Inside the Designer: Understanding imagining in spatial design Inside the Designer | Page 13

Inside the Designer
Chapter 2:
Exploring Design
Methodological Research
Introduction
This chapter presents an overview of design methodology research. It
commences with an historical overview of research concerned with
the general area of design process. While the main focus of this book
is imagining in the spatial design disciplines of architecture and
interior design, the review cannot ignore early research in engineering
and industrial design and the way this has influenced and dominated
methodological research in architecture and interior design. Further to
this, an examination of design process research also provides a
context for a review of research focussing on design thinking and
cognition, which, in turn, provides a platform for a closer
examination of imagining. These aspects of designing are presented in
Figure 2.1 embedded in the broader area of design practice. While
there is a body of literature concerned with architectural and interior
practice, the focus of this review is chiefly on the process undertaken
by the designer during the initial concept and design development
phases of a design project; it is during these stages that imagining
assumes a significant role. It is acknowledged that while
communicating and representing “what goes on in the designer’s
head” is an important part of the design process, design
communication and representation is beyond the scope of this
literature review. Additionally, the review of educational theories
surrounding learning (in general), design education and creativity are
also considered to be beyond the scope of this book.
This chapter, together with the following chapter which includes a
review of presence research, highlights the extant theory considered
in relation to the findings of the empirical study described in Chapter
5 and which contributed to the generation of the Spatial Design
Imagining (SDI) Model presented as the outcome of this book in
Chapter 6.
13