Becoming-design in corresponding: re/theorising the co- in codesigning

Design and Innovation as Co‐creating and Co‐becoming with the Future

“…Hence, pushing this second form of “co‐”(elaboration) or “together” one step further, we propose the following: instead of seeing the streams of becoming of the agent and the material/environment as separated and “only interacting” at specific points in time—following Ingold (), Ingold (), Pallasmaa (), or Roth et al. ()—we have to question the concept of interaction and develop an alternative by understanding these processes rather as correspondence and co‐becoming between these two domains: design becomes a “modality of the never‐ending flux of life. When a number of such lines of becoming come together in a particular way to make a bundle, a new form is created—like a thread formed when fibers of wool are spun … lines of becoming are corresponding with each other and, in this, come to correspond to each other” (Roth et al., , p. 11).…”

“…()—we have to question the concept of interaction and develop an alternative by understanding these processes rather as correspondence and co‐becoming between these two domains: design becomes a “modality of the never‐ending flux of life. When a number of such lines of becoming come together in a particular way to make a bundle, a new form is created—like a thread formed when fibers of wool are spun … lines of becoming are corresponding with each other and, in this, come to correspond to each other” (Roth et al., , p. 11). Both the agent and the environment/material are changing, and together a new form emerges as a result of mutually modulating each other (see Figure ).…”

“…They become the design so that the development of the designer is one of becoming‐design. This unfolding becoming‐design can be reduced neither to the human designer nor to the thing‐designed” (Roth et al., , p. 11f). Design and innovation are no longer about novel artifacts only, but about personal transformation.…”

“…For instance, Ingold (, and Roth et al. () suggest rethinking this relationship between the agent or designer and the designed material or environmental structures in the following manner: one can think of both the designer's and the material's dynamics as two streams of becoming or as a flux of activities that are joining in the process of designing or innovating. It is an interaction, a process of joint growth , and of co‐shaping rather than that one (i.e., the designer) shapes and impacts the other (i.e., the material, environment) only.…”

“…Designing and innovating as interaction and conversation with the material (adapted from Ingold, ; Roth et al., ; Schön, ). [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”