criticism right now you give to me, but I am the supervisor of this ex-student and also I was the supervisor of things, one his design thesis and also of the doctoral thesis.

But apart from that, I wouldn't go there anymore.

That's why I want to explain to people when I discuss about this post. And what I did was in this post, I say, where it does not work in design projects.

I'm going to refer back to Dr. Nack's as well when I say this.

I'm going to give you five reasons, five points. To refer to Dr. N's points.

And I would say why I think that one is similar or not to a design project in terms of the research proposal framework.

So the first one where Dr. N said define a problem, I would write down define a design problem.

This is crucial in any design thesis project or in any project.

Some of the design problems are sorted by the tutor, but in a design thesis, it is left to the student to discover what are the design problems, not just one, but many designs.

It could be to do with environmental science, universal design accessibility, it could be with excuse me, construction and materials.

It could be with urban design.

It could be an interdisciplinary issue of education and building typology of the school.

So I'm referring to that particular design project I mentioned earlier, you know, the example that I said earlier about the student. Now, so at that time I didn't know about design problems as well as I did later.

So we can say about a decade later that I understood about doing the design problem better.

So I would say that the problem in research and the problem in design are two different things, but that is a problem we need to address, and that is a similar thing with research proposal and design.

Okay?

So of course, we can talk a little bit more about this.

Process on analysis to synthesis that people talk about in design as opposed to in research, it's not about synthesis.

That is something else for another time.

Number two, I say study the context, which is the user or the people.

And we are designing for people.

An architecture that's either habitable, residential project, people live in it, wake up and then go somewhere else or do some other things.

Or we visit the buildings and the visitor experience could be important.

So there is something to do with the people using it and who they are.

Maybe a building for scientists or a building for school children.

I mean, the people.

That is the context.

So when you look at the research proposal framework, contextualize it, it's the same that a problem in research, it could be quantitative research doing surveys and that's it.

It could be food why stadiums are not accessible, for example.

So you deal with spectators and then you deal with disabled athletes, for example.

So contextualizing it to study about disabled people or disabled athletes and spectators.

So then when you study the context, you know that perhaps in your research, you could ask questions and get primary data from the people that you're interested to study on.

So the third one, that is similar, right?

Okay.

The third one is I said, review the topic stroke building type.

So that's for the design project and for the research proposal.

Framework is review the literature.

So when we do a literature review, we want to read about what people have written about the topic it is to do with historic buildings, and what are the policies and the theories and the acts and, you know, what documentation, what impacts it?

Is it policies?

Is it theory?

And then, you know, you read about the literature specific to the topic, if you focus on accessibility and historic buildings, who has written on that topic combined and what did they say and you summarize it?

So when you talk about review the topic, building type for design project, yes, is it a market?

Is it a shopping mall?

Is it an office?

Is it a stadium?

So there is a history behind the creation of a stadium, maybe from the Greek and Roman times, you start to have stadiums, you have started to have competition or competitive sports and athletes were important in the culture of society then.

Now when you look at a stadium in this day and age, money, big money, and upkeep maintenance, the design of it, how to make it safe and secure and yet have more experience in how it makes money because I know some stadium in the English Premier League, they have hospitality facilities and even accommodation, people can sleep overnight and see the field, imagine match before in his bars.

There's a lot.

The stadium is different than it was before.

So there is a history behind it.

So similar to the literature review, isn't it, what people have said about that topic earlier and what they have researched and that secondary data in literature review can help you actually even use that to justify in your discussion section in your thesis or research.

Now, this is that is similar, that is similar in terms of reviewing the topic or the literature.

Now, the fourth one is the interesting one.

The fourth one is the one where it is not similar, what, research proposal framework, and design project.

So in design projects, I write down that when you match the aim to the method, it is about producing a set of drawings.

And that's clear, not what an objective in the research proposal framework is.

Now, having said that, I have coached architects who are doing a PhD research.

And quite a number.

There were exceptions, but quite a number, mostly most of them.

One at the end of the day, produce a set of guidelines, or even a model, a conceptual model. To be tested, even, which is not easy, by the way, in a design thesis.

And the research is very difficult when you have this aim because you might not be able to do it in three years, maybe in 10 years or 20 years, because you need to test it.

Now there in research or thesis to test something, you still need to do a method that is like, say, an interview or, you know, if it is a physical thing, you need to actually build it and it takes time and you need the funds to do it.

So if you want to combine design and research, not the normal graduate on time, three years sort of scenario, obviously.

So, but you could do what you could end up with something contributing to the knowledge by having a method on how to or identify factors that are much more important than to do that particular testing or prototype.

Do you know what I mean?

So it is that one would like to argue that you do that in a design as well.

And it is possible to do that type of project, and I did dabble in it as well where students came out with prototypes, like a kindergarten.

It has to be a small project and a rigorous sort of shit shall we say, rigorous sort of process in the design thesis to come up with a prototype and then coming up with a detail of it. But often schools of architecture or universities, they won't accept small projects like that because they cannot see the complexity or they will debate that this doesn't have a context, you know, it is not on a site or it is in a like a typical site, maybe attached to a railway track something.

They have done this before in the schools of architecture.

So how one would relate this in terms of architecture, design thesis, is that there is set of drawings and skills that the graduate need to have.

And if you are going to be employed in architectural office, you need to be confident to tackle the architectural office.

Office, architectural drawing office.

You know, you need to have those process be met, that you know, right until drawing skills to be able to be confident of going to architecture design office.

So if you're a school of architecture that doesn't care about that, so you know, you could do those conceptual models or not in context, you know, design type of a thing, which is to do with a narrative or a fantasy.

Daroscos of architecture did that.

I'm repeating myself, I know, but do you want to do that?

You know?

And the testing of it, it is a matter about the testing of it.

So you will come up with a manifesto or a guideline, but you're not really doing a design that is having to do detail design, having to do with a lot of comprehensive design, which make you want to will make you be more confident when to go in an office.

That's what is the contention here.

A set of drawings that is complete, comprehensive.

So that's why when the word design projects, the final design projects in the fifth year or the second year of the Master's course, or the part two course, when you put the word thesis in the title of the subject, it comes into argument.

Now, I have been someone who was pro-design thesis, was thinking about tweaking design thesis to have a different outcome, but I wasn't really clear about it.

So I'm now in the camp that says no, a school of architecture, really, when you want to create a strong profession, eventually, you need to get people to be confident of the drawing skill set, of the knowledge and the comprehensiveness of the project.

So, we get bullied.

Architects get bullied, and I've seen a post, somebody contending that there is that architects cannot do interior design as well as interior designers.

So I don't know why that debate has come out, but my guess is that architects not seen as a solid, all round, comprehensive master of knowledgeable in at least designing and materials in construction.

Never mind environmental science and specialized subject, but architects, you know, well, I would like to argue that architects need to know everything from universal design and accessibility to construction and material science to environmental science, yes, I would think that architects need to have all that in their locker in terms of the skills, and also be able to do aesthetically pleasing and challenging the understanding of for example, a multisensorial space.

And architects need to actually pick up on how to design a space for an autistic person or something.

What I'm trying to say is that the more architects don't desire or want to become comprehensive in the knowledge, the more you get bullied.

Because the architect leads the project and now architects don't need the project.

Projects are dry and routine and they can just generate forms and create whatever out there.

Thinking that that's what the architect is all about, just generating forms.

So when we talk about the confidence that a graduate have before they are employed in terms of the drawing skills and the comprehensiveness of the project, you can't see it if you tweak the design thesis to follow a research proposal framework and just, you know, come out with guidelines rather than or conceptual model.

Yes, we had cred to all sorts of approach.

At the end of the day, what Kevin Mlowe and I did when we were doing towards the end, 2018, 2019, the context was everything.

Having a group of students doing a particular master planning for us and then going to a typical building of the site in Campo Greeny and in PG Old Town, subsequently in New Steamlaya campus, which we did not finish, that was the, we felt better because there could be more interaction between the two tutors and the students in feedback and getting it done better and better in terms of their confidence in the design thesis that they're having.

So we were trying to focus on a traditional architectural experience or what is necessary in the profession to strengthen the profession.

But yeah, I would just take my hands off this idea of tweaking it to research agendas.

So, yeah, at the end of the day, the method is drawing, not, you know, other methods.

And the artistic aspects using intuition, people did argue about intuition with me. And I'm not talking about intuition when, you know, just a human being, but our architectural intuition, patterns of design that we had before done over and over again.

Okay, as compared, yeah, there are two things here.

One is that what exactly is intuition in designing?

And number two is not just collecting data and analysis and coming out press still with the design.

And this is what most students of architecture is preoccupied with, aided and abetted by academics who do not know better.

And those academics are entrenched and, you know, they are doing research most of the time and they don't have the pulse of architecture anymore.

They've lost the architectural understanding.

So the outcome for design projects is to be skilled in design but not research.

So this is the debate and I hope that I could write this down so that everybody could read it.

And this is the initial, shall we say, introduction to this topic. That suddenly emerged.

So, in conclusion, architecture schools need to get graduates who can do design and research as secondary.

In the learning objectives and performa in the curriculum, design needs to be clearly identified the objectives and all that is necessary to be the graduate that is confident to go into the industry.

Thank you very much.