Dear Jerry,
Thanks for a good post. I’d like to suggest one nuance on a key issue.
You wrote, “Re: Big-D design. My experience has been largely negative. I’ve worked with too many studio instructors who skip over the hard work of integrative and comprehensive development.”
As I see it, the term “Big-D Design” refers to the large-scale conception and understanding of design process as Herbert Simon and Buckminster Fuller described it. Fulfilling this vision does not mean skipping over integrative and comprehensive development – it requires it.
What makes the D “big” in “Big-D Design” is a large conception of what design does in an age where most of the world around us is affected by the technological interventions we design. Many of the results are adverse – for example, catastrophic climate change. A concept of design that allows us to better understand our actions as designers is vital.
In this sense, design involves far more than a focus on a big idea. A big idea is the fuzzy front end of the design process. Fuller (1969: 319) describes the full process of design in this model:
First, a subjective process of search and research:
teleology -- > intuition -- > conception -- >
apprehension -- > comprehension -- >
experiment -- > feedback -- >
Then generalization and objective development leading to practice:
prototyping #1 -- > prototyping #2 -- > prototyping #3 -- >
production design -- > production modification -- > tooling -- >
production -- > distribution -- >
installation -- > maintenance -- > service -- >
reinstallation -- > replacement -- >
removal -- > scrapping -- > recirculation
Getting a big idea involves the first two steps in a long process. Integrative and comprehensive development bring ideas to life.
Yours,
Ken
Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask] |Phone +61 3 9214 6102 | http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design
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Reference
Fuller, Buckminster. 1969. Utopia or oblivion: the prospects for humanity. New York: Bantam Books.
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