What next? Developing Research Questions
The next step for developing potential research questions is to connect my interests to a topic question I can delve deeper into. I read the Undergraduate Research in Architecture Guide for Students by Vernooy, Shanahan, and Young chapter on developing research questions, and I'm struggling with connecting my interests/passions to the impact they could have. It's easy to collect a list of things I like and would want to read more about, but it's a different story to turn those into impactful research questions with purpose. I wrote down a few of the questions I gathered from the reading that I need to consider when brainstorming research topics.
- Why is it important?
- Why do you care about it?
- What's the purpose?
- What gives the topic tension?
- Who is the audience?
- What impacts can/will it have?
For the last several years, I've enjoyed reading books and articles about the ties between physics and theology. I think this could be related to architecture. I find the ties between physics/math/geometry/form and religion/ideology intriguing. I think a historical study of how religion and sacred ideals plays a role in the form and geometry of architecture could be fascinating. Currently, I'm struggling with the "why" related to that topic idea. Yes, I could study it because I'm interested in it, but why would it be impactful to others?
Some rough ideas in my head:
- an artistic series (paintings, illustrations, etc.) in response to the ties between form and religion
- an analysis and critique of trends in religious architecture
- studying the origins and future of religion+form
- the impact of form on religion and the impact of religion on form: how have each of them changed the other?
- why is it important to continue, or not to continue, allowing form and religion to interact?
These are some of my initial ideas, thoughts, and general brain tidbits spilling out. All of them are subject to change, and still in the works. That's all for this week!
I think you've got a really great start on further developing your interests into questions. I know in the reading it says to just simply write out any ideas that come to your mind for 10 minutes which I'm sure you've already done with the amount of questions you have! I am really intrigued by your topics discussing the origins and future of religion and form, and how form and religion might have impacted the other. I think these would be really interesting capstone projects and provide clarity to how you are combining your interests with the study of architecture! Nice work!
ReplyDelete- Kayla Hart
I can see you've already started brainstorming! I would love to hear more on how you would be interested in exploring this topic visually, and I think since you have a focus on geometry in religious architecture, you could probably come up with something really visually intriguing.
ReplyDelete-Chloe Jones
Hello Virginia, I really like how you wrote down some questions to keep in mind to stay on the topics that are important to you. I think the relationship of religion and form is a very interesting topic to explore as sacred spaces from different religions and ideologues require different experiences from the building. I also think it might be interesting to see how religion has pushed architecture further. Building large structures and buildings that seemed impossible at the time when they were built. And that a lot of them still stand today and are even studied for their form, craft, materiality, etc. Or even how some projects have changed the way light interacting in and around the project.
ReplyDelete- Nathan Crofts
Virginia, I am interested to see how your pursuits of looking into the origins of sacred spaces will pan out. I applaud you for taking the first step to write out all the steps that first came to your mind. To take a dive into the reason why we design from a perspective that is held dear and personal to each individual, is a good inquiry to have. I wonder if this is a journey that proves to be more revealing than one might think. Look forward to see what you come up with. ~ Alex White
ReplyDeleteVirginia, I share an interested in sacred spaces with you, and when you discussed it in your presentation I was really hooked by the idea of exploring sacred geometry. Seeing some of your other interests in this post I'm very intrigued and excited by how many questions you have regarding religion and architecture. I look forward to seeing where you take this. -Matt King
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