AbstractPurpose: The purpose of the author in writing this paper is to establish the connection between design and constructivism. To that end, it is argued that design is a necessarily constructivist activity (both in terms of the design of concepts and the design of objects and processes); and that design preceded constructivism by many millennia. Method: This argument is made through reference to concepts and developments in second order cybernetics, and an analysis of central activities that designers perform – particularly sketching and doodling, used in the manner of holding a conversation with oneself. Findings: The parallelism between design and constructivism (and second order cybernetics) is demonstrated; and a distinction between knowledge of (a situation) and knowledge for (an action) is drawn. Knowledge for is the knowledge that supports action, including the action of constructing. Original value: Design is placed at the heart of constructivist activity, validated by criteria that that are sympathetic to designing. Thus, constructivist activity is reinforced by the analysis of design activity; and design activity is reciprocally reinforced by the analysis of constructivist activity. Key words: black Box, circularity, conversation, design, doodle and sketch, knowledge of, knowledge for, object ReferenceGlanville R. (2006) Construction and Design. Constructivist Foundations 1(3): 103–110. Available at http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/1/3/103.glanville Permalink: http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/1/3/103.glanville Article citation data: Plain Text · BibTex · EndNote · Reference Manager (RIS) | ||
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