Reconsidering architectural program within the framework of conjectures and refutations: the design studies journal

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2014
Özten, Ülkü
The discussion of program in the field of history and theory of the Modern Movement in architecture enters a new period in the 1960s and 70s under the influence of the strong embodiment of science and technology in the field of design research. Beginning with this period, the idea of program arises both in a series of generations parallel to a specialized, sophisticated understanding of design and as an autonomous professional area of study. While the concept was being largely developed under the influence of a scientistic, positivist epistemological framework called analysis-synthesis, since the mid-1960s, it had also become the focus of a parallel research campaign for a Popperian counter-framework: conjectures-refutations. As an alternative to analysis-synthesis, the conjectures-refutations framework addresses a series of issues and yields to new principles results in a reconceptualization of program. The primary aim of the thesis is to define a historical and theoretical background to this framework by tracing the program focused line of thoughts in the design research field particularly through the journal Design Studies (DS). Secondly, the thesis aims to set out a structured critical look and identify the weaknesses created by the scientistic, program-based approaches sourced from analysis-synthesis. Finally, it seeks to provide foundations of a novel, conjectural understanding of program at the more open, flexible, falsifiable, and creative level.

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Citation Formats
Ü. Özten, “Reconsidering architectural program within the framework of conjectures and refutations: the design studies journal,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2014.