Architectural research methods linda groat pdf

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C h a p t e r 7

Qualitative Research

7 . 1 I n t R o d u c t I o n

In her influential and classic book, Architecture: The Story of Practice, Dana Cuff provides in‐depth descriptions and analyses of architectural practice.1 Throughout the book, she recounts in great detail the many interactions and processes that ar- chitects experience on a daily basis. With these observations as a foundation, she brings to light many of the underlying contradictions of the profession. These in- clude, for example, the profession’s tendency to celebrate the creative talent of the individual architect, even while most architects work in collaborative settings to bring to life complex building projects.

In introducing her study, Cuff describes in considerable detail how she went about her research. First and foremost, she persuaded three Bay Area firms to let her observe and participate in the life of the firm over a six‐month period. In these settings, she ob- served meetings, interviewed firm members, participated in casual conversations, and took part in many informal social activities (see Figure 7.1). Throughout these interac- tions, Cuff maintained two important principles: (1) that she sought to understand the dynamics of the profession from the point of view of the participants; and (2) that, at the same time, such insiders’ perspectives had to be balanced by her “outsider’s obser- vations.”2 But while Cuff insists on grounding her work in the empirical reality of her observations, she also highlights the role of interpretation and meaning. As she puts it:

Philosophically, what I value . . . is [a] rejection of positivist notions of the social world, embracing interpretation, meaning in context, interaction, and the quality of the commonplace.3

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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216 Part II: Seven Research Strategies

In her dissertation study, Donna Wheatley has investigated the extent to which the alignment between the spatial qualities of workplaces and intentional corporate branding has been achieved from the perspectives of different stake- holder groups.4 This is a topic of significant interest for architects and designers who regularly grapple with how to embody the goals and values of corporate cli- ents in built form, through spatial qualities suitable for both the culture of the or- ganization and the work practices and sensibilities of the employees. As Wheatley pointedly states:

[A]ligning spatial qualities of workplaces with corporate branding is an explic- itly practiced strategy. [T]here is often the expectation for architects to inte- grate corporate values into their designs with the expectation that users will respond in a favorable way to the clients. However, there is little in the way of studies that examine the success [of such a design strategy].5

Given the global prevalence of corporate branding, Wheatley selected six major projects designed by architects in Australia, China, and Great Britain (see Figure 7.2). Since her research question fundamentally centers on the interpre- tive sensibilities and experience of the various stakeholders (architects, client, and users), Wheatley sought a research design that would elicit each individual’s

Figure 7.1 Architects, clients, and consultants meeting an essential aspect of the design process. Courtesy of Kevin M. Daly.

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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Qualitative Research 217

interpretations of the environment in their own terms. For this reason, she devel- oped an in‐depth interview protocol employing sets of visual images that would elicit the participants’ metaphoric associations their workplace—categories of images that included art, interiors, sculpture, food, color, and so on. Participants at each site were asked to select one or two images from each set of image catego- ries that reflected their feelings about the design and experience of the work- place. In addition to being asked to sort these selected images into groupings meaningful to them, participants were also asked to select specific images in re- sponse to more focused questions.6 The resulting interview texts were then

Figure 7.2 Case 1 located in Shanghai, China: exterior view and open meeting space (7.2a and b); and Case 2 located in Sydney, Australia: exterior view and significant interior space (7.2c and d). Courtesy of Donna Wheatley.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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218 Part II: Seven Research Strategies

coded for every expressed association between environmental qualities and par- ticipant interpretations.7

7 . 2 t h e S t R at e g y o f Q u a l I tat I v e R e S e a R c h : g e n e R a l c h a R a c t e R I S t I c S

What both the Cuff and the Wheatley studies have in common is that they can be categorized as qualitative research. Although this research design can actually be manifested in a variety of formats, several common attributes can be identified. Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, authors of a highly regarded, three‐volume handbook on qualitative research, offer the following “generic” definition of quali- tative research:

Qualitative research is multi‐method in focus, involving an interpretive, natural- istic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variety of empirical materials.8

Another feature of qualitative research that is also frequently cited in the research methods literature is an underlying emphasis on an inductive process. Creswell describes this tendency in the following way:

[W]e ask open‐ended research questions . . . , shaping the questions after we “explore. . . . Our questions change during the process of research to reflect an increased understanding of the problem.9

Five key components of qualitative research, articulated in the previous quota- tions, can be identified. We will consider each of them in turn, using examples from architectural research to illustrate these points.

7.2.1 An Emphasis on Natural Settings

By “natural settings” is meant that the objects of inquiry are not removed from the venues in which they typically exist as part of everyday life. Cuff ’s primary material came from her in‐depth observations and interactions at three architectural firms over a six‐month period of time. In the Wheatley study, the value of the research lies in its ability to uncover the similarities and differences in the interpretations of the various stakeholder groups in each of the six workplaces studied. In both of these

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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Qualitative Research 219

cases, the researchers used research tactics that engaged people within the context being studied, while the context itself was studied in its natural state.

7.2.2 A Focus on Interpretation and Meaning

In both the Cuff and the Wheatley studies, the authors not only ground their work in the empirical realities of their observations and interviews, but they also make clear that they, as researchers, play an important role in interpreting and making sense of that data. To reiterate one of Cuff ’s points (quoted earlier), she intentionally employs methodological practices that embrace interpretation and meaning in context. Similarly, Wheatley notes that the in‐depth engagement with participants fostered communication and understanding, while the de- tailed coding process of the interview texts fundamentally depended on her in- terpretive skills.10

7.2.3 A Focus on How the Respondents Make Sense of Their Own Circumstances

In the descriptions of the Cuff and Wheatley studies, it is clear that the research- ers aim to present a holistic portrayal of the setting or phenomenon under study as the respondents themselves understand it. Cuff, for example, offers extensive and detailed descriptions of interactions among the multiple players in client meetings. Similarly, an essential aspect of Wheatley’s study is to explore each participant’s interpretation of the workplace in his/her own terms; this includes elucidating the extent to which the various stakeholders’ understandings con- verge, or not.

In another exemplar of qualitative research, Linda Groat and Sherry Ahrentzen conducted a series of in‐depth interviews with faculty women in architecture, the results of which were published in the Journal of Architectural Education.11 For their part, Groat and Ahrentzen specifically sought to understand faculty women’s per- ceptions in terms of three aspects of their experiences in architecture: their attrac- tions to architecture as a career; their experience of either discrimination or encouragement both in practice and as faculty members; and their visions for the future of architectural education.

7.2.4 The Use of Multiple Tactics

Denzin and Lincoln refer to this characteristic of qualitative research as bricolage, and the research as bricoleur. A bricolage is “a pieced‐together, close‐knit set of practices that provide solutions to a problem in a concrete situation.”12 The idea of bricolage implicitly suggests that qualitative researchers will employ a range of

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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220 Part II: Seven Research Strategies

tactics that are both particular to the context being studied, and of course appropri- ate to the research question(s) being asked.

A good example of a multitactic qualitative study may be seen in Karen Keddy’s study of the experience of a hospital surgical unit from the perspective of the nurs- ing staff. Keddy sought to conduct research that would serve as an antidote to the prevalent tendency in health care research to focus primarily on operational effi- ciency. Rather than focusing on how nursing staff ’s productivity might be increased through design interventions, Keddy sought to provide a more holistic understand- ing of “the physical nature of nursing work and the physical environment from the nurses’ perspective.”13

To explore these issues, Keddy employed a wide variety of tactics, including structured, in‐depth interviews, location mapping, photo‐documentation, architec- tural inventories, place‐centered behavioral mapping, and focused observations, and an image‐based visual exercise called an “experiential collage.”14 The intention of the collage exercise (see Figure 7.3), conducted after the initial interview, was to elicit “insights into how a nurse actually feels about what she thinks and what she does as well as what it means to her . . . , a means of making different perspectives about the socio‐spatial nature of nursing work visible.”15

Taken together, this set of data collection tactics focuses not so much on quan- tities of easily measured and known activities, but on the experiential qualities and conceptualizations of the nurses’ work. As a result, this study was able to reveal the “hidden activities many nurses perform which are not measured or even included in such inventories as work sampling.”16

To be sure, not all qualitative research studies rely on such a diverse array of tac- tics to investigate the research question. However, even in research studies where one primary mode of inquiry is used, secondary tactics are typically employed. For ex- ample, although Cuff depended primarily on fieldwork observations of three differ- ent firms especially in work meetings (documented in 600 pages of notes), she also interviewed firm members, chatted casually with people, did drafting and other work activities, and participated in many informal activities with firm members.17 Similarly, although Groat and Ahrentzen’s research on faculty women depended extensively on an in‐depth interview protocol of key questions and optional follow‐up questions, the authors also incorporated insights from an earlier quantitative survey question- naire and archival statistics from the national architectural faculty organization.18

7.2.5 Significance of Inductive Logic

As Creswell argues in a quotation cited earlier in the chapter, the research questions investigated through a qualitative study frequently evolve in an iterative process.

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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Qualitative Research 221

Figure 7.3 Examples of experiential collages. Courtesy of Karen Keddy.

The initial formulation of a question is typically refined in the light of ongoing in- terviews or observations; this enables the researcher to test out emerging insights: for example, by adding new or follow‐up questions to the interview, and conducting observations at different locations or times of day. 19 (See also Chapters 2 and 11 for more details on inductive logic.)

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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222 Part II: Seven Research Strategies

Such is the case with Groat and Ahrentzen’s study of faculty women. The anal- ysis of the one- to two-hour interviews required a long, interactive process of iden- tifying key themes, the development of an elaborate coding scheme, and eventual synthesis into the textual narrative for their article. The published article not only reports on the key themes culled from the “visions” section of the interview, but also grounds these themes through illustrative quotations from individual faculty women. Only after the major themes were identified did the authors turn to con- sider the remarkable parallel to the recommendations of the 1996 Carnegie Foundation study of architectural education.20 To be specific, five of the seven themes Groat and Ahrentzen identified correspond to those from the Carnegie study: ideals of a liberal education, interdisciplinary connections, different modes of thought, communicative design studios, and caring for students. Groat and Ahrentzen conclude that “these recommendations constitute a consistent and pow- erful argument for the visions for architectural education that any number of individual faculty women have been valiantly advocating for many years.”21

Although the qualitative research strategy is sometimes characterized as exclu- sively inductive, many researchers point out that is not the case.22 Rather, it is a mat- ter of degree of emphasis. Whereas other research designs are more likely to rely more heavily on deductive logic (e.g., experimental or logical argumentation), qual- itative research tends to emphasize a holistic exploration of complex situations and environments where testing and deduction of sequenced or causal relations are unlikely. However, the often‐iterative sequence of data collection, interpretive processes, and theory building implies that at some point tentative conclusions and theories and may be tested out in more deductive sequences.

7.2.6 Other Aspects of Qualitative Research Strategy

To review, then, the strategy of qualitative research is one of first‐hand encounters with a specific and defined context. It involves gaining an understanding of how people in real‐world situations “make sense” of their environment and themselves; and it depends on, rather than rejects, the researcher’s interpretation of the col- lected data. Finally, it achieves this understanding by means of a variety of tactics, employed through a primarily inductive process. Other typical characteristics of the qualitative strategy are listed in Figure 7.4.

Although the origins of qualitative research are primarily in social and human science‐based fields, readers of this chapter may already see that this research de- sign bears many similarities to historical research in architecture (see Chapter 6). Indeed, both strategies seek to describe and/or explain socio-physical phenomena within complex contexts, and both seek to consider the relevant phenomena in a

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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Qualitative Research 223

holistic manner. Even more telling, perhaps, is that Denzin and Lincoln’s major ed- ited book on qualitative research strategies includes a chapter titled “Historical Social Science” by Gaye Tuchman.23 A major facet of Tuchman’s argument is that earlier formulations regarding the distinction between history and sociology have been largely abandoned. She then concludes: “What remains in both fields is recog- nition that research is an interpretive enterprise.”24

There are, however, at least two major differences between the qualitative re- search design and the historical strategy, as defined within this text. Perhaps the most obvious is the temporal focus; whereas qualitative studies tend to focus on contemporaneous phenomena, historical research by definition focuses on environments or contexts that were created in the past. Second, the data sources and collection techniques are also likely to be different. Whereas qualitative re- searchers more often incorporate data sources that involve people through

Holistic. Qualitative research typically aims “to develop a complex picture” that “involves report- ing multiple perspectives, identifying the many factors involved in a situation, and generally sketch- ing the larger picture that emerges.” (Creswell, p. 39) Prolonged Contact. With its emphasis on fieldwork, qualitative research typically entails “invest- ment of time sufficient to learn the culture, understand context, and/or build trust and rapport.” (O’Leary, p. 115) Open-Ended. Qualitative research tends to be more open‐ended in both theoretical conception and research design, such that “the initial plan for research cannot be tightly prescribed, and that all phases of the process may change or shift” during the fieldwork or data collection. (Creswell, p. 39) Researcher as Measurement Device. Since there is relatively little use of standardized measures such as survey questionnaires, the researcher is “essentially the main ‘measurement device’ in the study.” (Miles & Huberman, p. 7) Analysis through Words or Visual Material. Since an emphasis on descriptive numerical measures and inferential statistics is typically eschewed, the principal mode of analysis is through words, whether represented in visual displays or through narrative devices. (Miles & Huberman, p. 7) Personal or Informal Writing Stance. In contrast to the typical journal format of experimental or correlational studies, the writing style of qualitative work is typically offered in a “literary, flexible style that conveys stories . . . without the formal academic structures of writing.” (Creswell, p. 40)

Figure 7.4 Additional attributes of qualitative research. Sources: John W. Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2007); Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 1994); Zina O’Leary, The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2010).

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224 Part II: Seven Research Strategies

interviews and observation, historians more routinely rely on written documents and physical sources.

Despite these differences in focus, the relationship between qualitative and historical research designs demonstrates once again how permeable the boundaries are between the various research strategies. In this case especially, the two are easily compatible in architectural research. Moreover, aspects of one can successfully aug- ment the characteristics of the other. For example, some historical research may advantageously incorporate a greater focus on the social impact of particular build- ings, styles, or city forms. Likewise, studies of contemporaneous environments may profit from more extensive analyses of historical archives and/or of the physical artifacts themselves. This potential for combined strategies will be taken up in greater detail later in this book. (See Chapter 12 on combined strategies.)

7 . 3 S t R at e g y: f o u R Q u a l I tat I v e a p p R o a c h e S

In this section, we address three relatively distinct schools of thought common to qualitative research in architectural and environmental research: ethnography, phe- nomenological inquiry, and grounded theory (sometimes known as the constant comparative method). In addition, we will describe more recent trends in which scholars have sought to integrate aspects of the several schools of thought.

In each of the following subsections, we first summarize the basic characteris- tics of each qualitative approach, including a discussion of the strengths and weak- nesses of each. We then point out examples from architecture and architectural inquiry that offer ready connections to each approach.

7.3.1 Ethnography

Ethnographic research emphasizes in‐depth engagement with site‐specific settings, most especially through active and thorough observation. Although ethnographic fieldwork was initially and primarily associated with the discipline of anthropology, it has also been adopted by a number of other disciplines, including sociology, human geography, organization studies, educational research, and cultural studies.25

True to its anthropological roots, ethnographic methodology emerged in the early 20th century through the work of several anthropologists who aimed to estab- lish a “natural science of society” that could “furnish an objective description of a culture.”26 In contrast to the “desk” anthropologists of the time who based their speculations purely on secondary sources, the proponents of ethnography sought to ascertain the “natives’” point of view, within the context of their own culture.

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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Qualitative Research 225

Although early ethnographic research reflected Western interest in non‐ Western societies through the prism of the positivist intellectual paradigm of the time, more recent ethnographic work in a variety of disciplines has sought to inves- tigate various subcultures within both Western and global societies through a natu- ralistic paradigm, often employing a transformative school of thought.

The overall characteristics of ethnographic work are fully consistent with the broader definition of the qualitative strategy presented earlier in this chapter, in- cluding holistic exploration of a setting, including context‐rich detail; the reliance on unstructured (i.e., not precoded) data; a focus on a single case or small number of cases; and data analysis that emphasizes the interpretation of “the meanings and functions of human action.”27

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of ethnographic fieldwork is its tendency to rely on “observation” as its primary mode of data collection. Although observa- tion is a common tactic within both qualitative and other research strategies, eth- nographer Giampietro Gobo argues that what distinguishes observation in ethnography is “the more active role assigned to observation.”28 If the researcher is relatively uninterested in understanding the symbolic meaning embedded in cul- tural life, she may choose to employ nonparticipant observation so as not to inter- fere with the ongoing actions and behavior of the people be studied.

More commonly, the researcher is likely to employ participant observation. This term is frequently used to refer to a situation in which the researcher plays a naturally occurring, established role in the situation under study. For instance, the researcher’s identity might be known by few or many, or revealed in more or less detail. Moreover, the researcher may participate to a greater or lesser degree in his apparent role; or he may take the stance of either an insider or outsider. Thus, participant observation can encompass enormous variation in how the researcher chooses to observe and participate in the phenomena being studied.

Cuff ’s study of architectural practice serves as a good example of the ethno- graphic approach to qualitative research. She is quite explicit in describing her re- search as following ethnographic principles. As she puts it:

[M]ost current ethnographic studies look at patterns of interpretation that members of a cultural group invoke as they go about their daily lives. Into the general knot of making sense of the world, an ethnography ties ideas about the group’s knowledge, its beliefs, its social organization, how it reproduces itself, and the material world in which it exists.29

Moreover, as mentioned earlier in this chapter, Cuff ’s in‐depth study of three architectural firms entailed a robust and active engagement participant observation,

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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226 Part II: Seven Research Strategies

which included observing and note taking at design team, client, and consultant meetings; a variety of office work such as drafting and model making; and numer- ous informal social occasions.

A doctoral dissertation in architecture offers another example of ethnographic research. In response to the ongoing modernization of her native Thailand, Piyarat Nanta sought to discover the extent to which people’s place experience of their tra- ditional vernacular homes in a rural region of central Thailand had been trans- formed through the changing sociocultural context of the past 50 years.30

With this goal in mind, Nanta interviewed 2 members of each family in 15 vernacular houses in a rural village area of Baan Krang, where rice farming occupies over 95% of the arable land.31 Because she sought to understand the temporal transformation of each home, most respondents were elderly, but were typically assisted by a younger family member who was interviewed as well. In ad- dition, she also interviewed five master house builders and two master carpenters. Her initial semistructured interview with the families (which were video recorded and later transcribed) yielded insights on the history of the house, daily activities, occupants’ perceptions of their homes, and historical and contemporary social changes.32

These interviews served as a springboard for subsequent observation and arti- factual documentation. In addition to observing the life style of the family and the home in use, Nanta took careful note of physical modifications made to the home to accommodate their changing life patterns. The artifactual documentation en- tailed photography, videotapes, and annotated plan layouts of the interior, exterior, and immediate landscape. Once the contemporary house layout was documented, family members were asked to recall the house form historically, and the separate historically based annotated layout was produced (see Figure 7.5). To augment the historical perspective on farming life, Nanta conducted a survey of nearby Buddhist temple murals, which depict the dynamics of the domestic and social lives of the farmers, as well as physical features of their dwellings.

Overall, Nanta’s research is a classic example of the ethnographic approach to qualitative research which foregrounds the active role of observation, while also employing “ancillary sources” such as interviews, artifactual documentation, and historical archives.33 In a broader perspective, Nanta’s research is consistent with the general characteristics of qualitative research, particularly its inductive empha- sis. This is evidenced in the way she has layered her in‐depth analyses of the fami- lies’ daily life and routines; the meaning and interpretations of home; and the house form as it evolved over generations. Taken together, in a holistic way, she is able to conclude that the experience of place in these vernacular homes has evolved from a hierarchical to an integrated space; from being a container for ancestral memory to

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Qualitative Research 227

a physical structure that symbolizes status; and from constant family interaction to transspatial family relations—or, in sum, from the house as the center of the social group and rice production to the house as sanctuary.

7.3.2 Phenomenology

Phenomenological inquiry is arguably the most well‐known and established strand of the qualitative research utilized in architectural research. It derives from both the phenomenological tradition of German philosophers (e.g., Husserl and Heidegger, among others) and more recent versions of phenomenology influential in the social sciences. Among these, the sociologist Alfred Schutz attempted to develop a “phe- nomenological sociology” that would serve as a bridge between traditional sociol- ogy and Edmund Husserl’s philosophical phenomenology.34

A defining quality of this work, as described by John Creswell, is that research- ers aim to clarify the essential or underlying meaning of experience, “where experi- ences contain both the outward appearance and inward consciousness based on

Figure 7.5 Transformation of two Thai vernacular dwellings. Historical dwell- ings are shown at the top with contemporary versions below. Courtesy of Piyarat Nanta.

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228 Part II: Seven Research Strategies

memory, image, and meaning.”35 Similarly, Schwandt identifies the goal of phenom- enological inquiry as seeking an understanding of “the complex world of lived expe- rience from the point of view of those who live it.”36 Following Husserl, the Cartesian duality of subject and object is collapsed by presuming that “reality” is embodied in the meaning of an object in subjective consciousness. A basic principle underlying such an inquiry is the concept of “bracketing,” whereby the researcher sets aside any prejudgments and relies on his/her intuition and imagination to un- cover the universal or essential qualities of the phenomena.

From the perspective of the architectural field, a significant advantage or attrac- tion to phenomenological inquiry results from the premise that consciousness is understood to be directed toward an “object,” the reality of which is inextricably linked to one’s consciousness.37 And this, of course, may include the physical envi- ronment. As such, phenomenology can be seen as having more kinship with archi- tectural research than other qualitative approaches that have originated with a more exclusive focus on people’s interactions unmoored from the physical context.

Within the environmental design fields, David Seamon, editor of the long- standing newsletter Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, has identified three ongoing strands of research over the past five decades: (1) hermeneutical; (2) first‐person; and (3) existential.38 The research described by the first category, hermeneutic inquiry, includes a number of the classic phenomenological texts that have been influential in architecture and allied disciplines, such as Norberg‐Schulz’s Genius Loci and subsequent books, Thiis‐Evensen’s Architectypes in Architecture, and Edward Relph’s Place and Placelessness. Within the hermeneutic category, Gaston Bachelard’s book The Poetics of Space, from 1958, represents a truly classic work.39 Bachelard uses textual analysis of poignant vignettes from literature and poetry to weave an interpretive analysis of dwelling. Because such works depend primarily on a combination of argumentation and/or textual analyses, studies of this kind are discussed in Chapter 11.

The second and third strands of phenomenological inquiry, however, represent research within the qualitative research strategy. As Seamon explains, in first‐person phenomenological inquiry “the researcher uses her own firsthand experience of the phenomenon as a basis for examining its specific characteristics and qualities.”40 A classic example of this type of inquiry is Francis Violich’s comparative analysis of place experience in five Dalmatian towns. Through a variety of tactics, including mapping, sketching, and journal entries, he identified first the key spatial features that contributed each town’s character, and concluded his analysis with a composite set of qualities that contribute to a sense of place.41

In a similar vein, Ingrid Stefanovic sought “to provide a phenomenological read- ing” of two very different towns: the Croatian town of Cavtat, and the Toronto suburb

Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rit/detail.action?docID=1166322. Created from rit on 2020-09-13 16:55:03.

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Qualitative Research 229

of Missasauga. Although the towns represent a significant contrast in spatial and tem- poral qualities, Stefanovic concludes that “some convergence of images in our descrip- tions . . . may shed light on the appeal of genuine sense of place.”42 Indeed, she finds that both communities share a strong expression of center; the significance of nature within the built environment; an expression of self‐ identity; the experience of enclosure; and reference to the larger scale of environments within which they are situated.43

The immediacy and experiential depth of first‐hand studies such as these can often be informative, insightful, and sometimes inspirational for design profession- als. Nevertheless, first‐hand studies are not without their challenges. Methodologi- cally, the researcher aims to “bracket” his/her prejudgments to arrive at an understanding of the “essence” of the experience that transcends individual subjec- tivity. Or, as Schwandt puts it, phenomenological research must struggle with “[t] he paradox of how to develop an objective interpretive science of subjective human experience.”44

The challenge is even more complicated when architects and designers, as the researchers, apply their subjectivity to illuminate the “essence” of a given place experience. A considerable body of design research has demonstrated critical differences between expert and lay experiences in a variety of settings and contexts.45 Similarly, people who experience a building or landscape with different purposes in mind (an errand versus recreation; or a business meeting versus building mainte- nance) are likely to experience the setting in fundamentally different ways.46 So, for purposes of design practice, first‐hand phenomenological studies may well spark an imaginative design concept, but they may not yield sufficient insight for designers faced with the dynamics of a complex, multifaceted design project.

Box 7.1

Qualitative Research: A Phenomenological Approach to Research Design

Clare Cooper Marcus’s study of people’s attachments to their homes, House as a Mirror of Self, is a good example of what one might call “applied phenomenology.”a This book builds on work that she began many years ago with the publication of a now‐classic article entitled, “The

a Clare Cooper Marcus, House as a Mirror of Self (Berkeley, CA: Conari Press, 1995).

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Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central,