Design Strategies

This work reports on a case study in which we followed the design processes of eight student
design teams enrolled in a semester-long upper-level design course involving a new ideation
tool, “Design Heuristics.” We observed how students formulated concepts and implemented
ideas using the Design Heuristics tool in their ongoing projects. Our analysis revealed that all
teams carried their heuristic-inspired concepts to their latter stage designs, with seven teams
carrying their heuristic-inspired concepts to their final designs and prototypes. As all eight teams
studied were working on different design problems, our findings demonstrate the utility and
practicality of Design Heuristics across various design contexts. In addition, we found patterns in
the design teams’ general approaches to the design process, including synthesis, transformation,
and abstraction. Seven of the eight teams showed some evidence of concept synthesis in their
design processes, but often struggled in synthesizing multiple concepts together. Additionally, all
teams seemed to directly transfer their ideas, concepts, or prototypes from one phase of the
design process to another without abstraction (the use of a heuristic in an unanticipated way as a
prompt to think of something new), while only three teams showed evidence of abstract
transformation to develop their ideas across design process phases (such as from an early design
phase to a later one). Our findings provide pedagogical recommendations for using the Design
Heuristics tool in design classes and suggest opportunities for further research related to concept
generation, development, and synthesis throughout the design process.

In 1998 Molly Follette Story, James Mueller and Roland Mace published the book The Universal Design File; that can be considered the result of a long way, started by Mace in 1985, towards a design approach based on the principles of Universal Design. In 2010 the Centre for Active Design publishes the Active Design Guidelines: Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design. Between these two milestones, this article offers some ideas about the evolution of the universal approach to design. Assuming that Universal Design approach can present limits, this article aims to reflect on the relationship between universal and particular in developing a theoretical approach to architecture and design, supporting the idea that the wide gray area of the population who need specific access solutions can find answers to their needs only through successive adjustments, time by time plugged on universal solutions. This implies a process of requirement­based retrofitting of existing spaces and goods, to get qualities or perfecting performances otherwise inadequate. From this perspective the project for accessibility should be seen as a never ending process, and not a fix and final product, and Universal Design should be considered as a methodological approach ideally tending towards accessibility as a goal. Having this in mind, the article explores the issues related to how to blend universal and particular in a human centred design strategy, how to combine design actions and awareness by the users to allow an effective mutual adaptation between people and their living environment. The article aims to be further food for thought regarding research to be implemented in future works.

Every year disasters affect hundreds of millions of people globally causing damage that can take years to recover from. The process of rebuilding and re-establishing is vitally important to the successful continuation of life, industry and growth of affected societies and communities. Besides human casualties one of the most visible and striking effects of any major disaster is the destruction of houses. Construction of houses will be a major activity in the reconstruction phase of a disaster. The impact of disasters caused by natural hazards such as earthquakes can have serious consequences. Vulnerable populations are faced with unforeseen hardships, misery, and death if their houses and buildings collapse, and supporting infrastructure is severely damaged. Awaran District, Balochistan is one the least developed areas of Pakistan with very low Human development index (HDI). In 2013, an earthquake of Mw 7.7 occurred in the region, causing damage to the houses and human lives. The study covers the findings of the field survey for the damages occurred to the adobe houses in Awaran due to earthquake and analyse the causes of failure of the structures. It further suggests the design strategies and measures for the mitigation and prevention against these damages in order to decrease the loss to housing stock and lower the risks to human life due to failure of structures during earthquake.