Developing a Model for the Totality of Designers' Actions in the Architectural Design Process (Aiming for Consensus on Ex-Models)

Problem statement: The design process, one of the common topics among design research, design studies, design thinking, etc. has long been explained by experts using various models. Such divergence necessitates the analysis of opinions to reach a consensus. Research objective: This study aims to present a totality of designers' actions in the design process to find what designers do to convert the existing situation into a desirable one. Since this aspect of the process has been mainly introduced based on the activities or design stages in the previous models, the extant study also has adopted these components to recognize the totality of designers' actions. Research Method: This is a review study drawing upon logical reasoning and the comparison of different models of the design process. Conclusion: The results imply that the totality of designers' actions can be explained in a model composed of subjective stages (within two conscious and unconscious levels) and objective stages (including planning, design, construction, documentation/handover), which convert the existing situation to desirable one based on two ranges of analytic (evaluation, comparison, analysis, test, etc.) and synthetic (genesis, conjecture, image, synthesis, expression, production, etc.) activities. In this model, the totality of designers' actions, not only depends on the specifications of the components mentioned above but also on their relationships. In other words, the totality of designers' actions in the design process is beyond the reduction done in the previous models that consisted of two components of activities and stages.