O drama do projeto: uma teoria acional do design

Abstract

The thesis proposes a new way of seeing the field of design, according to which designing is understood as the unfolding of a dramatic situation, consisting of various personas gathered together around a common problem. The hypothesis that guides this theoretical construction is that design can be thought not only as a form of production, concerned mainly with the material transformation of the world, but also as a form of action between people, ephemeral by nature. The objective of the thesis is therefore to throw light upon the actional dimension of design, bearing in mind its primary commitment to the creation of new realities. It addresses a persistent difficulty of designers to understand how and why created situations may differ from planned situations, considering the image bequeathed by the arts and crafts tradition of the artist of genius who works in isolation. After World War II this image begins to be reviewed, when groups of architects, designers and engineers came together in a speculation about design methods and situations in general. Hence, a conception of design as a process emerges, one which underpins the current position of design professionals in relation to or within organizations or planning and decision-making instances. In order to build this argument, the starting point of this thesis are Hannah Arendt s theory of action, described in her book The Human Condition (1958), along with a historical problematization of long temporal arc of the conceptual distinctions that marked the emergence of modern design. Next, evidence that confirms the hypothesis is sought in some theories which compose, from the 1960s onwards, the heterogeneous field of design. Among them, those of Herbert Simon, Bruce Archer, Horst Rittel and Richard Buchanan stand out. After that, the concept of drama is extracted from a set of theories about modern theater, in order to create a new metaphor that makes explicit designing as a group activity. In short, the metaphor of the drama of designing reveals how a set of agents formed around a common problem establishes a plot that determines the design process and, consequently, its products. As a theoretical model, it allows for the understanding of how agents create new situations that in part evade their control and frustrate their expectations. The metaphor also indicates that the unpredictability of the actions experienced empirically by the agents is actually an intrinsic characteristic of the design process, considering the plurality of personas that constitutes it. At the end of the thesis, it is discussed, among other things, the theoretical limits of this proposition and its consequences for design education.