ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to identify what "urban" means for architecture and urban design. It overviews the changing architectural profession and its product and how they relate to the city in recent history. The chapter introduces the relationship between research and design in architecture. It explores in detail some of the prevailing current research strategies, which gives a brief outline of transdisciplinary practices in architecture. The chapter traces some of the key ideas of the city—and the "urban"—in architectural research and practice. It provides a working definition of the "urban" in architecture and urban design. Architectural research is sometimes seen as "research into performance in use informing the processes of design. A qualitative research strategy is marked by the aim to include a multitude of perspectives when assembling theories based in complex realities. The theory that shapes architectural practice is often rooted in radical political ideologies, rather than in the empirical analysis of the real.
