Week 8 [9?] Articles: Engineering as Design

For me, these articles were hard to "digest". Perhaps because I prefer the ones covering social sciences topics. However, here is my contribution:

Bruce E. Seely's Article
Seely pointed out the "imbalance caused by too much emphasis on the analytical approaches of engineering sciences" (p. 285). The practical experience needed to be transferred to the workforce, is usually not adequately developed during the college years. The focus in practical design skills was changed to scientific knowledge. With the necessary high-technology that the government needed for war, engineering schools became "greenhouses" of future engineering science researchers.

Petroski's Article
Petroski wished to make clear the distinction between an engineering and a technical person. Engineers calculate failure: "Virtually every calculation that an engineer performs (...) is a failure calculation" (p.89). The result of a calculation is acceptable only if it does not match the "failure criteria" (p.89). Technicians do not compare their calculations to a failure criteria. Then, what technicians do? The author doesn't give much explanation, but perhaps technicians limit themselves to follow a certain manual of "what to do in order to solve x or z problem" in a machine, an engine, or a computer.

Nigel Cross
This author had a playful explanation of what is design science, science of design, and scientific design. Honestly he kept me entertained for more minutes, trying to grasp his ideas.

My original idea of what design is was shaped in the first year of college, in an architecture school. The design philosophy and approach of architecture schools (at least in my country) is quite different. The design process is more intuitive, artistic, it revolves around the idea of "habitable spaces". Therefore, the main goal of the design is to create this "habitable ambient". And here we can go writing a long discourse of what means to be "habitable" and what is not...and I will not enter in such dilemmas.
I do remember that we had to use these drafting tools in a big drawing table. We had a book of architectural design (was it Chen's book.. Eek, I don't remember the author's name) that was our "bible". We had to be very, very, very careful of every line we drew. A big bold line did not have the same meaning as a thin line. A certain sketch pattern, if had a slight difference, changed the way that was perceived the volume of a structure.
I mentioned in my group's discussion that, in my country, the architecture profession is very elitist. Before the opening of a third architecture school, the main school was very selective. Only 60 students were admitted each year (now that has slightly changed). At the end of the year, 30 or less remained. I remember the conversations that architects had about engineers: "oh, those civil engineers... They don't really design. They just construct these 'plastas de edificios'" (its like a pejorative description to call buildings that aren't ''well-designed'', in architectural terms). I even remember a class where the professor showed us the contrast between designs made by civil engineers and those made by architects.
It was interesting for me to see the contrast in the engineering school. Then the conversations between engineers, were somewhat different: "oh, those architects... They don't really design...their designs are so irrational..."

"Design" "Classification"

Dorst describing the design process says:

The designer, in his/her paradoxical problematic situation, needs to construct a design that transcends or connects the different discourses, in a general sense (by the construction of a meta-discourse), or just in the concrete instance of the design-to-be developed. To do this, the designer has to step out of the ways of thinking embodied in the discourses. This step is likely to include a strong intuitive element. Based upon a clear understanding of the discourses, and upon earlier experiences with paradoxical situations, a solution is created that needs to be evaluated from the standpoints of all the different discourses (i.e., to see that the solution is valuable within the relevant discourses). Designers use their understanding of the ways of thinking within the different discourses to create a framework in which a solution is possible for the paradoxical situation. The paradoxical problem situation works as both a trigger to creative imagination and as a context for the evaluation of the design. For the solution to be a solution, it needs to be recognized as such in the contexts of all the relevant discourses.

This description reminded me the notion of statically indeterminate problems that we have in engineering structural analysis. Let me try to see if I can describe this intuitive spark here. The above description of design says that we cannot get to design by staying in the ways of thinking embodied in the discourses. That is a design problem is indeterminate by staying within the ways of thinking of the discourses. "The paradoxical problem situation works as both a trigger …" (the paradox makes it determinate). We have to get to a solution that meets standpoints of all the different discourses. Sounds like solving simultaneous equations; isn’t it!

In structural analysis we have statically determinate problems and statically indeterminate problems. We also have linear and nonlinear problems. This classification of structural analysis problems is based on the kind of knowledge and process needed for reaching to a solution. In the class we used the "Boundary Work" tool to understand design. What I was thinking that can we use "classification" as a tool that we used in earlier classes to understand design and that might provide some new or better insights. We can classify different types of design perhaps based on the kind of knowledge and thinking process needed. Something like Bloom’s taxonomy. I looked up Google with the term "Taxonomy of Design" and it led me to at least one site [click here] where someone is considering something like that.

Is it valuable to analyze "design" by "classification"?