Program
RESEARCH PROGRAM
Design Knowledge Systems Research Center (DKS) offers a
multidisciplinary program
established to improve design methods and theory by developing new
knowledge about designing
as a cognitive process embedded in social practice and to develop new
computer design tools to
improve the quality and creativity of design practice, based on a deeper
scientifi c knowledge of
design thinking and how it fi ts in a multicultural framework.
Basic Questions
Fundamental questions are addressed:
1. What role do design experience, precedents and acquired conceptual
systems play in the design process, and how do they interrelate with endowed
cognitive structures? How do basic cognitive structures constrain design
thinking?
2. How do the form of design products, their operation, and their intended
performance, interact in the generation of a new design?
3. How can we understand design thinking not only as abstract, disembodied
thinking but also as a practice situated among many participating
individuals and groups in collaboration?
4. How can new knowledge responding to the above questions and help us
generate new design
tools, improving design practice?
5. How do the humanistic tradition, scientifi c, and technological developments interact in the making of new design tools?
Program Divisions and Research
Methodology
To respond to these questions, the
Center has developed two program divisions -two broad areas of research
brought together in a unique multidisciplinary framework of complementary
investigations:
Design Theory, Methodology, and Tool Development: This division
concentrates on the development of design theories and methods stressing a
multidisciplinary approach. Researchers draw not only from architectural
theory and design engineering methodology, but also from the fi elds of
cognitive science and artifi cial intelligence. Cognitive science research
focuses particularly on vision, spatial reasoning, problem solving,
learning, and analogy. Research in the fi eld of com puter sciences is
directed at using the computer as a possible simulator of intelligent design
thinking, offering new insights about design creativity and developing ‘The
Intelligent Architect’, a family of design-enhancing computational tools for
conceiving of new design products using previously acquired
domain-knowledge. Design Domain Case-Studies and Cognitive History:
Empirical investigations of contemporary design cases and historical
reconstructions with particular attention to the evolution of design
knowledge systems and to recording, analysis and interpretation of
historical records. These investigations document the design process,
identifying design routines and heuristics as wellas rules, categories,
typologies, prototype precedents, problem-solving routines used in design
practice. They then extrapolate the governing cognitive constraints related
to these features of the design process, such as recognition procedures,
spatial structures, and reasoning rules. The Center has chosen this dual
approach in the belief that the development of new design theories and tools
has as its prerequisite knowledge of empirical or historical and precedent
cases drawn from design practice, a knowledge which is rarely readily
available. To acquire it necessitates special research involving
documentation, structuring, and interpretation of current empirical or
historical data. Reciprocally, collecting, structuring, and interpreting
data about design practice, present and past has as a prerequisite
development of criteria of relevance to permit focus and timing of
activities during the inquiry. These are provided by the goals and
priorities set up by the other branch of investigation the development of
new design theories and tools. Emphasis on contemporary empirical or
historical archival domain case studies as part of the research methodology
of DKS offer the opportunity to understand designing as a highly complex
activity taking place in real settings. Case studies are used systematically
in the take-off phase of the research as heuristic devices, and in testing
and evaluating the products of the inquiry.
International Collaboration
In addition to its regular members, the Center attempts to establish an
international framework of collaboration by bringing together a number of
prominent specialists from a variety of disciplines to address general
theoretical issues, methodological research problems, and specifi c
design-domain questions. (See list of Participants and Members of Doctoral
Committee pp 8-12. See also page 55).
EDUCATION PROGRAM
Design Knowledge Systems Research Center offers a unique advanced study
program for research in design methodology and theory with particular focus
on scientifi c analysis and rational procedures of design inquiry. It brings
together in a unique framework of intensive education, senior members of the
TUD and international experts from collaborating universities.
Seminar topics
Fundamentals of inquiry. Philosophical foundations of research. Hypothesis
formation. Representation and modelling. Theory construction and grounding.
Rationality. Causality. Probability and biases. Chaos and indeterminacy.
Computational methodology. Judgment and decision-making. Multi-criteria
analysis and evaluation. Knowledge and data structures. Search methods.
Reasoning systems. Learning systems, Spatial and Visual Cognition, Discourse
analysis. Collaborative systems. Critical and refl ective evaluation
methodology. Settings for evaluating research results. Observing and
interpreting testing data. Criteria for tool evaluation. Reliability and
robustness. Product versus process improvement. Research, refl ection, and
design practice. Design Methodology. Historical background to design theory
and methodology. Design reasoning and argumentation. Representation. Visual
and spatial thinking. Precedent and creativity. Design by analogy. Situated
and collaborative design.
Workshops
Experts from several disciplines lead intensive discussions introducing
specialized techniques of
investigation.
Omnibus research colloquium
A series of year round meetings for the critical analysis of ongoing
research projects, undertaken by members of DKS or invited researchers, with
emphasis on epistemological, pragmatic, and value choices.
Tutorials
Regular, year round meetings between Ph.D. student and supervisors.