Approaches: Theory and Research Methodology in Architecture

Course instructors
Janina Gosseye (TUD), Ebba Högström (UMA), Meike Schalk (KTH),
and Roemer van Toorn (UMA)

Deadline for application: 1 November 2024

Contact: Meike Schalk, meike.schalk@arch.kth.se

Overview
The doctoral course Approaches aims to introduce basic questions in theory and
methodology in architectural research as well as to develop the doctoral students’
understanding of the relationship between epistemology, ontology, and methodology. It
focuses on activities of:
- knowledge building on doing research
- developing one's' own knowledge and skills through writing
This framework includes both practice-oriented research and well-established theories
and methodological traditions, as well as a debate on canonical or transformative
research approaches. The participants will on the one hand develop an understanding
for how different fields approach and formulate research questions, and on the other
hand develop an increased understanding of their own field in an academic context. In
addition, the course addresses the interplay between aim, research questions,
theoretical frameworks, methods, investigations / interventions, and outcomes.

Participants will be asked to position their own architectural research project in a
scientific and theoretical framework, and to develop an understanding of how other
fields operate, reason and perform research work. One focus will be on interdisciplinary
approaches and approaches beyond disciplines.

Course activities include lectures, literature-, and writing training seminars, workshops,
presentations of own research, group work, peer to peer learning and feedback from the
instructors. During the course, participants will develop a paper on their research
design, theory and methodology, to be presented at the concluding module 4.

The course is a collaboration between the Architecture Schools of The Royal Institute of
Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Umeå University (UMA), and Delft University of
Technology (TUD).

Structure
The course is held in four intense modules of two days each and requires 1-2 days of
preparatory reading. At least two of them will be delivered in both physical and hybrid
form, two modules will be given on Zoom.
- Module 1 is held at UMA, December 4-6, 2024
- Module 2 on Zoom, January 28-29, 2025
- Module 3 on Zoom, March 10-11, 2025
- Optional: writing training seminars in small groups on Zoom, April 8-9, 2025
- Module 4 at TUD, June 4-5, 2025
Each module approaches a broader debate through specific examples. It will offer
several tasks and physical and online supervision meetings with instructors and guest
lecturers. More information on the detailed program, lectures, readings and
assignments will be provided prior to each module.

Module 1 - APPROACHING RESEARCH PRACTICE IN ARCHITECTURE
When: 4-6 December 2024
Where: School of Architecture, Umeå University, Umeå + Zoom

This module is coordinated together with the Swedish Research Council
Symposium on Artistic Research 2024 Hurricanes and Scaffoldings.
Within the lively debate of artistic research, the symposia will identify critically
reflexive frameworks that the arts bring to the wider discourses of society,
technology, and politics starting with the concept of hurricanes and scaffolding.
The hurricane being a non-human force, and scaffolding being the built
infrastructure on which systems can grow.
From the website: www.umarts.se/programme-item/vr-symposium/
The module will focus on the questions:
How to practice architectural research? What is my research practice? What knowledge
does my research create?
This three-day event introduces the course as well as offers a reflection upon the
multitude and diversity of current research practices in architecture and adjacent fields.
Part of the course activities consist in the participation of the conference. An assignment
will be handed out 1/11 to be presented and discussed in a panel at the conference.

In preparation for Hurricanes and Scaffolding, please read: Nora N. Kahn (2021),
“Towards a Poetics of Artificial Superintelligence: How Symbolic Language Can Help Us
Grasp the Nature and Power of What is Coming”, Stages #9, 5-10,
www.biennial.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Stages-9-The-Next-Biennial-Should-be-Curated-by-a-Machine.pdf

Module 2 – METHODOLOGICAL ORIENTATION
When: 28-29 January
Where: on Zoom

The module will focus on the question:
What do I know through my research practice and experience?
This module deals with methodological questions in research focusing on interactions
between theory, practice, and modes of knowledge development. It considers research
as a form of skilled practice that can range from scholarly and experimental approaches
such as site-writing and drawing methodologies, to building surveys and
documentations, and examples of ethnographic studies, visual work, archival and
document studies, as well as performative research activities and other scientific
practices. In group work, participants will discuss qualitative methods in relation to
research questions and “invent” a method for their own research project to be explored
and put to the test in the following course module.

Module 3 – THEORETICAL POSITIONING
When: 10-11 March 2025
Where: on Zoom

The module will focus on the questions:
How do I/we know? What is known in my field?
The first part of the module focuses on the use of theory and the question of ‘how we
know’ in research. It emphasizes the integral role of theorization in knowledge
development as inseparable from practice, whether it is analytical, reflective, or
speculative. The module addresses key concepts, theoretical, and philosophical works,
and corresponding spatial practices. The module aims at furthering the ability to locate,
articulate, and develop theoretical issues in research.

With a focus on the emergence of concepts and approaches that have guided research,
this second part of the module aims at an understanding of the impact of the conditions
of research. It takes into account the techno-social, cultural, political, and material
practices that have shaped approaches including critical reflection on how research has
responded to the changing conditions of society.

Module 4 – REFLECTIONS ON PRACTICES OF DOING ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH
When: 4-5 June 2025
Where: Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology,
Delft + Zoom

The module will focus on the question:
How to communicate the theoretical and methodological framework(s) of my research
project to an audience of peers in the setting of a conference/symposium?
The fifth and final module will give participants the opportunity to present some of the
insights that they have gained during this course with regards to the theoretical and
methodological considerations of their research project in a conference setting. Each
participant will be invited to give a brief presentation (either in person or online) to an
audience of peers. Apart from a prescribed time-limit – 15 minutes – the presentation
format is free. In addition to giving a presentation, each participant will also be invited
to respond to (minimally) two presentations by others in the symposium. Particular
emphasis will be placed not only on the theoretical and methodological frameworks of
the presented research, but also on how these frameworks are communicated in the
presentation.

Recommended prerequisites
Doctoral candidates are expected to read and discuss literature at a theoretical and
philosophical level, to present and discuss their readings at literature seminars, to
partake in workshops and to conduct independent critical and reflective thinking in the
writing of a paper. To be eligible for the course, participants must be enrolled as
doctoral students, have completed a master’s degree or equivalent education.