The Significance of Basic Research in Design Education

Design education is most often grounded in studio-based and case-based approaches where products, scenarios and situations are re-considered, subsequent to the equally often taken for granted applied character of designas a field. On the contrary to this dominant approach in design education I will argue for the significance of basic research in the development of design skills and design thinking. It means that instead of developing design skills through e.g. integrative studies and participatory projects, basic design research focuses on the explorations of definitions and methods – the ontological and logical foundations of design as an academic discipline – for the sake of developing the field of design itself.