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Application of sustainable design is growing rapidly as companies face increasing pressure to address the environmental impacts of their products. In response, a great deal of research has been directed at the development of sustainable design methods, as early design intervention has the potential to generate radical improvements. At present however, sustainability is often considered as an afterthought, only yielding incremental improvements. As such there is a clear need to redesign our design processes, and promote embedded consideration of sustainability throughout from the earliest stages. This thesis reports on research investigating how sustainability considerations could be systematically incorporated into product design processes through the definition of a framework and the development of a methodology for evaluating established design processes and identifying and prioritising stages for sustainability considerations to be embedded into design activity. The primary objective of this research is to develop an understanding of the challenges and opportunities for the implementation of sustainable design approaches in order to move towards a situation in the future where sustainability considerations are an inherent and embedded part of product design processes or Ubiquitous Sustainability in design.

The purpose of this study is to compare the use of design drawing in design fields such as architecture, engineering, and industrial design with its use in instructional design (ID). This study was conducted in three parts: first, a review of literature to understand the role and value design drawing plays in non-ID fields; second, a search for design drawing in the literature of ID; and third, observations of actual use of design drawing in ID in the field. For the first part, the literature of design studies was reviewed regarding design drawing. For the second part, the literature review includes a search for evidence of design drawing in ID. The literature of design drawing in design studies was rich and varied; the literature of ID showed comparatively little interest in design drawing. For the third part of this study, ID design meetings at Brigham Young University's Center for Instructional Design (CID) were observed using a qualitative, naturalistic approach. These observations were supplemented with interviews of instructional designers. The evidence gathered was analyzed in light of the literature review to better understand design drawing in ID. Three case studies were assembled from these observations and analyses on the use of design drawing at CID. This study concludes that design drawing plays an important and prominent role in ID, fulfilling many of the same roles and providing many of the same advantages it does in other design fields. However, design drawing in ID employed a very limited repertoire of forms, and was used to represent a limited number of design purposes. Design drawing in ID lacked the proficiency, the high level of self-awareness, and the sophistication of the design drawing described in the literature of design studies. Based on these conclusions, it is recommended that instructional designers need to develop a design drawing tradition and standards that might potentially expand the ability of instructional designs to improve over time, as well as their creativity.

Doctor of Philosophy / The main aim of this research is the exploration of relationships and correlations between thinking styles of student designers, their personal aptitudes, and design education. It involves discovering the role/s several groups of learning styles and cognitive abilities may play in problem solving during administered design tasks; and the influence they may have on academic performance and quality of produced design solutions. The main hypothesis is that differences in designers’ individual problem solving strategies and, ultimately, products of their expertise – designed artefacts – can be correlated with the differences in their learning styles and cognitive abilities. We suggest the following. (a) Designers with different styles adopt different approaches to design situations and use different strategies during problem solving. It is possible to find the supporting evidence by investigating their performance on design tasks. (b) Individual differences in design reasoning and problem solving could be correlated with the differences in individual cognitive abilities. (c) It may be possible to find correlations between cognitive styles and cognitive abilities. (d) It is likely that a number of visible or measurable qualities of students’ design drawings, would in some way reflect different characteristics of the above individual styles and abilities. The methodological approach draws on theoretical and empirical knowledge from several domains, including: design studies, psychology, cognitive science and study of creativity. This study is concerned with selecting and substantiating the input – a number of cognitive styles and abilities chosen for evaluation; and their subsequent assessment. It involves administering design sessions and exploring them as a process to see whether and how the above abilities and styles are reflected in problem solving. It also deals with the assessment of the product i.e. produced design solutions, and their relation to the academic performance reports. And, finally, it explores correlations between the input, the process and the product to help finding explanations for the students’ preferences in adopting particular problem solving strategies in designing. This study is based upon the analysis of six major datasets from (1) an electronic test assessing individual positions on four dimensions (two dichotomies) of learning styles; (2) tests of cognitive abilities chosen on the basis of their relevance to designing; (3) design sessions, administered individually under retrospective protocol guidelines; (4) questionnaires, containing summaries of design sessions, and introspective reports of imagery use and problem-solving styles and strategies; (5) judgements of academic performance from course supervisors based on marks and grades; and (6) assessments of design drawings by professional architects. The analysis revealed fundamentally different ways by which students approach design situations; they are positively correlated with their learning styles. Students’ approaches to problem situations change with the task and within the task. However, eighty percent of the first year and half of the final year subjects showed various degrees of inflexibility in dealing with design problems; this may have decreased the quality of performance. Learning styles proved important in predicting the process and the outcome of problem solving. They may account for moderate to low quality of design solutions in cases with either style (from both dichotomies explored) being of low development. Styles were also observed to may have a moderate to strong influence on the students’ academic performance. Correlations between the measured cognitive abilities and academic performance were moderate to significant for the first year and similar but marginally lower for the final year students. At the same time, final year students scored higher on the ability tests and showed better results on the learning styles assessments. One of the likely reasons for this is the enhancement of abilities and styles during the course of study. No significant linear correlations between preferred learning styles and most of the measured cognitive abilities have been observed. The probable inference is that abilities are among many other factors affecting the development of learning styles. It has been, however, possible to establish a number of important correlations between the measurements of learning styles, cognitive abilities, observed problem solving behaviour, and students’ design solutions. Overall, it has been demonstrated that the applied methodology, although requiring further refinement, does enable examining and elucidating the influence of learning styles and cognitive abilities on design problem solving and academic performance.

Doctor of Philosophy / The main aim of this research is the exploration of relationships and correlations between thinking styles of student designers, their personal aptitudes, and design education. It involves discovering the role/s several groups of learning styles and cognitive abilities may play in problem solving during administered design tasks; and the influence they may have on academic performance and quality of produced design solutions. The main hypothesis is that differences in designers’ individual problem solving strategies and, ultimately, products of their expertise – designed artefacts – can be correlated with the differences in their learning styles and cognitive abilities. We suggest the following. (a) Designers with different styles adopt different approaches to design situations and use different strategies during problem solving. It is possible to find the supporting evidence by investigating their performance on design tasks. (b) Individual differences in design reasoning and problem solving could be correlated with the differences in individual cognitive abilities. (c) It may be possible to find correlations between cognitive styles and cognitive abilities. (d) It is likely that a number of visible or measurable qualities of students’ design drawings, would in some way reflect different characteristics of the above individual styles and abilities. The methodological approach draws on theoretical and empirical knowledge from several domains, including: design studies, psychology, cognitive science and study of creativity. This study is concerned with selecting and substantiating the input – a number of cognitive styles and abilities chosen for evaluation; and their subsequent assessment. It involves administering design sessions and exploring them as a process to see whether and how the above abilities and styles are reflected in problem solving. It also deals with the assessment of the product i.e. produced design solutions, and their relation to the academic performance reports. And, finally, it explores correlations between the input, the process and the product to help finding explanations for the students’ preferences in adopting particular problem solving strategies in designing. This study is based upon the analysis of six major datasets from (1) an electronic test assessing individual positions on four dimensions (two dichotomies) of learning styles; (2) tests of cognitive abilities chosen on the basis of their relevance to designing; (3) design sessions, administered individually under retrospective protocol guidelines; (4) questionnaires, containing summaries of design sessions, and introspective reports of imagery use and problem-solving styles and strategies; (5) judgements of academic performance from course supervisors based on marks and grades; and (6) assessments of design drawings by professional architects. The analysis revealed fundamentally different ways by which students approach design situations; they are positively correlated with their learning styles. Students’ approaches to problem situations change with the task and within the task. However, eighty percent of the first year and half of the final year subjects showed various degrees of inflexibility in dealing with design problems; this may have decreased the quality of performance. Learning styles proved important in predicting the process and the outcome of problem solving. They may account for moderate to low quality of design solutions in cases with either style (from both dichotomies explored) being of low development. Styles were also observed to may have a moderate to strong influence on the students’ academic performance. Correlations between the measured cognitive abilities and academic performance were moderate to significant for the first year and similar but marginally lower for the final year students. At the same time, final year students scored higher on the ability tests and showed better results on the learning styles assessments. One of the likely reasons for this is the enhancement of abilities and styles during the course of study. No significant linear correlations between preferred learning styles and most of the measured cognitive abilities have been observed. The probable inference is that abilities are among many other factors affecting the development of learning styles. It has been, however, possible to establish a number of important correlations between the measurements of learning styles, cognitive abilities, observed problem solving behaviour, and students’ design solutions. Overall, it has been demonstrated that the applied methodology, although requiring further refinement, does enable examining and elucidating the influence of learning styles and cognitive abilities on design problem solving and academic performance.

After more than a century, there are very few examples of excellent interdisciplinary work in landscape architecture, like the "Emerald Necklace" designed by Frederick Law Olmsted or Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord by Peter Latz. Most of the projects still have only one purpose: they are either reserved for conservation as are the great national parks, or are planned for recreation or development that ignores natural systems. "Most...landscape designers are still inspired by and primarily focused on aesthetics; society's other major objectives are secondary for them" (Richard Forman 2002, p: 85). In 1993, American Society of Landscape Architects defined sustainable development as, "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the future." Thus designers need to understand how natural and human systems work and design for the protection of our environmental as an integral part of any development. Landscape architects can achieve this by borrowing principles of legendary works like the "Emerald Necklace" and combining those with new technology to meet changing cultural and ecological needs. This thesis asserts that sustainable development should be achieved by reconciling human systems and its effects on the surrounding environment by using and revealing natural systems to spread consciousness and earn attention and care for our environment. Suitability analysis by Ian McHarg, Bioregionalism by Clair Reiniger, Regenerative design process by Lyle, and Framework for ecological design by Prof. Carl Steinitz are various design processes to create developments, which can respond to both natural and human needs. The thesis project, Riverside Park and Biomedical Complex in the South Jefferson Redevelopment Area in Roanoke, VA, explores how a design process, consisted of framework for ecological design and principals of eco-revelatory design, can help to plan a sustainable development, which uses and reveals natural systems to reconciling human systems and its effects on the surrounding environment. The project demonstrates how a multidisciplinary approach towards landscape design can help to create a multifunctional design that meets the, ecological and cultural, needs of the present without compromising the future. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Partindo da hipótese de que as tecnologias digitais são simultaneamente meios e ambientes capazes de influenciar e viabilizar a emergência de um pensamento arquitetônico pronto a incorporar a complexidade, o objetivo do presente trabalho é ampliar a compreensão acerca das interfaces entre complexidade e processos de design em arquitetura. No percurso de construção dessa abordagem, buscamos entender a abrangência da mudança colocada pela complexidade, seu histórico, e seus princípios fundamentais, obtendo subsídios para definir critérios de seleção e análise de exemplos da emergência da complexidade em arquitetura, focalizando os processos de design. Utilizamos um recorte temporal em dois períodos – décadas de 1960 e 1970, e décadas de 1990 e 2000 –, distinguindo dois momentos específicos intrinsecamente conectados. A intenção é contribuir para uma compreensão efetiva da arquitetura não apenas, ou principalmente, como objeto, mas como um sistema complexo–organizado e, sobretudo, organizante. / Assuming digital technologies simultaneously as media and environment that influence and make feasible the emergence of an architectural thought ready to incorporate the complexity, the goal of this work is to increase the understanding circa interfaces between complexity and architectural design processes. This approach draws on understanding the scope of the change brought by complexity, its historical, and its fundamental principia, aiming to achieve subsides for defining criteria to analyze and select examples of complexity emergence in architecture, focusing on design process. Two periods of time were selected – from 1960s to 1970s and, from 1990s to 2000s –, distinguishing two specific moments closed related. The intention is to contribute for an effective understanding of architecture not merely or specifically as object, but as a complex system, simultaneously organized and organizer.

A tese propõe uma abordagem cibersemiótica para processos de projeto a partir da perspectiva da mediação digital e de suas relações com a arquitetura contemporânea. Apresenta uma revisão dos processos digitais de projeto, com base na constatação de que a atuação de arquitetos e designers, em função dos modos de vida contemporâneos, passa a exigir atualmente uma postura diferenciada em relação ao gerenciamento das informações, assim como uma reflexão crítica em relação ao método projetivo utilizado na arquitetura da era digital. A tese utiliza como fundamentação teórica, os principais referenciais que tratam da Cibersemiótica, conforme proposta pelo filósofo dinamarquês Søren Brier, e de suas duas bases conceituais: a Semiótica de Charles Sanders Peirce e a Cibernética de Segunda Ordem, proposta por Heinz von Foerster. A tese propõe uma estrutura (framework) para análise de projetos a partir do olhar cibersemiótico, assim como propõe também uma estrutura (framework) para os próprios processos digitais de projeto. O trabalho é dividido em duas partes. A primeira parte, aborda processos de concepção e de produção digitais e as teorias utilizadas como fundamentação. Também define o quadro contextual que compara alguns projetos selecionados no recorte proposto e propõe uma estrutura de análise cibersemiótica destas referências. A segunda parte, apresenta estratégias para projeto digitais e propõe uma estrutura cibersemiótica para processos digitais de projeto. Acredita-se que a relevância da contribuição da tese se dá na direção da expansão do paradigma teórico cibersemiótico assim como na sua capacidade de potencializar processos digitais de projeto. Se outras espacialidades e interconexões deverão surgir a partir da atualização dos níveis de comunicação estabelecidos entre os diferentes sistemas, e de novos desafios sociais e culturais, é imprescindível que os arquitetos estejam atentos à compreensão das teorias e dos processos que estão disponíveis, para a otimização de todo o seu potencial de projeto na busca por ampliar as possibilidades para a Arquitetura e Urbanismo. / The thesis explores the Cibersemiotic approach to design processes from the perspective of digital mediation and its relationship with contemporary architecture. It presents a review of existing digital design processes, based on the assumption that the practice of architects and designers, according to the contemporary modes of life, currently requires a different position in relation to the management of information, as well as a critical reflection on the design methods used in the architecture of the digital age. The thesis\' theoretical foundation is based on the Cibersimiotic work produced by the Danish philosopher Søren Brier, which unifies two important conceptual frameworks: the Semiotics by Charles Sanders Peirce and the Second Order Cybernetics proposed by Heinz von Foerster. The thesis proposes a structure (or framework) to analyze existing designs from the cibersemiotic point of view, as well as a structure (or framework) for the digital design processes themselves. The work is presented in two parts. The first examines the digital processes and production as well as the theories they are based on. This part also presents the theoretical context for the structure (or framework) used to analyse selected existing designs and introduces the framework. The second part presents strategies for digital design and proposes the cibersemiotic framework for digital design processes. It is believed the thesis contributes towards the expansion of the Cibersemiotic theoretical paradigm as well as provides a working framework for the increasingly complex processes of digital design. Assuming other spatialities and interconnections will arise from the update levels established from communication between different systems as well as new social and cultural challenges, it is essential that architects are aware of available theories and processes for optimizing design potential and expand the possibilities for Architecture and Urbanism.