This document discusses design methodologies and metadesign. It defines methodology as the critical study of methods from a theoretical perspective, while method refers to techniques used to achieve results. Design methodologies are based on worldview, theory, and experience. Agile methodology focuses on iterations and user dialogue. Metadesign involves designers redesigning their own processes to deal with new complex problems. It discusses abstraction levels, diagrams, parametric design, emergence, and criticisms of excessive formalization through technology. Alternative approaches like Arquitetura Livre emphasize informalization over formalization and multiple perspectives.

1. Design methodologies and
metadesign
Frederick van Amstel
http://fredvanamstel.com
Architecture and Design School
Digital Design
PUCPR

2. “I can’t withstand hearing anything
else about design methodology.
Each professor comes with a
different one and ask us to work in
his way, which is not the way we
like to work.”
Design student from Unisul

3. Methodology is not a
procedure.

4. Methodology and method
• Methodology is the critical study of methods
from a theoretical perspective
• Method is a coherent structure of techniques
needed to reach a result

5. Design methodologies
are based on
• Worldview
• Theoretical foundations
• Practical experience

6. Agile methodology
• Seeing it working is better
than imagining it
• Evolve by iterations
• Dialogue with users
• Lean teams
• Sharing knowledge

7. Interaction design methods
• Paper prototyping
• Usability test
• Interview
• Shadowing
• etc...

8. How to develop your own
methodology?
• Stick to a certain school of thoughts
• Act in a thoughtful way
• Experiment new ways of doing old things
• Think about the process as much as the
product

9. Don’t just design.
Design the design.
Welcome to metadesign.

10. La Sagrada Familia inverted model (Gaudi)

11. Metadesign
• A practice identified by Van Onck (1966) in
which designers redesign their own process to
deal with new complex entities
• Theory extended by Caio Vassão (2008),
including its own critique (the bias towards
formalizing everything in society) and an
alternative path (arquitetura livre)

12. Metadesign concepts
• Abstraction levels
• Diagramas as reality
• Parametric design
• Emergent phenomena

13. Abstraction levels

14. The house as a bundle of information

15. Diagrams

16. A face diagram created to change a human face

17. Parametric design

18. Parameters to configure a house

19. Emergence

20. A customized web page based on the combination of
many choices, some unexpected

21. Are design machines possible?

22. Benefit Brow Genie (2015)

23. Thegrid.io: articial intelligence websites (2015)

24. Soft Architecture Machines (Negroponte, 1975)

25. Metadesign criticism
• Excessive formalization of activity through
technology
• Activities become sluggish and bureaucratic
• Conservatism to keep the status quo
• Metadesigners have too much power
• Design activity is reduced to a mechanism

26. Arquitetura Livre (Vassão)
• The project as a question not an answer
• Diagrams that do not represent anything
• Informalization over formalization
• The body as the basis of a project
• Multiple bodies, multiple voices

27. Design Livre
(Van Amstel & Gonzatto)
• From low-tech to high tech
• Counter-project innovation tactics
• Designing in the public
• Generous infrastructuring
• Shared objects that matter
• Raising awareness for contradictions

28. Thank you!
Frederick van Amstel
http://fredvanamstel.com
Architecture and Design School
Digital Design
PUCPR