Contour
interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal initiated by the doctoral students at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
http://contour.epfl.ch
What is Research in Architecture?
Author : Contour
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
In this first full issue, Contour is asking a larger audience one of its central questions, "What is research in architecture?" Are there tools and methods specific to it, or are we merely borrowing from other fields without any specific tradition of our own? Can we even attempt to define a common ground among architects doing research, or is the nature of our
research centripetal, sending us off in multiple directions?
Core or periphery?
Despite architecture's status as an old and supposedly well-established discipline, its core always seems unstable and subject to (re)definitions and polemics. Today, with the tacit acceptance of academic and scientific research as what best defines, guarantees and justifies the identity and future of any discipline within the institutional edifice of human knowledge, architecture does not enjoy a comfortable position. For a long time, any
research endeavor in architecture has been considered in the best case to borrow from—if not to directly belong to—other disciplines. The very composite and synthetic nature of architecture does not seem to have an easy and evident correlation in the language and methods of academic and scientific research. Indeed, some go as far as to claim that research in architecture does not exist. We are told that, as a field, it does not have a
stable, accepted and autonomous set of methods, nor even validation criteria. Furthermore, it obviously lacks credibility among other fields as its journals are, for the most part, neither peer-reviewed nor adhering to scientific standards. Nevertheless, a stubborn perseverance from the community of architects pursuing research seems to constantly defy such status.
We are practitioners of research, reflection and inquiry. Such vindication of research as practice reaches into the core of architecture’s first subject matter: the act of thinking, designing and building our human environment. Does research in, for and through
architecture, urban sciences of the city and related disciplines have something to offer, be it through the construction of new models or by dismounting previous assumptions? What is the border between innovation and redundancy?
In our inaugural issue, the editorial board began to explore this question. The result was anything but exhaustive and reveals the heterogeneity of scientific landscapes traversed.
We encourage contributions that defy and re-question several key issues that might help us redefine the contours of our research disciplines. The contributions requested could, but are by no means required, to touch on some of these observations and questions:
We are told that architecture has a tendency to see itself as autonomous, but when it turns its lens on what exists rather than what is to be, how much can it rely on its own research traditions without disappearing into those of the social or natural sciences?
We are told that proper research deals only in text, in a standard, commonly- accepted (universal) language that can be produced and reproduced without the researcher. If an image speaks a thousand words, can it also speak five
thousand (with bibliographic references)? In a multimedia, multi-platform world, who is our audience and how do we communicate to them?
We are told that our research contributes nothing to the everyday production and
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Contour
interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal initiated by the doctoral students at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
http://contour.epfl.ch
experience of the built environment. How do we reconcile a desire to be relevant both to theory and practice?
We are told that the built environment is greater than the sum of its parts, but how do we delimit the object of our research without excluding too much or taking on more than we can reasonably investigate? Other disciplines adopt a particular way of looking at the world. Can research in architecture comfortably do the same?
Whose model of the world does it borrow?
CONTRIBUTION GUIDELINES
For this call, we accept contributions in two formats:
Non-verbal abstract: One image, sound or short video (10 seconds) accompanied by a sentence. If selected the
contributor will be asked to submit a Non-verbal visual or other material (image, drawing, map, diagram, video, animation,
sound) with a 500 words text which does not describe but rather complements the non-verbal piece significantly and
meaningfully.
Text based abstract (300 words): If accepted, the contributor will be asked to submit an article (3000-5000 words) which
can be accompanied by non-verbal material (image, drawing, map, diagram, video, animation, sound).
The contributions will be selected and reviewed in order of submission according to our reviewing process protocols and
published on our journal website (http://contour.epfl.ch). Every year, a printed publication will gather and present a selection
of the best contributions around a proposed theme (planned for early 2015). For terms and conditions on submitting see:
http://contour.epfl.ch/contributions/
The contributions can be in French or English and are to be sent to contour@epfl.ch by August 31st 2014.
Minimum quality requirements for the non-verbal material: images, diagrams: min 2000 pixels wide or a vector file; video, animation: avi, mov or mp4 format, HD 1080p
(1920x1080px); sound: mp3 format, min 128kbit/s
We ask the contributors to evaluate their submission according to the following scales:
Fundamental/theoretical (1) applied/practical (5) specialized (1) transdisciplinary (5)
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