Problematization

On design ‘problematization’: Theorising differences in designed outcomes
Steve Harfield, Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, New South Wales 2007, Australia This paper offers a speculative account of the way in which architectural design problems are ‘solved’, and of the significant ways in which such problems are constructed by the designers themselves. Deliberately retaining pro tem the traditional ‘problemesolution’ language frame, the paper questions this viewpoint by positing a distinction between two categories of problem: the ‘problem as given’ and the ‘problem as design goal’. While the first represents a conventional understanding of the problem presented for solution, the paper speculates that this is not the problem that the designer seeks to solve. A second category is therefore introduced to delineate the problem that is actually solved. This problem, termed the ‘problem as design goal’, is created by the imposition on to the ‘problem as given’ of a range of designer preferences, expectations and prejudices which not only define the ‘actual’ problem but, at the same time, establish the means and requirements for its acceptable solution. Such ‘problematization’, different for each designer and for each project, is posited as being central to architectural design, informing and constraining both the design activity and the final outcome in ways that are not determined by the brief itself. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: architectural design, design theory, design problems, problemsolving, problem setting

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Corresponding author: Steve Harfield steve.harfield@uts. edu.au

hile the general contentions offered below might well be widened to encompass a vast range of designed objects, this paper takes as its vehicle design in architecture. Imagine an architectural design competition. Without the need to examine any of the submissions received two simple and non-contentious

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