ABSTRACT
We are surrounded by the products of engineering design. Two types of properties characterize these products, and the separation between them is crucial for understanding designed artifacts (Meijer 1998). First, products have intrinsic properties: physical, chemical and biological features. Each product can be measured, the material can be defined, etc. But in design the relational properties are much more important. The products of designers are meant for something, they have goals and functions. The relational design functions are indissolubly connected to their context. The function of a bridge only exists by the grace of a context with cars, trains, roads and travelers (Meijer 1998), and a river… Designers create functions, which are possibilities for human action. This human action component belongs to the social sciences domain. At the same time artifacts and structures are used with properties that belong to the natural sciences domain. A design (and design education), however, is more than an addition of loose parts from both these domains. If one would bring together an economist, a traffic expert, a jurist, a physicist and a chemist, the result would not be a bridge (Meijer 1998)!
