Analysis of PhD and Master thesis in Design from the Lisbon School of Architecture
Supervisor: Rita Almendra
This research project concerns the systematic analysis of every PhD and Master thesis in Design from the Lisbon School of Architecture. The project contemplates the analysis of master thesis as well but begins by looking into the PhD thesis. The PhD course in design began in 2006 and since then (as of April 2019) there were 103 successfully defended theses.
The project stems from prior research done by Prof. Rita Almendra under the project ERD (Education and Research in Design — Content, methodologies and didactics) that led to the creation of the research group REDES. Also, the more than 10 years of teaching experience in the design course was characterised by a continuous close engagement with PhD candidates in the formulation of their research proposals; this iterative process with the students lead to deep reflection, critical questioning of the course, and specific interventions to improve the student’s development of their research proposals.
From this reflection emerged the need to conduct a systematic analysis of the completed PhD thesis in design and hence this project was developed and put in motion.
An analytical tool was developed to conduct the study and ensure consistency in data collection and analysis. Furthermore, an additional benefit of using a tool that consistently provides the same type of data is the ongoing development of a database containing the data collected from all the analysis. Such a database opens up the possibility of meta-analysis.
A detailed description of procedures can be found in Almendra & Ferreira (2019) — see list of related publications below.
Objectives
- Describe the kind of research being conducted at the Lisbon School of Architecture;
- Disclose promising lines of research emerging from the completed thesis;
- Highlight relevant findings for practice, education or research;
- Identify topics or objects of study that have been investigated by multiple research projects/thesis (i.e. potential emerging areas of expertise);
- Aggregate references according to research topic;
- Identify weaknesses in the research processes;
- Identify and disseminate important research results;
- Dissemination of the resulting database and the methodology used to create it;
Specific objectives
- A meta-analysis of the research being conducted at the Lisbon School of Architecture’s PhD in design course;
- Development of a database containing the analysis.
Publications (ongoing):
Almendra & Ferreira, (2019) An analysis framework for PhD thesis in Design. The Research & Education in Design Conference REDES2019 proceedings, Lisbon School of Architecture, Lisbon.