DS teaching as a generator of research/ it is studio teaching and the design processes associated with it that lead the research/ central to this approach are studio projects and they become the focus of critical analysis – student projects are the research data/ A popular perception of the research-teaching nexus is that teaching benefits through the curriculum being informed by research – even if it is conducted independently – thus ensuring that content is at the forefront of knowledge/ research and teaching can relate to one another in a variety of ways – often influenced by the discipline context and field of inquiry (Griffiths)

• Project A: Book repository

20-week design module/ exploration of the role of books/ term library was avoided/ physical books were highly significant in every project, in the majority of
the students’ projects they were an expression of a larger concept as much as for reading –such as their cultural symbolism, several projects explored the wider and more
complex roles libraries play as an important civic space and place of social interchange
within the public realm, / the projects ranged from a place for storytelling, to a place for writing, a third place, a meteorological observatory, a book museum, and an archive/

• Project B: Terraced house 

six weeks module/students were asked to select one of three typical UK housing types – an urban block, terraced, or detached, semi-detached to explore the potential of this typology to accommodate contemporary forms of living, whilst examining the interrelated priorities of space, affordability and environmental sustainability/ rather than just considering space standards quantitatively numerous students explored it as a qualitative concept/ the family unit was often perceived as a plastic concept, flexing and changing significantly over time

research may not be able to feed into and inform the projects that are running but including student projects in tutor research is considered positive if students stick to program brief/ get acknowledged for publishing their work/ and avoid satisfying the idiosyncratic research interests of their tutors. in a relevant survey all students responded positively to the prospect of having their projects included in research papers

References

Smith, Ch., 2017. Take the red pill: a journey into the rabbit hole of teaching informed research. In Charrette 4(1) Spring 2017

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