This paper argues that dominant design methodologies implicitly rely on a linear conception of time, which constrains how form, meaning, and agency are understood in design practice. By framing design as a sequence of ordered stages, linear temporality reduces form to an outcome of procedural causality and obscures the role of emergence, rupture, and temporal intensity. Drawing on philosophical perspectives on time and event-based ontology, the paper challenges this assumption and proposes the event as a foundational unit of design thinking. Reframing design as an event-driven practice enables a reconceptualization of form not as a static result, but as a temporal configuration that emerges through contingent relations between material conditions, perception, and context. This perspective situates design within non-linear temporality and expands the theoretical vocabulary available to design philosophy. The paper contributes a conceptual framework that aligns design theory with contemporary concerns surrounding complexity, emergence, and experience.
Theodoros G. kostas (Sat,) studied this question.