Disrupting design research in architecture: Speculating on the third phase of architectural design research

Architectural design research refers to the process of conducting original investigations through generative and propositional approaches, where researchers actively engage with and reflect on methods and results linked to design and practice for critical inquiry. This mode of research employs various media, drawing, modeling, diagramming, and other creative tools, typically used in architectural studios and practice. Over the past three decades, design research in architecture has undergone a remarkable transformation. This essay traces a historical lineage of architectural design research in order to speculate on its contemporary trajectories. Building on the development of architectural design research as a discourse, this essay investigates two interrelated threads. The first thread offers an overview of key moments in the history of architectural design research within UK and Western European academia. The second thread focuses on the book SMLXL (1995) by OMA and how it coincided with the emergence of the architectural design research discourse in academia. The essay illustrates how the medium of this book marked a pivotal moment for design research. It argues that SMLXL set a precedent that helped reorganize architectural design knowledge, aligning with what would later be recognized as the early phase of systematic design research in architecture. To do so, the notion of hypermediation developed by media theorists Richard Grusin and Jay Golter as well as Michel Serres’ reading of signal and noise in The Parasite, will be used to re-consider how SMLXL systematically re-organized the three fields in which architectural knowledge is conventionally generated: practice, research, and pedagogy. The essay concludes by speculating on the beginning of a new phase of design research development, highlighting a comparable pivotal moment in design research that we currently confront, marked by the rise of A.I. image generators and their ever-growing influence on the production of architectural knowledge.