Form-finding methodology as strategy for formative research in industrial design education Experimental techniques for the early creative phases of the product design process

Abstract

The experimental work of Antoni Gaudí and Frei Otto have been the precedents of what is currently called form-finding, a methodology based on rules and physical forces of nature that promotes principles of transformation as a result of the relationship between form, material and structure. This text shows the first results of the research titled as Form-finding methodology as strategy for formative research in industrial design education, with an empirical-analytical approach through action-research based method and using collaborative-participatory tools. As a result of the analysis of different cases in the first stage of the research, a basic methodological proposal is made, this methodological proposal is aimed to find new research possibilities for the identification of morphological characteristics to be used in design projects in the early creative phases (ideation and experimentation); the methodological proposal stages are the following: selection of technique, design of the experimentation, experimentation, analysis and discussion.