In the „End of the Avant-Garde“ issue, wbw came up with the question of what conceptual aims „radical practice“ can (still) pursue today. Ever since the culture industry discovered the market value of architecture as a popular medium, its „critical“ potentials seem to be diminishing. Is this a loss or a challenge? When it comes to building the future, new technologies and other players seem to do rather better than architecture. Could architecture in fact start to be an innovative supplier, or is it obliged to extend its own radius of action aggressively? Architects tend to be increasingly marginalized as anonymous trustees of information - or even reduced to the status of economic proles. If we look at the responsibility and the glamour that are accorded to other consultancy services today, the economic value of specialist architectural knowledge seems to be rather slight. „Research in the office“ records six different sets of research, most of which are linked with design projects. As guest editors, Ilka and Andreas Ruby have examined hybrid working methods in which architecture really does abandon its traditional sovereign territory. Thus is this issue research - which has long been fertile ground for the formation of academic theories - is discussed as a strategic complement to current professional practice. The key feature of the research in „Studio Basel“ presents a companion piece to its protagonists' professional work: Roger Diener, Jacques Herzog, Marcel Meili and Pierre de Meuron, who are currently sharing a design chair at the ETH, are for once not addressing the architectural object. They are using the medium of empirical investigation to explore essential features of Swiss territory. Leaving aside any design approach, Studio Basel instrumentalizes the point of view taken by transport planning, geography and demographics to question traditional perceptions and role distributions. This issue does not provide any comprehensive programme, and definitely not a manifesto, but rather a range of different analyses and possible action resources. Ilka and Andreas Ruby show how interest in theoretical insights always emerges against the background of certain commissions and professional situations. Seen in this way, research practice is no detached speculation: it secures the right to occupy architectural terrain.
André Bideau