Architectural Laborations. Setting up research as strategic tools in architectural practice

Challenges in architectural projects and built environments are increasing and there are growing needs to integrate different fields of knowledge in more conscious ways. The interest for research within architectural practices has grown enormously during last years, and is used as a strategic tool to develop architectural design as well as a trademark to attract both employees and clients. This paper will as one case from the ongoing changes in architectural practice, present some of the research initiatives at White arkitekter, the largest architectural office in Scandinavia and in which the author has worked since 2000. The office has a long tradition of research and development, but last years there have been intensified efforts to develop more coordinated research and to integrate it closer into creative practice.The paper will elaborate on the notions of research used within the firm, and presents efforts to set up a distributed research laboratory environment including practice-based doctoral projects working part-time in architectural projects. The intention is to show how research activities could be connected closer to architectural design practice, and meet the contemporary challenges to elucidate and use designerly thinking as well as the specific knowledge generated in the practice of the field