New visions call the old paradigm into question
Charles Eames, besides being one of the most recognised and influential designers of the twentieth century, was also a poetry lecturer at Harvard for some time. The legendary interview [1] he gave in 1972 on the occasion of the Qu’est’ ce que le design? exhibition still holds his fascinating intensity and powerful poetic expression more than forty years later. During that conversation, Eames explained his views on many aspects on the nature of Design and Design Thinking that are still discussed today. One of the most interesting statements refers to the boundaries of design:
— What are the boundaries of design?—Madame Amic asked. Eames replied:
— What are the boundaries of problems?
Charles Eames was a pragmatic revolutionary: He was deeply convinced that designing was primarilysolving problems. Along with his wife and partner, Ray, they created some of last century’s flagshipproducts under this motto. «We are not artists, we solve problems», they said.
But, what is a design problem? In his book Da cosa nasce cosa, versatile designer Bruno Murani explained his ideas on the matter in 1981. Guided by the rigid and dogmatic Cartesian method, he systematically analysed designers’ process from the moment they address a functional problem until they devise a material solution. «Designing is easy when you know how to do it. Everything is easy when you know what to do to get to the solution of a problem»[2], he said. Considering that any cookbook is a design methodology book, and taking a green rice recipe as an example, Munari placed problems at the origin of a linear design process. «The projective method –Munari explained– simply consists of a number of required operations, arranged in a logical order dictated by experience. His aim is to achieve maximum results with minimum effort»[3]. His book soon became a guide for a whole generation of designers and one of the key elements for the development and dissemination of projective culture in the late twentieth century.
Since then, design has been enriched with a number of conceptual and methodological tools to identify, characterise and solve human problems. A number of observation and analysis methods imported from anthropology, psychology or social sciences have allowed to place the person at the centre and make empathy a key aspect of the process. A determined holistic, collaborative approach has allowed to redefine problems more broadly, thus facilitating connections and intermingling.
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