3. Methodology
3.1 Precedents in Architectural Education
Throughout my architectural education I have actively been encouraged to
research precedents in order to inspire my own designs. This would involve
studying buildings that were similar in function, in site context or materiality
to the building I aimed to design in a fictional scenario. It is assumed a
student enrolls at a School of Architecture with minimal architectural
knowledge therefore it is essential they take inspiration from previous
projects in order for the student to learn. However the question I am faced
with is, does this encourage students to plagiarize in their future career?
Rather than facing the problem through creative solutions they simply copy the
solution from a previous project.
‘It is quite true that no art can be
learned, and, as a consequence, none can be revived, without involving a
certain amount of copying during the process of learning or reviving’[1]-
Sir George Gilbert Scott
Evidently the potential to copy is greater today than it was during the
19th century, due to the ease of access to precedents over the
Internet. However it is clear that recording precedents has always been a key
aspect to architectural education. An element of my methodology consists of
analyzing the opinions of architecture students and staff, in order to attempt
to understand whether precedents in education are a form of plagiarism.
I arranged to interview 9 professionals within Liverpool School of
Architecture, all of whom teach within the studio modules of the RIBA
curriculum. The purpose of the interview was to question whether they found the
use of building precedents necessary in a student’s education, and to explore
whether cases of plagiarism had occurred previously within the School. To
support this research I would conduct a student survey via the online system
Survey Monkey.
The purpose of the anonymous data collection was to encourage students
to question whether they had copied aspects of a building design before, and to
indicate whether they had considered this to be architectural plagiarism
before.
3.2 Social Media Methodology
As my main body of research consists of student surveys and
questionnaires I have decided to incorporate a social media strategy in order
to support my findings and to aid my conclusions of whether plagiarism occurs
within architecture. I have
created a Twitter account[2];
the purpose of which allows me to broadcast my surveys to a large audience as
well as being able to create discussion forums and allow conversations to occur
about different aspects of my research. Regular postings (tweets) and
discussions should spark conversation and publicity about my research.
Golf Club
Advisor (a social media marketing company) agreed to document my social media
activity free of charge. This may ultimately be of no use to my final results
but will help me to understand my current demographic and target audience.
Alongside the social media sites, I have produced an online blog[3],
which I have constructed simultaneous to collating my research. This not only
provides a base for participants to interact with my study, but has encouraged
me to write my findings regularly.
The social media strategy may result in creating minimal relevant
data, however it is a relatively simple exercise that will allow me to
publicize my findings whilst at the same time creating a platform for
conversations to exist.
3.3 Redirection of my
Methodology
It soon became apparent when constructing my online survey and interview
questions that gaining results, from which I could make clear and justified
conclusions, would be very difficult. My previous methodology and the social
media strategy that ran alongside it would provide me with limited answers,
with little scope and it was likely it would restrict my research and therefore
my conclusions on answering my research question.
I would need to include 50 student participants at a minimum in order to
effectively analyse their answers. Not only is this method time consuming it
also has no guarantee of producing answers which are relevant to my research,
without perhaps asking questions which would generate biased answers, which
would make my conclusions invalid. Initially I aimed to use this method to
explore the use of building precedents within the architectural education.
However this is one topic within my research, and I needed to prioritize the
sub sections that would provide me with results that were relevant to my
hypotheses.
The social media strategy of my methodology still exists, however it is
not at the forefront of my research. The blog has allowed me to publish my
findings as my research has developed. This has been beneficial as it
encourages me to collate my research and draw conclusions at an early date. At
present the blog has been fairly successful with regular page views each week.
Each blog post is promoted via the Twitter broadcast, which is targeted at
professionals within architecture and construction industry.
It is difficult to conclude whether the social media aspect of my
methodology has been successful. It was unlikely it could act as a source of
research from a public discussion aspect, however I have sourced articles and
websites from information posted by my account followers, therefore
contributing to my dissertation findings. The blog and twitter account may
become more useful when my findings are finalized, acting as a point of contact
when I aim to attract media attention with my conclusions.
3.4 Questioning Plagiarism
through Architectural History
The analysis of the use of building precedents in architectural
education was only one aspect of dissertation, and it became clear that the
history of architectural influence should be the initial driver to my research.
My actual methodology mainly consisted of research taken from articles
and books, the topics of which naturally progressed through conversations with
my tutor and peers. Books were primarily sourced through the University of
Liverpool’s Discover database, which could indicate relevant text through a
series of key words. This method could of become lengthy and inefficient,
however I designed a research template, which enabled me to identify relevant
information and quotes without writing several pages of notes that were of
little use. A research template was completed for all sources, although written
texts were predominantly used, websites and conversations could also be
recorded. The most useful aspect of the template was the section questioning
‘How the research benefits my dissertation?’ This encouraged me to analyse the
article in detail (or not if it was not relevant) and to think about the next
logical step to take in order to find information to answer my dissertation
question.
The concept of plagiarism and influence within architecture is one that
people are familiar with, however it is often the case they have not questioned
the topic in detail before. The question I asked myself was ‘Where did it all
start?’ the obviously answer may be Vitruvius and the Orders[4],
however the likely outcome is all architects are influenced by their
predecessors, and architectural influence is essential for the building
industry to evolve. Architectural history appeared to be the natural starting
point for my research, it provided me with a basic knowledge from which sub
sections could evolve.
[1]
Scott, George Gilbert. “Copyism in Gothic Architecture” The Builder. Volume 8. Number. 375 (April 13 1850) pg. 100
[2]
Twitter Account: @ripoffdesign
[3]
Online Blog:
www.ripoffdesign.blogspot.co.uk
[4]
Mallgrave, Harry Francis. Architectural
Theory Vol 1, An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing. 2006
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