Come to the conclusion that the question “what is your thesis?” Is the wrong one to ask students of architecture. Architecture projects aren’t illustrations of an idea or a principle. They are ideas in themselves.

This is mainly a point about post graduate architectural teaching where projects - especially final year ones - are meant to encapsulate a position or articulate an answer to a question. Wrongly, I think on the whole.

This might be a reason why so much architectural theory (especially of the appropriated from other theory kind) is so dead. It is not post rationalisation so much as pre rationalisation. Trying to justify what you’ve done even before you’ve done it.

Somewhere in this might be a slight fear of design itself. The idea that it is somehow a little decadent unless instrumentalised towards a very direct, justifiable outcome.

Side point: this is not a moan about theory or a plea for more practical training (though I think the latter point is worth discussing as it is very defensively framed by both teachers and practitioners). I love theory or at least i love a lot of writing about architecture.

Final point: research is a project in itself. So while it is present in design, design is also present in research. So this isn’t about valuing one over the other but maybe about recognising some differences in how we might think, work, create etc.