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Annalisa
Dominoni
Phd Student Politecnico di Milano
Francesco Trabucco
Politecnico di Milano
Project
Research: when the research
is inherent to the project
The
field of industrial design has long been the object of careful reflection
whose aim it is to gain a better understanding of methodological-operative
systems and the theoretical contents and goals of the research at hand.
So far research has usually preferred to attempt to define the boundaries
of industrial design neglecting the planning afflatus characterising the
discipline.
Now, instead, there is a growing call for project research and solutions
which, on the one hand, may contribute to project culture and, on the
other, create the premises for an opening up of university to industrial
reality.
An option might be, of course, to work on project research with a real
principal submitting a problem and the conditions characterising it, in
short providing a context: the principal would thus come to engage in
constructive dialogue with the designer. Yet this is not an essential
condition for project research, as the researcher might also choose to
pursue a path of inquiry without necessarily having a real-life principal.
Industry is more likely to commission project research than theoretical
research.
The major changes and the exponential rate of transformation characterising
the evolution of present-day society impose on the industrial design researcher
the management of extremely complex issues and the need to find a solution
to the problems deriving from such issues and, on industry, the task of
searching for the only resource capable of providing a competitive edge
to cope with market turbulence: knowledge.
Research, to be considered such, must produce some form of knowledge.
As already said, such knowledge must be useful, but also lend itself to
being shared with the scientific community within which it is generated
and to being extended to the outside world as well.
In project research this knowledge translates into the putting forward
of solutions to major issues, such as product innovation or product system
innovation, but also to problems restricted to highly specific project
areas.
But what is it that distinguishes project research from planning activity
as such? The difference may seem very vague, also because somehow all
planning activity may be viewed as a form of project research. It is not
its innovative character or technological complexity that can turn planning
activity into project research, as project outcome is not specifically
the acquisition of knowledge. Herein lies the difference, which might
be summarised in the following question: are there any experiences in
which such knowledge may be produced by product methodology?
Are there, when confronted with extremely complex issues, any research
activities in which research is inherent to the project?
In short, what is meant by project research? It is an articulated whole
consisting of the expertise, capacity, sensitivity and tools used by research-designers
to deal with complexity and the pace at which said problems change so
as to then translate such design experience into new knowledge that can
be transferred and acknowledged by the scientific community in which the
research itself was generated.
When embarking upon project research, a possible approach might consist
in taking the universe in which the problem arises, in simplifying it,
ignoring most of the existing project variables, and asking oneself, ‘what
if?’, that is what might happen if such variables were exacerbated?
Which possible worlds might begin to unfold …?
The highly innovative character of project research, which has so far
made it impossible to codify, places it in an embryonic state in which
practice and reflection on methodology tend to overlap. The methodological
rudiments of research evolve as progress is being made and assume a number
of possible expressions according to the peculiarities of the single project
and its context.
This paper sets out to offer a possible interpretation of project research
by attempting to answer the questions set out above and to clarify the
relationship existing between research and practice in industrial design.
This analysis is backed by the study of case histories relating to a specific
high-tech field of research, the field of aerospace research, possibly
the most complex and innovative one at an international level, which –
thanks to its potential and the extraordinary design opportunities it
offers – is extremely interesting for the industrial design scientific
community.
The path of inquiry here suggested develops through the planning of product
systems (experiences)
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