Roles of externalisation activities in the design process

Designers engage in various activities, dealing with different materials and media to externalise and represent their form ideas. This paper presents a review of design research literature regarding externalisation activities in design process: sketching, building physical models and digital modelling. The aim has been to review research on the roles of media and representations in design processes, and highlight knowledge gaps and questions for future research.

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A Methodology for Architecture Theory and Practices Research: Design Practices Evaluation Studio

European Journal of Sustainable Development ◽

10.14207/ejsd.2019.v8n4p195 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 195

Author(s):

Fathi Bashier

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Base ◽

Design Process ◽

Design Theory ◽

Design Research ◽

Future Research ◽

Design Problems ◽

Need To Evaluate ◽

Research Goal ◽

Architecture Theory ◽

The Way

This article presents the initial findings of the design research carried out during the last semester by the master of architecture students at Wollega University, Ethiopia. The research goal is the creation of new knowledge to improve the design process. The dissatisfaction with the outcomes of the conventional design approach has led to rising concern and growing awareness of the need to evaluate design outcomes and to learn from the failure. That inadequate understanding of design problems leads frequently to design failure suggests that the evaluation of design outcomes can be made by assessing the way architects develop understanding of design problems, and how they use that understanding for developing knowledge base of the design process. The assumption is that architects’ understanding of design problems can be assessed by examining the way data is used for developing the knowledge base of the design process. The students surveyed the architects’ views in order to produce knowledge, which can be used to develop methods for discovering how inadequate data contributes to miss-informed design decisions; and methods for assessing the architects’ understanding of design problems. In this article the survey findings are analyzed and documented; and, the way the insight drawn from the inquiry can be used in future research for developing design theory, is discussed.Keywords: design outcomes, failure, evaluation, questionnaire, analyze

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Tool and Information Centric Design Process Modeling

Industrial Engineering ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-1945-6.ch086 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 1613-1637

Author(s):

William Stuart Miller ◽

Joshua D. Summers

Keyword(s):

Design Process ◽

Process Modeling ◽

Design Research ◽

Research Effort ◽

Case Study Research ◽

Process Models ◽

Design Processes ◽

Modeling Approach ◽

Nature Of Information ◽

Design Process Modeling

A new design process modeling approach focused on the information flow through design tools is discussed in this chapter. This approach is applied to three long term mechanical engineering design projects spanning 24 months, 12 months, and 4 months. These projects are used to explore the development of the new modeling approach. This is a first step in a broader effort in 1) modeling of design processes, 2) establishing case study research as a formal approach to design research, and 3) developing new design process tools. The ability of engineers to understand the dynamic nature of information throughout the design processes is critical to their ability to complete these tasks. Such understanding promotes learning and further exploration of the design process allowing the improvement of process models, the establishment of new research approaches, and the development of new tools. Thus, enhancing this understanding is the goal of this research effort.

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Network Analysis of Design Automation Literature

Journal of Mechanical Design ◽

10.1115/1.4040787 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 140 (10) ◽

Author(s):

Tinghao Guo ◽

Jiarui Xu ◽

Yue Sun ◽

Yilin Dong ◽

Neal Davis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Engineering Design ◽

Design Automation ◽

Design Research ◽

Learning Algorithm ◽

Small World ◽

Citation Network ◽

Research Literature ◽

Future Research ◽

Data Set ◽

Topic Distribution

In this paper, we present the results of a study of citation and co-authorship networks for articles published at the ASME Design Automation Conference (DAC) during the years 2002–2015. Two topic-modeling methods are presented for studying the DAC literature: A frequency-based model was developed to explore DAC topic distribution and evolution, as well as citation analysis for each core topic. Correlation analysis and association-rule mining were used to discover relationships between topics. A new unsupervised learning algorithm, propagation mergence (PM), was created to address identified shortcomings of existing methods and applied to study the existing DAC citation network. Influential articles and important article clusters were identified and effective visualizations created. We also investigated the DAC co-authorship network by identifying key authors and showing that the network structure exhibits small-world-network properties. The resulting insights, obtained by the both the proposed and existing methods, may be beneficial to the engineering design research community, especially with respect to determining future research directions and possible actions for improvement. The data set used here is limited; expanding to include additional relevant conference proceedings and journal articles in the future would offer a more complete understanding of the engineering design research literature.

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On the affect of therapeutic spaces: An autoethnographic study of affect and architecture of therapy.

10.26686/wgtn.16713457.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Saera Chun

Keyword(s):

Design Process ◽

Cultural Context ◽

Research Method ◽

Architectural Design ◽

Design Research ◽

Cultural Beliefs ◽

Physical Models ◽

Research Writing ◽

Spatial Experience ◽

Therapeutic Space

The architect-self is inevitably expressed in the design process and architectural outcome; often, in more nuanced ways than is admitted. Whether it is a world-renowned architect (Pallasmaa, 2005, p. 73; Souto De Moura, 2019, p. 243-244; Zumthor, 1998, p. 9-10) or a student of architecture, designers intuitively draw on personal spatial experience and knowledge in their design decisions (Van Schaik, 2008). To further explore the architect-self in the design process and architectural outcome, this research focuses directly on autoethnography as a design research method. Through a series of personal design speculations into therapeutic space, architecture’s reliance on the architect’s self is revealed and intensified, posing questions about the connection between designer and space. Autoethnography is “research, writing, story, and method that connects the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political” (Ellis, 2012, p. 49). It is a research method that uses the researcher’s personal experience to describe and analyse social and cultural beliefs, practices, and experiences, and interrogates the intersections between the researcher-self and society through reflective practice. It carefully balances academic rigour, emotion and creativity, and strives for social justice (Denzin, 2014, p. 25). Also, the aspect that relates explicitly to architectural research is that autoethnography assumes a mutual relationship between the audience of stories/inhabitants of space and the researcher/designer that creates it, compelling a complex response. The research sets a refined scope within the topic of ‘therapeutic architecture’ to investigate autoethnographic methodology in architecture research. The general aim of ‘therapeutic architecture’ is a promotion of one’s ‘health and wellbeing’, which is an extremely personal and private matter, yet socially determined. In this context, autoethnography provides a unique approach to the topic. This research addresses the underexplored personal and social aspects of architecture, using therapeutic space as a vehicle and autoethnography as a method. The research methodology was adapted to include both autoethnography and “research by design” (Roggema, 2016, p. 3) methods. First, the author’s therapeutic and anti-therapeutic spatial experiences were collected as data. Reading Hermann Schmitz’s New Phenomenology, his central concept of the felt body, the ‘vital drive’, was applied to determine therapeutic (‘corporeal expansion’) and anti-therapeutic (‘corporeal contraction’) (Schmitz et al., 2011, p. 245-246) nature of experience. Expanding on the traditional autoethnographic method, in addition to written vignettes, data was collected in various modes including physical models, audio and video recordings, photo collages, found items, and more. Following this, data analysis revealed themes and elements that composed therapeutic spatial affects as perceived by the author, bound into design experiments. Analyses were conducted through narrative and contextual investigations, locating the personal spatial experience in the broader local, social, cultural, and political frameworks. It was an important step where autobiography became autoethnography; it explained and critiqued the conceptual frameworks of the author’s experience. The generated insights became the basis of a series of therapeutic spatial design interventions. This methodology resulted in the design process and architectural outcomes being taken beyond their inherent autobiographical nature and towards a close understanding of design’s situated context. The thesis is a proof-of-concept of employing a qualitative research method – autoethnography – within the discipline of architecture, where the method was previously unattempted. Using the objective of understanding therapeutic architecture and its affects to demonstrate the new, innovative methodology, it argues the need to reconsider the relationship between architectural design practice and therapeutic affects. Autoethnography in architecture compels the architect/ researcher/author to acknowledge and investigate the architect-self earnestly, and subsequently, the architectural design process could become a lens to understand and critique its social and cultural context and produce design outcomes accordingly.

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(a) Rangatahi Project: an exploration of architects and rangatahi collaborating in the design of spaces in order to activate youth agency

10.26686/wgtn.15102291 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mitra Homolja

Keyword(s):

Design Process ◽

Design Research ◽

Real Life ◽

Computer Game ◽

Design Processes ◽

Spatial Design ◽

Spatial Understanding ◽

Collaborative Processes ◽

Youth Agency ◽

Power And Agency

Today’s rangatahi (youth) have exhibited a great capacity to address social and environmental issues and propose solutions toward the future of people and the environments we live in. Although society claims to value the wellbeing of rangatahi, there seems to be very marginal space for the voices of youth to be heard. The aim of this project is to explore design processes that redistribute power and agency between architects and rangatahi in a manner that is not extractive, but mutually beneficial. It asks how we can do this in a democratic way; moreover, it explores how to do it in the midst of unprecedented global challenges. With my co-researcher Ellie Tuckey, we concurrently explore our research agendas through our individual conceptual frameworks. My focus is on the agency of rangatahi in the design process and the evolving role that architects have to play in the awhi (care) of this agency. With an emphasis on decolonisation and agency, this thesis takes a methodology inspired by generative design research and cooperative inquiry. This is applied to collaboration with rangatahi at the front end of design processes, fostering collaborative processes that lead to collaborative outcomes. We have undertaken three real-life community ‘incubator’ projects, which explore how spatial understanding can occur earlier in the design process with the aid of immersive tools. Our approach began by first acknowledging rangatahi as experts in their own right, just as architects are experts in spatial design. This thesis explores how communication can be enriched, with a particular focus on collaboration and co-opting emerging design tools such as computer game simulations, virtual reality and video media. This multimedia body of work culminates in an individual thesis, with a collaborative contribution of A Mana ki te Mana Process - one way of engaging with rangatahi through a decolonised lens.

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Bio-Inspired Design: An Overview Investigating Open Questions From the Broader Field of Design-by-Analogy

Journal of Mechanical Design ◽

10.1115/1.4028289 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 136 (11) ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Katherine Fu ◽

Diana Moreno ◽

Maria Yang ◽

Kristin L. Wood

Keyword(s):

Design Research ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Research Literature ◽

Future Research ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms ◽

Open Questions ◽

The Future ◽

Design By Analogy ◽

Research Questions ◽

Tools And Methods

Bio-inspired design and the broader field of design-by-analogy have been the basis of numerous innovative designs throughout history; yet there remains much to be understood about these practices of design, their underlying cognitive mechanisms, and preferred ways in which to teach and support them. In this paper, we work to unify the broader design-by-analogy research literature with that of the bio-inspired design field, reviewing the current knowledge of designer cognition, the seminal supporting tools and methods for bio-inspired design, and postulating the future of bio-inspired design research from the larger design-by-analogy perspective. We examine seminal methods for supporting bio-inspired design, highlighting the areas well aligned with current findings in design-by-analogy cognition work and noting important areas for future research identified by the investigators responsible for these seminal tools and methods. Supplemental to the visions of these experts in bio-inspired design, we suggest additional projections for the future of the field, posing intriguing research questions to further unify the field of bio-inspired design with its broader resident field of design-by-analogy.

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Design at hackathons: new opportunities for design research

Design Science ◽

10.1017/dsj.2021.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Author(s):

Meagan Flus ◽

Ada Hurst

Keyword(s):

Design Process ◽

Small Groups ◽

Subject Matter ◽

Design Research ◽

Subject Matter Knowledge ◽

Future Research ◽

Research Focus ◽

Short Term ◽

Unique Nature ◽

Design Expertise

Abstract Hackathons are short-term events at which participants work in small groups to ideate, develop and present a solution to a problem. Despite their popularity, and significant relevance to design research, they have only recently come into research focus. This study presents a review of the existing literature on the characteristics of designing at hackathons. Hackathon participants are found to follow typical divergence–convergence patterns in their design process throughout the hackathon. Unique features include the initial effort to form teams and the significant emphasis on preparing and delivering a solution demo at the final pitch. Therefore, hackathons present themselves as a unique setting in which design is conducted and learned, and by extension, can be studied. Overall, the review provides a foundation to inform future research on design at hackathons. Methodological limitations of current studies on hackathons are discussed and the feasibility of more systematic studies of design in these types of settings is assessed. Further, we explore how the unique nature of the hackathon format and the diverse profiles of hackathon participants with regards to subject matter knowledge, design expertise and prior hackathon experience may affect design cognition and behaviour at each stage of the design process in distinctive ways.

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(a) Rangatahi Project: an exploration of architects and rangatahi collaborating in the design of spaces in order to activate youth agency

10.26686/wgtn.15102291.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mitra Homolja

Keyword(s):

Design Process ◽

Design Research ◽

Real Life ◽

Computer Game ◽

Design Processes ◽

Spatial Design ◽

Spatial Understanding ◽

Collaborative Processes ◽

Youth Agency ◽

Power And Agency

Today’s rangatahi (youth) have exhibited a great capacity to address social and environmental issues and propose solutions toward the future of people and the environments we live in. Although society claims to value the wellbeing of rangatahi, there seems to be very marginal space for the voices of youth to be heard. The aim of this project is to explore design processes that redistribute power and agency between architects and rangatahi in a manner that is not extractive, but mutually beneficial. It asks how we can do this in a democratic way; moreover, it explores how to do it in the midst of unprecedented global challenges. With my co-researcher Ellie Tuckey, we concurrently explore our research agendas through our individual conceptual frameworks. My focus is on the agency of rangatahi in the design process and the evolving role that architects have to play in the awhi (care) of this agency. With an emphasis on decolonisation and agency, this thesis takes a methodology inspired by generative design research and cooperative inquiry. This is applied to collaboration with rangatahi at the front end of design processes, fostering collaborative processes that lead to collaborative outcomes. We have undertaken three real-life community ‘incubator’ projects, which explore how spatial understanding can occur earlier in the design process with the aid of immersive tools. Our approach began by first acknowledging rangatahi as experts in their own right, just as architects are experts in spatial design. This thesis explores how communication can be enriched, with a particular focus on collaboration and co-opting emerging design tools such as computer game simulations, virtual reality and video media. This multimedia body of work culminates in an individual thesis, with a collaborative contribution of A Mana ki te Mana Process - one way of engaging with rangatahi through a decolonised lens.

Download Full-text

On the affect of therapeutic spaces: An autoethnographic study of affect and architecture of therapy.

10.26686/wgtn.16713457 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Saera Chun

Keyword(s):

Design Process ◽

Cultural Context ◽

Research Method ◽

Architectural Design ◽

Design Research ◽

Cultural Beliefs ◽

Physical Models ◽

Research Writing ◽

Spatial Experience ◽

Therapeutic Space

The architect-self is inevitably expressed in the design process and architectural outcome; often, in more nuanced ways than is admitted. Whether it is a world-renowned architect (Pallasmaa, 2005, p. 73; Souto De Moura, 2019, p. 243-244; Zumthor, 1998, p. 9-10) or a student of architecture, designers intuitively draw on personal spatial experience and knowledge in their design decisions (Van Schaik, 2008). To further explore the architect-self in the design process and architectural outcome, this research focuses directly on autoethnography as a design research method. Through a series of personal design speculations into therapeutic space, architecture’s reliance on the architect’s self is revealed and intensified, posing questions about the connection between designer and space. Autoethnography is “research, writing, story, and method that connects the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political” (Ellis, 2012, p. 49). It is a research method that uses the researcher’s personal experience to describe and analyse social and cultural beliefs, practices, and experiences, and interrogates the intersections between the researcher-self and society through reflective practice. It carefully balances academic rigour, emotion and creativity, and strives for social justice (Denzin, 2014, p. 25). Also, the aspect that relates explicitly to architectural research is that autoethnography assumes a mutual relationship between the audience of stories/inhabitants of space and the researcher/designer that creates it, compelling a complex response. The research sets a refined scope within the topic of ‘therapeutic architecture’ to investigate autoethnographic methodology in architecture research. The general aim of ‘therapeutic architecture’ is a promotion of one’s ‘health and wellbeing’, which is an extremely personal and private matter, yet socially determined. In this context, autoethnography provides a unique approach to the topic. This research addresses the underexplored personal and social aspects of architecture, using therapeutic space as a vehicle and autoethnography as a method. The research methodology was adapted to include both autoethnography and “research by design” (Roggema, 2016, p. 3) methods. First, the author’s therapeutic and anti-therapeutic spatial experiences were collected as data. Reading Hermann Schmitz’s New Phenomenology, his central concept of the felt body, the ‘vital drive’, was applied to determine therapeutic (‘corporeal expansion’) and anti-therapeutic (‘corporeal contraction’) (Schmitz et al., 2011, p. 245-246) nature of experience. Expanding on the traditional autoethnographic method, in addition to written vignettes, data was collected in various modes including physical models, audio and video recordings, photo collages, found items, and more. Following this, data analysis revealed themes and elements that composed therapeutic spatial affects as perceived by the author, bound into design experiments. Analyses were conducted through narrative and contextual investigations, locating the personal spatial experience in the broader local, social, cultural, and political frameworks. It was an important step where autobiography became autoethnography; it explained and critiqued the conceptual frameworks of the author’s experience. The generated insights became the basis of a series of therapeutic spatial design interventions. This methodology resulted in the design process and architectural outcomes being taken beyond their inherent autobiographical nature and towards a close understanding of design’s situated context. The thesis is a proof-of-concept of employing a qualitative research method – autoethnography – within the discipline of architecture, where the method was previously unattempted. Using the objective of understanding therapeutic architecture and its affects to demonstrate the new, innovative methodology, it argues the need to reconsider the relationship between architectural design practice and therapeutic affects. Autoethnography in architecture compels the architect/ researcher/author to acknowledge and investigate the architect-self earnestly, and subsequently, the architectural design process could become a lens to understand and critique its social and cultural context and produce design outcomes accordingly.

Download Full-text