In the medium itself: three decades of design practice research at RMIT Institute of Technology

The architecture and design practice PhD program at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) is unique because it invites practitioners with a recognized body of work to examine that work and surface evidence about the nature of the mastery that they established. The argument is that the research takes place in practice. We want people to remain in their practices while they go through this process of critical reflection and to report on what happens to their work as a greater understanding changes their view about what they do and how they do it. Around two hundred people have been through the program; one hundred in the research master's that commenced in 1987 and one hundred in the PhD program since 2005.1 In 2013 it attracted one of the most significant Marie Curie Actions program grants that have been reported for launching a program in Europe.2 It is, as far as I am aware, the only one of its kind. No other program invites distinguished practitioners to come into a critical framework to examine the nature of their design practice to understand better how it operates. I initiated the program.