To develop a model for design protocol in the research-based design process in architecture education

Abstract

Despite a great deal of effort has been made to present systematic models of design process, in practice, a lot of designs still proceed through unsystematic methods. It seems that the reason for this is too much emphasizing on describing the final design (product) and little attention to the design process; such that, there is no clear method so as to research-based design. This led to illustrate a distinct pattern from configuration of "design protocol" in terms of research-based design process. The aim of this study is to develop a model that can be used in the architecture educational system. So at first step, the readers of this research are architecture students, and designers can also benefit from it in the next steps. So that all the readers of this research using this model, in a logical process, can recognize the right information for design and ultimately achieve an optimal architectural design. In this research, our preferred context is architecture, and the focus is on research-oriented design; therefore, any given example would be in the field of architecture. In this paper, the proposed process is the result of experience gained from five years teaching architectural design (2) in master's degree that includes three milestones as follows: 1) Statement of problem 2) The scheme and 3) Design protocol. "Statement of design problem" is obtained from people's concerns about "design subject" integrated in its "bed". The scheme, itself, constitutes the expectations, goals and mission representing two sets of information (cognitive and distinction) about design that finally leads to establish a "spatial-body program" of the project. As proceeding from the onset of diagram into the end, we passed from "analyze" into "synthesize" phase. In fact, in «analyze» phase, designer decides to collect and analyze information; however, as the process goes forward, he/she combines the information from the previous phase in order to achieve novel findings. Finally, we hope that by taking advantage of the proposed process, designers can find the best way to accomplish their design projects within a defined framework.