Pierre Boyer-Mercier mène des travaux sur l’habitation, sous l’angle de la sociologie des rapports de voisinage et des modes d’habiter. Il a notamment mené des recherches sur les rapports de voisinage dans l’habitat individuel dense (les rapports d’intimité et à la collectivité), les modes d’habiter dans l’habitat intermédiaire (convivialité/mixité), et les rapports citoyens dans différentes typologies d’habitation. Il s’est également intéressé à l’histoire de la vie privée et aux principes du « nouvel urbanisme ». Ses activités relèvent également du journalisme et de l’édition spécialisée en architecture, étant cofondateur de la revue ARQ/Architecture-Québec.

Il participe aux travaux du groupe de recherche IGNIS, notamment sur la cinquième façade.

Spatialité architecturale du modernisme brésilien

Spatialité du brutalisme

Space Syntax

The research topics which have caught much interest form me are not limited to-

• Measuring and assessing Social Value in architecture.
• Evaluating inclusiveness in the Urban Architecture and Public Realm.
• Investigating Autonomous Building Processes in coastal settlements.
• Autonomy in the built environment, housing, and informal settlements.
• Exploring indigenous building techniques and vernacular architecture.
• Climate change impacts and adaptation.

Current ongoing doctoral research-

Re-evaluating the Social Value of Architecture in the Public Realms through Inclusiveness and Environmental Justice.

The city, precisely the urban area, can be interpreted as “The city in its growth is defined by its artifacts, leaving open many possibilities and containing unexplored potential.” akin to Aldo Rossi in his “architecture of the city”. Alongside, the city can be seen as the product of the generative-functional systems of its architecture, and thus of urban space, where the architecture of the public realms is the treatise of necessity, workability, and quality of the public spaces that connect and engage buildings and other activities, while some may occur on private property, at all scales. However, unfortunately, from “the first city”, "Magical city" to “garden city” all the models have intended for the smooth functioning of the city, as a machine, and mere beautification. After shifting the focus on efficient transportation systems public realms and open areas have lost their qualities and values due to the dominant role of transport. Consequently, they have lost their primary functions of meeting and relationship places. Eventually, architecture is divorced from its function; it is collective memory, a pure, sophisticated formal game. Lately, in the 20th century, a major emphasis has been put on smart cities and environmental sustainability, which has transformed the city of the 21^st century into a city of paradox, more conservation-minded. While busy with all these, professionals have ignored one of the most critical elements of the ‘triple bottom line’ of sustainability, social value. Alongside, people’s social aspects have been neglected during the creation of public realms. Therefore, they have become artificial and isolated. And it has become a burning question "what are the qualities of an inclusive public realm and how to consider it?" An easy answer can be the inclusion of ‘social value’. But the reality is, it is not so easy. Henri Lefebvre first debated people’s rights to the city, where “The right to the city” is a motto. It is not undeniable it is the base of the notion of ‘social value’. However, in the modern era, lately, there has been a shift, and “The city is the people” has led to the issue of the inclusion of common people. Participation of different stakeholders is needed for inclusive urban architecture.

Design value in the built environment is currently understood to be the sum of environmental, economic, and social value. But we can question, argue, and debate with this definition in stating that "A whole is greater than the sum of its parts." While environmental value is generally measured in embodied and operational carbon (sometimes with the addition of biodiversity), there are several recognized methods for measuring economic value. Although architects often do not like to see themselves as an increment of economic gain, they create a huge amount of social value that they very often fail to record or capture. It is noteworthy that, though there are existing practices for measuring economic and environmental value, there are no agreed measures of social value. Until this value is expressed in a format that can be fed into policy and procurement, it will remain invisible, leaving economic and environmental value as the sole dominant currency of built environment transactions.

The major aim of this research is to ensure a collaborative approach through the participation of individuals and different stakeholders for creating social value and a unique identity for the public realm. The specific objectives are:

1. To explore different stakeholders and their roles in designing inclusive public realms.
2. To investigate public realms of diverse urban contexts, for design parameters, from inclusiveness and environmental justice approach both at the neighborhood level and city level.
3. To evaluate these design parameters, collaborating inclusiveness and environmental justice, in different public realms.
4. To develop a ‘social value index’ for inclusive architecture based on the performance of these design parameters.

Dans le cadre de ses projets de recherche, Daniel Pearl explore les questions liées au design interdisciplinaire tant dans ses aspects théoriques que pratiques. Ses études se situent dans une perspective interdisciplinaire, plutôt conventionnelle, plus particulièrement sur l’intersection des domaines de la science du bâtiment et du design architectural dans le but de cerner la façon dont ces deux disciplines se chevauchent et ce, de l’étape conceptuelle à celle de la construction. Cependant, comme une profonde compréhension est nécessaire, tant de l’empreinte écologique que des tenants et des aboutissants du développement urbanistique d’un quartier durable, l’interdisciplinarité doit s’étendre au-delà des domaines de l’ingénierie et de l’architecture.

Un autre volet de ses recherches préconise une ville mixte et compacte, efficace et diversifiée, en d’autres mots, une ville durable. Des communautés plus denses pourraient s’avérer l’une des plus ingénieuses inventions qui soit, particulièrement en raison du fait que les infrastructures vertes peuvent contribuer de manière appréciable à la longévité et à la survie de ces communautés. Par ailleurs, ses recherches interdisciplinaires avec l’ARUC (Alliances de recherche universités-communautés) portent sur la façon dont il est possible d’élaborer « des mégaprojets qui serviraient davantage les communautés et l’ensemble de la ville ». Elles explorent divers exemples de réhabilitation urbaine, tant à Montréal qu’ailleurs au pays et à l’étranger et les expressions architecturales de l’écologie et du développement durable, incluant le processus de conception intégré.

Ces recherches sont en relation directe avec sa pratique à l’OEUF, une agence d'architecture expérimentale qu'il a cofondée en 1992. Parallèlement à ces recherches, il travaille à la rédaction des résultats émanant du forum national interdisciplinaire « Verdir le diplôme ».