But now let's expand our sense of architecture and architects and imagine that it can apply to any field of endeavor and any act of bringing something into existence through design. I enjoy taking license with definitions. The noun, arch, has a different root than the prefix arch-, even though in English they're spelled the same. But it may be worthwhile to examine architecture as if it incorporated the noun. An arch is a curved type of structural element that spans an opening.
Designers span the gulf that separates condition from vision .
This span can be depicted by the cycle of conception, success, death, rebirth and innovation represented by the Stages of the Enterprise model. Designers span the creative process from Identity to Using. More importantly, designers span the white space which separates one stage of any process from any other stage. They facilitate the spanning of these zones, allowing individuals and groups to move smoothly from one to the other. The model has seven stages.