Architecture as a Science: Boundary Work and the Demarcation of Design Knowledge from Research

Abstract

Recent STS literature has described a trend of academisation in higher education and universities in which administrative bodies and formalised practices like evaluations have gained increased influence. This article discusses the impact of such trends on the discipline of architecture, focusing on the strains and boundaries that architectural faculties face in their research and teaching practice. Specifically, the development of design knowledge from individual and multiple theoretical and methodological approaches, the tight connection with tacit knowledge forms, as well as the use of non-formalised tenure and peer-review indicate on-going processes of boundary work (Gieryn, 1983), where external disciplines evaluate architectural knowledge production and demarcate it from their own research approaches. Due to the increased meaning of evaluations, such boundary work plays an increasing role in framing the form and content of design research. In this respect, architectural research becomes a matter of negotiation that not only involves architecture, but also traditional research disciplines as well as the added restrictions of interdisciplinary and administrative bodies.