Non-observational research: A possible future route for knowledge acquisition in architecture and the arts

Book chapter, 2017

In this chapter, the authors develop non-observational research as the equivalent of protected research procedure (PRP). This requires the establishment of forms and procedures of knowledge acquisition that may differ in both resources and use but nonetheless are equivalent to PRP. Research education should include being embedded in a strong research environment, a 'world' in which experienced researchers already act and interact, according to the non-observational research paradigm. While limited to the improvement of observations, the research procedure that was conceived in the 17th century has a number of important and useful properties. Observational research aims at empirically evidencing knowledge that is sufficiently stable and certain to predict phenomena in the world. They have explored what might help protect or rather self-maintain a type of research that should serve as an effective alternative to the type of research referred to as observational research.