Project number		Stand-alone Projects  P20362
Title		Modes of Design. Architecture as Cultural and Social Process
Principal investigator		PALFFY András
Approval date		01.10.2007
University / Research institution		Institut für Kunst und Gestaltung, Technische Universität Wien
Scientific field(s)
Keywords		Architecture Theory, Participation, Design Process, Sociology of Technology, Expert-Layperson Communication, Cultural Studies
Homepage		http://www.gestaltungslehre.tuwien.ac.at

Subject of enquiry are design processes in housing, based on the constellation planner-principal. In addition to these two positions, the user is another central role in the process, either as a participant or as a conceptualization of him/her by principal and planner. The architectonic design process can be analyzed as a special case of artistic practice. The analysis will show that different kinds of processes can be distinguished, what their specific qualities are and by what elements these processes are formed. Based on case studies, a theoretical model of design processes in its variations shall be constructed.
Scientific objectives are the analysis of modes of design processes in housing, their specifications and elements and the development of a theoretical model of design processes. Besides these objectives, research will focus on the differences in the relations between principals and planners on one hand and users on the other: Geographical, legal, social, gender and cultural factors will be elaborated to work out the needs and interests of the involved people and how these needs are observed in built results. According to the interventionist approach of cultural studies, the project's ambition is the dissemination of the results into the examined fields to achieve improvements in practice.
The project starts from a number of assumptions about the field: Planners, principals and users all use specific strategies of action during the design process to accomplish their positions. The notion of architectural quality differs between principals, planners and users. The roles of the programmer and the designer can't be strictly separated in the design situation. In many design processes, users are not personally involved. That means they must be represented by planners and principals. The imperfect interconnection between user necessities and design processes is a basic problem of the innovation system of housing. The relations between principals and planners on one hand and users on the other as well as the observance of user needs differ massively depending on geographical region, legal, social, gender and cultural differences.
The most important innovation of the project is the approach to see principals and planners both as participants in the design process - this allows for recognizing the respective stake in the process and for constructing a general theoretical model to allocate typical forms of these stakes. As a cross-disciplinary analysis with such an approach, the project is highly innovative.
The methodological reference of the project is grounded theory following Glaser and Strauss. Inductive theory building by developing concepts and hypotheses from the collected qualitative data is the center of interest. The chosen methodical steps, especially focus group discussions, provide an insight into context and coherence of social backgrounds and readings. They offer a way to generate meaning and not least hypothesis. The content analysis will follow Bohnsack and his "rekonstruktive Sozialforschung", an approach to generate theory directly from interview and group discussion data.