Research in the School of Architecture

Dalhousie University
Adopted at School of Architecture meeting, February 11, 2015

The aims and eventual uses of this document

This School of Architecture has created this document to recognize, support and foster research within the
School. 1 It aims to define what research is in the discipline and profession of architecture, and to communicate it
in terms that are understandable to the rest of the university. It also aims to provide a framework for recognizing
research productivity and accomplishment, that may be useful in the assignment of appropriate workloads and
reappointment, tenure, and promotion reviews.

What is research in the School of Architecture?

The School of Architecture was established as a professional school, and it brings this perspective to its graduate
programs, in a way that distinguishes these from other research-based graduate degree programs in the university.
This history has shaped the School’s view of research in all its dimensions.
The university has widely accepted definitions of scholarly research in the scientific and technical domains and in
the humanities, arts, and social sciences. The challenge and the opportunity for the School of Architecture is to
identify what research accomplishment is in our field of architecture, in a way that is recognized within our
discipline and in the university.2 As a School in a self-regulating Faculty, we enjoy a large measure of autonomy in
this regard.

How does the School view the relation between scholarship, creative work and professional practice?
In the university, research can take the form of scholarship, creative work or professional practice. To reflect
values important to us in the School of Architecture, we may also elect to value community-based research and
research into teaching, provided we frame these in terms of knowledge production and mobilization. Our first
analysis identified four areas of research activity currently taking place within our School, each of which can be
articulated with clear expectations for accomplishment and impact measurements:
1) Scholarly research in aspects of our disciplines framed as humanities, arts, social sciences, science, or applied
sciences is assessed using standards commonly employed in these disciplines. Scholarly research in design is
not well defined, and we have some work to do in this regard.3
2) Research in practice advances the profession. Evidence can take the form of reviews, awards, or uptake within
the profession.
3) Community-based research or “the scholarship of engagement” shows evidence of improved designs or
processes and methods of practice. Evidence can take the form of reviews, awards, or knowledge mobilization
within the community.
4) Research in teaching shows evidence of influential or exemplary teaching and learning methods in architecture.
Evidence can take the form of teaching awards, recognition of innovative teaching methods, dissemination of
findings in scholarly contexts, and uptake within the academy.
 
 
                                                                                                               
1  This document was drafted by C Macy and F Palermo 23 April 2014, and revised by the School of Architecture on 21 October 2014, 27 January 2015,
and 11 February 2015. The School has adopted it as a working document for its continual review and development.
2 Other professional Faculties have analogous challenges: professional ones like law, management and dentistry, and the health professions
including nursing and pharmacy. As well, departments of music, theatre and costume studies set expectations for artistic accomplishment.
3 “The possibility of design scholarship lies [...] in the development of a discipline-specific framework commensurate with standards of research
in other fields.” [...] The designer carries a double burden not only to contribute creative work of merit but also to make manifest that work
within given visual confines, and to elaborate in linguistic terms its relation to the knowledge context engaged.” Lily Chi, “Translations
between design research and scholarship”, Journal of Architectural Education 61/1, 2007:7-10.
Research in the School of Architecture
Dalhousie University page 2

How does the School address the profession’s concern regarding competition from academic practitioners?
The salary for tenured and tenure-track faculty includes a percentage for research activity. In a professional School,
this means that when faculty hold design, research or consulting contracts, they do not normally charge for their
salary. However, Dalhousie does not forbid faculty from holding additional paid positions, provided they satisfy all
the conditions of their employment. We identify five forms of practice- and community-based research, recently or
currently taking place within the School of Architecture:
1) Pro-bono practice. Faculty members do not charge for their consulting services, only for direct costs and
reimbursable expenses. Practice avoids competing with local professionals by taking on only those clients who
cannot afford to retain professional services.
2) Field studies. Students engaged in practice-based activities in communities, for academic credit, under
supervision of faculty member. Outcomes are design-build projects for the communities. Questions of
liability.
3) Expert consulting. Paid at an hourly rate plus contract research overhead, remitted to Faculty. Professional
activity is sought for its specialized expertise not otherwise available in the marketplace. (Ex.: Faculty of
Engineering tracks and administers its professors’ consulting activities centrally.)
4) Research unit. Faculty members do not charge for their work. Research associate salaries and all project
costs (e.g. travel, equipment, activities, consultants) are grant-funded. Overhead is charged where allowed by
funding agency. Aims to avoid competition with the marketplace, through value-added research component,
unique expertise or other means.
5) Independent business firm or corporation. Private practice not using university staff, resources, or property.
Financially independent, files its own taxes.

What are the School’s expectations for research productivity from tenured and tenure-track faculty?
Dalhousie University allows each Faculty to set its own expectations for research productivity. The normative
distribution of workload across Dalhousie for tenured/tenure-track faculty is 40% teaching, 40% research and 20%
service. In actuality, these proportions vary widely from unit to unit. The Collective Agreement requires all faculty
members be allowed one term free of teaching each year.

The School of Architecture differs from the university norm, by operating across the year in three trimesters of
equal length and intensity (Sept-Dec, Jan-Apr, May-Aug) separated only by three weeks between terms. This
schedule requires staff to operate at full intensity throughout the year, and presents unique challenges for
Architecture faculty in developing and administering its programs in a largely team-teaching environment. To meet
the requirement that all faculty members have one term free of teaching each year, Architecture faculty are
assigned to teach Fall-Winter, Winter-Summer or Fall-Summer terms. During the teaching term, few faculty are
able to set aside even one day per week to conduct their research activities, due to meetings and administrative
responsibilities.

Faculty research generally takes place in the non-teaching term. The non-teaching term can be Fall, Winter or
Summer and represents roughly 520 hours of salaried research workload over a 13 week term. What are the
results we expect from this amount of effort?

To safeguard the ability of Architecture faculty to conduct research in their non-teaching term, the School needs
to minimize the expectation that faculty members participate in meetings during their non-teaching term.
Conversely, faculty members beginning a non-teaching term must complete their course planning (outlines and
coordination) for their next teaching term prior to beginning a non-teaching term.

What are the School’s expectations for research accomplishment — for reappointment, tenure and promotion?
Each research area has a defined scope of endeavor, research outcomes, dissemination venues, impact
measurements and funding sources. See 11X17 chart at end of this document, entitled “Architectural Practice and
Design-Research / Scholarly Research”.
Research in the School of Architecture
Dalhousie University page 3

What supports does the School or Faculty provide for research?

The Faculty currently provides a variety of supports, informal and formal, but without a framework or transparent
means of accessing them. We may want to consider how to increase supports in any or all of these areas.
• Mentoring and advisory supports are currently at the School level only, or by colleagues on an ad-hoc basis.
• Management supports include some financial management of research expenditures, hiring and payroll for
research personnel, and advice regarding university regulations and best practices. Large grants are
required to budget for management support within the grant.
• Financial supports include start-up funds for newly appointed faculty, matching funds to secure external
funding, and bridging funds for on-going research activities. This budget line is supported by contract
research overheads, half of which goes to the School or Unit and half of which goes to the Dean’s Office for
redistribution. The Faculty also receives a portion of its base budget funding from the University’s allocation
of Indirect Costs of Research (based on Tri-Council grants).
• Overhead and operational supports include office space, equipment and basic computing support at time of
hire, space for research assistants when possible, printing, telecommunications, access to Faculty and
university facilities and resources.
• Dissemination supports include DFA travel fund and Dean’s matching fund, SSHRC Research Development
Fund (administered within the Faculty), and annual support from a few endowments focused on outreach
and dissemination.
• The FAP does not provide funds to conduct research activities, apart from the core salary of the researcher.

What supports should the School or Faculty provide, to foster, support and promote research more effectively?
• Mapping current faculty research in Architecture.
• Identifying research strengths, creating a strategic research plan, and communicating it effectively.
• Creating a mentoring or laddering plan to assist faculty members who wish to develop or advance their
research. A mentoring plan, may include conversation and/or mentoring groups, the assignment of a faculty
mentor for newly-appointed faculty members.
• A framework to provide teaching release when required for faculty engaged in significant research programs
(comparable to current teaching release provided for faculty administrators).
• A research plan to secure adequate space for research, such as labs, research graduate student work space,
office space.
• Developing research-oriented programs or program components (MEDS, MArchPP).
• Creating a strategy for recruiting and supporting post-docs.
• Developing a PhD program across the Faculty platform.
• Recognizing research accomplishment with a Faculty Research Award.

Research ethics
• Academic integrity. Dalhousie’s Scholarly Misconduct Policy defines what activities constitute a breach of
generally accepted standards of scholarly conduct for research and related activities. These include:
fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, disregard for university research-related policies and regulations,
misrepresentation of authorship and credit, deliberate interference with the progress of research,
withholding of research information, misrepresentation or mismanagement of conflicts of interest, abuse of
peer review, and abuse of supervision.
http://www.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/research-services/Scholarly%20Misconduct%20Policy%20-%20June%202012.pdf

• Research involving human subjects must follow Dalhousie's Policy on the Ethical Conduct of Research Involving
Humans. http://www.dal.ca/dept/research-services/services/ethics-research-reviews.html
 ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE AND DESIGN-RESEARCH SCHOLARLY RESEARCH
Professional practice in architecture Scholarly research in architecture
Innovative or excellent practice in the profession of architecture, recognized by fellow practitioners. Original scholarly research, disseminated to scholarly audiences and recognized by other scholars in the field.
Design research in architecture Scholarship of engagement in design with communities
Original design research, disseminated to relevant audiences and recognized by scholarly and professional experts. Leading edge of community engagement, disseminated to relevant audiences and recognized by experts in the discipline.
Scholarship of teaching in architecture
Leading edge of architectural teaching, disseminated to relevant audiences and recognized by experts in the discipline.

PROMISE DEMONSTRATED ABILITY WIDELY RECOGNIZED EXCELLENCE PROMISE DEMONSTRATED ABILITY WIDELY RECOGNIZED EXCELLENCE
(Time of Hire - Assistant) (Promotion to Associate) (Promotion to Full) (Time of Hire - Assistant) (Promotion to Associate) (Promotion to Full)
The lists on these pages represent examples of appropriate criteria for each type of research or practice activity,
and a framework for evaluating promise, demonstrated ability and widely-recognized excellence. • Declared scholarly research focus in • Regular & ongoing scholarly research
humanities-social sciences aspects of outcomes in humanities-social sciences or
Research • Employed by excellent or innovative • Principal or partner in excellent or architecture (SSHRC disciplines) or in in science-technology-engineering aspects
architectural practice. innovative architecture, design or art science-technology-engineering aspects of of architecture, in the form peer-reviewed
outcomes architecture (NSERC disciplines). papers, posters, journal articles, book
practice. • Same as previous column.
• Beginning own design office with chapters, patents, etc.
excellent or innovative projects. • Regular and ongoing design of • Same as previous column. • Declared scholarly research focus in teaching
excellent or innovative architectural architecture. • Development & implementation of innovative
• Competition entries. curriculum, teaching methods, instruments,
works. • Declared scholarly research focus in
• Authored articles or developing community engagement or development etc. leading to regular & ongoing scholarly
• Success in juried design research outcomes, as per above.
presentations on design-research through design.
competitions.
work, method, significance. • Development & realization of design or design-
• Regular pattern of writing about or • For all the above, authored articles or
• Consulting work, reports. developing presentations on scholarly build projects with community partners,
curating exhibitions about design- leading to regular & ongoing scholarly
research work, method, significance. research work, methods and significance.
research outcomes, as per above.

Success in • Small design commissions.
securing • Self-initiated projects.
funding
• Basic Canada Council grant.
• Small grants (travel grants, small
project grants, start-up grants, etc)
• Contract research at a modest scale.
• Regular pattern of design
commissions.
• Commissions won through
competition.
• Advanced Canada Council grant(s).
• SSHRC design-research grant(s).
• Contract research with professional
or industry partners that advances
the discipline.
• Established design practice that
employs students & graduates and
represents state of the art in the
discipline.
• Established design-research program
involving graduate students &
colleagues.
• Pattern of high-value contract research
that employs graduate students &
represents state of the art in the
discipline.
• Applying for appropriate grants (scholarly
research, innovative teaching, etc).
• Basic Canada Council grant.
• Small grants (travel grants, small project
grants, CLT grants, start-up grants, etc)
• Contract research at a modest scale.
• Small design commissions.
• Self-initiated projects.
• Awarded Tri-Council research grant in • Established Tri-Council scholarly research
national competition (SSHRC, NSERC, etc) program involving graduate students &
colleagues.
• Awarded major research grant in regional
competition (ACOA, IRAP, etc) • Principal Investigator on large collaborative
research grants. National & international
• Research collaborator on grants held by
partners.
others.
• SSHRC Partnership grant program involving
• Contract research that advances the graduate students & colleagues.
discipline, with professional or industry
partners. . • Pattern of high-value contract research that
employs graduate students & represents
state of the art in the discipline.

Dissemination • Work published in professional
to relevant journals or significant disciplinary
websites.
audiences
• Exhibitions in local galleries or
relevant websites. exhibitions.
• Regular coverage in significant
disciplinary journals or websites.
• Work exhibited in group shows or
published in thematic collections. • Subject of monographs or solo
• Curated exhibitions invited to
circulate, accompanied with
catalogue.
• Regular pattern of convening
and coordinating peer-reviewed
workshops, symposia, etc.
• Significant record of national
or international publication or
exhibitions. proceedings. publication or exhibitions.
• Peer-reviewed papers presented in relevant • Regular pattern of presenting peer-reviewed • Same as previous column, leading to a
disciplinary conferences & published in scholarly papers, posters, workshops, etc. significant record of national or international
• Regular pattern of scholarly articles published
• Authoring reviews of books by in peer-reviewed journals, chapters in edited • Scholarly books published by academic press.
others. books, editing of scholarly books, etc.
• Subject of monographs.
• Work published in professional journals or • Work published in thematic collections or
significant disciplinary websites. featured in exhibitions.
• Exhibitions in local galleries or on websites. • Symposia on teaching.

Peer recognition • Short-listed or runner-up for design • Award or prize for design or artistic • Invited speaker for conferences, • Post-doctoral fellowship or research • Award or prize for achievement. • Awards or prizes for research or scholarly
(disciplinary award. achievement from professional or professional associations. appointment. contributions at national or international
disciplinary associations. • Jury member for research grant competitions
impact • Jury member for design awards • FRAIC, FAIA or equivalent. or peer evaluator for research grant level.
measurement) competitions. • Recurring invitations to lecture at proposals. • Research chair, research associate
other schools of architecture. • Guest professorial appointments
• Invited critic or speaker at other or named professorships at other • Peer reviewer for papers submitted to appointment to other faculties or
schools of architecture. • Artist-in-residence. institutions. academic journal or to academic book institutions, or research fellowship.
publisher.

Other impact • Expert consultant to government, • For scholarship of engagement: Press • Additonal indicators of impact of scholarly • Expert consultant to government or to
measurements national boards. and media coverage can be considered work include: book sales, use of scholarship national boards, associations, agencies with
• Public intellectual, go-to-person. as a measure of local impact. Also direct in curricula, book review, citation index if require disciplinary expertise.
community participation. applicable or relevant, etc.
• Public intellectual, go-to-person.
• For scholarship of teaching: Invitations to • Scholarship of community engagement and
review, critique, co-teach. Positive responses of teaching must be recognized by experts
from students, colleagues, collaborators. in these areas, and shown to have impact
within the discipline.