In their leader to arq 6/1, the editors quite justifiably express a fear that ‘the gap between lecture theatre and studio will grow ever wider and the schools ever more divorced from practice’. They also acknowledge that ‘of course, it doesn't have to be like that’. In the University of North London architecture school, for example, a research culture of design as research has emerged over the past decade or so. This has been supported by the past Head of School, Helen Mallinson, and continues to be supported by the new Head, Robert Mull, as well as the Vice Chancellor (Research) of the University, Chris Topley. This culture of critical practice affects the studio in a number of direct ways.

This winning design in the 1998 Lichterfelde Süd International Landscape and Urban Design Competition is for the regeneration of a former military training ground on the southern boundary of Berlin. The brief was for a new urbanism of the periphery, with 3200 dwellings on a 115 hectare site. The design is a continuation of research embracing conditions of uncertainty and change on mainly post-industrial or former military sites. It could be described as a fragment of an infrastructural urbanism in preparation for an unpredictable diversity of architectures.

A two stage international landscape and urban regeneration design competition was held last year for the site of a former Brikettfabrik at Witznitz near Borna in the south Leipzig region of Germany. The design of the winning entry was based on architectural, urban and landscape design strategies developed over the past five years. This paper opens with an introduction to these ideas and related theoretical precedents. There follows a description of the project's context and of the design itself.

A concise report about the landform, architectural, and detail design concepts for the recently completed modernisation of the Bishopsfield Housing Estate in Harlow, Essex. The objective was to develop proposals for new interventions which are directly based on, and give emphasis and new life in a contemporary way to the architectural and urban design conceptions of the original architects and town planner.