Dear all,
Just my belated two cents:
It seems to me that this discussion springs in part from Anglo-centric
linguistic tyranny.
Eduardo’s research shows us that design (the verb) was already in use (in
English) centuries before design (the discipline) was established, and that
word had nothing whatever to do with creating beautiful new things to be
used by people.
I think this point has been made before, a non-English speaking architect
would find it odd to see his work described as ‘design’(1) and an engineer
would find it nonsensical.
This is not merely etymological pedantry. It has consequences and leads to
misunderstandings.
For instance: Terry insists that there are many automating design software
already available or being developed. This may or may not be true in the
engineering fields (I don’t have enough information to have a definite
opinion) but it certainly isn’t accurate for product design, graphic design
or architecture for example, and there is nothing indicating that this will
change in the near future, no matter how smarter our gadgets become.
Computer assisted design is no closer to being able to design a chair as a
word processing software is able to write a novel. In both cases, somewhere
someone at some point will have to sit down and suffer horribly for an
indeterminate amount of time with a pencil in hand, struggling to make
sense of ‘current situations’ in order to change them to preferred ones.
In short, the etymological issue — as is often the case — is tightly
connected with an ontological issue. I wouldn’t therefore dismiss it as
disciplinary parochialism. There has to be something wrong — or at least
inaccurate — with a definition of design (Simon’s) that renders
architecture as a similar practice to medicine.
(1) I am aware that some architects fancy themselves able to design
products (mostly hideous unsittable chairs and ineffective door-knobs) and
even *gasp* websites and logos. This is one of the great tragedies of our
age. (I am also aware of the historical exceptions to this rule, but a
thorough discussion of this issue would be too long a digression for this
thread).
João
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