The Pagoda Design Space: Extending the Scope of Design - Principia Designae: Pre-Design, Design, and Post-Design - page 70

Novelty and creativity are in great esteem today and are recognized as driving
the success of new products, beyond the functional quality of such artifacts.
Economically speaking, novelty is an essential component of competitiveness in
the market. Therefore many 'creativity techniques' are practiced in industry in an
attempt to augment creative design thinking. This paper claims that the drive for
creativity should be seen as an integral part of the design space and not something
that is “appended” to it. It is recognized that creativity is not part of expertise,
although it does of course rely on knowledge. Therefore, creativity is seen as an axis
leading from insight to the potential impact of a design entity, and this axis is
perpendicular to the facets of expertise and runs through them.
To model the expanded design space that embodies both creativity and all levels
of expertise, a useful metaphor presents itself, that of the five-tier Japanese pagoda.
This pagoda is the sturdiest of structures, as it handles with unprecedented agility
the forces that run through the structure when submitted to even the severest of
blows. The various components of expertise, as they are practiced along the design
process, are likened to the five tiers of the pagoda. The insight-impact axis in the
proposed design space is likened to the pagoda's central pillar. The comprehensive
design space that is portrayed in this model should be as sturdy as the pagoda that
serves as a metaphor for it, and should handle even the most difficult, messy and
unstructured design tasks with confidence and efficacy.
Acknowledgement The author wishes to thank Toshiharu Taura and Yukari Nagai for organizing
the Nara Design Research Leading Workshop, which in addition to being an excellent discussion
forum, has also acquainted the participants with the intriguing and inspiring five-tier pagoda.
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