Projecting the PhD: Architectural design research by and through projects

This chapter addresses the opportunities and obstacles presented by the PhD by project model. Understanding what the PhD by project is and what it has to offer requires attending to the specificity of research education practice within its disciplinary context. As a case study, we examine the framework for undertaking architectural design research offered by the Architecture Discipline at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia (see: http://architecture.rmit.edu.au). Our discussion raises issues of relevance to other design disciplines and to creative practice research in general through focusing on the role of disciplinary ways of knowing in the research process. By addressing the key question of how to account for research embodied through projects, we sketch out the issues and concepts necessary for understanding and situating project-based research within creative disciplines. Doing a PhD immerses and acculturates the candidate in modes of knowing specific to a research community, its technologies and practices. The PhD by project offers an alternative to the traditional written thesis model. While we specifically examine the RMIT Architecture model for undertaking postgraduate project-based design research, this does not restrict the import of our discussion to the design disciplines. It is the very specificity of our case study that enables the issues concerning PhD by project to be opened up. Our discussion raises insights and questions of relevance, not only to other design disciplines, but also to inquiry more broadly. Questioning conventions in research education raises broader issues concerning the role of different ways of knowing in knowledge generation. Consideration of alternative knowledge generation practices casts light on the limitations of conventional models, limitations that are not always evident from the inside. This raises opportunities for re-thinking and innovating research education across the disciplines.