Design Methods - Background of Design Methods

Background of Design Methods

Social, political and economic developments of the late 19th and first half of the 20th century put into motion modern benefits and constraints for living and working. Industrial and technological breakthroughs associated with this period created social and economic complexities for people and their environment. Disciplines such as architecture, urban planning, engineering and product development began to tackle new types of problem-solving past traditional artifact making. More informed and methodical approaches to designing were required.

From 1958-1963 Horst Rittel was a pioneer in articulating the relationship between science and design, specifically the limitations of design processes based on the 19th century rational view of science, in his courses at Ulm School of Design in Germany (Hochschule für Gestaltung - HfG Ulm: 1953-1968). Rittel proposed principles for dealing with these limitations through his seminal HfG design methods courses: cybernetics, operational analysis and communication theory. In 1963 he was recruited to Berkeley to teach design methods courses and helped found the Design Methods Group (DMG) and the DMG Journal.

Design methods in England originally drew from a 1962 conference called "The Conference on Systematic and Intuitive Methods in Engineering, Industrial Design, Architecture and Communications." This event was organized by John Chris Jones, and Peter Slann who, with conference invitees, were driven by concerns about how their modern industrialized world was being manifested.

Conference participants countered the craftsman model of design which was rooted in turning raw materials through tried and true craft-based knowledge into finished products. They believed that a single craft-based designer producing design solutions was not compatible with addressing the evolving complexity of post-industrial societies. They stressed that designers needed to work in cross-disciplinary teams where each participant brings his/her specific body of skills, language and experiences to defining and solving problems in whatever context.

The key benefit was to find a method that suits a particular design situation. Christopher Alexander went on to write his seminal books Pattern Language and A Timeless Way of Building.