Eduardo et al,
If I read you correctly, then 'pre-design' seems to carry aspects of
what many engineers refer to as project management and problem analysis.
Project management, when done right, doesn't involve keeping the project
running once it starts, but also setting up (designing) the project.
Problem analysis is the notion that the client is usually unsure, at
least to a degree, of what is actually being asked for. The engineering
designer usually assumes the responsibility of somehow validating that
the problem is the right one, and determining what is really needed,
before starting to design the solution.
What I've found is that there is alot of problem analysis that occurs in
between episodes of designing. This is because we (engineers) tend to
think in hierarchies of systems (I'm not saying that this is necessarily
always a good thing). For instance, in designing a PDA, the 'client's
requirements lead to a certain episode of design, but the episode cannot
conclude the design without the engineers using the partial design +
problem definition to drive further explication of details of the
problem, which beget more design episodes.
So while we distinguish problem analysis from design as two different
kinds of activities, we also recognise that they occur in some kind of
alternation and, possibly, in parallel.
Eduardo, does this sound reasonable from your point of view of 'pre-design'?
Cheers.
Fil
Eduardo Corte Real wrote:
> Hi David:
>
> I'm one of pre-design fans.
> As I see it, in a research wise point of view, a pre-design research is
> oriented for a design solvable problem.
> My recent experience on that delt with orientation in hospitals.
> We know signage in hospitals have specific requirements. We all know
> that signage in hospitals should improve the general behaviour of the
> system: make it more comfortable for patients and less "energy wasting"
> for employes.
> This may come of some surprise but: Designers that project a design
> system for an hospital do it empirically and not using scientific
> methodologies to create theoretical models of behaviour on that
> particular situation.
> Well, to cut a long story short. Predesign research: All research that
> is determined by a design goal but stops before the design project. The
> research project on hospitals that I have been bossing stoped at
> defining norms for design projects.
> Another sense of pre-design is designing the design project (who will be
> doing this, what kind of sheets of paper will we use, how will we
> normalize our comunication). Designing an airport, for instance, is
> impossible without this kind of predesign: You are not actually
> designing the airport. In fact what you are (pre)designing is something
> that would be valid also for hospitals or parks or whatever complex
> stuff you want.
> These are tricky words in english (research project and design project)
> and even more in portuguese, so if you want more information on this
> oflist, feel free to ask.
>
> Eduardo
>
> Eduardo Corte-Real
> PhD Arch
> IADE-Design School Dir. Board Pres.
> UNIDCOM/IADE Researcher
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Pires" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 9:43 AM
> Subject: Pre-Design?
>
>
>> Pre- design? What's that? Helps the design project? or its a project
>> inside the project?
--
Prof. Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Ryerson University Tel: 416/979-5000 x7749
350 Victoria St. Fax: 416/979-5265
Toronto, ON email: [log in to unmask]
M5B 2K3 Canada http://deed.ryerson.ca/~fil/
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