Author:

Keywords:

design cognition, design research, epistemology, Science & Technology, Technology, Engineering, Multidisciplinary, Engineering, Manufacturing, Engineering, GESTURES, IMAGERY, 0806 Information Systems, 1201 Architecture, 1203 Design Practice and Management, Design Practice & Management, 3301 Architecture, 3303 Design

Abstract:

Starting from the study of an architect who designs in the absence of sight, we question to what extent prevailing notions of design may be complemented with alternative articulations. In doing so, we point at the cognitivist understanding of human cognition underlying design researchers’ outspoken attention for ‘visual thinking’, and contrast this with more situated understandings of human cognition. The ontological and epistemological differences between both raise questions about how design research is produced, and consequently what design can also be. By accounting for how a blind architect re-articulates prevailing notions of design, we invite researchers to keep the discussion open and call for an ontological and epistemological re-articulation in design research.