cross coming of post-industrial design

7/26/2019 Cross Coming of Post-Industrial Design

1/5

The coming of

post-industrial

design

NI GEL

CROSS

De1ign DiScipline F.cultY o

TfiChnology.

ThtJ Open Un;ver6ity

ilton K e y n ~ s

U

This paper sugqests

two

possible

future

lines o development

for desiqn methods. One s a continua ion of the desiqn

methods qeneration q me

.

The other

s

s

a p rt

of the

wider deve/opment of a postindustrial b sis for desiqn,

technoloqy and society. The

l tter

s characterized s

a para

diqm shift in desiqn.

Sorne

examples of the seeds of

post

indust rial desiqn are reviewed.

Nearly 20 years ago, the design methods moveme

nt

see med

to offer a clear picture of the futuro for design: a logical,

rationa l, coherent activity using systematic procedures.

Now,

the

pictu

re is

much

less

clear, and the movement

appears to be in crisis

1 suggest two possible scenarios for the future

of

design methods. One is a continuation

of

the now well

established design methods 'generaton game'. The other

scenario is based

on

the assumpti

on

that the present crisis

(throughout design, not just in the design methods move

ment) may be indicatlve

of

an imminent paradigm shift in

design. Th

is

sh

ift is

part

of

a

la

rge r one in technology and

socie

tY

fr

om

industrial

to

postindustr

ial

bases.

THE GENER TION G ME

Accord ing to Archer

,

design methodology is al ive and

well'. Th

is

may have come

as

a surprise to many who had

assumed that the subject was now

l

ike so many

of

the

delicate offspri

ng

of the 1960s) well and truly dead.

Such an assumption was clearly prematuro, if he is

rig

ht. However, Archer might be presumed to have a vested

interest in trying to keep the subject alive

on

his hospital

bed, since he was one

of

the originators

of

the subject and

the design methods movement. However, what he argued in

Design Studies was

tha t his concern with design methods

has always been:

to find ways of ensuring that the predominantly qualitative con-

siderations such as comfort and cof\venienoe, eth ies and beauty .

should be as carefully taken into account and as doggedly de ftn -

siblt under attack as predominandy quantitative considerations

suc:t'l

as strength cost and du

ra

bil ity .

That sounds like yet another design methodologist recan

ting and pleading mitigating circumstances. Alexander and

Jones, the other leading exponents

of

design methods in the

early 1960s, have already recanted in simi

la

r

ter

ms, and

apparently rejected desgn methodology.

Archer at least st ll suggesu that there is something

in methodology to e studied, taught and practised . What

went wrong,

he

suggests, was

the

attempt

to

apply the

methods o f science

to

design, instead o f developing designs

own

met hods.

Origins of design methods

The origins

of

the design methods movement lay in the

application

of

powerful scientific techniques

toa

wide

range

of

novel p


2/5

However, the design methods movement refused to

die. In fact, it

was

saved by another suggestion of

Ritt

el.

8

This was that we had seen

only

'first generatio n '

design

me thods,

and these.

natu

ral y e

nou

gh, looked ra ther

simpl

is t

ic with the benefit of h indsi

ght

. Rinel

we

nt on to

propose

and

to outline the features

of

an emerging, more

sophist

i

cated, 'secon

d 90nerat

ion'.

The idea

of

'90ner

at

ions'

of

de sign methods was

brill ia

nt

: it let t he me thodologists escape w i

th so

rne

decorum

from

be

ing

committe

d

to

sorne glaringly i

nadequat

e

method

s,

and it

opened up

a guaran

teed

fu ture

in

methodology as

each

generation

of

methods succeeded the last.

Second ge

ne

ration methods were character ized by

Rit tel

as:

assu ming an equal dstrib

ut

ion of knowled9 about the

problem (i.e . designers, users, and others all

ha

ve va id

knowl

edge to

contri

bu

te)

embodying an argumentat ivo process (i.e. influe nced by

different val ues from differ

ent

sides, and

not

subject to

one remorse less logic)

casting the

de

signer in a 'm idw ife' role (i.e.

th

ere to

ex

erc

i

se

her

particu

l

ar

skill o

nly

in ass

is

t ing

the

in terest

ed

parties

to prod

uce th eir ow n

so

l

ut

ion}

Clearl

y,

th is

90ne

r

at

on

of met

hods was

st r

ongly in fluenced

by the mov towards design participation which was

prevalen n th e 1970s

9

.

Neverth eless. it has to be admtted that, lke the

frst generaton me thods. these second generation methods

have al

so met

w i

th

on ly moder

ate

sucoess.

One particular

sh o

rtcoming

of the

parti

cipatory

methods is th at they rela te principal y to archtectural and

plann

in

g pr

oblems,

and

no

t t

the problems

of

eng

neer

ng

and i

ndu

st rial design.

As we

enter

a

new deca

de

,

it

is inevitable

th

a t

Ri tt el's escape clause will aga in be nvokcd. anda th ird

ge

neration

of

des

gn methods

w ll appear.

One

suggestion

already

made

2

is th at a

common

faling

of

t he carlier generat ion me thods was th

at

they

tried to proh ib it the

de

signer's preconoeptions, hunchos. or

arb itrary solutio n ideas.

Th

e emerging th ird genera t ion view is that these

nputs from the des

g

ner to the des

gn pr

ocess cannot be

av o id

ed

. and are a necessary part o f any

de s

ign

method

.

Th is view is

usually

;ustified by reference to Popper's 'con

j

ectu

r

es

and ref utations' model of scientific me1hod

10

-

that

is , the scientist proceeds by formula ting a conjecture

(a

hunch) which

is

then subjected

to rigo r

ous

t ests.

On

ly

if it succeeds against refutation is it accepted

as

a valid

hypothesis.

Trans

l

at

ed i

nto

the design field,

this model

is

attractivc because it fits well with

what

designers already

do

in p rac ti

cc

11

Bu

t wh

at

ha ppened to the desire

to r form

des

igners practices, that

was

so

mu c

h a part of

th

e original

mot

ivat ion of the movement?

1 pred ict

that

a founh genera tion will see a

re t

urn

of

th

is re

form

ing zeal, particu lal'ly using

automati

c

pr

ocedures

that gener

at

e designs withou t the meddlng

inte rference of a human

des

ign

er,

anda l'eturn

to

the

pre

mises

of

the

Modern

Movement. Reme mbe r. 'we need a

m

et

h

od. that

is

to

say,

an

ob

jec

tive

svstem.' How

ev

er, the

emergence of a fou r

th

genera

ti

on

ma

y

be

overtaken by

events elseVJhe re.

4

THE PARADIGM SHIFT

The generat

i

ona

l view ol

des

ign methodology is

att

ractive . lt

off ers a m

ode

l

of

progress which allows research and d eve

lopment to cont inue within each generation, w ith only

occasional u pheavals

as

one

succeeds ano ther. lt permi

ts

You

ng Tu rks wi

th

in t

he movemen

t thei r radical ideas which .

fro m time to time, can

be

siftcd by the Old Guard into a

sanct ioned ne xt

generat

ion.

An alte rnative t o t

he

generational view

has

similari

t ies with the view

of

de v

elopme

ntal change n science pro

posed by Kuhn ." His view is th at science progresses by a

series

of

majo r ch anges in the parad igms h eld by sc ien t ists.

Thus,

fo

r

examp

le, the paradigm based on Newtonian p

hy

sics

has

been superseded by o

ne

based

on Einsteinian physics.

With in a

pa

radigm,

work procee

ds on a var iety o f 'p uzzles'

sugge

st

ed by the paradigm. Th is puzzle solving is classed by

Kuhn

'normal

science'.

Occasionally. a crisis will d evelop in a paradigm,

as

sorne experimental resul

ts

and

new

i

deas

under m ine its

bas

is. When this

happens,

a scient ifc revol

ut

on w ill lead to

a new paradigm.

ls

th

e current gener

ation

game in design

mctho

do

l

ogy

a

para

llel

of

the p

arad

igm sh

if t

s in

scie

nce ?

One

import

a

nt difference is

the timescale on which the cha ngos

take place. and another is the degree of rad icalism in th e

chan gos.

In science, paradigms ho ld for a relat

ive

ly long t ime,

perhaps centuries, whe r

eas

in design meth

odo

lo gy a new

ge

ne

rat ion seems

to be emer

ging each de cade, or les.s. A new

scient

ific paradigm brings r"ad i

ca

l reassessment anda fun

dament

al change in the scien

ti fi

c

unde

rstand ing

of

t

he

wo rld. wh

ereas

in design me thodo

logy

each

new

gcneration

seems a fairly modest change,

now

that we have a

pe

r

spec

t ive

of

such changos .

o a s traigh tf orw

ard

analogy

of

generati on w ith

parad

igm is a false

one.

l

ns

te

ad.

il

we

are

t o

pursue

Ku

hn's

view, it

seems

more tikely th

at

what we have been witnessing

is

the emergence of a cris

is wit

h

in the

design paradigm

wh

ich

has

been

held this

centurv.

This prevailing paradigm h

as

been tha t

of

the

Modern Movement, which characterizes

designas

rationa

listic, reductionistic

and

mechanistic- 'hostile to

every

subjective

specu

la tion .

1t

has been

an

attempt

to

mcx:tel

design

method

on scientific me

th od;

b

ut re

lying on

what

we

now k

now

to

be

a rather

na

ive view o t scie

nc

e}

3

The Modern

Movement

itself is in etisis, as wit

nessed b y the

search

f

or

po

st

Modern

styles in archi tect

ure,

and the sh ift ing sands ot design methodology are a

tu r

ther

ind icat ion o f the need for a revolut ionary new paradigm .

Of

course.

th

ose

who

re

main

committed to

t

he

o ld

paradigm wll ferocio usly resist any such revolutionarv

change.

t

is, ind eed.

particu

la rly

unfortunate

for them .

snce it is on ly ll

cent

ly that they h

av

e

begun

to gather the

flowers ot

th

e seeds plan ted

by

the pio neers.

The ob j

ec

t ive, systematic design methods can now

be seen

as a fi

na

l. ra ther la te, flowcring of the M

oder

n

Movement. lt is sad that the frost

of

se

asona

l change is

already upon them. although the committed 'design scien

tis

ts'

will

nurt

u re

and

protect the delica

te

b loo ms for

as

long as possible .

In

fac t.

an

i

dc

ological struggle be tween ho lders of

ri

va

l paradi

gms

is sy mpto matic

of

the revol utionary para

digm

sh

i

ft

th

at

h r c t e r

sc

ien

ti fic

progress in

Kuhn's

model.

Ouring the crisis

pc

riod,

one may

w tness t

he suddc

n

conversion

of

so

rne scienti s ts fro m the o ld to th e new

DESI

N

STUDIES


3/5

paradigm. Kuhn suggests that a new parad1gm emerges all

at once, sometimos in the middle of the night, in the mind

of

a man

dee

ply immersed in crisis .

The conversion experience from one paradigm to

another is like a gestalt switch . Have we not seen such

conversions in sorne of the leading figures in t he design me

th

ods movement?

Anot

her symptom of the transition from one para

digm to another is

a

period

of

pronounoed professional

insecurity', such as

we

are now witnessing both in the prac

tising design professions and in design meth

od o

logy and

design educati

on.

When the transition is oomplete. Kuhn

adds, the profession will have changed its view of the field,

its methods, and its goals.

Crisis in technology

Wh y should design be in

suc

h a crisis period now? My own

view is that

it

is closely connected

with

the crisis in techno

logy. Design, the conception and creation o f new artefacts,

is the central function in a technology

wh

ich has been facing

the

crim

of energy and resources, and the

criticisms

of the

ant

itechnocrats and alternativo technologists.

lf, from these unprecedented cr

ises

a

nd

critic

is

ms,

a new technology emerges, it will need new, post

i

ndustrial

design methods. J

ustas

the pioneers

of

the Modern Move

ment recognized the need for new design concepts to match

the new technology of the 20th centurv. so the pioneers of

the postModern movement recognize the need for new

design concepts to match the emergent technology of the

21st ce ntury.

There

has

been sorne confusion over the concept

of post

i

ndustrialism. In the mid1

960s

, this implied a kind

of hype

rindustri

al

technology, based on the information

revolution, automation and highly advanced technology.

This was the concept as

embod

ied, for example, in Bell s

vision

14

of

the

POSt

in

dustrial society, dominated by

the

scientists. mathematicians. economists, and engineers of the

new computer technology.

lt was characterized

15

in terms of three main com

ponents:

In

the

econom

ic sectOf, it

is t

shift from manufacturing to servi

ces:

in technology. it is the centtelity of the new

sc

ience

-b

ased indus

tde-s;

in sociologlcal terms, it is the rise of

new

technical e lites

and the advent

of

a

new

principie ot stratification .

The concept of postindustrialism

Bv the mid1970s a different concept of pastindustr ial i

sm

had begun to emerge, based on a rad ica l reappraisal of the

directi

on

ol

technological progress , and associated with

the

alternative technology moveme

nt.

In Robertson's t

erms

16

, the new concept

embodied

a shift from the hyperexpansionist (HE) vis ion

of

future

society toa sane, humane, ecological (SHE) vision (Table 1).

Such a vis ion stems trom a few. key. formati

ve

ideas that,

according to Hall

17

and his colleagues, are gradually emerging

in to good currency . These ideas, abstract

ed

from Hall .

are:

Society. above all in the advanced industrial

wo

rl

d,

will

need to become much

more

resourceconserving particu

larly in

relation to

energy

supplies.

A second

ma jor tcature

of the future society.

to borrow

lllich s phrase

18

,

s that it

will

be tool-

u

ng rat

he

r than

machineused

Or, in Schumacher s equally celebrated

words

19

it

will use intermediare technology: a

set of

instrumen

ts

vastly superior

to

the pri mitiva techno logy

vol

2 no 1 january 1981

of the past but much simpler, cheaper and freer than the

present technology of the affluent

wo

rld.

The idea of a resourceconserving socety based on parsi

mony, and the idea

of

a toolusing society seeking a

ut

o

nomv for the human being, come together

in

yet a third

key ooncept: quality

This notion of quality comes

from w

it

hin, and the quality of society can

be

made

right only if individual values are first of all right.

These notions, again, connect wi

th anot

her: the idea

of

social and economic li fe reorganized in small-scale units . .

A r s o u r ~ o n s r v socie ty, since it must m nimize

movement of people and goods, will naturally

be

sma

an

das

far as passible, in a modern worl

d,

se lfsufficient.

A toolusing socety will allow the dismemberment of

large bureaucratic structures, and so will allow produc

tion

to

occur in

small un

its again.

lf people are to discover the principie of qual

itY

for

themselves, they are more likely todo so in small groups.

But above and beyond th is. smallscale organization

is

needed

to

reduce alicnation and

to

allow

pe

op le

to

oome

autonomously to grips with rapid chango.

lf we are indeed on

th

e verge, or even in the process , of a

t ransi

tion

from industrial to POSt

i

ndustrial

soc

ietv . and

from industrial

to

pastindustr i

al

technology, then it is n

ot

surpri sing

if

there isa crisis in design as it. too. moves

from an indus

tr

ial toa past

i

ndustrial basis. What we can

expect to emerge from this uncomfortable crisis per iod, and

what we should be looking for. is a completely new

paradigm for design .

Such a paradigm would suggest a reorientation not

only of the v < ~ l beliefs and altitudes of designers, but

also

of

the goals

of

design (i.e. the nature of design products),

and of the methods for achieving these goa

ls

.

Personality.

product, and

process

in

design

are

not

as separable as the desi

gn

methods movement has supposed;

a desigoer does not

use

a

process that he finds

unsympathetic

to

his

own

attitudes,

or

that

genera tes

a product

which he

di

sl

ikes.

Tlbtt

1, Changes of directi

on

implied

by

a shift f

rom

hyl)lr

u:p.an ion CHE) toa sene. humane. ecological

SHE)

future

From

econom

ic gr

owth

polari zatio n ot sex roles in

societv

increasing emphasis on rationa

li

tv

and the left-hand side

of

the brain

increasing specialization

increasing duptmdence

on

big

o rganizations and prefcssional

know-how

increasing urbanization

intreasing

cent

ral ization

incrc;:,sing dcpe nden ce on pollu

ting techn

olog

ies that

wane

resources and

dom

inate the

pe o

p

le

who work wi th th em

an indust

ri

al

concept

of

work

8

jObs

provided and de finr.d

by

employers

To

human growth

new

ba

tanee between th e sexes

increasing emphasis on intuition

and the right-hand side of the

b.-ain

increasing e l f ~ u f e n y

increasing self-ft liance

a more dispersed pattern

of

habitation

more

decentralization ot

PQWer

increasing emphas is on techno lo

gies appropriete to the enviren

ment. the ava iltb ilitv of resources,

and the need:s ol people

a p

ostindusuia

l

concept

of

work

as elf-defined, seJf ,fulfilf ing,

s

oci

ally use fut

occupation

5


4/5

New model of

the

design process

So a new model of the dMign proccss

can

only be considered

as part of a larger st ructural model

that

also includes the

designer and de>ign products. The conventional design

pro

ce.s of industrial technology tends to be autoetatic, needing

profess

io

nal de.igners and generating specialized pr

oducts

which are ai

med

at

shon

term

profitability in a mass

market.

The structuraf preferences of postindustrial tech

nology, however, are

lor

democratoc, non-hierarchical, parto

cipatory

processe.,

open to

ev

eryone,

and taking into consi

deration the lonq-term

needs

of

the

envoronment and socetV.

The paradigmatic leatures of industrial design and

post

industrial

designare

contrasted

o

Table 2. Whereas

industrial

products

tend

to

be specialized, singlepurPOSe

machines, POstindustrial products w ll tend to be genera

lized, multipurPOSe tools. Whereas industrial

products tend

to be shon lived and replaceable lthrowaway), POst

industrial products will

tend to

be long-lived and repairable.

Whereas industrial

products tend to be

massproduced,

stan

dardized goods, postindustrial productswill tend to be

shortrun and customized. And whereas industrial products

tend to be designed to sorne narrow optimum , post

industrial

products

will

be

designed

to be satisfactory

over

a much wider range

of

criterio.

Turning from products

to

the proooss , in i

ndu

strial

design this tcnds to be autocratic and intcrnal

to

the designer,

whereas in POstindustrial design it will

tend to be

demOCtatic

and externalized, al lowing cvcryonc to scc what s

go

ing

on.

The industrial design process tends

to

be exclusive

to select few, whereas the

post

industriol design process

will tend to be inclusive of cveryone affected

by

the design

decisions. Industrial design tonds 10

be

a shon, intensive

activity following a pre-determined

path, but

the post

industrial design process will tend to be a longer, e

xt

ensivo

activitV generating its

own partleular.ad

ho

rou

te . Industrial

design process is rigid. whereas post-industrial designing will

be relaxed.

Finally, designers tend to be jealous of their crea

tivity and individuality in industrial design, whe

re

as

they

will be prepared to collaborate anon

ym

ously in POSt

industrial dMign. lnstead

of

tlleir professional integritV.

they will be

concerned

with exercizing their participatory

expenise.

TabJe

2. Contrestint

u t u t ~ of ind\.l

ttrial

end

post-4ndustr-.l

des4gn

lndus1fial design

Pon

indunr al desif'l

Proctucts

are

Ptoducn er

t:

speciahz.

ed

generallted

single1)t.lrpose

mulu purpote

shorHived

longh...ed

rec:laceable repeiroble

mass.oroduced

shon-run

standardlzed CUSI Omized

optimum

satisfactorv

Procen is:

Proeess

ls:

autocrotlc

dcmocto tlc:

lnternel lzed externol

l7ttd

exc

lu

sive

Inc

lusive

intunsive e

xt t

ns

vtt

rlg ld

reltxed

Designet1 are : Ooslgncrs ar :

creative

col lob

orol

lv

e

ndividuel

enonvmous

prOfess

ional pe niciPlltory

6

TH

E

S

EOS

OF

POST

INDUSTRI L

ESI

GN

Ouring the crisis period beforc a new, maturc paradigm

for

post-industrial

des

ign is Mtablished,

we

can expect to

sce

many

disparate small-scale e xperiments which

ate

outside the mainstream of normal design. Such experiments

may seem

to

have little in

common

except

for thc fact tha t

they are outside the mainstream, and, taken individually,

may

seem

insignificant.

However, t.1ken together, these linle pin.pricks

against the bubble of industrial design can be significan

as pointers

to

the new paradigm.

Participatory design

PerhapS the most obvious example of a shilt

towa

rds a

new

des

ogn pa radigm is

offe

red

by

the experiments in design

panicipation. Originally seen by Rittel as just thc initiation

of a second generation of design methods, the participatory

des

i

gn

techniques are growing into a generally-accepted ncw

approach to design -

part

icularly in arehitecture and environ

ment.1l design.

Many

examp

les

of

panicipatorv design have

been

repone

d in

the past

few years. T

he concept now

feels fami

liar.

but

we should remember

tha1

less than

ten

years ago it

was a novelty, and only 15 vears ago i t was practicallv

unheard of.

The

examp

l

es

now range from rather

to

k

en

nvolve

ment of future tenants in public housing schemes. such as

the Bvker housing in Newcastle, to the stilllimited but detalled

involvement o ffe red

by

the PSSHAK system in London,

to th

o

more

f

und

amental

user involvement that

wns attempted

at

the University of Louvain, Belgium.

One of

the most successful experim

en

ts appears

to

have been that of the small housing

development

buill in

1974

at

Klostermuren in Sweden. The neighbourhood of o

dozen houses was designed in general layout and

in

the

dctails

of

its

houses by

the group

of

future owner-occup1ers,

with the architect,

Johannes Ol

ivegren, playing the midwife

role

of skilled assistDnt at

the

bor th .

This role is a radical change from that which archi

tec:ts are traditionally educated and expected

to

play, and

s indicative

of the

shift in at titudes that is underway.

The

motive of

panicipatory

design underlies much

of

the recen t v1ork

of

AJexander. for example as in

the

Oregon

Experiment

of

universi

ty

planning and design.

11

AJexander's

'pattern language is an

auempt

to re-thmk and recast

envuon

mental design so that it is

understandab

le by and accessble

to

everyone.

like

other languages.

Argumentative planning

Although planning was supposed to become

mo r

e open

an


5/5

Often the arguments put against the planners have

been

not

only reasoned discussion and debate, but also

cou nter-propaganda and direct pr

otest

. These latter tactics

take

the

argument

to

the l

eve at

wh ich

it

belongs, that o

po

lit ics, and can be d istinctly successful, as have been the

protests against the va rious si es proposed

lor

a third

London airport.

Th

is

kind o comm

it t

ed opposition may lead at

last

toa

recognition

that

structural change

is

overdue in t he

planning process, and to

the

establishment

of

procedures

which give as much,

i f

not more, power

to

the publicas

to

the planners . lf small, local commun

it

ies can effectively

oppose large, nat ional plans, th is may lead

toa

more piece

meal, decentralized p lanning process altogether.

Socially-responsible desi

gn

'Don't blame me, 1only work her

e'

is a saying

that

only has

meaning in industrial

soc

ietv. Peo ple s lives are fragmented,

and responsibi lities are divided and sub-divided until noone

can really be held responsible for

anyt

hin

g.

People find themselves designing and making things

that thoy would ra ther not, and which they would refuse

to

design and make

if

they really felt responsible for their

actions; but it

is

easy

to

abdica te responsibility to 'the

system'. The result,

at

best. is badly designed and poorly

made goods;

at

worst it

is

the production of goods that

are positively ha

rm

ful and dangerous.

Onc sign ificant painter

toa

move away

from

this

non

-respOnsibilitY in industry

was

the initiative taken by

uni

on

shop-

cross coming of post-industrial design

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