observing other repositories
Ideas for an information storehouse is not new. They are always around in severals forms such as libraries, archives, collections, databases, blogs and other methods of content collation imaginable. This observation concentrates on a selection of found silos and statements of proposals which by existence are foundations of design practices. By their creation, these have substantiated research projects to have resulted in a type of work produced. With more and more material disseminated on-line, a physical repository is giving way to the digital. Being a relative new territory of engagement its various available formats are just about unfolding. This view is merely a result of lack of available information, as in not much work is present describing an engagement of sorts with curated content. Those found as this list are essentially gathered by chance and patterns found in them to generate a discussion. If the existing methods of research such as magazines, journals, and books was dismantled for a moment, the repository is a concentrated effort to locate interest or work done on a subject which then can be built on if made available. All from the list are in their early development. The interest in observation is how the relationship between the collection displayed and nature of work done by the practice. Getting on to the list _
Most evolved of the series is the rotor database that was initially a well-published materials inventory. Over time, this information evolves into a business aka rotor deconstruction which now “dismantles and sells reusable materials from quality buildings undergoing transformation or demolition”.
Unlike the rotor collective, 100 architects is a relatively new design practice and specializes in street architecture and urban interventions. 100 endorsed assembles a collection of projects from different practices which have or are doing similar work.
Biothing presents itself as a repository but acts more like a portfolio, at least for the moment. Code links and extended resources added over time should build the space over time as per its aspired mandate. To observe in the case is that the space also becomes a teaching tool via a record of previous engagements.
Design practices Smout Allen are primarily academic with an identified trajectory of participating in architectural competitions to either build a new basis for investigations or test out agendas and methods of ongoing work. British Exploratory Land Archive as project proposal requests the creation of a depository of human-altered landscapes in Britain.
Documenting work of institution faculty as a singular but distinct publication task at Bartlett Design Research Folios showcasing a wide range of subjects selected and approaches of current architectural research, each folio “focuses on a single project, offering an in-depth visual and textual description of its research questions, methods, and outcomes.”
Building Craft Lab envisions to “generate, amalgamate, catalog and disseminate resources related to Indian Crafts and Traditional and Vernacular Built Habitat”. Project is a result of the collective participation of researchers from Design Innovation and Craft Resource Centre CEPT University, and various experts.
Between the six warehouses, of sorts, three are private projects, one a proposal and the last two institutional efforts to amalgamate research interests. A duality of benefiting both the agency and those referring the space at large is a driver for staging, sustaining most of these. Subject specialty of the sites presented partially suggests an inclination towards an aspiration in specialty instead of an all-encompassing depot one is familiar with. Ideally, availability of content should generate interest and facilitate a contribution in building these sites further. A failure to develop also could mark these exercises as pointers in subject interests which have obsessed different agencies over time. After an adequate gestation period, these introductory ideas needs an impact review, assessing its impending future as a legitimate tool in knowledge construction.