Architects as Public Intellectuals: How Far Beyond Can We Go?

Editorial Summary The research of Hannah Knoop is methodologically based on political theory, extended by fundamental methods of art history and the humanities. The starting point of her work is the presumption that the work on the design, the architectural activity, also inherits an intellectual dimension and that both the architect as a person understands, and represents the challenge, expectation, and dimension of the so-called intellectuality, as well as that the public grants her this quality. She observes that the quantitative research method in political science is based on three principles: contextuality, processuality, and reflexivity; terms that are quite familiar within the discipline of architecture and which have corresponding connotations. In doing so, she stresses that a critical examination and constant review of this transfer from an established research science to the architectural research field is essential. [Ferdinand Ludwig]