Visual Research Methods in Architecture

This book offers a distinctive approach to the use of visual methodologies for qualitative architectural research. It presents a diverse selection of ways for the architect or architectural researcher to use their gaze as part of their research practice for the purpose of visual literacy. Its contributors explore and use, “critical visualizations,” which employ observation and socio-cultural critique through visual creations—texts, drawings, diagrams, paintings, visual texts, photography, film, and their hybrid forms—to research architecture, landscape design, and interior architecture. The visual methods intersect with those used in ethnography, anthropology, visual culture, and media studies. In presenting a range of interdisciplinary approaches, Visual Research Methods in Architecture opens up territory for new forms of visual architectural scholarship.

Igea Troiani (PhD) is an architect-filmmaker and professor of architecture at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. She is the coeditor of The Politics of Making and Architecture Filmmaking and founder and editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Architecture and Culture.

Suzanne Ewing is professor of architectural criticism at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, lead editor of Architecture and Field/Work, and coeditor of the journal Architecture and Culture.