Resilient Cities in a Changing World AMPS | City, University of London Page 27 planning and design including those by Christopher Alexander, Lawrence Halprin, John Tillman Lyle, Peter Rowe, and Carl Steinitz.7 The framework used in this paper differs from the ones mentioned in that it adopts a constructivist perspective rather than a rational (as in rational actor) perspective. Table 1 provides an overview of its five elements. Figure 1 provides an illustration of the relationships among the elements. A more complete discussion of this framework was published earlier.8 There are four key assumptions. First, a constructivist approach is advantageous due to the uncertainties and ambiguities that are inherent in any design problem. Simply put, a designer learns about the problem and identifies needs for additional data, information, and knowledge by trying to resolve the problem. That is, design involves learning by doing and then reflecting on what has been done. Second, that because there is no single solution to any design problem, the designer does not provide an uncontestable solution to a problem but makes an argument for change. The framework provides a basis to align interrelated assumptions for a consistent and coherent argument. Third, the role of an initial abductive conjecture or generative proposition is foregrounded in the use of the framework. An abductive conjecture is best guess answer to a, 'What if …?' question. It can be made in any of the five identified framework elements. Once made, the conjecture provides a foundation for specifying details in the other four elements of the framework. Fourth, subsequent design development occurs in two ways. 'Intensive design development' occurs as ideas within each of the five elements are refined. 'Extensive design development' occurs as relationships between the five elements are coordinated or aligned. Framework Element What if … is/are changed? Conventional form of representation Emphasis of thought Image of the world Core beliefs Statements of facts and assumptions Mysticism Challenges•Opportunties Transformable aspects of site and program Context maps Materialism Vision Comprehensive strategy to manage change Metaphor Idealism Objectives Available means to act for intended outcomes Cause-effect models and systems diagrams Pragmatism Forms Locations, dimensions, materials, and sequences of objects Orthographic drawings, renderings, physical models Realism Table 1. Elements of the Framework While extensive design development can occur when aligning any two elements, it is offered that alignments between elements that are adjacent to each other on the outer circle give rise to different kinds of philosophical considerations. The topics are labeled on the arcs in Figure 1, with a branch of philosophy on the inner side of the arc and a common-language expression on the outer side. This framework configuration has three implications. First, when following the diagram clockwise from Image of the World to Forms, the argument for change can be understood as going from general, more abstract propositions to specific, less abstract instances. In this direction, a prior element is put into practice or operationalized by a subsequent element. For example, the Vision, as a strategy to manage change, provides context for the ways individual Objectives, as topical ambitions, are defined to one
