Besides researching by educational means like organizing design and thesis studios, the chair of Design as Politics will also undertake independent research projects, which will also be focused on the relationship between design and politics. The research will focus on a number of current themes that are highly relevant. By doing so, the chair hopes to focus itself on and play a relevant role in the world both outside of the Delft University of Technology and the country.
Who’s The Boss?
The first research theme is the impact the implication of certain political systems – ranging from dictatorships to participative democracies – has on the tool set and potential power of spatial design. Here, it is all about learning to understand the implications these systems impose on the designer, besides developing design strategies that enable said designer to render his views and political agenda operational and executable either within, next to or against the system in force.
In The Ghetto
This second research theme deals with the falling apart of the city into separate groups, economies, spheres and cultures, possibly resulting in unequal opportunities, social tension and crises within city politics and urban design. Although this process of segregation is usually seen as a negative development. However, this segregation can also be looked at positively: it can be considered the product of the emergence of different communities which all shape their surroundings independently and individually. Approached either way, social segregation is a subject that requires two things: an analysis of those aspects of spatial politics that have contributed to this process by accelerating or slowing it down, and the development of new spatial design strategies to cope with the notion of segregation or render it into something positive.
Blame The Architect
The third theme explores the relationship between certain spatial models and the social processes that emergence within them. Views on this matter range from spatial determinism, which states that there is a direct and linear link between the built environment and social developments, and spatial relativism, which denies this connection completely. First and foremost the research is about developing ideas about this issue and the implications of deploying architectural and urbanist means in order to achieve social results. Main body of information to focus on in this field of research are the social uprisings in a number of large cities starting in the ‘60s, and the connections that exist and have been made between social unrest and urban renewal. The last 50 years large urban development plans have been pointed out as cause and panacea for urban violence alternately. Political processes, developments in the fields of architecture and urbanism, social and economical developments and changes in sociology and city geography all play a role in this issue.
Means
Obviously, the research agenda cannot be fully engaged using just the means the chair has to its disposal at the moment. In order to solve this deficiency, other sources of financing will have to be looked for at several levels. Firstly, we are thinking about national and international scholarships for post-graduate students. The chair will actively try to find post-graduate students and collectively look for scholarships by proposing relevant and inspiring research projects that correspond to the themes mentioned above. The possibilities for postgraduate research from an art or design background offered by the new PhDArts program will also play a role in this. Together with institutes, governments and perhaps commercial partners, we will organize research projects, conferences and design projects. At the same time, we are trying to set up research programs with other faculties at the university for which funding can be sought together.
