The Pagoda Design Space: Extending the Scope of Design - Principia Designae: Pre-Design, Design, and Post-Design - page 66

Fig. 5.6 The pagoda model of the design space
decades ago, projects of housing up to four stories high often did not include
elevators; it was normal to walk up stairs to reach the higher floors. Today people
are no longer willing to climb up a few floors and they expect to use elevators). Next
is technological knowledge, which pertains to materials and to production
(or construction) techniques, as well as to design support tools. Environmental
knowledge caters to issues of sustainability at an ever growing level of sensitivity;
Statutory knowledge, which designers must have in order to abide by safety and
well-being regulations along with other legal requirements; and finally, methodo-
logical knowledge, which includes formal and informal design methodologies that
are in common use in specific design disciplines.
In addition to these types of “objective” knowledge, the pre-design component
of the design space includes factors that may be particular to an individual designer
or to a group that embraces its own agenda. This knowledge includes beliefs and
values which the designers hold and to which they subscribe, goals derived from a