Environmental design research in the social and political context: Design for research: The U.S. army corps of engineers architectural research plan

The Volunteer Army concept has been the impetus for many serious examinations of the quality of military life. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers architectural research is one such examination aimed at improving the current process of facility planning, design, construction, and maintenance for military installations. The research, in part, is a response to apparent inadequacies in the state-of-the-art in architectural design. Currently, the profession of architecture is not accountable for the social and, to a large extent, the behavioral consequences of its decisions. The profession does not have the comprehensive, well defined operating principles or evaluation guidelines necessary to be made accountable. It is the position of the Military Construction Directorate of the Office of the Chief of Engineers that increased architectural accountability through more comprehensive, clearly defined criteria prescription methods, operating procedures for design, and design evaluation techniques is necessary for good quality control in design administration. Three unique characteristics of the Corps Research Program discussed in the paper are: 1. The program exists in direct support of a complex management system that is responsible for approximately one billion design and construction dollars per year in support of military installations all over the world; 2. The program is a mix of criteria development and communication research and studies in design methods, simulation, and assessment; and 3. The program embodies theory-based research and development and context related problem solving that are immediately applicable. The discussion of the characteristics is clarified in the paper with an explanation of the military context and statements of research bias particularly related to the development of research problem statements. Given these qualifications, the paper describes the research organization and provides a technical objectives summary of selected individual work units.