Mr R. is so hot right now.

Research is: "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of humans, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications." [1]

Mr. Research is a creative guy. He is also systematic, which to some may appear contradictory, but to Mr. Research, it is simply necessary. Mr. Research knows he has to be both creative, but organized because he wants to be very productive. Mr. Research likes to do a lot. His favorite things are to find new stuff that has never been found before and use this information to make great new stuff in the world. At his heart Mr. Research is an innovator. His whole reason for living is to make new, and better stuff. He is a nice guy, and just wants to help, but just can't do the same thing over and over. He wants to help in a new and better way, because he is never satisfied with the status quo.

I am building a pretty good relationship with Mr. Research. He keeps life exciting but is surprisingly thoughtful and strategic. He is a smart guy, but also compassionate. I'd be pretty stoked to know that he is the right-hand man of world leaders (Here's hoping he and Mr. Trudeau have a great relationship). The best scenario is when he is quiet guy in the background, who is giving the best advice, and making the really important decisions.

Here is the story of Mr. Research in elementary school building design in Alberta.

Mr. Research often lives at the university, where he is found in journal articles and in PhD student laptops. Its good here. He gets to try new stuff, compare himself to the other dudes, and tinker with the ANOVA machine. Hundreds, maybe thousands of journal articles testing, evaluating, experimenting with school design components are produced here.

Some large organizations like to compile and sort all the stuff Mr. Research has found. These institutions provide guiding principles and outlines of approaches out of all these journal publications.

Government Institutions take these guiding principles and approaches, combined with their own political platforms to formalize Design Guidelines.

Architects and the design team take these design guidelines, and through the architectural process they do their own research. This research is short-term, customized, applied and directly related to a specific design outcome. Mr. Research loves it here because it is where his new ideas actually hit the real world, and he can make new and better stuff.

Some thoughts to consider:

1. When "research" inhibits innovation it is not really research. 
2. When "research" is not related to the "real world" its not really research.
3. When "research" is not creative, it is not really research.
4. When "research" is not systematic, it is not really research.

OK. Lets think of school design. 

Where is the systematic research resulting in creative, 

rooted-in-reality architectural innovation?

(1) OECD (2002) Frascati Manual: proposed standard practice for surveys on research and experimental development, 6th edition. Retrieved 27 May 2012 


Some other unrelated stuff:

Watch documentary "I dream of wires"

mutek.org festival - with live audio performances, audio visual performances, multimedia installations