Why the culture of academic rigour matters to design research: or, putting your foot into the same mouth twice

Historically, the culture of design education reflects an uneasy liaison between the medieval monastic (‘Book’) and the crafts guilds (‘design studio’) traditions. For this reason it has been difficult to integrate both modes of knowledge in design education. Common misunderstandings about ‘scholastic rigor’ are symptomatic of this confusion. ‘Rigorous’ writing is fundamentally rule-based and organisational, and can therefore be at odds with the situated, opportunistic judgements involved with much design practice. We should therefore re-design academic writing protocols for design education.