Architects of fact and fiction

摘要

In contemporary discourse and practice it is familiar to discuss design research as if it is new to architecture. But this is to ignore the history of the architect. The methods and means of design research have been invaluable to the architect for over 500 years. This text focuses on a key stage in the history of design, when its status as an intellectual activity was enriched in the eighteenth century by a new, questioning emphasis on environmental experience as the key to human understanding, which stimulated the interdependence of practices -design, history, and fiction - and places -architecture and landscape - that endures today.