DAVID PYE (furniture designer) ON DESIGN

basic argument

• design is a unity of art and science

• the form of something is never dictated by anything of necessity

• there is no primacy of function - function is not objective and cannot be said to belong to anything as a property

Pye does not lapse into the style-function dichotomy but gives an indication of the variety of matters which impinge on the making of things

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FUNCTION

form follows function?

- but how do you decide on what something you are designing is going to do?

arbitrarily

- does this determine or merely guide form?

it guides

- what does purely functional mean?

cheap or streamlined (usually)

Some basic points about function:

people spend unnecessary time on useful things

decoration, workmanship, surface

useful devices always do useless things

nothing ever really works

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ENERGY TRANSLATION AND WORK

A useful artifact is one designed to bring about a result

This involves a translation of energy in a network or system

Design is about the regulation of these translations

This also means that thins are classified by their results, not by their form

(a chair can be used as a hammer)

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REQUIREMENTS OF DESIGN

use

access

economy: this does not mean cheapness. A translation of energy exacts a cost. Most devices are supposedly cost-cutting - they do work. Economy is the search for longer levers

appearance: this must be acceptable. There is always a concession to appearance

These requirements always conflict and cannot be reconciled. So all design is a failure. the choice is made where to fail. So all design is an arbitrary choice, or rather one which has no necessity, only contingency.

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TECHNIQUE

is the means of causing change in the characteristics of a material

wasting

forming

casting

constructing

You can make anything - but at a cost

So most constraints are economic

they are not about function or use:

those requirements which lead people to call a design functional are derived from the requirements of economy and not of use: a result can always be otherwise achieved, though not always at an acceptable cost

streamlining, simplicity, lack of ornament, exposure of structural members are never essential: though they do often result from economy

the electricity pylon is not more efficient than a marble column, but it is less expensive

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WORKMANSHIP

is another feature of design

Much of design is in the making

and workmanship is useless work (this does not mean that it is valueless)

risk and certainty

regulated and free

precise and rough

Much of workmanship is about surface

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THE IMPORTANCE OF THE AESTHETIC

Because there is an enormous latitude of choice in the making of things, perception, taste and style are important. These are about experience. There has never been design without style.