What kinds of approaches do architects invent and appropriate to reflect on their ideas outside of traditional design practices? Considering case studies from the 1960s to today, this annotated collection of primary documents presents evidence of experimental venues, methods, and tools that architects have used to research and shape the urgent issues of their time.

Many of these begin as improvisations on traditional forms like conferences, books, and university studios before developing in unexpected directions; examples come from the archives of research-based organisations like IAUS (The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies) who created a “halfway house between school and office”, research consortia like ILAUD (The International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design), the floating Delos Symposia, and other temporary platforms. Together, they reveal how architects can construct a cultural agenda without the intervention of built form.

What kinds of approaches do architects invent and appropriate to reflect on their ideas outside of traditional design practices? Considering case studies from the 1960s to today, this annotated collection of primary documents presents evidence of experimental venues, methods, and tools that architects have used to research and shape the urgent issues of their time.

Many of these begin as improvisations on traditional forms like conferences, books, and university studios before developing in unexpected directions; examples come from the archives of research-based organisations like IAUS (The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies) who created a “halfway house between school and office”, research consortia like ILAUD (The International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design), the floating Delos Symposia, and other temporary platforms. Together, they reveal how architects can construct a cultural agenda without the intervention of built form.