Cognitive Strategies in Architectural Design

Lawson, Bryan

doi:10.1080/00140137908924589

Cited by 178 publications

(126 citation statements)

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“…This aspect of design cognition has been observed many times, and can be traced back to Lawson's (1979) formalised problem solving experiments with science and architecture students, from which he categorised their problem solving strategies as either 'problem focused' or 'solution focused', and claimed the latter as being more characteristic of design-based problem solving.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…These two variant strategies of co-evolution might be labelled as 'problem driven' and 'solution driven' design strategies. Following Lawson (1979) and others, solution driven strategies might be expected to be the dominant form in design.For some time, there has also been interest in relationships between cognitive style, design strategy and design performance (Cross, 1985; Kvan and Yunyan, 2005). In the study reported here, a fuller analysis has been made of the cognitive strategies employed by the nine designers who were the participants in the protocol studies of Dorst.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Solution driven versus problem driven design: strategies and outcomes

2006

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Data from protocol studies of nine experienced industrial designers, performing the same task, were analysed to develop an expertise model of the product design process. The protocol data and the expertise model were used to identify four different cognitive strategies employed by the designers: problem driven, solution driven, information driven, and knowledge driven design strategies. These strategies were then related to task outcomes such as solution quality and creativity, and to process aspects such as iterative activity. The different strategies appear not to be related to overall solution quality in any straightforward manner. Designers using a solution driven strategy tended to have lower overall solution quality scores but higher creativity scores. Designers using a problem driven design strategy tended to produce the best results in terms of the balance of both overall solution quality and creativity. Keywords: Cognitive strategies, design process, protocol studiesIn concluding a recent review article on expertise in design, Cross (2004) suggested that 'expert designers appear to be "ill-behaved" problem solvers', especially in respect of their focus on solution generation, rather than problem analysis. This aspect of design cognition has been observed many times, and can be traced back to Lawson's (1979) formalised problem solving experiments with science and architecture students, from which he categorised their problem solving strategies as either 'problem focused' or 'solution focused', and claimed the latter as being more characteristic of design-based problem solving.The recent focus of studies in design cognition has been through the use of protocol studies (Cross, Christiaans and Dorst, 1996). Many studies have relied on experiments and observations with student designers, rather than experienced, practising designers possessing more mature cognitive strategies. However, Dorst (1997) provided a study of design processes derived from protocol studies of experienced industrial designers, and Dorst and Cross (2001) related these to a problem-solution co-evolution model of creative design. Dorst and Cross reported examples of co-evolution in which the designer formulates a partial structuring of the problem-space and then transfers that partial structure into the solution-space, and so develops both problem and solution in parallel. They suggested that there were also converse cases in which solution structuring preceded problem structuring, that is, in which the designer first identifies a partial structure in the solution space, such as a preferred shape or form, and then uses that to structure the problem space. These two variant strategies of co-evolution might be labelled as 'problem driven' and 'solution driven' design strategies. Following Lawson (1979) and others, solution driven strategies might be expected to be the dominant form in design.For some time, there has also been interest in relationships between cognitive style, design strategy and design performance (Cross, 1985; Kvan and Y...

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Solution driven versus problem driven design: strategies and outcomes

2006

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“…Lawson (1979) compared science students to architecture students and found that architecture students began with solutions immediately. Lloyd and Scott (1994) showed that expert designers, when they have enough experience in a particular design task, start with solutions rather than with problem definition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

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Generic abstraction in design creativity: the case of Staatsgalerie by James Stirling

Doğan

Nersessian

2010

Design Studies

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This study examines the role of generic abstraction in architectural design, specifically how it facilitates exploration through formulation of a family of design schemes. We maintain that exploration in design, as it is in scientific discovery, is not solely based on serendipity, but that designers often strategically structure their explorations. We single out three instances of structuring through 'generic abstraction' in the case study of Staatsgalerie by Stirling. We hypothesize that generic abstractions help designers to mentally simulate different spatial components which lead to the generation of a novel design conceptualization. In the case at hand, the abstraction processes were sustained within a distributed cognitive system that consisted of one senior and two junior designers together with external representations in the form of sketches and diagrams.

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“…a problem-focused approach, whereas in design the quest is to suggest possible solutions, i.e. a solution-based approach [3].…”

Section: Design: Art Vs Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Robust optimization of cardiovascular stents: a comparison of methods

Atherton

Bates

2004

Engineering Optimization

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Modern engineering design contains both creative and analytic components. This paper discusses the design process and illustrates links between design optimisation and conceptual design through the re-design of a cardiovascular stent. A comparison is presented of two methods for design improvement: Genetic Algorithms (GA) and model-based Robust Engineering Design (RED). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models are used to generate measurements of the quality of competing designs based on the concept of dissipated power. Alternative performance measures are also discussed. Environmental noise is introduced into the analysis and consideration is given to the treatment of discrete and continuous design parameters. Improved designs are identified using both methods and verified with further CFD analyses, and the benefits of each method are discussed.

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Cognitive Strategies in Architectural Design

Cited by 178 publications

References 5 publications

Solution driven versus problem driven design: strategies and outcomes

Solution driven versus problem driven design: strategies and outcomes

Generic abstraction in design creativity: the case of Staatsgalerie by James Stirling

Robust optimization of cardiovascular stents: a comparison of methods

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