Functional modelling in engineering design: a perspectival approach featuring living systems theory

Complex engineering systems (e.g. aeronautic vehicles and automobiles) consist of many different interfacing parts and are subject to numerous requirements and constraints regarding aspects of performance, manufacturability, economics, etc. Their design requires the collaboration between people from various disciplines--each retaining different, but necessary, perspectives of the system under design. Here, perspective is defined as a particular context that a human utilizes to create personally meaningful understanding. The key, then, to developing complex engineering systems lies in accommodating and negotiating different perspectives such that a comprehensive and highly integrated design is achieved. We offer a methodology for performing design that explicitly incorporates the multiplicity and diversity of perspective encountered when developing complex engineering systems. Keywords engineering design; function; perspective; microworld; living systems theory
FRAME OF REFERENCE Designing complex artefacts and processes is a challenging intellectual task, owing to the involvement of many designers who each holds different perspectives of the subject system. Here, [...]