04: Research Through Design and Transdisciplinarity: A Tentative Contribution to the Methodology of Design Research

Abstract

In our proposal, we stated that the purpose of the paper consisted in “a conceptual and methodological clarification of the so-called ‘re- search through design’ approach”. Furthermore, the title of our paper indicates that it is likely to be considered a contribution to the metho- dology of design research and that our argument will be based on the concept of transdisciplinarity. Our proposal also warns that the paper is not a report of a specific research project although, as we will see, its argument is strongly grounded in a study case. As a consequence, the paper is structured in the two following parts. Firstly, a long in- troduction where we found necessary to clarify our terminology and specify our conceptual background. Its general tone is therefore didac tic and, inevitably, somewhat dogmatic. Secondly and in a much more narrative style, a short description of the early phases of a re- search project devoted to the contribution of design to the improve- ment of Alzheimer patients’ daily activities, where the principles discussed in the first part are implemented and illustrated.