Building Material: UCD Research As Is Seminar Series

The primary aim of the series is to promote critical thinking and discussion between related disciplines at research, professional and post-graduate level. The seminar series was designed to provide a forum for the advancement and acknowledgement of the very valuable research currently being undertaken at this level. Each session provides an opportunity for airing of new ideas and approaches, wherein the value of diversity, particularly as it occurs in thematic approaches, perspectives, interpretations and methods, is recognised. The provision of such a forum has already begun to establish a sense of character, presence and communal scholarship within the postgraduate and research network in architecture and related disciplines. 

Each year the seminars are broadly addressed under an overarching theme. The theme of the 2009 calendar year was “Fieldwork”, whilst that of the 2010 seminar series is the same as the title of our research community, “Research As Is?”1 . As a theme, it is to be considered in its widest possible sense.

It can epitomise the state-of-play of personal research, encapsulate, interrogate or broaden accepted disciplinary boundaries, address ideas of interaction, introduce processes and methods or describe aims and aspirations within a field or across fields. Essentially, the aim is to promote research and ideas by providing an informal forum for presentation and discussion, and by creating a strong “research community” with a range of diverse interests and background. Generally, the majority of presentations are largely concerned with works in progress, rather than completed bodies of work, although this is not a stipulation for participation.

The website related to the seminars is a platform for further discussion on the subjects presented and will have latest news on conferences, symposiums and calls for papers that might be relevant for the participants’ research.

All interested participants welcome. For further information see the researchasis website - www.researchasis.webs.com - or contact one of the organisers:

Fiona Smyth: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Elizabeth McNicholas: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address);

Agustina Martire: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Mariana Francis: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)