Architectural Ethnography and Case Study

(COPYRIGHT © 2009 MIKAEL POWELL. All Rights Reserved)
Wolcott (1997) says that the use of ethnographic techniques alone does not make an ethnography. Ethnography is the sum of the parts – it is both process and product and they are employed to give a robust and complete picture of a way of life.
For my work in evaluating the influence of architecture on individual learning outcomes, there is a big difference between the use of ethnographic techniques such as in a case study and ethnography.
Case study -The manner of case studies of architectural facilities vary and so the determination of a successful one is transitive. I believe that A Case Study should highlight a process which: identifies values, sets programmatic objectives, develops the architectural design, guides through construction, and formally assesses whether objectives have been realized and the values have been supported. Please see the attached graphic. If I was conducting a case study of a new University building the manner of research might occur as illustrated. For instance, consider the following variables:
Major Value – school is being renovated to increase learning proficiency.

Objective - Jetson (2012) says daylighting increases achievement by boosting each student’s attentiveness, therefore students must be subjected to 50% more daylight.

Architects designs skylights in classrooms and administers building construction contract.

Formal assessment documents skylight installation and proper functioning. Formal assessment verifies that student attentiveness is boosted 50% and learning proficiency has increased.

An ethnography would be quite different. MIT was the first school of architecture in America. Its archives have student projects and biographies of students and professors from the late 19th century. The majority of existing university buildings in the US were constructed just after that era (the early 20th century). Therefore discovering the way of life that was the impetus for the educational facilities that we ‘inherit’ would enrich our understandings of the spaces that we continue to inhabit. An historic ethnography would be conducted in a way far less linear than the case study method. (See figure 2.) Perhaps it would follow the progress of one student through architecture school at that time into an architectural practice that designs university buildings or perhaps it will focus on the deveopement of the MIT campus from the inception of the architecture school to the early 20th century.
(COPYRIGHT © 2009 MIKAEL POWELL. All Rights Reserved)