ABSTRACT
The concept of co-evolution is considered a key characteristic of designing. Several authors have described design thinking processes as the co-evolution of design problem and design solution. The theoretical grounding of co-evolution is, however, still in an early stage. In this chapter, we develop the concept by analysing real world design meetings of an architect and a client. Thirteen co-evolution episodes are identified in the two architectural meetings and we focus in detail on the utterances of two co-evolution episodes. We find that modelling co-evolution in terms of problem and solution is difficult for this data, and we develop a revised model of how co-evolution in a multi-actor setting might work. Conversation in an area in between problem and solution, for example about ‘use’, would seem to more accurately describe how designer and client reach agreement.
