Design acts

Abstract

What an architect does, designing, is a design act and not the making of an object, a design. A design act is an intentional act about built use. We give reasons for intentional acts and are responsible for knowing that the reasons we give for design acts are as relevant and correct as we can know them in terms of their built use. The reasons we give for design acts distinguish them from other acts, such as drawing, which is the making of objects. One of the reasons we may give for our design acts is that they are following a rule. For a design act to be following a rule, there must be a fit between the rule and what we do in practice. For a design act to be about construction, a form act, there must be a fit between the form act and what gets done in the field.