PhD: Grasping Knowledge Through Design Speculation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5821/jida.2021.10564Keywords:
PhD by design, knowledge through design, design as research, speculative learning, prospective researchAbstract
This communication aims to bring to the foreground something academic discussion can’t ignore: rather than emulating other disciplines, why can’t architects rely on a methodological approach to doctoral practice that makes its own praxis central to its research? Why can’t the enduring making of design speculation be embedded as pivotal to critical and prospective qualitative enquiry? My questions allude to the necessity of transdisciplinary approaches to architectural doctorates—concerned with relevance above verification, subtly tacit as well as explicit forms of knowledge. I advocate a methodological path that attempts to build a bridge between architectural theory and practice—disconnected, I argue, by conventional modes in academia. This communication delineates context and precedence in this field of research, before using the close experience of a PhD case study, to present research through designing as a projective journey valuable in grasping ambiguous yet fundamental aspects of architectural knowledge.References
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