id |
ddss9408 |
authors |
Bax, Thijs and Trum, Henk |
year |
1994 |
title |
A Taxonomy of Architecture: Core of a Theory of Design |
source |
Second Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture & Urban Planning (Vaals, the Netherlands), August 15-19, 1994 |
summary |
The authors developed a taxonomy of concepts in architectural design. It was accepted by the Advisory Committee for education in the field of architecture, a committee advising the European Commission and Member States, as a reference for their task to harmonize architectural education in Europe. The taxonomy is based on Domain theory, a theory developed by the authors, based on General Systems Theory and the notion of structure according to French Structuralism, takes a participatory viewpoint for the integration of knowledge and interests by parties in the architectural design process. The paper discusses recent developments of the taxonomy, firstly as a result of a confrontation with similar endeavours to structure the field of architectural design, secondly as a result of applications of education and architectural design practice, and thirdly as a result of theapplication of some views derived from the philosophical work from Charles Benjamin Peirce. Developments concern the structural form of the taxonomy comprising basic concepts and levelbound scale concepts, and the specification of the content of the fields which these concepts represent. The confrontation with similar endeavours concerns mainly the work of an ARCUK workingparty, chaired by Tom Marcus, based on the European Directive from 1985. The application concerns experiences with a taxonomy-based enquiry in order to represent the profile of educational programmes of schools and faculties of architecture in Europe in qualitative and quantitative terms. This enquiry was carried out in order to achieve a basis for comparison and judgement, and a basis for future guidelines including quantitative aspects. Views of Peirce, more specifically his views on triarchy as a way of ordering and structuring processes of thinking,provide keys for a re-definition of concepts as building stones of the taxonomy in terms of the form-function-process-triad, which strengthens the coherence of the taxonomy, allowing for a more regular representation in the form of a hierarchical ordered matrix. |
series |
DDSS |
references |
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last changed |
2003/08/07 16:36 |
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