Writing soon after the 1962 Conference on Design Methods at Imperial College -the event that led to the founding of the Design Research Society in 1966 -J.C. Jones and D.G. Thornley described the Conference's purpose as twofold. Firstly, the event determined the parameters of a collective agenda and, secondly, it enabled discussions that would catalyse future developments in design methods work (Slann, 1963). Making no apology for the 'breadth' of collected papers from this meeting, Jones and Thornley's edited volume contained several contributions including the work of Christopher Alexander, William Gosling, and Joseph Esherick, as well as Jones's foundational essay, "A Method of Systematic Design". While varied in background, each author shared an epistemological belief in "systematic methods of problem solving, the application of scientific methods and knowledge to their own particular problems, and, to break down the barriers that exist between one activity and another, attempting to discover the possible connections that link all creative activities" (op cit, p.xi).On the occasion of the Design Research Society's (DRS) fiftieth anniversary, this conference strand continues this dialogue with a specific agenda: to assess histories of future-focused thinking and to consider the histories, theories and practices shared between design researchers. What emerges from evaluations of the Design Methods Movement and of Design Research is the sustained search for a common language and methods and an interest in problem solving by bringing scientific methods to bear on design. This initiative, however, has not been a steady one.Several authors have recounted this history in generational terms. Horst Rittel, for example, asserts that the first Design Research generation spanned the 1960s and tended towards a rational and systematic development of the field. The second generation moved away from