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College of Architecture
University of Santo Tomas

RESEARCH METHOD FOR ARCHITECTURE

2nd Term AY 2018-2019

LECTURE 1

What is RESEARCH?
• A voyage of discovery; A journey; An attitude; An experience; A method of critical thinking; A careful critical
inquiry in seeking facts for principles.
• An activity caused by instinct of inquisitiveness to gain fresh insight/find answers to questions/ acquire knowledge.
- Everyone does research, but don’t write it up;
- Without trustworthy and tested published research available, we are dangerously lost in the experience,
opinions and hearsay.
• Process of scientific and systematic thinking for pertinent information on a specific topic that leads to the
discovery of new knowledge or truth.
- Based on facts;
- Starts from a complex of problems;
- Free from personal bias or opinion;
- Uses objective measurement
Why RESEARCH?
• To get a degree;
• To get respectability;
• To face a challenge;
• To solve a problem;
• To get intellectual joy;
• To serve the society;

TYPES OF RESEARCH:
1. Fundamental vs Applied
a. Fundamental (Basic or Pure)
• Concerned with generalization and formulation of theory
• Knowledge for knowledge’s sake
• Adds information to the already existing organized body of scientific knowledge.
b. Applied (Practical)
• Needs application to the problem
2. Descriptive vs Analytical
a. Descriptive/Survey
• Survey and fact finding inquiries
• State of affairs as it exists
b. Analytical
• Uses facts or information already available and analyze to make a critical evaluation.
3. Qualitative vs Quantitative Approach
a. Quantitative approach
• Involves quality or kind
• Helps in having insight into problems or cases
• Data are expressed in record symbols (descriptive accounts of observation, interview or written
documents)
b. Qualitative approach
• Measured and expressed in terms of quantity
• Uses data in numerical symbols.
4. Conceptual vs Empirical
a. Conceptual

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• Related to some abstract or theory (for thinkers and Philosophers) to develop new concepts or to
reinterpret existing ones.
• Relies on literature
b. Empirical
• Relies on experience or observation alone, often with out due regard for system and theory
• Capable of being verified by observation or experiment
5. Other types of research
All other types of research are variations of one or more of the above stated approaches, based on either:
i. Purpose of research;
ii. Time required to accomplish research;
iii. Environment in which research is done;
iv. Basis of some other similar factor.
WHAT IS A THESIS?
• Greek word - θέσις meaning “position” and refers to an INTELLECTUAL PROPOSITION
• Report of a scholar upon some piece of research which he has completed;
• Formal and lengthily research paper especially one written in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree.

PROCESS INVOLVED in research:

1. Choosing a subject, selection of a problem, framing of the hypothesis
2. Gathering of materials and/or data
3. Criticizing, evaluating and establishing relationships between and among them and
4. Reporting the facts in a readable form

Choosing a Thesis Subject/Topic

1.1 Identify a general subject area
1.2 Limit and define the topic

CRITERIA IN SELECTING A THESIS Subject/ Topic:

Topic selected within the subject area should be evaluated according to the following criteria
▪ INTERNAL (Researcher)
☺ Interest, intellectual curiosity and drive
☺ Competence – Training and special qualification
☺ Manageable
☺ Resources (finance, time, etc.)
▪ EXTERNAL
☺ Research ability, i.e., amenability (problems having solutions)
☺ Importance/relevance and urgency
1. Significance
2. Timeliness
3. Practical value and implementation - useful
☺ Novelty and originality
☺ Feasibility
1. Availability of data/resources - meet standards of accuracy, objectivity and verifiability
2. Suitability of methodology
3. Cooperation of organizations and individuals
4. Available time
SOURCES where you can find a Thesis Subject/Topic:
o Reading
o Academic experience
o Daily experience
o Exposure to field situations
o Consultations
o Brainstorming
o Research
o Intuition

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DATA
• Facts, figures, enumerations and other materials, past and present serving as basis for study and analysis
• Raw materials

Types of DATA:
A.
1. Personal data (individual as a source)
- Demographic and socio-economic characteristics
- Behavioral variables
i. Attitude, behavior, attitudes
ii. Awareness, preferences, knowledge
iii. Practices, intensions

2. Organizational data (Organizational sources)

- Archives
- Manuscript Library
- Museums
3. Territorial data
- Economic structure, occupation pattern

B.
1. Secondary (Paper method)
- Published and unpublished
2. Primary (Pencil method)
- Record and relics
- Observation
- Experimentation
- Simulation
- Ask people orally and in writing
- Panel study
- Case study

How to prepare a WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY

Begin work in the library to determine how the subject/topic can be shaped and limited with the materials available.
Library resources:
Investigate all the different libraries that you may be able to use such as:
• Libraries of other public and private universities and colleges
• Museum and galleries
• Institutions and government offices
• Businesses in your area
Books and articles that appear to be relevant should be listed systematically, one to a card in a bibliographic format
that will be use for the final draft.
• Internet materials or data may be used but the least. or should be properly screened except for ebooks.
• Use APA form and style.

WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY A4 Bond Paper and can be continuous (depends on how many bibliographical data can fit in
the paper)
Title of publication:
Subject matter:
Author(s):
Publication data:
Publisher:
Brief statement of the information useful:

Place where the publication is available:

Title of publication:
Subject matter:
Author(s):
Publication data:
Publisher:
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Brief statement of the information useful:
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TYPES AND KINDS OF SOURCES:

A. UNWRITTEN SOURCES

1. Oral Tradition
• Ballads
• Anecdotes
• Tales
• Saga
2. Artistic Productions
• Historical paintings
• Portraits
• Scientific sculptures
• Coin types
3. Relics and Unconscious Testimony
• Human remains
• Language
• Institutions
• Products of the hands
• Implements
• Fine arts
4. Literary Materials

B. WRITTEN SOURCES
1. PRIMARY SOURCES
- Firsthand written evidence of history made at the time of the event by someone who was present.
- Provide researchers with "direct, unmediated information about the object of study."
- Usually authoritative and fundamental documents concerning the subject under consideration.
- Includes published original accounts, works, or research - not previously published elsewhere.
- are basic materials with little or no annotation of editing
- Original documents or the first record of any fact or event.
- One yielding data with are ultimate in their nature and which constitute irreducible facts regarding a particular
subject.
- Best and purest

They include:
1.1 Experimentation
1.2 First hand investigation – interview and questionnaire
1.3 Doctoral dissertations and monographs in professional journals
1.4 Letters, diaries and autobiographies
1.5 Original creative work in art and literature
1.6 Reports of governments and their agencies, national, state, country, provincial and
Municipal
1.7 Annual reports of research foundation, universities and corporations.
1.8 Newspapers
• Artifacts (e.g. coins, plant specimens, fossils, furniture, tools, clothing, all from the time under study);
• Audio recordings (e.g. radio programs);
• Internet communications on email;
• Interviews (e.g., oral histories, telephone, e-mail);
• Journal articles published in peer-reviewed publications;
• Letters;
• Newspaper articles written at the time;
• Original Documents (i.e. birth certificate, will, marriage license, trial transcript);
• Patents;
• Photographs;

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• Proceedings of meetings, conferences and symposia;

• Records of organizations, government agencies (e.g. annual report, treaty, constitution, government
document);
• Speeches;
• Survey Research (e.g., market surveys, public opinion polls);
• Video recordings (e.g. television programs);
• Works of art, architecture, literature, and music (e.g., paintings, sculptures, musical scores, buildings,
novels, poems);
• Website
2. SECONDARY SOURCES
- Finished products manufactured from the various raw ingredients listed above.
- Written discussion of such material
- Written accounts of history based upon the evidence from primary sources.
- Accounts, works, or research that analyze, assimilate, evaluate, interpret, and/or synthesize primary sources.
- Not as authoritative and are supplemental documents concerning the subject under consideration.
- Most often they are prepared by the same person
They include:
2.1 Summaries
2.2 Popularization based on the information gathered from the firsthand sources
2.3 Most books of factual information offered to the general reading public
• Bibliographies (also considered tertiary);
• Biographical works;
• Commentaries, criticisms;
• Dictionaries, Encyclopedias (also considered tertiary);
• Histories;
• Journal articles (depending on the disciple can be primary);
• Magazine and newspaper articles (this distinction varies by discipline);
• Monographs, other than fiction and autobiography;
• Textbooks (also considered tertiary);
• Web site (also considered primary).

3. TERTIARY SOURCES
- Compilations based upon primary and secondary sources.
- Consist of generalized research of a specific subject under consideration.
- Analyzed, assimilated, evaluated, interpreted, and/or synthesized from secondary sources, also.
- These are not authoritative and are just supplemental documents concerning the subject under consideration.
- Often meant to present known information in a convenient form with no claim to originality.
- But because of their simplified treatment, concise entries and broad coverage, they become classics of their kind
and hence acceptable reference tools.
• Textbooks (also considered secondary)
• Almanacs;
• Bibliographies (also considered secondary);
• Chronologies;
• Dictionaries and Encyclopedias (also considered secondary);
• Directories;
• Fact books;
• Guidebooks;
• Indexes, abstracts, bibliographies used to locate primary and secondary sources;
• Manuals
Note:
• Best sources of materials and data are those falling under the category of primary source.
• Conclusions derived from the primary sources are the most reliable and valid having been based from
information as close as possible to the actual phenomenon under investigation.

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PRIMARY SECONDARY TERTIARY

DEFINITIONS - Contain raw, original, Digest, analyze, Compile, analyze, and
sources uninterpreted and evaluate and interpret digest secondary
unevaluated the information sources.
information. contained within primary They tend to be factual.
sources.
They tend to be
argumentative.

TIMING OF Tend to come first in Tend to come second in Tend to come last in
PUBLICATION the publication cycle. the publication cycle. the publication cycle.
CYCLE
FORMATS -depends Often newspapers, Often scholarly Often reference books.
on the kind of analysis weekly and monthly- periodicals and books.
being conducted. produced magazines; (Professors like these.)
letters, diaries.
Original charts located at http://library.uncwil.edu/is/infocycle.htm

PRIMARY SECONDARY TERTIARY

biography (only if it's describing abstracts
biography (only if it's on an a biography--not an bibliography
autobiographical record) autobiography bio-bibliography
cases criticism and interpretation chronology
correspondence history classification
description and travel history and criticism dictionaries
diaries government policy encyclopedias
fiction law and legislation directories
interview moral and ethical aspects encyclopedias
personal narrative political aspects guidebooks
pictorial works politics and government handbooks, manuals, etc.
poetry psychological aspects identification
short stories public opinion indexes
religion registers
religious aspects statistics
social policy index
study and teaching tables

From the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBDIVISIONS

The above classifications may be grouped as:

Documents or reports of events
• Legislative acts such as constitutions, laws, charters,
• Court decisions
• Executive and other official records
➢ Board Proceedings
➢ Minutes
➢ Reports and orders
➢ Reports of committees including recommendation for executive actions
➢ Proceedings of deliberate bodies
➢ Reports of Commissions
➢ Reports of survey
➢ Courses of Study
➢ Catalogue, prospectus, brochures, advertisements
Newspaper and periodicals
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➢ Articles
➢ Notices
➢ Advertisements
Personal Materials
➢ Autobiographies, memoirs, reminiscence and biographies
➢ Annals and histories written by actors in the events narrated
➢ Letters
➢ Legal instruments conferring powers upon individuals
Certificates, diplomas
➢ Legal instruments executed by individuals in personal capacity, contracts, wills and deeds
➢ Lecture notes
Historical Data
➢ Remains of relics which are physical objects of historical value
➢ Archaeological/geological remains
➢ Works of art

What exactly does CRITICAL THINKING mean?

Research or reading context -
o Means not considering any view as "truth" simply because a source has been published or seems to be an
expert.
o Requires to maintain some objectivity and ask questions to as you read (or watch or listen).
o REFER TO CRITICAL THINKING EXERCISE

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adeva, Jose Arias. Research and Thesis Writing. University Book Supply, Manila. 1974.
Aquino, Gaudencio V. Fundamentals of Research. National Book Store, Mandaluyong City. 1992
Calderon, Jose F., ed. D. and Expectation C. Gonzales. Methods of Research and Thesis
Writing. National Book Store. Mandaluyong City. 1993.
Critical Reading Exercise. ICCROM-CCI course on Reducing Risks to Collections, ICCROM, Italy. 2004.
Sanchez, C.A. Methods and Techniques of Research. Rex Book Store and Custodia A. Sanchez. 1986.
Sevilla, Consuelo G., Jesus A. Ochave, Twilla G. Punsalan, Bella P. Regala, and Gabriel G. Uriarte. Researh
Methods, Rev. Ed. , Rex Book Store, Quezon City. 1992.

Malinowski Zack, Connie. So you have to do a Research Project? Cole Junior High in East Greenwich , RI, research
html. October 2007
Sridhar, M S. Research Methodology. ISRO Satellite Center, Bangalore. India. sridharmile@yahoo.com, November 5,
2008, 5:00 pm.
http://www.princeton.edu/~refdesk/primary2.html. October 24, 2008, 2:09 pm
http://departments.kings.edu/history/sources.html. October 24, 2008, 2:20pm
http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/primary-sources.html. October 24, 2008, 2:30 pm
http://www.dvc.edu/library/libweb/primary_and_secondary_sources.htm. October 24, 2008, 2:50 pm

Prepared by:

AR. CLARISSA L. AVENDAÑO

February 2019

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