Research and knowledge development in architecture

reflections on academic, professional and wider social approaches

Abstract

This paper reflects on academic, professional and wider social approaches to understanding and undertaking research and knowledge development in architecture, drawing from the experience over the past three years of the Scottish Matrix for Architectural Research and Knowledge (ScotMARK). It initially places knowledge within a wider epistemological frame and discusses the relevance of this to research as a means of knowledge development, differentiating between social contexts within which these forms of knowledge are created and used. These represent different paradigms in the understanding of what is architectural research which need to be understood as the background to understanding how these can change, and are changing – i.e. through reactive and proactive knowledge development and management.