A critique of the representationalist framing of design

Abstract

This paper brings attention to the chronological developments in a strand of design research that aimed at demystifying the characteristics and nature of design through what will be argued to have been predominantly a representationalist framework. It discusses how the uncritical acceptance and combination of some of the concepts that have come to be attributed to design (design as an ill-structured, reflective-in-action and ambiguous activity) can contribute to a rather narrow understanding of design- one which reduces the temporal-cultural fluidity of design in how design(ing) is conceptualised; and how the role and intrinsic properties of the frameworks that are used to study design themselves are overlooked in the concepts that are subsequently attributed to the nature of design. The paper maps the research paradigms and core concepts pertinent to this line of design research against a classification of cognition theories in providing a critique of its framing of design knowledge.