Rooms, Objects, Archives: Mapping the Thesis
Seminar
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
10:00 am
This event has passed.
This research methods seminar asks students to imagine the structure of a thesis as a building through which one can move. The aim is to spatialise research by placing arguments, archival encounters, anecdotes, objects, images, and methodological questions within different architectural settings. The task invites students to think of the thesis not only as a written sequence, but also as a walk through a constructed space. Proposing an intervention in a specific building — the newly renovated German Historical Institute — students will assign different parts of their research to distinct spatial sites. An entrance lobby might introduce the research question and its atmosphere; a niche may hold an object, fragment, or anecdote; staircases may stage transitions between chapters, scales, or historical periods; corridors may connect sources that at first appear unrelated; and the four library rooms, together with a commons room usually used for receptions and newspapers, may gather documents, citations, images, and theoretical references. A conference room with a splendid screen might serve as the site for a conversation, screening, or symposium. Each site should become a thematic station that gives shape to a particular aspect of the research.
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Architecture PhD
Postgraduate Research
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Contact
Prof Dr Ines Weizman
Professor of History and Theory of Architecture
Head of PhD Programme
School of Architecture
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore, London
SW7 2EU
ines.weizman@rca.ac.uk
School of Architecture, Royal College of Art
Postgraduate Research (PGR) Programme