Environment-Based Design (EBD)

Abstract

This paper summarizes a design methodology — Environment Based Design (EBD) — developed over the last two decades. The EBD stems from the observation that design aims to change an existing environment to a desired one by generating a new artefact. Design starts from the environment, functions for the environment, and brings changes to the environment. This environment changing process implies the recursive evolution of design problems, design knowledge, and design solutions. Three basic activities are included in the EBD: environment analysis, conflict identification, and solution generation. In introducing the EBD, four major requirements for an effective design methodology are firstly formulated from the perspective of the nature of design, cognitive model of design, and the driving force underlying design. The mathematical, semantic and algorithmic foundations of the EBD are then presented to define methods and procedures for solving a design problem. Experimental validation and industrial applications are summarized to show the effectiveness of the EBD. Future research questions are also given in the paper.

Which Design Methodologies Are Effective to Support a Capstone Project in Aerospace Design Engineering?

“…The combination of systematic engineering (systems engineering -SE) with Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) is not a new attempt in the design engineering research community [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Environment-based design (EBD) [24,25] is a systematic design methodology under research and development at Concordia University by Professor Yong Zeng. EBD has also reported positive research attempts in aircraft design [26,27] and potential integrations with design methodologies such as TRIZ, and axiomatic design [28].…”

“…EBD is defined as a transdisciplinary design methodology that provides step-by-step procedures to guide designers [24,25]. Zeng and Cheng [39]'s effort in the evolution of EBD can be traced back to 1991.…”

“…Zeng and Cheng [39]'s effort in the evolution of EBD can be traced back to 1991. EBD defines that design is driven by a need or inspiration from the environment (i.e., human, natural, and built), serves the environment, and changes the environment [24,25]. These needs or inspirations from the environment are called conflicts in EBD.…”

Approaches That Help Students Generate New Design Solutions

“…One of the key methods for environment analysis is linguistic analysis [31][32][33]. Following the environment analysis, conflicts should be identified among the relations between environment components [34]. At the third stage of EBD, a set of key environment conflicts will be chosen to be resolved by generating some design concepts.…”

“…A great hope for resolving the contradiction in developing effective design methodologies lies in the thorough understanding of the designer's thinking and reasoning process such that the methodologies may either lead the designers to a better approach or assist the designers in their natural manner for delivering creative solutions. A new design methodology, named environment based design (EBD), has been developed [1,2]. The EBD methodology is derived by following logical steps from the axiomatic theory of design modelling [26].…”