What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to investigate how design shapes thinking and decision-making prior to the establishment of formal structures.

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March 16, 2026Open Access

Epistemic Design: DEMA and the Condition of Thinkability Before Form

Key Points

The aim is to investigate how design shapes thinking and decision-making prior to the establishment of formal structures.
Intervention across various stages of design processes
Analysis of the relationship between visibility and potential outcomes
Exploration of how design transforms choices into necessities
Demonstrates the significance of early design intervention in shaping relational dynamics
Shows how design can produce knowledge while altering relationships
Highlights the dual role of design as both epistemic and ontological

Abstract

Design operates before form. Form marks the moment in which configurations consolidate into consequences. Form coincides with relational stabilization. The project intervenes before, during, and after such stabilization: it does not begin from the object, but from the condition that renders relations thinkable. It situates itself in the threshold between what is visible and what may emerge, transforming possibilities into decisions before they become necessities. For this reason, design is both epistemic and ontological: it produces knowledge while reconfiguring relational fields.

Epistemic Design: DEMA and the Condition of Thinkability Before Form

Key Points

Abstract

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