Architectural research paradigms: an overview and an example

As Architectural Research is in the process of re-establishing itself as a research discipline according to university standards, it may appear as if the pool of knowledge generated by more than three millennia of experimental research and its internal systems of evaluation are being grossly devalued and colonized by attitudes to research that are imported or even imposed from the outside. Does architectural research have to rely on imported theory from philosophy, the social or the natural sciences in order to meet societal acceptance of its relevance? What constitutes architectural research as a particular research discipline, what are its main characteristics and how can its paradigms, methodologies, strategies and tactics be described? What should be essential aspects of doctoral curriculae in architecture? Discussing Groat and Wang’s Architectural Research Methods in the light of Reflected Practice and Organizational Knowledge Creation a framework is presented that includes evolving paradigms and art in architectural research, and demonstrate how this framework allows one to describe the paradigmatic shifts that happened during the course of a PhD research project involving cross-disciplinary teamwork.