Customer Reviews

Architectural Research Methods

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having completed three doctoral level research methods courses using bits and pieces of material from a variety of sources, I am happy to at last have a comprehensive text that relates specifically to architecture. Groat and Wang have developed a wonderful, thorough, well-written, and well-illustrated text. I imagine that everyone in methods courses will feel very lucky to have such an excellent resource. And the usefulness to researchers overall can't be understated. Many, many, many congratulations to both authors for an excellent job on a much-needed resource for architectural education.

This is a GREAT resource for students in the design professions, even if their thesis is not a design thesis. It has great examples and explains how to utilize built works, not just written works in research. It is very helpful for undergraduate students with little to no research experience. A truly invaluable source of information for architecture/landscape architecture/urban design and planning/interior design students.

I found this book to be excellent: comprehensive and approachable, eclectic and interdisciplinary. It should save any student, researcher or instructor much time and can serve as a text book and/or a comprehensive reference manual. It also adds to the body of knowledge by freshly demonstrating the application of the research methods of many other disciplines in the specific context of architecture (including many cases and examples), all within a nice, logical, unifying philosophical framework.

This is a great book that fills a gap in architectural education. it tries to cover a wide range of issues. The effort is appreciated and to a great extend successful

This is a good overall text for anyone working in or towards a graduate degree in architecture or landscape architecture.

Este libro es de mucha ayuda para entender los metodos de investigacion, especialmente en el campo de la arquitectura. Ha sido de mucha ayuda para mi trabajo de investigacion.

As a graduate student taking my first official course in research methods, I was disappointed. The language and structure of this book could have been made a lot easier to follow. I would have appreciated, for example, more frequent subheadings and listing of points. Because of the lack of, the book is difficult to skim or pick and choose sections to read; expect to read thoroughly. Some of the examples in the book were questionable -especially the chapter on experimental and quasi-experimental research. The frequent diagrams were also lacking in clarity. I think that the text could have been half as long and still conveyed the same amount of information. Redundancy aside, I did (with much caffeinated effort) gain a broad understanding of several research strategies and tactics. The book is not a comprehensive guidebook for conducting research based on particular research methods; it is merely a broad introduction or clarification of various strategies. However, it frequently suggests comprehensive texts for further reading if you are so inclined.

The text is relevent for those interested in "Evidence based architectural design". It is excellent for both a beginning researcher in acadamia or an experienced practitioner involved with architecture research. It provides a broad research background as well as specific application to architecture. It is well organized and usable as an office reference or classroom text. It is written with jargon and graphics familiar to architects.