Human Factors and Architectural Research Methods 407/507

This Scholars' Bank collection contains research papers by Human Factors and Architectural Research Methods 407/507 students. These students study at the Portland Center Architecture Program in Portland, Oregon and are at varying levels of educational development. Students use this course as a vehicle to define their terminal project concepts, or to research elements of site, design, theory and culture.

Students study various architectural research methods over the quarter. These include modeling, historical, qualitative, correlational and experimental methods. Students use one or more of these methods to frame their arguments for their papers.

Students bring ideas that thoughtfully criticize how our architecture reflects our society. Each student shapes a topic of their own choosing, researches it, outlines the issues, and writes, then re-writes their arguments and conclusions. Some papers question who we are as a culture, specifically looking at how we have developed our cities and countryside. Other papers study how we construct our buildings, or more precisely, how we can better construct our buildings. Some papers even question how we make architects.

Students in this class are concerned with the contemporary world influences they will face as architects. Their papers describe ideas of how to influence the world in return.