USE OF PAST WORKS FOR THE DERIVATION OF METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR ARCHITECTURAL PROBLEM SOLVING:
A FRAMEWORK BASED ON WORLD 3 HERMENEUTICS

The use of past works of architecture for the conception of new works for new needs and new problems is an actual practice which designers follow, regardless if these works were built or unbuilt,  utopian or traditional.  In literature, it is often referred to under different names such as “case based design,” “case based reasoning,” “precedent based design,” use of “exemplars” or “paradigms” in design. Although it has a long tradition, “using” past works in architectural problem solving often have different connotations and practices, and may point to different approaches in different contexts and time periods. In parallel, in architectural education, the study of past works or solutions seems to be a plausible way of teaching/learning architectural problem solving, how to design and for the production of architectural knowledge. On the other hand, there may be radical differences in its place, its importance and its practice in the studio settings. In addition, it is not formalized, rationalized and there is not a systematic way of dealing with it.

Architectural problem solving can be conceived as a “knowledge process,” or an “epistemic activity.” It is a knowledge-dependent evolutionary process that is contingent upon what was already known, or the contextual (or existing) knowledge. Each architectural work can be seen as a solution to a particular problem and a container of knowledge, wisdom and thought invested in it. This is why the “knowledge” and use of past works of architecture is an indispensable and invaluable component of creating new works and new solutions both in architectural practice and education.

From a different point of view, the study and analysis of these works may also shed light on how they were produced. This is the main focus of this study: it investigates and discusses the possibilities and potentialities of studying past works of architecture in architectural education, particularly for deriving methods, and strategies to be used creatively for developing new works for new problems. The problem is fundamentally of epistemological origin, and the study employs “evolutionary epistemology” and Karl Popper’s three world ontology as its theoretical and conceptual basis. It proposes that architectural education in general, and studying and creating works of architecture in particular, must be embedded in the world of “forms or ideas” namely “World 3” in Popper’s conception. The paper argues that a holistic, in depth, and a critical analysis and investigation of existing works as “World 3” structures and a comprehensive understanding of them is fundamental in realizing how these structures were produced, and also –indirectly- for the conception of new works by using the derived methods and strategies. This requires foregrounding some aspects and layers of the structure, suppressing some others, while keeping the whole structure intact without loosing the idea of the whole. This is not a kind of passive process, but it is more of a reconstruction or remaking with a problem at mind: It is an act of hermeneutics, or a critical/formalist reading. The study concludes with some remarks on the possible contribution of the study for architectural education and a rough sketch of an outline of a studio implementation.

(Selected) References:
Akın, Ö., “Case Based Instruction Strategies in the Design Studio,” Design Studies 23 (2002), pp.407-432
Campbell, D.T., “Evolutionary Epistemology,” in P.A. Schilpp (Ed.) The Philosophy of Karl Popper, (La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1974), pp.413-463.
Gero, J., “Design Prototypes: A Knowledge Representation Schema for Design,” AI Magazine 11 4 (1990), pp.26-48.
Oxman, R., “Prior Knowledge in Design: a Dynamic Knowledge-Based Model of Design and Creativity,” in Design Studies Vol 11 No 1 (Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd, 1988), pp.17-28.
Popper, K.R., Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach, (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1972)
Popper, K.R., Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, (New York: Basic Books, 1965)
Popper, R.K.: Three Worlds, The Tanner Lecture on Human Values delivered at the University of Michigan (1978)
Schön, D., “Designing: Rules, types, and worlds” in Design Studies Vol 9 No 3 (Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd, 1988), pp.181-190
Tzonis, A & White, I., “Introduction,” in Automation Based Creative Design (Amsterdam, London, New York, Tokyo: Elsevier Science B.V., 1994), pp.1-40.