As society and the architectural profession changes in response to technological, environmental, cultural and economic developments, research plays an ever increasing role in the design process. Inevitably this process becomes more complex, drawing reference from the past and looking to the future. Research in the Department of Architecture has as its core objective the study of the relationship of environment, technology, history, and wider patterns of cultural production to the design of buildings and urban form. It actively seeks to draw together research in computing methods, materials and processes, sustainability, history and theory and their implications for architectural design.

'Architectural Design' has long been an object of research for historians and theorists. But more recently design practice has also been considered of as a form of research in its own right. This emerging approach has far-reaching and challenging consequences for the way we understand knowledge production. The department supports projects that pursue design-as-research, and is interested in developing innovative forms of critique, invention and analysis of contemporary architectural and urban conditions that combine textual, graphic and spatial methodologies. The following links offer examples of recent and on-going research in this field conducted by members of staff within the Department.
Orienting the Future: Designing for Non-Place
Metis
Pagan Urbanism
The Other / Boderlands in Budapest
Proposed Research Topics

Digital media studies has a particular importance within the Department. Emphasis is placed on the following themes: the spatial, social and philosophical implications of information technology; the relationship between computers and design practice; cognitive models of human-computer interaction; 3D modelling, interactive multimedia, digital video, and computer mediated communication.
Digital Commerce
Network Notion
Vicarious Learning / Graphic Dialogues

Throughout world history, evolving patterns of kinship, religious faith, and institutional and technological development have been given tangible form by building. The history of architecture is the history of this enormously rich process. It is central to our understanding not only of the built environment around us, but of the cultural forces that are represented in works of architecture. Just as the Gothic Cathedral offers a compelling insight into medieval European faith and liturgy, so the villa in Los Angeles or the restaurant in Tokyo tell us much about the cultural conditions to which they are built responses. Architecture is more than shelter; it is a mode of cognition, a vehicle for understanding our history and surroundings. Yet, while architecture is responsive to an enormous range of cultural, social, and technological stimuli, it is also a discipline with its own demands, rules, and conventions. The nature of materials and the demands of the site on one side are balanced on the other by enquiry into the metaphysics and causation of architecture: not only how a building, a town, or a city was designed and constructed, but why.

Research in this area deals with the core intellectual issues of architecture's constitutive values, principles and characteristics. We focus on the history of architecture in Scotland, Germany and Central Europe, the architecture of the Italian Renaissance, the architecture of spirituality, the history of materials and technology, and the phenomenology of architecture.
Modernism and the Spirit of the City
Scottish Parliament Project
Ermenonville Project

Sustainable Communities
Architectural Expression and Sustainability
Innovative Light Weight Building Systems
Relationships Between Architecture and Engineering