The ECC Methodology for Architecture Design Theory and Practices Research

Abstract

Abstract This study proposes the ECC methodology to improve design practices systematically. The article describes the research strategy called the evaluation-creation cycle (ECC) the foundation of the ECC methodology. Recent studies showed that a failure of desired outcomes is often a result of a failure of to understand existing practices. This suggests that improving design requires more than a theory of what exists, it also requires using this understanding to change the design process to one that leads from the existing to the desired through the evaluation-creation cycle approach. This requires understanding the relations of knowledge creation through the analytic and the synthetic practices within the design process, as well as the relations between the design process and the outer design context. The study draws insight from the Renaissance theory in order to obtain understanding the development of descriptive ‘knowledge of design’ focused on increasing design understanding, and based on this prescriptive ‘knowledge for design’ providing design support are created. This has informed the development of the evaluation-creation cycle (ECC) strategy and the ECC methodology based on it. The aims of the ECC methodology are the evaluation of existing practices and the principles that support them, and based on this the development of understanding with which to change the current situations into preferred ones. In this article the evaluation-creation cycle (ECC) approach is described and the ECC methodology based on it introduced, and the way in which design principles can be developed, improved and used to predict desired outcomes is discussed.