Design thinking / created by Peter G. Rowe

Includes bibliographical references and index

1. Designers in action Case study 1: making an urban place Case study 2: making a building from a formal type Case study 3: reconciling two large ideas Other accounts Observations and questions about the protocols 2. Procedural aspects of design thinking Some general characteristics of design problems Early theoretical positions Staged-process models of problem solving The information processing theory of problem solving Heuristic reasoning and design "situations" Types of rules and constraints at work in design Aspects of design behavior Limitations of a procedural view 3. Normative positions that guide design thinking Normative positions Surface features and broad inclinations Further differentiating features Problems of substantiation Theory and practice 4. Architectural positions and their realms of inquiry Two realms of inquiry Architecture from a naturalistic interpretation of man and his world Architecture from a referential interpretation A convergence of issues

The author provides a systematic account of the process of designing in architecture and urban planning. He examines multiple and often dissimilar theoretical positions - whether they prescribe forms or simply provide procedures for solving problems - as particular manifestations of an underlying structure of inquiry common to all designing. Over 100 illustrations and a number of detailed observations of designers in action support the author's thesis