Interpretation as a Design Method

Abstract

Interpretation as a method to be applied by the designer is based on the principle of building a new rationality: constructing material culture, holding as a reference the user, ultimate recipient for the projected product. Interpretation as a method further strengthens the specificity of 'designerly ways of thinking and designerly ways of knowing' (Nigel Cross). With this approach we aim to contribute towards the characterization of an innovative design: neither a singular problem solver nor solely solution-oriented devoid of dialogue with the question, but rather a semantic agent, a designium interpreter, a maker of meanings through the generated forms, a builder of new circumstances and contexts to contribute to human freedom. The methodological processes applied to an innovative design cannot be conceived as a sequential and linear process with no room for questioning or constraints. Interpretation as a method in design practice holds as a model the application of the hermeneutic cycle: a proposal of dynamic reasoning between an initial question (situation, problem) and a final solution. The development of the project takes place vis-à-vis with the context, culture, place, language, use, and these variables interfere with the initial proposal, reinstating and reformulating it. The choice of new and unexpected answers acknowledges the user as dynamic individual and key player in the interaction process between the proposed 'product' and its use. This research focuses specifically on the 'skin of buildings' as city's constituent component. To support that 'the skin of buildings' has a function-meaning we perform a comparative study on the use of interpretation as a method by the designer Daciano da Costa and the architect Carlo Scarpa. One of the outcomes of this approach is that postulating interpretation as a design method characterizes the designer as an interpreter. In our research we intend to address the designer as a role player in the city, intervention scenario, as an analyst of the cultural value of the context, coming upon a sustainable and innovative answer. This approach seeks to justify the use of a method that instead of designing an object aims at construing the object's meaning for the user, hence his relationship with the surrounding space. Keywords interpretation design, signification, pattern, material culture, equipment scenarios Stemming from a hermeneutical perspective on the action and expansion of design we intend to reflect on interpretation design, qualifying the nature of the artifacts through their function-meaning instead of merely by their use-value. In such process, to reflect implies grasping a meaning for the referent. In other words, understanding (in this case the material or immaterial culture) through dialectics among and within all players (people, context, culture, complexity of factors, time) and abduction (logical inference, reasoning to evaluate and explain through the process of attribution of meaning). The first part of this text will present the advantages of interpretation as a method in design regarding other models, using a definition of the concept of design, to justify the hermeneutic circle as a model in the design process. In the second part of the text we apply interpretation design in searching for new solutions in the equipment scenarios, namely 'skin of buildings'. Design reasoning has several meanings, disclosing the abstract nature between conception and attribution of meaning ready for interpretation. Therefore, the exercise of design is competent to interfere with the function-meaning of space and disclose new connotations. Attribution of meaning as process of interpretation of the space may lead us to the understanding of semiotics applied to the design process. To support the function-meaning of the 'skin of buildings' we will analyze two cases of interpretation design, in Lisbon and Venice. To conclude,