Emerging research: The architect’s personal research through design competitions

Abstract

Architectural Design Competitions is a growing field of research in architecture theory and provide a laboratory view over the dynamics of the production of environmental design quality and the renewing process of culture and knowledge. Design competitions connect academia and praxis, can bring out the best out of architects and is a way to achieve excellence in design. Our argument, following previous research, is that architectural design competitions reflect a procedure of research (derived from the academia but in the praxis), develop personal and field competences, values and abilities, and foster innovation in architecture. In fact, there is evidence that during their professional practice, licensed architects, outside the academia and in praxis, use design competitions as fundamental research opportunities. These facts sustain the importance of the role of architectural design competitions as an important social, cultural and professional field of research that challenge the way we currently see the practice and the education of the architect. Recent research gives relevance to the way design competitions could also contribute to and stimulate Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and should be accepted as such.