Os tempos do projeto: Design como processo dinâmico

Abstract

Understanding design usually follows the shapes of products, taken by themselves. An alternative way would follow the relations between design and other stakeholders, and also between design and society as a whole. In this analysis, intentionality becomes crucial for designing, which in turn suggests products obey voluntary actualization instead of necessary actualization. That is, the results of designing should not be considered as inevitable consequences of well-defined causes, but as possibilities of action, or potentiality. It is assumed that design enhances the potential of products, but this happens in two ways: either converging towards an optimum, or diverging to encompass more options. Convergence tends to make use of necessary causes, so as to get stability and predictability. Divergence focuses more on the values that drive the project, thus requiring meaningfulness rather than predictability. Therefore, these two strategies give rise to two ‘cognitive styles’ in design: static thinking and dynamic thinking. Analyzing forms in themselves tends to hide the changes they go through, which in turn produces static ways of thinking. Analyzing the intentionality of projects reveals shapes to be dependent on values that are always changing, which produces dynamic ways of thinking. From a static perspective, design seems to exist outside of time, creating shapes that are perfect of timeless. But from a dynamic perspective, design is always connected to the moment in time where it is made. Both ways of thinking can be complementary, but static thinking is often adopted thoughtlessly, as a kind of assumption. Therefore we propose to view design from a dynamic perspective, engaging with the changes that are part of the design process, taking time as a lens to better understand design.