INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE
RCAT
RESEARCH CENTRE
FOR ARCHITECTURE
AND TECTONICS
The Research Centre for Architecture and Tectonics (RCAT), established as a formalised centre for re-
search production in 2011, investigates architecture through the notion of performance and in terms of
its tectonic manifestation – the interface between technology and social habits of practice. RCAT was
founded with a mission to develop architectural research to include the frame of traditional research
output (peer-review articles and the like) and to find ways of combining such production with architec-
tural research by design. Emphasis is placed on the transition from the conceptual to the physical and
to engage the best competence in education and practice. This involves scaled and full-scale physical
construction as a central activity to generate knowledge, research enquiries that everyday practice
and general industries involved in the making of the built environment often cannot pursue in a feasible
manner. RCAT seeks therefore to collaborate extensively with practice and industry.
Two areas of research investigation exist within the institute of architecture outside RCAT. First, a long
tradition of high-quality and experimental teaching at the institute has been concerned with artistic
research within architecture, developed through the B3 Architecture Masters Studio. Second, a major
question within the Norwegian context, as others, in the coming years will revolve around housing. PhD
projects described in this section include those conducted within RCAT and those conducted outside the
centre concerning the development of artistic research relating to architectural practice and concerning
interdisciplinary questions of housing and urbanism.
