South elevation elevation, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View to south-east elevation with corrugated steel cladding, plywood, concrete block and colonnade, as seen from exterior.

South-east elevation, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View to south-east elevation; entrance stair, plywood and sheet steel cladding and colonnade, as seen from exterior.

Timber batten screen to north-east elevation, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View of timber batten screen to verandah behind and entrance stair, as seen from exterior.

Batten screen to north-east elevation, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View of timber batten screen to north-east elevation with verandah behind.

Screen to verandah, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View of steel-framed timber screen to verandah.

Second floor reading area interior, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View of second floor reading area with rigid frames and air-conditioning ducting.

South-east elevation, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View to south-east elevation as seen from exterior.

North-west elevation, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

North-west elevation as seen from Building K.

Entrance elevation, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View to entrance verandah on north-east elevation and sunshades to north-west elevation.

Research, knowledge and design

The discussion about relations between research and design has a number of strands, and presumably motivations. Putting aside the question whether or not design or “creative endeavour” should be counted as research, for reasons to do with institutional recognition or reward, the question remains how, if at all, is design research? This question is unlikely to have attracted much interest but for matters external to Architecture within the modern university. But Architecture as a discipline now needs to understand research much better than in the past when ‘research’ was whatever went on in building science, history or people/environment studies. In this paper, I begin with some common assumptions about design, considered in relation to research, and suggest how the former can constitute or be a mode of the latter. Central to this consideration is an understanding of research as the production of publicly available knowledge. The method is that of conceptual analysis which is much more fruitful than is usually appreciated. This work is part of a larger project in philosophy of design, in roughly the analytical tradition.

Bringing Us Home: Cohousing and the Environmental Possibilities of Reuniting People with Neighbourhoods

Cohousing is a form of intentional community which has made a significant contribution to urban environmentalism by recreating the neighbourhood as the setting for engagement with the world beyond the front door.