Approaches to Design Towards the Designerly Way Research :

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to argue about the emergence, in the master of research and PhD programmes in design, of an approach to design research distinct from research in the sciences and humanities. Two empirical works were developed. The first was the case studies of ten PhD programmes in design from different geographical-cultural contexts. The second was the case studies of thirteen research processes that included design project(s) as an integral part of the research. The main findings demonstrated the existence of three different approaches to design research in the master of research and PhD programmes in design. The characteristics of one of these approaches, the practice-based approach, were found very distinct from the characteristics of research in the sciences and humanities. In this paper I will describe these main characteristics with reference to concrete examples of research cases. I will also argue why the main aspects of the practice-based approach to design research are leading towards the definition of a designerly way of researching.