My master’s research titled Inscription was completed in 1996. It is an ambitious investigation of architectural theory and practice relationships from a time before the great many theory anthologies were published. Since that time much of my research has returned to the implications of materialised design and architecture considered as intelligent, discursive, formal, objects and spaces.
Architecture may depend on drawing and writing to be realised, but it stands on its own after then. Architecture is. It does not need writing, drawing or photographs to be. An experienced architect and many others can read architecture and many of the ideas, contexts and influences it embodies from the work itself. I find joy discovering a hidden gem of architecture, not written about, but still present, still engaging its contexts and visitors. In a similar manner architectural representations such as drawing and writing are also their own creative objects with an integrity not dependent on other media. Architectural research may or may not be directly or closely related to particular architecture or design. It combines systematic investigation with new writing that reflects on the research investigation and its outcomes.
The complexity, scale, and spatial and environmental condition of architecture combine to create a rich, multiple, experiential character that communicates through senses at times overwhelming our capacity to understand. Writing is a more reflective, considered, direct, specific medium, more suited to critical reflection and to communication of ideas.
Design-led research occurs through non-written media, investigating a question, problem or clear intention over time with associated written critical reflection, analysis and conclusions. We might dream of a day architecture alone is considered enough evidence of intent, and for an educational system that facilitates a more direct engagement with architecture as artifact, but we know, deep down, the very nature of architecture as an academic and professional discipline, and of its dispersal over the planet, together reinforce an interdependence of architecture with its associated representations.