The Journal of Architecture

Leads: Deljana Iossifova and Christoph Lueder

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This thematic collection seeks to reposition methodology as a critical concern in architectural research, opening space for reflexivity, experimentation, and theoretical rigour in the study and practice of design. It contributes to ongoing debates about the status of practice-based research, the politics of knowledge production, and the possibilities of design as a critical, situated, and relational mode of inquiry.

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Architectural design is not only a form of creative production but also a mode of inquiry: a way of knowing, sensing, and intervening in the world. Yet, despite growing recognition of practice-based research and design-led experimentation, architecture’s methodological foundations remain under-theorised. This thematic call invites contributions that critically examine design as a research method and explore how architectural practices generate knowledge that is situated, processual, and epistemologically distinct.

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What kinds of questions can only be asked – or answered – through design? How can architectural research foreground the embodied, iterative, and speculative dimensions of making, and what methodological frameworks are required to support this? How might design serve as a critical interface between ecological thinking, social engagement, and epistemic experimentation?

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This call seeks to move beyond instrumental framings of ‘methodology’ as a creative (or, worse, technical) procedure. Instead, it positions methodology as a conceptual and political terrain – implicated in decisions about what counts as knowledge, who produces it, and for whom. We welcome contributions that treat architectural design not as the object of research, but as its medium.

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Call for Papers: We invite scholarship that engages with design as method, and that critically reflects on the methodological frameworks, research processes, and epistemological commitments underpinning architectural practice. Submissions may be theoretical, speculative, or grounded in empirical inquiry, and may draw from across the architectural humanities, social sciences, and practice-based research traditions.

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Key areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Design-led research: How can architectural projects serve as structured, reflective modes of knowledge production? What protocols, standards, or narratives emerge when design is the research vehicle?

• Situated methodologies: Research methods that are grounded in context, materiality, temporality, or relational practice – particularly in response to ecological or social complexity.

• Speculative and experimental practice: Approaches that mobilise architectural design as a speculative or projective method, whether through drawing, prototyping, simulation, or narrative construction.

• Ecological epistemologies: Methodological innovations that embed ecological principles into design processes as generative epistemic frameworks, rather than technical add-ons.

• Socially engaged methods: Participatory, co-design, and narrative-based approaches that position architectural research within wider social struggles or collective imaginaries.

• Temporal and iterative design: Reflections on methodologies that account for change over time, whether through adaptive design, maintenance-oriented thinking, or feedback-based practices.

• Pedagogical implications: How are methodological innovations in research through design transforming architectural education, studio practice, and the training of researchers?