Design Research

Mit der in letzter Zeit rapide wachsenden Bedeutung des Designs für ökonomische und technische Entwicklungen verbinden sich zunehmend auch gesellschaftliche Fragestellungen von höchster Brisanz. Wie ist es aber möglich, diese Dimensionen des Designs – im Sinne eines Social Designs – zu erforschen und sichtbar zu machen? Die Herausgeber und AutorInnen nehmen diese Frage zum Anlass, um die spezifischen Rationalitäten der im Design verwendeten Verfahren und Methoden zu beleuchten.

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There might be nothing new or interesting in saying that creativity fuels both humor and design. But is it possible to reverse this equation? Can humor or rather the thought structure and method of humor fuel creative thinking or more specifically design thinking?

This paper attempts to study the innate structure of humor, and the method used in its construction. Some of these methods used to construct humor will be explored further to create frameworks that can be valuable in the design process as an alternative system of structuring information to create interesting insights and solutions.  It is important at this point to clarify that this paper is not aimed at providing a method to infuse humor in the final output of the design process. This study is aimed solely at understanding the thought process used in the construction of humor and analyzing how such a thought structure could be valuable as a creative stimulus in the design process. To this point, this paper also examines the structure of creative thought briefly as a bridge mechanism between humor and design thinking.

This volume has been prepared under the auspices of the project entitled, ‘Competition Reforms in Key Markets for Enhancing Social & Economic Welfare in Developing Countries’ (CREW Project). This project was implemented by CUTS in four countries: Ghana, India, Philippines and Zambia, and across two common sectors: Staple Food and Bus Transport with the support from DFID (UK) and BMZ (Germany) facilitated by GIZ (Germany). The aim of the project was to highlight the relevance of competition reforms for social and economic welfare in developing countries, and motivate other countries, governments and development partners to accord greater attention to the subject of competition reforms. In view of this overall aim of the project, with inputs from the project advisers CUTS designed the final conference of the CREW project on a broader theme to talk about ‘Relevance of Competition & Regulatory Reforms in Pursuing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Developing Countries’. The theme was thought to be both contemporary and relevant in view of the adoption of the SDGs a couple of months before this final conference. In addition to the support it received from DFID (UK), BMZ (Germany) and GIZ (Germany), the conference also received support from the World Bank, G-77 Secretariat and the OECD. CUTS is grateful to all the above organisations for supporting the conference, and indeed also the production of this volume. We acknowledge the support from the members of the Project Advisory Committee of the CREW project, who contributed to make this conference a grand success. Special thanks to Clement Onyango and colleagues at CUTS Nairobi for their support and tireless efforts in the run-up and during the conference. We gratefully acknowledge the hard work and patience of all the paper authors for contributing extremely interesting individual chapters to this volume. We are also thankful to those friends of CUTS who reviewed the draft papers – Eleanor Fox, Tania Begazo/Martha Licetti (World Bank), Rafaelita Aldaba, R S Khemani, Frederic Jenny, Payal Malik, Allan Fels, David Ong’olo, Ashwini Swain, Peter Holmes and John Davies/Lynn Robertson (OECD). We are indebted to Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary General, UNCTAD for writing an encouraging Foreword – and we hope to continue to receive his and UNCTAD’s support. We greatly appreciate the diligence of Madhuri Vasnani and Garima Shrivastava for editing and Mukesh Tyagi for preparing the layout of this report. Special thanks are due to Ashutosh Soni for his excellent coordination of communication with authors and reviewers of papers of this volume. We acknowledge the efforts of all the members of the CREW team, especially Cornelius Dube, Shreya Kaushik and Neha Tomar. Last but not the least, this report would not have seen the light of the day without the skillful direction, and overall guidance of Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS. He took special interest in this volume and went through each and every paper carefully himself. Words alone cannot convey our sincere gratitude to each and every individual who have contributed in every small way towards bringing out this volume. But it is only words that this world thrives on. We express our sincere gratefulness to all such individuals, without whom the publication of this volume would not have been possible.

Mapping is a technique used to record and represent information graphically. In the studios made for architecture and landscape architecture, mapping is usually conducted at the Inventory-making and Analysis stage. Data from the site is gathered and documented for further investigation. However, mapping can also become a creative tool to ‘reveal’ certain things or invisible processes. It can encourage the designers to speculate the site and the design from different perspectives and at multiple scales. This paper discusses some mapping projects that have been explored by the authors through their research projects. The aim of this paper is to recommend mapping as a creative and speculative design tool that can make data more engaging to design thinking.

To promote rigor in formulating research questions and conceiving new ideas, the Design Research Network organized the learning conference Questions & Hypotheses in 2008 in Berlin.The debates and discussions on the presentations at the conference were both critical and constructive. To preserve and disseminate these valuable discussions and to encourage continuous learning, this book Questions, Hypotheses & Conjectures was conceived.

The contributing authors are mainly early stage design researchers who presented their projects at the conference. There are two contributions from each author: the original abstract or poster with comments and a final paper. The comments have originated mainly from our invited senior researchers and are particularly educative. They highlight the positive directions, ambitious goals and critical issues to explore. They also expose common oversights which must be addressed. If you compare the original posters or abstracts with the final papers, then you will not only appreciate how the authors succeed at synthesizing what they have learned into fruitful thoughts and ideas, but also the hidden process of refining questions, hypotheses and conjectures.

There are also two special articles by the distinguished design thinkers Alain Findeli and Keith Russel. Both texts are based on presentations given by the authors at the conference. They raise the fundamental and yet unresolved issues of the basis for and purposes of Design Research. In a subtle but authoritative voice, they invite us not to shy away from difficult questions and challenge us to be serious design researchers.

Questions, Hypotheses & Conjectures is published with research students in mind; however, it is of interest to the entire design community.

Long considered as an exotic weave, in the eyes of designer’s and consumers alike, Ikat in its Bandha avatar in Odisha has really grown into the gold standard. The design expertise and finesse of work here has rendered it as a veritable classic. And now designers are looking at it in a whole different light. Today it is used as a mainstream high fashion textile. But it has still a lot of ground to cover to become an indomitable force. Opportunities have also brought forth the challenges that need to be addressed first. For long, this weave had been seen as a heritage textile by the weavers, who pass on the knowhow from one generation to another, leaning closer to be used in classic style Indian attire like saris. Those who feel a little less adventurous are taking the design ethos of the fabric and turning it on its head. Engineered combinations of two or more motif/pattern styles come into play to shed the old-school single ideology weave. In recent memory, a lot of fashion shows by reputed designers were focused on Ikat.This paper will highlight the areas related to contemporary styling and how the traditional motif/pattern style  are manupulated by different desiners throughout the world.Looking at the enourmus potential of Ikat application there is need to have an eye towards adressing the issue of productivity also by which we can asses the socioeconomic growth and able to provde better solutions to ikkat weavers community.
Key Words: Bandha,Ikat,Motif, Pattern,Weave,Community

If the principles that have driven Masdar City are to be embraced, then UAE residents first have to comprehend, and then be willing to pursue, the concept of sustainability. Masdar will only work if its plan is under stood as one of many ways to
achieve sustainability. Furthermore, with approximately 80% of the UAE’s population coming from abroad, there is greater complication in broadcasting the principles of sustainability; there have to be various methods to communicate with many cultures and nationalities.

This doctoral design research thesis documents a process of rethinking user participation in the design of the urban built environment. It investigates options for the roles of architects and designers as generators and facilitators of design processes that enable designing with people. Its aim is to investigate the tactical knowledge of participation in design and explore how architects’ and designers’ knowledge can be transferred to, shared with and developed together with non-experts. First of all, the theoretical discourse centres on Henri Lefebvre’s distinction between the ‘abstract space’ of designers and experts and the ‘concrete space’ of people and day-to-day life, in spatial practice. This dialectic model of space was developed as an analytical tool to define, understand and re-appropriate the term ‘participation’ in the environmental design field. This new Design Participation analytical tool is then further developed to demonstrate two contributions of this design research. 

The first contribution is through a critical assessment of different practices of Design Participation, as first defined in the 1971 Design Participation Conference in Manchester (UK) organised by the Design Research Society (DRS), to provide a new viewpoint to understand design practices with participation. Different Design Participation practices were assessed for their appropriateness and effectiveness within past and current contexts, and in different stages and tasks within the design process. Practices within the realm of collaboration between the abstract space of designers and the concrete space of users were tested through a comparative study of design participation projects in three social contexts: Sweden, the United Kingdom (London) and Hong Kong, in which different social attitudes to design prevail. A rethought definition and typology of design participation was developed based on relations between the two ‘worlds’ of experts/designers and users/people. This new understanding of Design Participation is articulated with a new Design Participation Benchmark and Taxonomy.

The research endeavours to define Design Participation Tactics that avoid mere ‘tokenism’ and aims at articulating tactics for a transformation of the traditionally conceived process of design. Through action research methodology, the second contribution of this research is to further define the term ‘participation’ within the greater social context and its relation to the subject of design by learning through doing. Three levels of Design Participation Tactics were introduced which are working with three newly defined modes of participation: Community, Public and Design Participation. The Design Participation analytical tool was used to compare different practices between different modes of participation. The relevance and validity of the research is supported through real-world cases involving co-designing with grass-roots user groups, children’s groups and older users, as well as collaboration with professional designers of housing, exhibitions and other types of environments, and other disciplines such as social work and public policy.

The re-writing of the roles of designers, architects and other ‘experts’ in the design process is an important component in achieving Design Participation. Positions on the agendas, methodologies and epistemologies involved in the Design Participation process were developed during this study. ‘Agenda’ refers to how the Design Participation process addresses the social context, reflecting social changes and needs. ‘Methodology’ applies to devising holistic Design Participation processes developed through working with users and matching appropriate tactics to each different situation. ‘Epistemology’ evokes the important question of how Design Participation tactics can be transferred to become a foundation and tool for future development. The pursuit of increasing user participation in the design process implies a realignment of designers’ roles (generator, facilitator and developer) from that of producing objects, environments and systems, to that of facilitating innovative collaboration and creating platforms for social inclusion in design practice.

Typography performs a critical role integrating signs into contemporary culture yet typography’s role in the design and conceptualization of meaning has been underestimated and its position as a critical component in the discourse of visual culture has been neglected. The role of design is fundamental in maintaining social stability and cohesion and the manipulation of form, structure and behaviour of typography’s letterforms are instruments in this system. Typography operates as a linguistic and visual communication device and possesses the agency to be symbolically meaningful to individuals and groups and representative of social, cultural and economic concerns. Professional practices demonstrated in the design, media and arts industries have far outpaced the extent to which this phenomenon has been written about in the academic or public domain. As such, little is known about the complex role typography performs in the social, economic or cultural realm of contemporary practice.
This research study aims to make visible the mechanisms through which social classes and social institutions are established and validated in contemporary culture offering critical insight into the investment toward expressing how particular facets of tastes are constructed to demarcate cultural distinctions.  Cultural festivals are a form of cultural capital in an objectified state and an increasingly important aspect of our contemporary experience. Branding is a vital part of this festival space presenting impressions of urban freedoms, rich histories, and cultured places, that seek to subvert our daily existence while performing the task of engaging local, national, and international visitors and participants. There is prestige in holding culturally relevant and socially acceptable festivals that serve the discourses of “city branding” and the “creative industries” in a competitive global context. Festivals have become a central figure of not only the political economy of tourism but also of urban regeneration and cultural tourism. The intention is to establish recognition suited to the significant role typography performs within this context and to offer a contribution to design research that not only engages with the artifacts of design but with the conceptualization of designed meaning in 21st century visual culture.

This presentation captures the historical adaptation of medieval warriors’ methods for security and thwarts toward adversarial attacks on fortifications for protective areas. History can often be a good teacher for modern day designers for security protection because the evolution of human beings has not changed since the beginning of time. Applicable lessons are applied to all aspects of security to include physical, technical, personnel, information and operational security. The article provides examples of the original concept of access controls, vaulted areas, chemical warfare, and the origins of physical security.

The main aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the role of verbal concepts in the architectural design processes of the students in a studio context. To serve this purpose, we carried out a 15-week studio in an urban architectural masters design studio at KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture. We observed the use of verbal concepts in time during this studio and analyzed the design processes of the students based on their self-report logs on the studio web platform. Based on these, we conducted a statistic analysis and a network mapping study. We found that early concepts provide a starting point for developing fully-fledged specialized design ideas. Furthermore, a higher number of links between concepts indicated their importance during the process. In addition, the data collection and research methods proved to be reliable for mapping the design process of the students as well as revealing the evolution of the ideas in the studio.

Bu kitap; duygusal ve davranışsal bozukluklara sahip öğrenciler hakkında bilgi sahibi olmak isteyen sınıf öğretmenleri, özel eğitim öğretmenleri ve alanda çalışan uzmanlar için hazırlanmış giriş niteliğinde bir uygulama kitabıdır. Her bir bozukluğun nedeni, tanımlanması, güncel araştırmalar ışığında verilmeye çalışılmış ve okul ortamındaki pratik uygulamalarla da anlatım zenginleştirilmiştir. Bunlara ek olarak belirli bir bozukluğun tüm yönlerine ilişkin temel yaklaşımla birlikte bilimsel olarak geliştirilmiş müdahele yöntemleri de verilmeye çalışılmıştır.

Bu kitabın alanda yeni çalışmaya başlayan öğretmenler kadar güncel verilerle desteklenen tanı koyma ve müdahele stratejilrine önem vermesi nedeniyle alanda uzun süredir çalışmakta olan öğretmenlere ve uzmanlara da yararlı olacağını düşünmekteyiz.

The ubiquitous sameness of urban greenways prompts questions on generative design grammar and syntax, whether creative, critical rethinking at that level might be lacking. However the design syntax of urban greenways is not explicitly discussed thus leaving a critical gap in knowledge. This paper begins tackling the larger question by acting on the fundamental subset of it, by operationalizing the design syntax of urban greenways. This is done through mathematics-based graph studies to analyze patterns and shapes, photography based thermal, material and morphology studies, and section analyses to make imagery-derived deductions on the design syntax. Recommendation on approaches to diversify and enrich the design syntax includes a more direct reference from ecosystem science theories such for siting and planning the urban greenways at macro- to meso-scale, a mixed-method approach, combining mathematics, photography and drawings based frames for analyses at meso-, to micro-scale, and a turtle view scale for designing at meso- to micro-scale, with an emphasis on latter.
Keywords: Design thinking; Syntax; Greenway; Urban; Planning; Landscape; STEM integrated design; Inter-disciplinary

How can one walk the line between some sort of financial sustainability and the production of design work t hat critically challenges accepted power structures and discourse? How can one organise a design practice t hat creates space for work that is socially- and politically-engaged and aims for social transformation?

Parametric Design is a computer based design approach that treats the geometric properties of the design as variables. The dimensions, angles and geometric properties (like curvature) remain malleable as the design progresses. Although at any time the 'parametric model' displays a determinate shape according to the set of currently chosen values, the essential identity of the parametric design resides in the malleable object's topology rather than its momentary determinate shape. This means that the design consists in the relationships that are maintained between the various elements of the composition. In fact the parametric design model is conceived as a network of relations or dependencies. This way of building up a design has the important advantage that the build-up of complexity and the detail resolution of the design can progress while simultaneously maintaining the malleability to adapt to changing requirements as new information is fed into the design process. The generation of alternative options remains viable and economical deep into the detail design without requiring abortive modeling and drafting work. This parametric malleability is advantageous both for the sake of continuous design adjustments as the design progresses, and for the sake of the generation of options and variations. The parametric model can be conceived as general building plan or genotype for the generation of many different versions or phenotypes that might co-exist (rather than substitute each other as options). Optioniering thus leads to versioning. Mechanical repetition is being replaced by mass customization.

The series of symposia on Design Thinking Research (DTRS) was begun in 1991 with seven symposia and workshops held to date. The series has produced a substantial set of publications in books and journals, with significant research results, and has helped foster an international community of scholars and researchers focused on design cognition. One particular innovation of the series is

Every now and then existing methods in the User-Centered Design (UCD) process evolve and new methods are being introduced. In this position paper we discuss our new approach for studying communities within the new media landscape. First, this new approach contains ways to improve the relations between the designers, researchers and developers on the one hand and the users on the other hand. Second, we suggest encouraging more contact between the users themselves during the research phase. Ultimately these two factors contribute to a better user involvement and participation in the study which provides better results and richer information from that study.

Web service-based development represents an emerging approach for the development of distributed information systems. Web services have been mainly applied by software practitioners as a means to modularize system functionality that can be offered across a network (e.g., intranet and/or the Internet). Although web services have been predominantly developed as a technical solution for integrating software systems, there is a more business-oriented aspect that developers and enterprises need to deal with in order to benefit from the full potential of web services in an electronic market. This 'ignored' aspect is the representation of the semantics underlying the services themselves as well as the 'things' that the services manage. Currently languages like the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) provide the syntactic means to describe web services, but lack in providing a semantic underpinning. In order to harvest all the benefits of web services technology, a framework has been developed for deriving business semantics from syntactic descriptions of web services. The benefits of such a framework are twofold. Firstly, the framework provides a way to gradually construct domain ontologies from previously defined technical services. Secondly, the framework enables the migration of syntactically defined web services toward semantic web services. The study follows a design research approach which (1) identifies the problem area and its relevance from an industrial case study and previous research, (2) develops the framework as a design artifact and (3) evaluates the application of the framework through a relevant scenario.

The book is an overview on the wide field of research about Design, showing how Design is interpreted nowadays in POLIMI. Being one of the younger member of this family, Design is often disruptive and unruly, working between intuition and method. Ranging from design culture and humanities, to innovation in its broad sense and contemporary applications, the book extends across interdisciplinary fields, exploring tangible and intangible aspects of our everyday life. This to show how design is today an ongoing young discipline, which is reaching its own spaces and methods within the academic research community. Nine PhD theses. Nine young researchers. Nine 3-4 years researches carried on by people mainly under 35 years old, coming from all over the world. An international, young, dynamic community, which is approaching complexity of Design from several sides, but with the same passion for building a better world.

There is a growing need for designers with research skills and designers that are able to design for the user experience, next to or instead of technical issues. Over the past five years we have developed so-called ‘contextmapping’ techniques to inform and inspire design teams about the experiences of the prospective users of the products the team designs. In this paper we present the key elements of this teaching programme, and explain how we divided the elements over different courses in the Industrial Design Engineering curriculum in our university.

Design research is a timely topic, given the current movements in art and design institutions throughout the world towards articulation, conceptualization, and (academic) research, where labels such as practice-based research abound. It is also a challenging topic with many open issues concerning conceptual foundations and methodological practices. As the articles in this special issue will show, design research is marked by significant diversity in the sense that it engages researchers from many different disciplines: Philosophy, systems theory, social science, information science, architecture, and design are among the academic disciplines represented here, with all the diversity in epistemological and methodological traditions that they entail.

We have employed methodologies of human centered design to inspire and guide the engineering of a definitive low-cost aesthetic multimodal experience intended to stimulate cultural growth. Using a combination of design research, trend analysis and the programming of immersive virtual 3D worlds, over 250 innovative concepts have been brainstormed, prototyped, evaluated and refined. These concepts have been used to create a strategic map for the development of highimpact virtual art experiences, the most promising of which have been incorporated into a multimodal environment programmed in the online interactive 3D platform XVR. A group of test users have evaluated the experience as it has evolved, using a multimodal interface with stereo vision, 3D audio and haptic feedback. This paper discusses the process, content, results, and impact on our engineering laboratory that this research has produced.

The Melbourne metropolitan train network has experienced incidents of anti-social behaviour and crime across the network over recent years. Identification of this problem has lead to design research aimed at exploring ways to minimise anti-social behaviour, improve passenger security and the perceptions of Melbourne's railway system.

The Government of India asked for recommendations on a programme of training in design that would serve as an aid to the small industries; and that would resist the present rapid deterioration in design and quality of consumer goods. Charles Eames, American industrial designer and his wife and colleague Ray Eames, visited India for three months at the invitation of the Government, with the sponsorship of the Ford Foundation, to explore the problems of design and to make recommendations for a training programme. The Eameses toured throughout India, making a careful study of the many centres of design, handicrafts and general manufacture. They talked with many persons, official and non-official, in the field of small and large industry, in design and architecture, and in education. As a result of their study and discussions, the following report emerged. iii The India Report 5 1

Design research has become important in both design education and design practice. For design education, its role is in the identification of problems as well as the understanding of user behavior; for design practice, design research is used to identify new markets and assist in the development of novel products. The latter is referred to as ‘research through design’ and is used principally for the creation of artifacts rather than the building of theory (Findeli, A., Frayling, C.). Although there are many articles and publication about design research, little empirical data are available. The aim of this paper is to better understand the benefits of the application and teaching of design research in two sectors, practice and education. This paper presents the connection between the teaching of design research and its application in practice. Interviews were conducted to examine specific differences between the two groups. Design practitioners and faculty members were interviewed f...

This study is concerned with exploring students’ use of CAAD software programs, which are already available in studios and schools of architecture - to better reflect the status of CAAD in the educational context of the studio where CAAD is not an integral part of studio teaching. This study also anticipated providing a “real-context” appraisal for CAAD related issues and to know what is behind the tendency to use CAAD early in the conceptual phases of the design process. At the general level of inquiry, a questionnaire survey was designed and circulated. Also, by directly observing studio activities, the study can develop an understanding of the modern context within which the study operates. This included interviewing students through part of their design reflection at the studio and acting on those observations from a process methodological point of view. This study was able to clarify the effects of computers on the traditional context of the architectural studio, and how this w...

Evidence-based practice has become an important approach to social work practice. This paper highlights some of the ethical dilemmas which may be implicated by this approach, and encourages social workers and social work researchers to carefully consider these potential quandaries.

This study is concerned with exploring students’ use of CAAD software programs, which are already available in studios and schools of architecture - to better reflect the status of CAAD in the educational context of the studio where CAAD is not an integral part of studio teaching. This study also anticipated providing a “real-context” appraisal for CAAD related issues and to know what is behind the tendency to use CAAD early in the conceptual phases of the design process. At the general level of inquiry, a questionnaire survey was designed and circulated. Also, by directly observing studio activities, the study can develop an understanding of the modern context within which the study operates. This included interviewing students through part of their design reflection at the studio and acting on those observations from a process methodological point of view. This study was able to clarify the effects of computers on the traditional context of the architectural studio, and how this w...

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Background: Psychosocial interventions in long-term care have the potential to improve the quality of care and quality of life of persons with dementia. Our aim is to explore the evidence and consensus on psychosocial interventions for persons with dementia in long-term care. Methods: This study comprises an appraisal of research reviews and of European, U.S. and Canadian dementia guidelines. Results: Twenty-eight reviews related to long-term care psychosocial interventions were selected. Behavioral management techniques (such as behavior therapy), cognitive stimulation, and physical activities (such as walking) were shown positively to affect behavior or physical condition, or to reduce depression. There are many other promising interventions, but methodological weaknesses did not allow conclusions to be drawn. The consensus presented in the guidelines emphasized the importance of care tailored to the needs and capabilities of persons with dementia and consideration of the individual's life context. Conclusions: Long-term care offers the possibility for planned care through individualized care plans, and consideration of the needs of persons with dementia and the individual life context. While using recommendations based on evidence and consensus is important to shape future long-term care, further well-designed research is needed on psychosocial interventions in long-term care to strengthen the evidence base for such care.

Design steht seit seinen Anfängen immer wieder in der Kritik, entweder einer kapitalistischen Warenästhetik Vorschub zu leisten oder dem Selbstmissverständnis der Autonomie zu verfallen. Als Abkömmling der Industrialisierung und Zögling der freien Künste scheint es zwischen den Extremen einer Drapierung von Ingenieursleistungen oder dem kommerziellen Missbrauch von Kunstpraktiken zu schwanken, selbst innerlich zerrissen und ohne eigene Orientierung. Wenn bei Design also von Ästhetik die Rede ist, entsteht schnell der Eindruck, es mit bloßem Styling zu tun zu haben, sei es im Dienst einer Absatzsteigerung oder des symbolischen Kapitals.
Die Tagung möchte demgegenüber ausloten, ob und inwieweit die Ästhetik des Designs – jenseits der Alternative von Warenförmigkeit bzw. Styling und Autonomie – als eigene Form des Ästhetischen verstanden werden kann. Gegenüber der in der ästhetischen Tradition vorherrschenden Ausrichtung an der Kunst geht es der Tagung insgesamt darum zu fragen, was es heißen könnte, die Grundfragen und die Grundbegriffe der Ästhetik noch einmal aus dem Geiste des Designs neu und erneut zu denken. Dabei steht ein solcher Versuch nicht allein angesichts der jüngsten Entgrenzungstendenzen zwischen Kunst
und Design vor der Herausforderung, dass eine Ästhetik des Designs in irgendeiner Weise auch zur Ästhetik der Kunst in Beziehung gesetzt werden muss. Nicht zuletzt stellt sich dabei die Frage, was „Kritik“ mit Blick auf Kunst und Design jeweils heißen kann.

e purpose of this paper is to disseminate the first insights of the research undertaken within DAP_r -Design and Architecture Practice research -a project funded by the Australian Office for Learning and Teaching and led by RMIT University (Melbourne, AU). e research focuses on the impact and contribution that doctoral training has on professional practice and pedagogical approaches in Creative Practice Research. e research work starts from surveying and evaluating the effectiveness of doctoral training on the two realms, moving from the assumption of the interaction and mutual nourishment between practice, research and teaching. e paper firstly identifies the need for a comprehension of the complex and multi-layered nature of the concept of impact, showing an overview of meanings within different contexts. An exploration of the sense that impact has in Creative Practice Research is then presented with the aim to contextualise the concept, exploring its specificities and perspectives within the field. e paper finally shows initial insights, purposes and expectations for the research work recently started within the DAP_r project.

This short article attempts to carve out a space that recognizes heterogeneous practices and worldviews that foreground concerns often omitted from design orthodoxy.

Knowing that I go back to Japan to spend time with my family over the New Year holiday, a Japanese professor invited my husband and I to join him at his wife’s hometown in Ise, where festivities are held at its shrine, Ise Jingū. He proceeded to tell me about Ise Jingū, founded in 4bc to worship the sun goddess, Amaterasu, symbolized by a mirror, and regarded as one of the most ancient and sacred Shinto shrines in Japan. Its Yayoi architecture, believed to have derived from structures that stored rice, reflects Japan’s agricultural roots. Shinto is the indigenous spirituality of Japan, an intimacy in interrelatedness with nature. The ritual of marking the cycles of birth and decay helps orient people’s passage through life to create a sense of belonging in the world (Suzuki 1958). The unique feature of Ise Jingū is its ritual of dismantling and rebuilding the entire structure on an adjacent site every twenty years, enabling repair and maintenance, and more importantly, ensuring continual reconstruction through generations of artisans and craftspeople who begin as apprentices and then become masters (Takase in Cultural News 2009). Incremental adjustments to its design have been part of Ise Jingū’s evolutionary story. It incorporated Buddhist influences from China during the sixth to eighth centuries, and has adapted responsively to climate change, natural disasters, availability of raw materials, and technological advancement in construction, tools, and workers’ safety. But its evolution over more than a millennium makes it appear to have stood in time, preserving ancient traditions when nestled within a society that has changed dramatically over the same period (Adams 1998).

This paper presents the conclusions of an empirical study aimed at (1) identifying educational practices in the academic design studio intended to promote empathy in industrial design students, and (2) identifying a broad range of expressions of student empathy for users and stakeholders. The study was motivated by the importance that current human-centered design approaches give to empathy as an ability required to understand and connect with users and by the little empirical research that examines empathy development in design education. Methodologically, a mixed methods strategy was used to collect and analyze data from faculty and students in three undergraduate and graduate courses in industrial design offered by a major land-grant public research university in the southeastern United States. The findings of the study consisted of identifying strategies used by faculty to promote empathy in the design studio and categories of students' expressions of empathy. These findings informed the conclusions herein presented as recommendations for educators to promote student empathy in their design courses.