Integration of Art-Based Research in Design Curricula

Abstract

This paper focuses on the use of art-based research to enrich active methodologies in design curricula. Based on the analysis of two case studies, it argues the need to further explore a hybridisation of methodologies and disciplines to foster disruptive and innovative design practices within academic programmes in the expanded architectural field. The case studies articulate temporary spatial design with artistic practices through a radical approach to materiality, which is posited as the starting point for each project. Rather than seeing materiality as a second-tier decision addressed after a design concept has been formulated, materials are tackled directly, and the working process then defines the design concept and its detailed resolution. A crucial result of the case studies is the active enactment of new forms of authorship, straddling the space between the autarkic author of post-romantic models and the dissolution of authorship of some contemporary collaborative models.