DESIGN & SOCIOLOGY – AN OVERVIEW

What is design?

Design is creating solutions for people.

Design is about creating an experience.

Design is user centred – users are at the heart of the design thinking approach.

Design is a broad concept and permeates many aspects of our lives.

Design is not about making things pretty but it is users’ interaction with environment more natural and complete. Taking into account aesthetic, functional, contextual, cultural and societal.

To quote Steve Jobs “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”.

Design is a process – to turn ideas into concrete solutions.

 

For whom do we design?

The user. – (both man and animal)

People experience a daily interaction with design.

Different kinds of design – architectural design /fashion design / product design /Software interfaces design / Interior design/ landscape design/ transportation design and so on.

 

How do we design?

As design is a process, designers research and collect information about the problem they are considering. (By surveys, questionnaires, books, observation).

Designers see who is the user (client brief).

Designer see what is best for the user (architects brief).

They see how other people are trying to solve it (case studies).

Then they make hypothesis and identify main features that should be a part of the answer. With these key aspects in mind, they experiment with different solutions and iterate.

Finally, they see what works and what does not to fit the user’s needs best.

From intangible to tangible.

From client brief to – library study / site analysis / landscape analysis/ case study / concept (TOD principles/circulation/ventilation & light/function).

 

What is Sociology?

Socio is society. Logos is to study.

Study of society – human interactions or social relations – a network or a web.

Aristotle said – “ Man is a social animal”

Study of man’s behaviour in groups / interactions among human beings / social relationships.

Where there is relationship, there is discord – with nature/ with each other / with states / with countries. One has to understand discord to understand relationship.

Sociology cannot experiment with men directly in a laboratory. But it does employ scientific methods in terms of questionnaires, interviews, case histories, polls, schedules. Hence sociology is scientific in nature.

Sociology does frame universal laws and attempts to predict. It endeavours to discover laws that are generally applicable regardless of variations in culture. For example:  marriage – polygamy, caste, family-joint or nuclear.

As man is bound to do right and wrong, ethics is the science of morality which becomes the foundation of a strong community.

 

What controls social relations?

And how they are related to Design?

 

Relationship with design is both ways for following factors. Both affect each other.

Human behaviour of one man ——DESIGN

Marriage ——————————DESIGN

Family (nuclear & joint)————-DESIGN

Community —————————DESIGN

Work ———————————-DESIGN

Social groups————————-DESIGN

Caste ———————— ———DESIGN

Art  ————————————DESIGN

Culture ——————————–DESIGN

Religion——————————-DESIGN

Government————————–DESIGN

Education  —————————-DESIGN

Law  ———————————–DESIGN

Politics ——————- ————DESIGN

Gender ——————————-DESIGN

Population density ——————DESIGN

Sickness ——————————DESIGN

Recreation —————————DESIGN

Crime ——————————–DESIGN

Mental disorders —————— DESIGN

Finance  —————————-DESIGN

Economy —————————DESIGN

 

Why do people behave in a particular manner is a common question in sociology.

And that answer is the base of a good design.

 

*This write up is excerpt of Ar. Anjali Sagar’s lecture on Sociology, delivered by her at Chandigarh College of Architecture, where she is a visiting faculty.