Thinking Through Designing

Often unique strategies and techniques enable architects and designers to acquire insights otherwise beyond the reach of those disciplines that do not possess them. This publication highlights various aspects of architectural design as a genuine form of thinking. In discussing selected key aspects of the design process (creative exploration, control, learning, notating and simulating), we highlight how this claim unfolds in practice. As such, we have attempted to explore the threshold that – once crossed – may grant access into a new evolutionary stage of the design disciplines. By doing so the publication conveys one important message that is reflected in the title of this anthology: namely, that designing is a scientifically valuable and genuine form of thinking that merits an autonomous status alongside other forms of thought.