Unit 1: Introduction to the Architectural Research Methodologies

Module Title: Architectural Research Methodologies

Level: 4      Trimester: 2 - 2019/20      Credits: 10

Pre-requisite or co-requisite modules, excluded combinations:
Pre-requisite: All modules through Level 3
Co-requisite: Architectural Design VI

Instructor: Senior Lecturer_Rahman Tafahomi

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF AIMS AND CONTENT

1.0 Perspective
Process of human thought has been engaged with search, investigation, and cognition, as exterior and interior explorations in both environment and mind, in the whole history of the world. So, this thoughtfulness character of the Man guides for inquiring the different aspects of phenomenon such as physical and nonphysical elements, aspects, and topics. According to studies of Foucault (Foucault, 1972), all historical knowledge of the Man has been included of both known and unknown aspects of our environment, which, it could be researched, recognized, interpreted again time by time. Hence, the architecture domain as the multiple scales of the man-made built environment has been engaged with other areas of knowledge and science to explore, recognize, and identify people needs, materials specifications, and environmental productions. Therefore, in this area could address some common knowledge such as static and dynamic mechanic, aesthetic, and physic. It can be remarkable, for an instant, that some architects were engaged with science more than scientists were like Leonardo De Vinci were.
Indeed, architecture as physical, cultural, and environmental effectiveness profession changes both context and environment as architectural productions such as urban planning, urban design, and landscape architecture actions and interactions. However, it called as techniques or art all the times of history while those architectural tasks are interpretations of the environment (Mugerauer, 1995; Gomez, 2003) to reinterpret, re-demonstrate, and redesign the universe. Therefore, this course has a duty to introduce students with architectural working, in the urban environment, as a general context, to investigate in various opinions, ideas, and imagines but in a real case study. Consequence, architectural research methodology combines a wide area of knowledge, science, philosophy, logic, and approach that normally it selects by researchers to inquiry; however, for fresh researcher micro-scale, obvious subject, and the definable title has been recommended.

At the end of this topic, you will be able to:

1.           Introducing  the methodology course and process 

2.           Introduce the theoretical aspects of research methodology  

3.           Introduce the practical activities in research methodology