Sustainable retrofitting: a case study in research led teaching (RLT)

Abstract

The research work reported here describes a project concerning the proposed renovation and retrofitting of a bioclimatic tower in Malaysia though a three day colloquium and charette exercise with students and practitioners. Following the completion of this project it was found that many of the characteristic's of both the activities and the knowledge outcomes during and from this exercise are consistent with what could called a research-led teaching approach (RTL). The paper first defines research led teaching and then describes aspect of the approached used in the project, which have similarities with RTL. Conclusions from this analysis suggest that conventional research processes and methodologies can frame important questions for practice, however often these cannot be resolved easily though conventional methods of architectural SCIence research. RTL, which takes questions from the convention research process and explores these through design, offers a model for future architectural research.