Design research has grown in popularity in industries that require

deep understandings of the people they design for. One industry that would appear to benefit
greatly from design research, but that does not embrace the practice across its industry, is
architecture. Design research itself was employed to understand practicing architects – how they
currently obtain design requirements and how they would ideally like to do so – in order to
identify value that an approach to ‘design research for architecture’ could provide. Outcomes of
this research included the development of principles
‘design research for architecture’ should be based upon. From these

principles, a highly participatory approach – one that includes both users of the designs and the
clients that commission them – was adapted to provide the foundations for architects to better
understand their users, to innovate
themselves, and to strengthen relationships and trust with their clients.

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