DRS2012 Bangkok Proceedings Vol 4 - Design Research Society

A Critique of Design Methods in Synthetic Biological Design
the definition of these units in its capacity to provide explanations to natural phenomena
(Gánti 2007) (Rheinberger 2010).
In design, challenging the units of a representation often prove to be more important than
the designs themselves as the method of design can drive the products of design towards
quite predictable outcomes which can immediately turn into design styles (Stiny 2008,
Schumacher, 2010). Biological design not only provides a unique opportunity to rethink
the units of the living and expand on how they can be chemically or biologically
repurposed for different designs, but also introduces new logics of design that utilize rules
and grammars of synthesis, flow, diffusion, and organization that can extend beyond the
evolution-bound biological and component-based design paradigms.
In today’s engineering, product design, graphic design, architecture, and research, we
already witness a bottleneck of creative expression in the design of form and function
through unitary methods. As we approach a new frontier in design, where synthetic
artifacts will claim more everyday roles, it is becoming increasingly important to set more
discursive research agendas that can shape the perception, use, and design of these
new artifacts.
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