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Chapter 5
The Pagoda Design Space: Extending
the Scope of Design
Gabriela Goldschmidt
Abstract A comprehensive notion of design that includes pre-design and
post-design is presented in this chapter as hinging on an extended design space.
Not just the array of possible solutions, the design space is modeled as comprising
two main components. The first is design expertise, which is composed of five tiers:
pre-design, task framing, design acts, design proposal, and post-design. The second
component is creativity, which is embodied in an insight-impact axis that
cuts through the various expertise layers. The model is metaphorically likened to
the indestructible Japanese five-tier pagoda, whose strength emanates from flexi-
bility and independence of components, which interact but are also unattached to
other components.
Keywords Design space • Expertise • Impact • Insight • Pagoda
The five-tier pagoda, a building type of which a few ancient specimens survive
in Japan, is an impressive structure that has proven to be extraordinarily durable
in the face of numerous harsh earthquakes that destroyed other contemporary
buildings. A structural analysis attributes this durability to a high level of resilience
that is gained by avoiding rigid connections within and between the different
components. This allows maximum movement of each component relative to the
other components.
I use the pagoda as a metaphor for a new, extended model of the design space.
Traditionally the design space is seen as the aggregation of all possible design
solutions in a given task. Here it is conceived as encompassing design knowledge,
or expertise, that guides designing from pre-design to post-design, through framing,
exploration, assessment and the choice and development of the most appropriate
design solution. The layers of expertise are arranged around an independent central
axis that leads from insight to impact, cutting through the body of expertise.
This axis is reminiscent of the central pillar of the five-tier pagoda, which is not
anchored to the ground and around which the five stories are built, unattached to
it, but regulating its motion. This axis stands for creativity. I conclude that a model
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