Abstract
There's a lot of talk these days about project-based research, far beyond the world of architecture and urban planning. At the same time, the term " design", which in English refers to the practice of project work in all its forms, has become widespread, with design schools now found in management programs and engineering schools, from Stanford University to Paris-Est. Something seems to be at stake in this insistent reference to the project as a research tool in its own right, a tool that would enable the accumulation of transmissible and cumulative knowledge, as required by the criteria defining scientific knowledge. In the case of architecture, the questions raised by project-based research are similar to those raised by the doctoral thesis. Under what conditions, then, can the project be used to gather knowledge that can be accumulated and passed on, particularly through doctorates? The talk will answer this question by examining the definition of this knowledge.
