Dearest Wolfgang, Lynch's many books are part of our curriculum in Theory of Architecture, which I teach every year at the graduate level. The image of the city is both excellent and literally inevitable in my course. Little has been done, that I know, in asking the community to express itself in the process of urban planning. Other books by Lynch are included in my syllabus: Wasting Away (posthumously published), is also essential in examining urban waste management, as well as the very definition of "waste". Also his A Theory of Good City Form. My personal favorite is his splendid What Time is this Place?, a book which is deep in insight and quite fun to read. Lynch's Image of the City has the virtue of clarity of speech and purpose. He spreads enthusiasm among architects-to-be, and is still a paradigmatic book on trying to make our cities more livable not just from the distanced view of city planners (as Henri Lefebvre has famously written about and strongly criticized in his Writings on Cities), but from the bottom up. Lynch wants something deemed outrageous by most planners: he wants us to love the city where we live. Wow! Ergo... who among my colleagues and students does not love and study Lynch? Thank you for the suggestion!!!

Warm regards, Lilliana

Some of these might be what you are looking for. Several of the articles in Tringham's two volumes deal with villages or structures in the landscape and how the landscape can affect this layout. Other than books on architectural identification and construction, I'm afraid I'd have to delve into my filing cabinets to find anything more!

Dear James, I have a huge bibliography, and personal library, on the subjects you mention. I am looking for how to integrate community opinion in thesis research. There is little of this in architecture materials, sad to say... I believe you are right on the spot to suggest ethnographic work that usually includes in situ interviews with people. I had not thought of that, and your suggestions are very valuable for issues on landscape and vernacular architecture "without architects". :-)

I know you are usually busy, but if you have time, more suggestions along this line will be great. I have until late July to prepare the new syllabus for my graduate theory course.

Have you read Pierre Bourdieu's essay on the Berber house? If you have not, I will look it up and send it to you. It is a great sociological essay on house form and local myth in present-day Berbería.

I will search for the books you suggest.

Thank you!!! Warm regards, Lilliana

A little something in this from our local "big city".

Dear Maryam, thank you for your generosity. Grout & Wang's is the standard text of my graduate course on research techniques. I have used it since the first edition was published, and the results in class have been very good. The challenge has come from students who want to go deeper into qualitative research in specific projects that I my self find excellent, but that need more that the space Grout & Wang devote to that part of their book.

I will look into the other title you suggest because the idea of integrating diverse methods is probably what will be best in architecture and urbanism, areas that are already rife with debate on what is the best method of research.

I am very grateful for your suggestions. :-)

Best regards, Lilliana

Dear Liliana: 

Perhaps You already know these two articles, but I send them, just in case You didn't...:

http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/2033/203314885010.pdf

http://www2.ucsg.edu.ec/dmdocuments/AUC-31.pdf

Dear Lilliana

If you havent already seen it my book The Language of Space might give you  ideas about the range of possibilities.  It also has an extensive bibliography that might add some to your own.  It is detailed on my page here.

I think my latest publication might interest you too.  It is of course top of hte list of publications on my page here.  It is about The Quality of Place and Wellbeing.  It is a chapter in anew very extensive book from Oxford University Press called The Oxford Textbook of Creative Arts, Helath and Wellbeing which was published earlier this year.  It has about 50 chapters written by differnet contributors on that general theme.  Much in there is about fine art and performed art and their impact on wellbeing.  My chapter concentrates on the Qulaity of Place, which is your theme I think.  I dwells particularly on  healthcare places and education places where we are beginning to build up an extensive literature much of it using empirical reseerach techniques.  My group prepared a bibligraphy of research into the impact of the designed envirnment on health outcomes and quality of life in hosptials and other healthcare buildings.  There are now probably around 3000 publications in the list.

Unfortuantely because this most recent publication is only just out, not surprsiingly OUP will not allow copies to be posted here as they need to sell books!  However there are many other publications of mine with texts supplied on my page here that might help if this field interests you.

good luck

Dear Bryan, tank you for this suggestion. I will look your publications up immediately and go into Oxford U Press to read about the book.

Yeah!

Warm regards, Lilliana

Gracias, Jorge! Pude bajar el artículo y ya marqué la revista. Ambas cosas son my interesantes. :-)

Fuerte abrazo, Lilliana

Yes, dear friend! What you describe is happening in Berlin neighborhoods is quite "it". :-) My German is just the titles of Bertolt Brecht's plays, no kidding... I will appreciate your help in whatever form.

Warm regards, Lilliana 

Hello,

Although you asked for texts on space and understanding urban places, you also requested advice on research methodology. 

To that may I suggest, 

• Design Research Methods, by Peter Downtown
• Architectural Research Methods, by Linda Groat & Peter Wang

Hope those help in relation to the qualitative research methods in our field.

Kind Regards,

TJM

Dear Tane, thank for your generous advice. I use Grout and Wang as course text book since the first edition came out. But I will look into Downrown's book.

Best regards, Lilliana

My book 'RIGATOPIA' describes (among other things, such as the structure of the 'planning discourse' in general) an approach to the assessment of environmental design -- e.g. specifically downtown urban areas  -- based on the concepts of 'occasion' and 'image',  in the form of 'tavern discussions'.  Papers -- e.g. in past EDRA conference proceedings or posted on Academia.edu (no time to post them on RG yet) describe application specifics.

"Methods of evaluation of landscapes" by Fadel Djamel.Besides, there is a very interesting discussion of RG community.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289345915_METHODS_OF_EVALUATION_OF_LANDSCAPES_-_LES_METHODES_D%27EVALUATION_DES_PAYSAGES

Method METHODS OF EVALUATION OF LANDSCAPES - LES METHODES D'EVALUAT...

Thank you, dear Michael! I have Crysler's book and I have enjoyed it a lot. I have shared some of its essays with my students in the past few years with success. I have not used it in the last three or four years. Maybe I should return to it.

Best regards, Lilliana

Dear Ana, I just downloaded the document. I know some Portuguese, I think I will try to read it with a dictionary. You are most kind. Thank you!!!

Best regards, Lilliana

Dear Irina, I just started reading dear Fadel's excellent articlle on landscape description. I am sure it will be most helpful. I am so happy to have it!

Warm regards, dear friend!!!

Lilliana

Thank you, Thorbjoern, I saw it on Amazon. Tried to find some of the papers in Academia. edu. I will look into it.

Best regards, Lilliana

Dear Lilliana Ramos-Collado

I send you as an attached file a magister thesis carried out in Algeria in the Bardo. The manuscript is written in French. I hope that answers your questions.

Regards

Fadel

Hi Liliana,

See Groat and Wang, Architectural Research Methods.

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470908556.html

Best,

Kristine

I can suggest two important books that I worked on: Joe Feagin, Anthony Orum and Gideon Sjoberg, editors, A Case for the Case Study (1991), plus Anthony Orum and Zachary Neal, editors, Common Ground: Readings and Reflections on Pubic Space. The first book has been very influential, having been cited about 1,500 times so I think you would find it useful.

Have a look at this and links https://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/category/cityx-rays/

Flyvbjerg, Bent. 2004. “Phronetic Planning Research: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections.” Planning Theory & Practice 5 (3): 283–306. doi:10.1080/1464935042000250195. ———. 2006. “Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research.” Qualitative Inquiry 12 (2): 219–45. doi:10.1177/1077800405284363. ———. 2011. Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again. Cambridge University Press. Flyvbjerg, Bent, Todd Landman, and Sanford Schram. 2012. Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.

Dear Gary! I just loved the city x-rays. Thank you VERY  much. :-)

Lilliana

Dear Niklaas, thank you for the references. I already located "Making Social Science matter". I will be looking into the other references too. Phronetics seem very interesting.

Best regards, Lilliana

Dear Lilliana, I am writing my masters' thesis about it. In case you need further references, feel free to contact me.

If you read Portuguese, there are small articles from prof. Mario Kruger.

This is some of them:

Kruger, Mario (1980), "O Ensino e a Aprendizagem da Arquitectura: Necessidade da sua Renovação", Projecto, 23, 11-14.

http://www.uc.pt/fctuc/darq/editorial/e_darq/debaixo_de_telha/ecdj_revistas (magazine nº 5)

Kruger, Mário (2005), "Leslie Martin e a Investigação em Arquitectura", Ar. Cadernos da Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, 6, 96-103.

Dear Sérgio, my portuguese is more or less ok. I managed to read the note. Thank you for sharing it with me!!!

Best regards, Lilliana

Hi Liliana,

I wanna recommend two methods I used in my PhD-project:

1. Walking interviews, which are attentive to materialities and situated practices.

Evans, J. und P. Jones (2011): The walking interview: Methodology, mobility and place. In: Applied Geography 31 (2), 849-858.

Kusenbach, M. (2003): Street Phenomenology: The Go-Along as Ethnographic Research Tool. In: Ethnography 4 (3), 455-485.

2. Participatory photo-interviews, which offer privileged access to materialities, memories and atmospheres.

Kolb, B. (2008): Involving, Sharing, Analysing - Potential of the Participatory Photo Interview. In: Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 9 (3, Art. 12). http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803127.

Harper, D. (2002): Talking about pictures: A case for photo elicitation. In: Visual Studies 17 (1), 13-26.

Another interesting approach:

Christmann, Gabriela B. (2008). The Power of Photographs of Buildings in the Dresden Urban Discourse. Towards a Visual Discourse Analysis [29 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(3), Art. 11, http://nbnresolving. de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803115.

I think those methods perfectly fit MA courses and offer a lot for collaborative and interactive research.

Best,

Moritz

Dear Moritz!!!! What splendid ideas! I will immediately get these references. Thank you!!!!

Best regards, Lilliana

Yes.  First, I would recommend The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.  Secondly, Archicture: The Natural and the Manmade.  The first book, though fiction, will give awareness and consideration to various factors that an architect must either take into consideration when designing a project, ignore, or comprimise to go from concept to design.  The second book underpins design into the environment. 

Bill Harrill 

I find very suggestive "The New York Nobody Knows. Walking 6000 Miles in the City", by William B. Heimreich ( Princeton U.P., 2013), a book that follow Benjamins's and de Certeau's explorations on the city, buy making a big scale approach.

Please check:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18626033.2006.9723363

AND

Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. L. (2016). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource.