Course : ARCH6006 - Seminar

Effective Period : September 2018

Finding a Topic

Session 5
 Learning Objectives

LO 1 : Identify the problems of human needed

in architecture research
LO 2 : Apply the professional ethics in
architecture research
 Issues in Architecture

• Human issues
o functional activities
o social relationships
o physical characteristics and needs of the users.
o physiological characteristics and needs of the users.

• Environmental Issues
o Site (including views)
o Climate
o Context
o Resources
o Waste
 Issues in Architecture
• Cultural Issues • Economic Issues
o Historical o Finance
o Institutional Political o Construction
o Legal o Operations
o Maintenance
• Technological Issues o Energy
o Materials
o Systems • Aesthetic Issues
o Processes o Form
o Space
• Temporal Issues o Meaning
o Growth
o Change • Safety Issues
o Chemical o Criminal
o Permanence
o Personal o Structural
o Fire
 Relating Personal Ideas to a
Scholarly Problem
• Connecting Personal Experience to Scholarly
Topics.
• Speculating about Subject to Discover Ideas and
to Focus on the Issues.
• Free Writing.
• Listing Keywords.
• Arranging Keywords into a Preliminary Outline.
• Clustering
• Narrowing by Comparison
• Asking Questions
 Talking with Others to Refine
the Topic
• Personal Interviews.
• Online Discussion Groups
 Using Online Searches to
Refine Topic
• Using an Online Subject Directory.
• Using an Internet Keyword Search.
 Using the Library’s Electronic
Databases to Find and
Narrow a Topic
• Select a database.
• List keywords or phrase to describe topic, enclosed
within quotation marks.
• Examine the various entries for possible topics.
 Using the Library’s Electronic
Book Catalog to Find a Topic

• With your working topic in hand, do some

exploratory reading in books to enhance your
understanding of the topic.
• Carefully read the titles of books and chapter titles,
noting any key terms.
 Developing a Thesis Statement,
Enthymeme, or Hypothesis
• Thesis Statement : Advances a conclusion the
writer will defend
• Enthymeme : uses a because clause to make a
claim the writer will defend
• Hypothesis : is a theory that must be tested in
the lab, in the literature, and/or by field research
to prove its validity
• The Theoretical Hypothesis.
• The Conditional Hypothesis.
• The Relational Hypothesis.
• The Causal Hypothesis.
 Developing a Thesis Statement,
Enthymeme, or Hypothesis

• Thesis Statement : Advances a conclusion

the writer will defend
• Enthymeme : uses a because clause to
make a claim the writer will defend
• Hypothesis : is a theory that must be
tested in the lab, in the literature, and/or
by field research to prove its validity
• The Theoretical Hypothesis.
• The Conditional Hypothesis.
 Drafting a Research Proposal

• The Short Proposal

• The Long Proposal.
 References

http://
www.lhschools.org/Downloads/Developing%20a%20Thesis%20
Statement.pdf
Robert Hershberger. (1999). Architectural Programming and
Predesign Manager. McGraw-Hill. New York. ISBN:
0071347496.