ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the flight from rationality, the social and political reasons which prompted some of the more notable exponents of design method to withdraw from the field. It explains the problems of the transposition of linguistic analogies and models to design methods in architecture. The distinction between design language and design methods is noted as is the need for their integration to augment natural problem solving thought. The invited paners assembled in this section all address issues related to the manner and means by which information is organized, expressed and brought to bear on problems of environmental design. The failure to make appropriate use of the distinction between content and method may have contributed substantially to the confusion in design method as well as to the failure to perceive the utility for designing of theoretical work related to architectural representation and meaning.
