Styles of architectural designing : empirical research on working styles and personality dispositions

Conceptualisation Reflective Observation Part I Figure 10. Styles in Learning. This figure shows a schematic representation of four learning styles as were distinguished by Kolb ( 1984 ). Each quadrant represents a different preferred way to perceive and process new information. Since we were interested in working styles of architectural designers, and working styles might also be the result of the existence of one or more dimensions, in our experimental design we should incorporate preference data . Once data are available we can use unfold techniques (Coombs, 1964), to find if there are possible underlying dimensions. Pask and Scott (1972) make a distinction between a serialist and holist learning style. A serialist learning style is proceeding in logical small steps, where each step has to be clear before one continues to the next step. A holist learning style is consisting of a broad approach, where bits of information are picked up that do not necessarily have to be logically connected. According to Pask and Scott (1972) teaching strategies can be either matched or mismatched with learning styles. Results on studies suggest that students' learning styles matched with teaching strategies, show much better performances in tests than mismatched groups (Pask and Scott, 1972). It is not clear whether Pask and Scott deliberately use the word style with respect to learning and the word strategy with respect to teaching. We believe that strategies can be associated with learning just as style can be associated with teaching. On the one hand, the types of learning style they distinguish seem to exist irrespective of the learning context and can therefore also be called learning strategies (e.g. a preferred plan of action). On the other hand a teacher's teaching strategy may exist next to teaching tactics (what to do if a teaching strategy is failing). A teaching style therefore would consist of On Style Research 35 a strategic as well as tactical aspects. The same accounts for a learning style. This distinction will be discussed in more detail in chapter 3. From the study of Pask and Scott it becomes clear that knowledge about designing styles of students and teachers can be important to improve results. The question however is whether in case of designing styles, the pref erred designing styles of students should be matched or mismatched with the preferred designing style of the teacher. 2.5. General style definitions in designing A general definition is given by Simon (197 5) in which he states that: "a style is some one way of doing things, chosen from a number of alternative ways". According to Simon (1970): "When we recall that the (design-) process will generally be concerned with finding a satisfactory design, rather than an optimum design, we see that the sequence and the division of labour between generators and tests can affect not only the efficiency with which resources for designing are used but also the nature of the final design as well. An architect who designs buildings from the outside in will arrive at quite different buildings from one who designs from the inside out". In fact Simon (1975), distinguishes three sources for the components of style: The direct specifications of the final object, the nature of the processes used to manufacture it, and the nature of the processes used to design it. What can be obseived in this definition is a presumed correlation between process style and product style. In chapter 6.4 Chan's style research will be discussed in which a similar assumption was investigated. Simon {1975), states that in finding a solution for an architectural design task, architects generally can do two things. They can generate distinctive search paths using different heuristic procedures, each designed to find a design solution. On the other hand they can generate distinctive search paths based on criteria, beyond the basic one of finding a design solution. In the former one the choice of one or the other heuristic procedure is a choice of style. In the second case the choice of criteria is a choice of style. It is believed that the choice of a heuristic is very likely to be related to process style preferences, whereas the choice of other criteria can be related to process as well as product style preferences. In both cases, the fact that there is not a