Certain Uncertainties and the Design of Design Education

Abstract

This article is about the design of design education. After a series of reflections on the design space of design education in relation to complexity, uncertainty, and change, the article is divided into two main parts. First comes a brief history of how design seems to be evolving in response to complexity, and how this has led to a shifting balance between what we consider to be certain, and what is inherently uncertain when designing. Second, there is a discussion of what this evolution and shifting balance implies for design education. The article does not offer a general account or articulation of what design or design education is or should be like, but a series of conceptual tools, diagrams, and figures enabling us to frame and define design programs for education and research. Ultimately, this article is a reflection on what it means to think about design as an act of making things possible, and therefore as the opposite of taking things for granted. Keywords: Design education, Design history, Design philosophy, Research through design