ABSTRACT
This essay derives from a talk given in Cambridge in October 1994 and examines the continuing relevance of the model of architectural research that was proposed at the Oxford Conference on architectural education in 1958. It is argued that the ‘Oxford model’, with its roots in the procedures of the sciences, fails to account for the role of the designer in the evolution of the state of architecture. It also proposed that developments in architectural education in the last decades of the twentieth century, in particular the growth of the unit system of studio teaching, had brought a new element to the productive and investigative potential of the schools of architecture that should be accounted for in any valid model of research. The conclusion suggests a model that embraces research in the architectural humanities, the applied sciences, speculative teaching – research by design, and critical practice conducted by practitioner–teachers – to represent the true nature of the discipline of architecture.
