from craft . . . .

. . . . to methodanalysis synthesis evaluation

Questions ???

1. how do designers design?

2. how should designers design?

3. how should computers design? (can computers design?)

4. is there a better way?

5. have we found only way for humans to design?

6. is there a systematic process? (can we talk about it?)

not always case that have hada group labelled

‘ DESIGNERS ‘

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for most of our historyartefacts have been

‘ CRAFTED ‘

difference between

‘ CRAFT ‘

and

‘ DESIGN ‘

some of material fromThe Open University (1975). Design and Technology,

The Open University Press, Milton Keynes, UK

designers ● only recently

● many complex & functional objects created without ‘designers’

● craft-made objects, tools & utensils

● pre-industrial products

craft - example

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craft - example

● cartwheel, rowing boats, violins

● George Sturt’s account in 1880s

● tries to analyse reasons for concave shape – knew that if not dished, would fail (like umbrella)

craft knowledge

Sturt G. (1923).The Wheelwright’s Shop, Cambridge University Press

“The nature of this knowledge should be noted. It was set out in no book. It was not scientific …. I knew that the hind wheels had to be five feet two inches high and the fore wheels four feet two; that the ‘sides’ must be cut from the best four-inch heart of oak and so on.

This sort of thing I knew, and in vast detail ….. but I seldom knew why. And that is how most other men knew …..

The whole body of knowledge was a mystery, a piece of folk knowledge residing in the folk collectively, but never fully in the individual.”

tools used by a wheelwrighttools themselves are craft-made objects

Traditional house formsThe trulli of Southern Italy

gradual evolution

(see Alexander – Notes on the Synthesis of Form)

● traditional rules, stories, songs

● ensure fit

● closeness of craftsman to materials

● form-maker is form-user ● immediate response to minor failures

● when misfit occurs● context changes suddenly

● strong resistance to change

craft

● no ‘creativity’ required

● no drawing board

● craftsman is designer/maker ● swordmaker, masons

even today with all the scientific knowledge

still to a great extent a craft

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self-conscious process

● industrialization● changes in technology● division of labour into smaller and more specialized tasks● design separated from making● drawings – formalized method – centre of process

● fast cultural changes● craft process cannot cope● new materials – new needs● change in context –

development of self-conscious design process

design as drawing

self-conscious process

● lack of success● self-conscious process does not guarantee success● few hours vs centuries● design-by-drawing not sufficient?

● search for new methods of design

design methods● historical

● Egyptians used geometrical grids

● Vitruvius (27 BC) – system of proportions

● Viollet-le-Duc (1872)

Viollet-le-Duc (1872). On Method

“with the increase in our material and intellectual wealth wegain practically only embarrassment and confusion; our very abundance is a stumbling block. The more knowledge we acquire, the greater the strength and accuracy of judgment needed to render this knowledge available and useful, and the more necessary it is to discriminate and classify according to severe principles”

and Method as he sees it requires meticulous attention to the

“programme of requirements, the selection of an appropriatemethod of construction, proper regard for the nature of materials, …… anda principle of unity and harmony, that is to say, a scale, a system of proportion”

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conceptual designers vs numbers men

● widening split between numbers men and 6B pencil artists

● numbers men ● calculations● never actually produce design

● 6B pencil artists● generate broad concepts● unable to realize into concrete solutions

design method (cont.)

● after WWII ● drawing not sufficient

● development of design methods● from 1960s● systems engineering, ergonomics, operations research,

information theory, cybernetics, graph theory, set theory, computers

● 1962 Morris Asimow – “Introduction to Design” 1962● series of design conferences in 1960s – London● Alexander’s seminal book – “Notes on the Synthesis of

Form” 1964● mainly architects – Jones, Broadbent

design method (cont.)

● Herbert Simons ● “The Sciences of the Artificial” 1969● rational view

“design method, ah yes, that’s where they do all those charts and diagrams

instead of designing buildings”

Eric Lyons (British architect)

craft vs methodunselfconscious vs selfconsciousintegrated vs separate

● craft knowledge depends on faith,

mysticism

●no theory

● when failures occur cannot be understood● unusual circumstances● rules of thumb no longer apply

● late 18th C – Rationalism

● design becomes separate from making

● design methods in 1960s

still tryingto understand

design process

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what now?

craft ?

graphic design

web design

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