Experimental Cultures: On the “End” of the Design Thesis and the Rise of the Research Studio

Abstract

In recent years architectural schools have replaced the independent design thesis with, among other things, faculty-led research studios. This essay locates the rise of the research studio in the United States within the historically changing definition and role of thesis in professional degree programs. In doing so, it argues that the research studio, by taking advantage of the shared experimental character of design and research, presents a timely—if imperfect—method for integrating architecture's public responsibilities with its intensely private creative processes and products.