Research in architecture requires a more extensive perspective, and there have been several written articles which define its scope in various ways. Through them, we can define architectural research into four different categories.

 

 

The first is studious design research, or design through research, where traditional research activities seek to verify research hypotheses with or without the acknowledgement that such activities are design.

The second is formative design research, or the design of research, which describes the creative activities of planning and preparation for subsequent empirical or theoretical research.

The third is diagnostic design research, or research on design, wherein researchers systematically examine various design processes in order to improve the future practice of design.

The fourth is embedded design research, or research through design, wherein designers practice their craft in the pursuit of knowledge and by doing so gain insight into possible outcomes.

 

*Trygve Faste, Haakon Faste, “Demystifying “Design Research”: Design is not research, research is design,” IDSA, education symposium 2012, Boston.