The Pagoda Design Space: Extending the Scope of Design - Principia Designae: Pre-Design, Design, and Post-Design - page 61

Fig. 5.4 Links
among discovered and
undiscovered designs in
the design space (Woodbury
and Burrow 2006 , p. 66)
While the early work by Habraken ( 1985 ) and Rosenman and Gero ( 1993 )
stresses the boundary of the design space, the later work by van Langen and Brazier
( 2006 ) and Woodbury and Burrow ( 2006 ) stresses linkage in design exploration.
The motivation of the former work is the study of design creativity, while the latter
works are driven by information processing and the study of arrival at satisficing
solutions. In both cases the design space is populated only with instances of design
(with the possible exception of van Langen and Brazier, who hint at process
objectives as part of the design space); they do recognize issues beyond the
immediate search concerning design solutions. We shall now move to a brief
discussion regarding the need to expand the view of the design space, to include
pre and post-design.
5.2 The Need to Widen the Scope of Design
Donald Sch¨n coined the term design world (e.g., Sch¨n 1983 , 1991 ). He stated that
he used this term in the spirit of Nelson Goodman's ( 1978 ) Ways of worldmaking,
that is, holding a constructionist view, which maintains that “our perceptions,
appreciations, and beliefs are rooted in worlds of our own making that we come
to accept as reality” (Sch¨n 1987 , p. 36). Sch¨n thus proposed that the designer
interacts with a design situation which is for the most part material, and which is
appreciated by the designer through action, in part sensory action such as drawing.
Through the apprehension and appreciation of the situation the designer “constructs
and reconstructs the objects and relations with which he deals ... thereby creating a
“design world” within which he functions.” Sch¨n goes on to assert that “a design