Trajectories for a Shared Agenda on Design Driven Research EAAE/ARENA Roundtable

Moderator:

Sara Protasoni – DAStU, Politecnico di Milano

Participants:

Ana Betancour – Malmö University;

Anđelka Bnin-Bninski – University of Belgrade;

Johan De Walsche – University of Antwerp;

Urs Hirschberg – TU Graz;

Tadeja Zupančič – University of Ljubljana;

Roberto Cavallo – TU Delft;

Jörg Schröder – Leibniz University Hannover;

Claus Peder Pedersen – Aarhus School of Architecture

The joint discussion on the values of design-driven research in international doctoral research is at the heart of this roundtable. The conference’s topic raises the question of recognizing a contextualized position of the researcher and of the construction of tailored and non-generalizable research paths in methodologies often assumed as the foundation of shared scientific research. Authorship is, in fact, the basis of design-driven research, of an often divining and iterative approach based on both intuitive aspects and comparison with contemporary themes and urgencies. What is changing at an international level? Is it possible to push for overcoming methodological barriers – quantitative/qualitative – that can put the value of an authorial “path” back at the center? Starting from the EAAE Charter on Architectural Research (09.02.2022), the roundtable discusses possible synergies at an institutional level to promote design-driven research within the international panorama as a recognizable method for architectural and artistic research.

The university as a place of conceiving the world as it could be: a free port for playful anticipatory imagination

Johan De Walsche

“If we are to understand, explain, anticipate and influence the consequences of these changes, research is essential.” (EAAE Charter on Architectural Research)

Research not only understand and explain, but also: to anticipate and influence, means that it addresses not only the world as it is, but also the world as how it could be. To do so, we need architectural research that (a) opens up to artistic practices and understanding, and that (b) is design-driven, meaning driven by conceiving possible futures.

By equalling what is known with what is real, science makes it appear as if all other dimensions of human life – such as the practical, aesthetic, ethical, or the religious dimensions – can only be real if they can scientifically be known. By doing so, modern science ‘‘has stripped the world of the qualities which made it beautiful and congenial to men’’. This has the disintegrating effect of putting us in a situation in which there are two equally unattractive options: the ‘inhuman rationality’ of modern science or the ‘human irrationality’ of everyday life. We need alternative tactics for understanding the world as a whole. Hence the need for embracing artistic approaches.

The uncertainties and challenges of living in a global society with its constant demand of responsiveness to change, imply that we have to learn how to respond creatively to difference and otherness. Problems should not be solved within the space that created them. Concepts about a possible future make this future more likely to happen. This is called anticipation. In architectural terms it can be called ‘design’. We need concepts about a desirable future in order to orientate our conduct well. How is it possible that in a time where visual culture is so dominant, architecture, with its strong visual capacities, is so absent?

There is a strong need for a safe place, freed of economic competition and political pressure, where such practices of playful anticipatory imagination can take place. A free port of inquiry, open to all disciplines, open for the senses, aiming at insights, fostering experimental processes in which ideas, hypothesis, concepts and theories are used instrumentally as tools-to-think-with, and as such is a playful, creative and potentially innovative process, of producing the ‘hopeful suggestions’, the ‘warranted assertibilities’ that we so much need.

Design-driven research as/in practice

Andelka Bnin Bniski

Our worlds are permanently and rapidly changing, as we are facing challenging times with ecological and economic crises. Under the burden of ethical challenges, architectural practice necessitates efforts towards awareness and critical engagement. The urge for rethinking how we inhabit our planet and how we live together demands for reinvention and vital creativity. In this context design-driven research is implied as a field of expertise that bridges essential domains of the profession: research, academia and (dwelling) practice, while holding on multi, and trans-disciplinarity and personal positioning. This expertise disposes ways, tools, tactics, approaches and communities of care and aims for the mindful and better futures for all. From this point two issues can be raised: 1) Design-driven research in practice (positioning, shareability); 2) Design-driven research as practice (knowledge production, policies).

In artistic and (architectural) design-driven research the ‘basic’ and the ‘applied’ (contextualised) research are both oriented to ‘development’ (as the third research ‘category’) and happen simultaneously. However, even in design research the cultural realities are often reduced to geometries and (computable) physical rules. How to challenge the reductionism of thinking and shift to simultaneous, synergetic research endeavours – within and beyond the disciplinary ‘boundaries’? How can we demonstrate the societal relevance of collective, transdisciplinary, integrative, critical, but also playful and speculative research – to positivistic scientists? What kind of performance can be manifested from the ‘performative nature’ of design-driven research?

Tadeja Zupancic

Design-driven research as basic research?

Jörg Schroeder

While epistemiologically, epistemic justice , and methodologically-multimethodical-multidisciplinary-multistakeholder orientation borders between basic and applied research and experimental development are torn down, university and research politics keep on to frozen categories, in evaluation, funding, and development policies. Two aspects can be highlighted for a positioning and to change frameworks: can design-driven research be a recognised door-opener for dynamic mix between research categories based on its performative paradigm? Can design-driven research be a known experimental field to establish ‘oriented basic research’, as basis to tackle ‘current or future problems and possibilites’?

Collective design-driven research?

Claus Peder Pedersen

Design-driven research holds the potential to address the complex challenges of the Anthropocene by embracing collective, transdisciplinary processes that move beyond the field’s traditional focus on individual creativity and design skills. As climate and ecological crises call for transformation and re-use of local resources – highlighting the situated and the specific, as Anna Tsing notes in her claim that “nature cannot be scaled – design practices must adapt. These conditions open new avenues for impactful, explorative situated research while also prompting critical reflection on the role of subjectivity and new forms of authorship in design-driven research.

Empowering future professionals through design-driven research

Roberto Cavallo

In today’s increasingly complex society, where challenges are continuously evolving, the field of architecture is expanding rapidly. Meanwhile, architects across Europe often operate within smaller practices, which present both unique constraints and opportunities. In this context, design-driven research stands out as a highly relevant and productive approach, providing invaluable pathways for fostering more reflective and contextually aware practices. This approach will not only elevate the profession but also make significant contributions to future generations of practitioners, helping them gain a better understanding of their role – and authorship – in navigating the complexities of contemporary challenges.