Design Theory
   HOME
*





Design Theory
Design theory is a subfield of design research concerned with various theoretical approaches towards understanding and delineating design principles, design knowledge, and design practice. History Design theory has been approached and interpreted in many ways, from designers' personal statements of design principles, through constructs of the philosophy of design to a search for a design science. The essay "Ornament and Crime" by Adolf Loos from 1908 is one of the early 'principles' design-theoretical texts. Others include Le Corbusier's ''Vers une architecture'' (1923),Le Corbusier, ''Vers une architecture" (1923) and Victor Papanek's ''Design for the real world'' (1972). In a 'principles' approach to design theory, the De Stijl movement (founded in 1917) promoted a geometrical abstract, "ascetic" form of purism that was limited to functionality. This modernist attitude underpinned the Bauhaus movement (1919 onwards). Principles were drawn up for design that were applicabl ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Design Research
Design research was originally constituted as primarily research into the process of design, developing from work in design methods, but the concept has been expanded to include research embedded within the process of design, including work concerned with the context of designing and research-based design practice. The concept retains a sense of generality, aimed at understanding and improving design processes and practices quite broadly, rather than developing domain-specific knowledge within any professional field of design. Origins Design research emerged as a recognisable field of study in the 1960s, initially marked by a conference on Design methods at Imperial College London, in 1962. It led to the founding of the Design Research Society (DRS) in 1966. John Christopher Jones (one of the initiators of the 1962 conference) founded a postgraduate Design Research Laboratory at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and L. Bruce Archer supported by Mi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ... and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He is a founder of Bauhaus in Weimar (1919). Gropius was also a leading architect of the International Style (architecture), International Style. Family and early life Born in Berlin, Walter Gropius was the third child of Walter Adolph Gropius and Manon Auguste Pauline Scharnweber (1855–1933), daughter of the Prussian politician Georg Scharnweber (1816–1894). Walter's great-uncle Martin Gropius (1824–1880) was the architect of t ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Tony Fry
Tony Fry is a design theorist and philosopher who writes on the relationship between design, unsustainability, and politics. Fry has taught design and cultural theory in Britain, the United States, Hong Kong and Australia and holds a PhD in Cultural Studies in Design from the University of Birmingham. Fry has held positions as Adjunct Professor to the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology Sydney and as a consultant on sustainable design to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is former Professor and Convenor, Master of Design Futures Program, Griffith University, Queensland College of Art. Fry currently holds visiting an adjunct position at the University of Tasmania, and is visiting professor University of Ibagué The Universidad de Ibagué (Spanish: ''Universidad de Ibagué'') is a private university located in Ibagué Ibagué () (referred to as San Bonifacio de Ibagué del Valle de las Lanzas during the Spanish period) is ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the ''Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre. Sterling's first science-fiction story, ''Man-Made Self'', was sold in 1976. He is the author of science-fiction novels, including ''Schismatrix'' (1985), '' Islands in the Net'' (1988), and '' Heavy Weather'' (1994). In 1992, he published his first non-fiction book, '' The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier''. Writings Sterling is one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement in science fiction, along with William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner, and Pat Cadigan. In addition, he is one of the subgenre's chief ideological promulgators. This has earned him the nickname "Chairman Bruce". He was also one of the first organizers of the Turkey City Writer's Workshop, and is a frequent attendee at the Sycamore Hill Wr ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Gui Bonsiepe
Gui Bonsiepe gɪː ˈbo˘nsɪːpe˘(born 23 March 1934) is a German designer, teacher and writer. Especially in South America and Germany, his publications are considered standards of design theory. Life Gui Bonsiepe was born in Glücksburg, and studied Graphics and Architecture until 1955 at Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich and at TU München. Until 1959, he studied at Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm) in the Information Department. Between 1960 and 1968, he worked as an assistant professor at Ulm School of Design. After closure of the Ulm School of Design in 1968, Bonsiepe relocated to South America, working as a design consultant. From 1970 to 1973, he led the design team for the transaction room of the Cybersyn project.Bonsiepe, G., (2009), ''Entwurfskultur und Gesellschaft'', Birkhäuser Basel, Boston, Berlin. pp.35-62 From 1987 to 1989, Bonsiepe worked as an interface designer in a software company in Emeryville, California, United Sta ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Otl Aicher
Otto "Otl" Aicher (; 13 May 1922 – 1 September 1991) was a German graphic designer and typographer. Aicher co-founded and taught at the influential Ulm School of Design. He is known for having led the design team of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, and for overseeing the creation of its prominently used system of pictograms. Aicher also developed the Rotis typeface. Early life and career Aicher was born in Ulm, in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg, on 13 May 1922. Aicher was a classmate and friend of Werner Scholl, and through him met Werner's family, including his siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, both of whom would be executed in 1943 for their membership in the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany. Like the Scholls, Aicher was strongly opposed to the Nazi movement. He was arrested in 1937 for refusing to join the Hitler Youth, and consequently he was failed on his abitur (college entrance) examination in 1941. He was subsequently drafted into the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Dieter Rams
Dieter Rams (born 20 May 1932) is a German industrial designer and retired academic who is closely associated with the consumer products company Braun, the furniture company Vitsœ, and the functionalist school of industrial design. His unobtrusive approach and belief in "less, but better" (german: Weniger, aber besser) design generated a timeless quality in his products which has influenced the practice of design as a whole and secured Rams worldwide recognition and appreciation. He is quoted as stating that: "Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design." Life and career Dieter Rams began his studies in architecture and interior decoration at Wiesbaden School of Art in 1947, now part of the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences. A year later, in 1948, he took a break from studying to gain practical experience and finish his carpentry apprenticeship. He returned to the Wiesbaden School of Art in 1948 a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Andrea Branzi
Andrea Branzi (, born November 30, 1938) is a Florence-born Italian architect and designer. He currently lives and works in Milan and was a professor and chairman of the School of Interior Design at the Polytechnic University of Milan until 2009. Education and background Studied as an architect at the Florence School of Architecture, Branzi received his degree in 1966 and founded Archizoom Associati with Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, Massimo Morozzi in 1966 in Florence where they developed the No-Stop City. In 1976, he established Studio Alchimia and in the 1980s began to associate with the Memphis Group. Branzi also served as the cultural director of Domus Academy, Italy’s first postgraduate design school, for its first ten years. His design works are included in permanent collections such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Lucius Burckhardt
Lucius Burckhardt (March 12, 1925 in Davos – August 26, 2003 in Basel) was a Swiss sociologist and economist. He was an important thinker in Architectural theory and Design theory and the founder of strollology Strollology or Promenadology is the ''science of strolling'' (german: Spaziergangswissenschaft) as a method in the field of aesthetics and cultural studies with the aim of becoming aware of the conditions of perception of the environment and enha .... Publications *''Lucius Burckhardt Writings. Rethinking Man-made Environments'' (Hrsg. Jesko Fezer / Martin Schmitz), Springer (Ambra), Wien/New York, 2012. External links www.lucius-burckhardt.orgbiography, textspersonal page of Lucius Burckhardts on the server of the university of Kassel, Germany* books by Lucius Burckhardt at Martin Schmitz publishers 1925 births 2003 deaths Swiss sociologists Swiss economists {{Switzerland-economist-stub ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Horst Rittel
Horst Wilhelm Johannes Rittel (14 July 1930 – 9 July 1990) was a design theorist and university professor. He is best known for popularizing the concept of ''wicked problem'', but his influence on design theory and practice was much wider. His field of work is the science of design, or, as it also known, the area of design theories and methods (DTM), with the understanding that activities like planning, engineering, and policy making are included as particular forms of design. In response to the perceived failures of early attempts at systematic design, he introduced the concept of "second generation design methods" and a planning/design method known as issue-based information system (IBIS) for handling wicked problems. Early career Rittel was born in Berlin. From 1958 to 1963, he was Professor of Design Methodology at the Ulm School of Design in Germany (Hochschule für Gestaltung—HfG Ulm).Lindinger, H., (1991), ''Ulm Design: The Morality of Objects'', Cambridge: The MIT ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Abraham Moles
Abraham Moles (19 August 1920 – 22 May 1992) was a pioneer in information science and communication studies in France, He was a professor at Ulm school of design and University of Strasbourg. He is known for his work on kitsch. Biography Moles studied electrical and acoustics engineering at the University of Grenoble while preparing a bachelor in sciences of nature. He became a research assistant at the Laboratory of metal physics, under the direction of Félix Esclangon, then of Louis Néel. There he learned techniques of metal work, then electric and electronic tools. He wrote reports on material properties or technical analysis. At the end of the Second World War, he was hired by the French National Centre for Scientific Research in the Laboratory of acoustics and vibrations of Marseille, and at the CRSIM (Centre de recherche scientifique industriel et maritime). In 1952, he obtained a PhD in physics for a thesis titled La structure physique du signal musical et phonéti ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his teaching career as a professor of English at several universities in the United States and Canada before moving to the University of Toronto in 1946, where he remained for the rest of his life. McLuhan coined the expression "the medium is the message" in the first chapter in his ''Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man'' and the term ''global village.'' He even predicted the World Wide Web almost 30 years before it was invented. He was a fixture in media discourse in the late 1960s, though his influence began to wane in the early 1970s. In the years following his death, he continued to be a controversial figure in academic circles. However, with the arrival of the Internet and the World Wide Web, interest was renewed in his work and ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]