Revista Lusófona de Arquitectura e Educação nº 11 (2014)
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Item The city walls. an old theme for new urban spaces(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Miano, PasqualeThe walls of the historic cities have always been an occasion to reason about urbanopen spaces. Suffice it to think at the ancient settlements, where the areas excludedby the fence walls then became indeterminate urban places, object of subsequentfilling operations. For a long time, the theme of the conservation of the city walls hasprevailed over the issues of dejection and the cycles of ring roads, charactering theXIX century and the first half of the XX century. Yet, this recurring theme oftenproduces conservative actions for their own sake, in which the relics of the rampartsare surrounded by narrow and pointless gardens: a new form of insulation, that -when does not result in intentionally physical seclusion - at least so appears at theconceptual level, especially when the walls have been preserved for partial fragments.Today the necessity to take a step forward is strongly felt, rethinking about thespaces of the walls according to new processing and content, in which the city wallsresume to play a proactive role.Item Why architectural design and research are not more relevant in the real world?(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Komac, UršaArchitecture, to be successful, has to be influential and relevant. It cannot thrive byitself, apart from the world. Resources are limited. Costs and benefits are not borne only by the client. The growing suburbia, based on standardised vulgarisation of styles of the past has become to be the most successful contemporary residential typology. Suburbia is not only prevalent, in its most vile form, in North America and,in a more amiable form, in Europe, but it’s threatening to attract the aspirational middle class in the overpopulated, thriving emerging economies. The ongoing transferof the office park, shopping mall and detached suburban house model is leading to construction of horrendously unliveable mega-non-cities like Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur.I believe architects should influence decision-makers on the search of alternatives tomake cities walkable, cyclable, connected, and efficient. These alternatives must lie beyond the mixture of naïveté and kitsch of the so-called New UrbanismItem A passage in action research(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Coxito, AntónioWith different conditions and levels, one can find in contemporary wealthy societies potential situations for the intervention of the architect where it is assumed an intentional avoidance of their presence, that can result in squats, ecovillages or many unnoticed who seek autonomy from something or someone.While in a theoretical research on architecture without architects a systematic enquiry can be produced without taking the part of the subject, in practice based research on the same subject, to keep its character can result in an artifact not validvis-a-vis the architects practice, albeit presenting the printed document with the appropriate tools and methods for an academic research.In the present research it is simulated a situation of scarcity, including the absence ofthe presence of the architects skills.Item Knowledge and studio culture in Portuguese architectural schools since Bologna(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Pinto, Pedro da LuzThe curricular harmonization of the European courses, the Bologna Process (1999-2009), relocated an emphasis in the specificity of architectural education inside auniversity environment. Nowadays, the architect’s basic training embraces a Master’sdegree and compromises research as an educational purpose. Furthermore, doctoralcourses and research centres are associated, framing funding and evaluation, andpressing an overall urge for professional academic production, which can move theschools away from the construction site into the library and the laboratory, turningthe learning programs into extensions of the research ones. Therefore, in the halls ofthe design studio arise the researcher-teacher-designer, professor Clark Kent (Figueira,2013). Within this scenario, the article exposes both the organizational, curricular anddidactical evolutions in Portuguese schools, and inquires the models and theknowledge, transmitted and produced, trying to foresee any paradoxes requiring an epistemological clarification.Item Levels of innovation in architectural design(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Nazidizaji, Sajjad; Tomé, Ana; Regateiro, FranciscoThere are different methods for evaluation of architectural design. Novelty, utility and contribution to the society are relevant concerns to be considered in such methods. Most of methods, do not address novelty sufficiently. In TRIZ theory (Theory of inventive problem solving) in order to describe novelty, five levels of innovation have been defined. These levels have been recognized by investigation on thousands of registered patents. Levels have been defined based on the quantity and quality of contradictions that have been solved in patents. Also the theory has considered required domains of technology and knowledge and required number of trial and error for solving problems in each level. This study aims to investigate about adaptability of these five levels to evaluation of architectural design projects. Several aspects and approaches including FPM (function/principle/market) model, level model for art, system changes, solved contradiction and required knowledge were compared. In conclusion a formula for calculating levels of innovation in architectural projects was proposed. The proposed formula comprehensively measures the innovation levels of building system and subsystems.Item Research and practice: full-size practical constructions for the development of innovative lithic prototypes(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Fallacara, Giuseppe; Calabria, ClaudiaLa costruzione al vero di elementi architettonici presenta la doppia funzione di verificadel percorso di ricerca sperimentale e di espediente didattico. Nel primo caso permettedi effettuare una verifica sperimentale dell’ipotesi sviluppata, creando un punto fermoche possa confermare o confutare il ragionamento in atto. Nel secondo caso dà lapossibilità di stimolare nello studente un modo di pensare che coinvolga allo stessotempo l’aspetto astratto e quello concreto del progetto.Il legame tra ricerca, didattica e pratica di cantiere è riproposto negli esempi riportati, ecostituisce un elemento necessario per procedere proficuamente nel percorso diavanzamento della sperimentazione architettonica.The construction of full scale architectural elements has the double purpose ofexperimental control for researchers and teaching resource for students. In the firstcase model allows to make an experimental verification, creating a reference point toconfirm or refute the starting hypothesis. The second function makes possible to stimulate students’ way of thinking, involvingboth abstract and concrete design aspects.This link between research, teaching and practice of construction is shown in variousexamples.This relation represents a necessary element in order to successfully proceed in theadvance of architectural experimentation.Item Research by design in architecture: an approach into the exploratory research phase(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Almeida, Maria Rita Pais Ramos Abreu deIn the scope of design, research has been a difficult issue to respond to the real necessities throughout the process of thinking. Even the “design” word is meant to beused in several different fields of knowledge and practice (from industrial design,computation systems to architecture).Concerning Research by Design (RbD), there is a sense of vagueness, both in terms ofmethodology and aims. That’s the result of its own essence: design is the result of a big creative endeavour and research is focused in concrete results due to certain questions or problems.Focusing in the architecture discipline, RbD is commonly the most used work methodology.In this sense, we can say that there are so many RbD as many architects and architecture students in the world. So can we improve this kind of research and take it to another level, integrating it into the field of the so called traditional research? The purpose of this paper is to understand more about the “exploratory phase” in theRbD approach. This phase is based in data and collected information as well as individual experience. This paper tries to understand and improve the critical thinking implicit in the “exploratory research”. This critical thinking is linked to certain “strategic questions” and “operational links” that guide the researcher into a more understandable research practice. The final aim is to lead the RbD to a more sustained internal validity (satisfactory conclusions among the variables experimented) andexternal validity (generalise the findings to an appropriate community).Item The experience of a pioneer research program in architecture in Évora(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Salema, Sofia; Soares, João; Rivera, Jorge CroceThree years ago the University of Évora implemented a research PhD program in architecture. Generally a doctorate in architecture has been an academic title awarded to architects who present a theoretical dissertation; however, for us, as a young but promising school of architecture it was just natural that a project (as a methodology,a process of knowledge or simulation of a hypothesis) could be part of an advanced research in architecture. Thus, we started with this doctoral program seeking toquestion the current model of PhD programs and to established a new pioneering paradigm syllabus in the national context with the intention to reach the international arena During the course syllabus the project lab integrates the formulation of a theoretical hypothesis (a conjecture), that becomes an architectural design, which is unique, but simultaneously an universal knowledge. The program already had two editions were PhD students have been encouraged to develop advanced research and to foster interaction between the theoretical and architecture production. Currently no research has yet finished. Students, although much interested in this type of research, are divided in their approach to architectureas a theoretical, speculative and critical field, and to architecture as a field of research. Students and teachers are interested in research that develops their architecture design skills, as a relevant process of advancement knowledge in architecture.We believe that PhD syllabus will contribute to demystify and implement the concept of advanced studies in architecture, based on architectural research. This paper will share some of the ideas, doubts, and results of our PhD program.Item Learning from actor network theory: bridging the gap between research in science and research by design(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Bradbury, SimonThis paper explores how an alternative understanding of the development ofscientific knowledge through the work of Bruno Latour can help to bridge the gapbetween knowledge produced through practice-based research and conventionalresearch outputs.The paper reviews the history of the debate of what constitutes practice-basedresearch outputs drawing from the work of Frayling (1993) and Archer (1995). Anunderstanding of practice-based research is developed that goes beyond a simplisticview of a building or artefact as a research output or “mute object” (Till 2012).This is considered in the context of the work of Bruno Latour (1987, 2005) and otherswho have tried to show how the construction of scientific facts is produced as afunction of both the ‘objects’ and ‘social’ context of science.Through reviewing practice-based research submissions from RAE 2008 the paperexplores how we may re-conceive both the normative models of research outputs(peer reviewed academic papers) and the products of architecture practice (buildingsand artefacts) and conceive them both as part of the same network of knowledgeproduction. This is then discussed in the practical context of a practice-based research project into low energy housing.In doing so the paper suggest this new understanding will elevate the importance ofrigorous practice-based research while overcoming the challenges faced inconventional research in the constant desire to show impact from research projects.Item Competitions serve a larger purpose in architectural knowledge(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Guilherme, Pedro Miguel Hernandez SalvadorThe 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”.Item Transreal topographies : manifesting the unconscious(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Kypraiou, DionyDrawing largely upon a study of the ‘transreal’1 topographies of the late 19th century,with a focus on the Freudian topographic constructions through drawings and criticalreviews of Freud’s own writings, this paper examines the role of the unconscious as adrive in the creative design process and its impact on the conception, perception andexperience of space. In an attempt to examine the relation between the Freudianunconscious and the space, this paper presents a set of constructed topographies,including the actual psychoanalytical setting and, a recreation of Freud’s desk, as themanifested topography of his own unconscious. Operating as an analogical act of‘unearthing’ that ‘brings to light’ a multiplicity of layers where unconscious appearsanalogous to physical space; this paper aims at a negotiation of ‘transreal’topographies as extended projections of instincts, desires, fantasies and fears; a siteof mutation that-‘as an expanse of ruins’-demands a disruption to reveal the depthof its spatialityItem The Ouroborus Serpent - The memory in architecture: from the uterine size of the primordial home and the birth of the architectural creation to the object memories(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Nunes, José Carlos Duarte Rodrigues AvelãsThe architecture’s memory is the primordial soup to the creative act of architecturaldesign. We intend to demonstrate that the architect uses a "drawer of the stored",standing on "manufactured" or "living" channels and whose creation is notspontaneous, but the result of life experiences and experiences of their consciousnessof the reality, intrinsic to his intellectual maturity. In this regard, examples andcommunication paradigms are presented in the creative process - from the ideaembodiment - until the evolution of these two time marks, and which are shownchangeable and subject to external and more complex readings, in addition to theshift on communication of these processes by the architects and designers. Insummary, in this article those issues will be considered with analysis of visions andproposals of the architects Álvaro Siza Vieira and Oscar Niemeyer and their worksItem Communicating the dialectic between subjective ‘creativity’ and objective ‘rigor’ in design research; A case study of a multi-vocal mode of architectural criticism(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Kazerani, Isun AisanThe objectivists’ distant view from the subject of study has long been prioritized overcreative subjective perspective in academia. This is while due to a certain level ofpersonal interpretation of any experiment, the pure ‘rigor’ of scientist approachescould be also challenged. However, acknowledging the advantage of multidimensionalexploration, this paper follows the notion of ‘oscillating subjectivity’,with a constant shift between projection of the object and the subject inrepresentation of a phenomenon. This position will be explored through a new modeof architectural criticism with a multi-vocal interpretation, which switches betweenthe inhabitation experience of the design outcome and a distant objective criticism ofthe design product. The critique will be represented textually and visually on a wellacclaimedpublic space, Olympic sculpture Park, through creating links between thedesign process, existing critical reviews as well as sensorial inhabitation of the spaceItem From interpretation of the site to the project: a proposal for the rock art of the Tagus Valley(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Benjamim, Mário MonteiroAn artificial intervention in the landscape, like the immersion of a large area by areservoir, not only implies the obvious change in the usefulness of a resource, it can also dramatically affect the site by concealing the human legacy, landscape and patrimonial heritage, however important to the understanding of its historical makeup. The research we developed has the purpose to conceive strategies to expose therock art of the Tagus Valley, which has been immersed by the construction of theFratel dam on 1974, and the subsequent filling of the reservoir. These strategiespertain to a more extensive scope of intervention, where the engravings become acohesive part of the current landscape, creating new usages for the premises and newopportunities for regional development. It is in this context that we find thepossibility to validate a theoretical model of in-project research, through a concreteproposal of intervention; proposal that, in addition to being an experiment in design,will allow us to correct strategic methodologies and to progressively perfect thetheoretical model itself.Item Considering the diagram and design research(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Burke, AnthonyWhile there has been much written on the role of the drawing in architecture as aform of re-presentation and reflective practice, this paper argues that the diagram asa specific graphic type, is an essential generative component of design research and central to claims for innovation or the production of new knowledge through contemporary design, yet not understood in the context of design research moregenerally. As an abstract and highly idiosyncratic form of notation, the diagramuniquely situates innovation within visual forms of enquiry. This paper speculates onhow diagrams communicate, both internally to the discipline and externally to newextra-disciplinary research fields as a function of innovation, and in this sense, whatwork in terms of design research they do.Item Design as a key for understanding, a pretext for action, a synthesis of knowledge(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Frazão, Marta Felicidade MateusThis paper considers the current investigation under the context of a PhD thesis.The research theme focuses on exploring possible strategies to promote and empower the Rural Territory, through the historical and cultural use of springs with therapeutic properties, in Baixo Alentejo region of Mértola, where we observe a significant concentration of bathing places, which are nowadays in a declining process.This research explores and considers the connection and complementarity between theoretical and operational field, the narrative and design, the thinking process and possible action. The main purpose of this paper is to identify some of the mechanisms and working methods that have been adopted, with special focus on the‘diagram’, understood as an essential design tool and therefore a graphic instrument that organises information, activates thinking and stimulates unexpected possibilities for action.Item Outside the category(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Bang, Jacob SebastianIt is a recurring theme in my research to establish collections of study models and to find ways of decoding, transforming and representing them in drawings and as new models. The models are “outside the category”: pure form and architectural potential -“prior to an idea”. To become architectural ideas, they must be decoded in drawings in order to be dissolved into architectural signs and rules.Item The relational space: designing new urban hinges in suspended edge places(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Aquilar, GiorgiaThe research on tentative strategies for designing spaces which reveal themselves as relational, choral, shared, participated, gains new meanings and renovated urgencies under the changing conditions of contemporary architectures, landscapes and cities.Object of inquiry is the complex whole of transitional spaces, intermediate places,suspended fragments hovering among different morphological, historical, social contexts, expressing unexplored potentialities as new urban hinges. These mediatedjoint-spaces – acting as relational devices – provide the opportunity to reflect on theovercoming of the traditional theme of public urban space. Therefore the sustained hypothesis resides in the turning of the idea of "relation" from a conceptual device –for the interpretation of space quality – into a strategic tool with multiple methodological values, whose implications may be investigated through the concrete experience of the project.Item Learning from Markethall(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Keppl, Julián; Sichman, Martin; Síp, LukásFaculty of Architecture in cooperation student studio project. Its main topic of Old Market hall in Bratislava. Objective operational and social qualities to this work ranged from analytical to the realization 1:1 scale or prototypes of critical details signed architectural interventions, solved quently constructed those details in the tails often resulted in the change of studio aimed at promoting active working the design process.Item Architectural design research through cinematic collage(Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2014) Troiani, Igea; Carless, ToniaThis essay argues that cinematic representation can, and must, be understood as a method of developing a form of critical architectural enquiry and thinking in the same manner as text - a textual analysis and a communication means for practice-based research. The proposition is that cinematic architectural drawing and the discourse of occupied space are inseparable and that the limits of both are products of specific ideological and cultural practices. In this essay, two different bodies of iterative cinematic collage research practice are considered. Both sets of representations present new rigorously created architectural design knowledge and refer to the contention by Claude Lévis-Strauss (1966/1962:16-17) that the practice of the bricoleur, understood here as architect-bricoleur, is in marked contrast to the measurable output of the scientist, or architectural design scientist.