I will intervene to keep the discussion going. The statement
"converging within the space of problem definition and solving for
social, cultural, and environmental good." delineates the area where
social research has the biggest impact in the (object) development
process. One of the first authors on architectural programming
introduced the term "problem seeking" for programming. This was an
initial theorizing situation, but unfortunately, this type of
conceptualization is not researched further. Although the
conceptualization is innovative, there are a number of problems to be
resolved. Most of them are related with the concept of design
problem, its scope, and structure.
However, I still see in the last 5-6 posts a desire to amalgamate
design with social sciences (I would go broader than mentioning only
anthropology) rather than to develop a working concept that considers
the actual decision-making processes in design.
Looking forward to receiving other posts,
Lubomir
At 11:00 AM 7/18/2007, Terence wrote:
>
>Hi Dori,
>
>You say
>"converging within the space of problem definition and solving for social,
>cultural, and environmental good."
>
>During the 70s and 80s I was trying to solve a parallel problem wrt
>foundations of design theory - in part, asking 'What is a theory picture of
>design that would do this?"
>
>Actually, it became quickly obvious it was a four way problem; because of
>necessity it must include technical concerns (seen not only in terms of the
>study of technology in societies but also keenly from the perspectives of
>'societies' of technology experts).
>
>Eventually, it came clearer that the situation distilled down to the
>problem of integrating social, enviromental, ethical and technical factors
>in design theory.
>
>One of the challenges in trying to identify a 'position' was deriving a
>definition of design that was broad enough in scope and tightly posed thatit
>could provide a theory foundation for a less parochial multi-disciplinary
>field of design and design research, whilst avoiding the disciplinary ambit
>position that 'design is everything'.
>
>Dunno exactly where this fits but I seem to remember going over much the
>same ground!
>
>All the best,
>
>Terry
|