The Importance of Implementing Empirical Knowledge in Architectural Education: The Case of Technical & Professional University of Qom

designing upon knowledge produced by research has always been a matter of challenge among designers and design theorists. Artistic-based design thinking insists on intuition as well as tacit knowledge while scientific-oriented mode of design is conceived as dependent on explicit knowledge. Here two obstacles which prevents design field from fully embracement of experimental and research-based knowledge into design are discussed: first, the idea that vast expansion of design problem makes creativity too restricted. Here some new researches which show contrary results towards this conception are presented and ethical responsibility of the profession for quality of life of users is mentioned. The second matter is usability of explicated knowledge in the design process. For this subject to be studied, after a theoretical review, an experimental design method proposed by the authors is described. What Zeisel (after Krobkin) proposed for kinds of information in the design process is followed in this research. He puts knowledge in two categories upon their usage for the designers so it is not seen as matter of variety of the knowledge itself but as its modes of use: 1. Image information and 2. Test information. Based on an action research method a full-semester program of design studio of first year students was intended to explore that how such kinds of information about real user can be produced and how can be applied in the design process. A four stage program was finally applied: 1. Emergency shelter for one-month staying after earthquake for your family; 2. Personal space for a summer afternoon; 3. A two-person home in an old courtyard and 4. A house for your family. The first three ones were seen as preparatory steps for introduction of various kinds of user needs (physical as well as psychological ones) while the last was intended to be an experiment of Zeisel’s proposal in a semi-real project for students. At first stage students were asked to study their own family attitudes about home-design; this was done via questionnaires and behavioral maps and discussion of results in some studio sessions along with some small-scale design assignment for insertion of the resulted information and criteria for design. In these assignments the main aspect of using information was ‘idea’ one (in terms of Krobkin). For instance the form of living room was to be determined by usual kind of family sittings, their orientation, social connectivity of living room and bedrooms, etc. that all were extracted from behavioral maps or the same matter about entrance that was to be extracted from questionnaires. In the final stage, students were asked to select exactly four criteria from analyzed information for judgment of their final design. These were intended as explicated ‘test’ information (in Krobkin’s terms). The results of qualifying selected criteria and final designs upon these criteria were discussed. The main finding of this study is that Krobkin’s division of information usage is an appropriate tool for research-based design not only in the architectural education, but also in the real design process, as well.