The Research Centre for Architecture and Tectonics was inaugurated at the begin-

ning of 2011 at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway. Some of its

core activities had, however, begun several years earlier in the format of a series of

research by design-oriented Master-level studios and seminar courses at the

school, as well as a series of PhD stipends earmarked as ‘research by design’ in

The principal motivation in setting up a new research centre with focus

on tectonics and performance-oriented design was driven by a number of key reali-

sations:

1 Traditional Norwegian architecture displays a particular context-specific

tectonic. Local differences in traditional Norwegian architectures had arisen

over time from differences in local climate, materials, and skills.