Design theory: History, state of the art and advancements

The March 2013 special issue of Res Engineering Design was launched to gain better understanding of the early efforts in design theory, as well as showcasing promising contemporary research in design theory. Many of the papers of the special issue study multiple design theories and compare them. The papers in the special issues dialog with multiple disciplines, with intuitionist mathematics, with set theory, with orders in science, with engineering science, and with creativity. In 'Design theories as languages of the unknown, insights from the German roots of systematic design (1840 1960)', Pascal Le Masson and Benoit Weil study the historical development of theories and methods. 'Towards an ontology of design: lessons from C K theory and Forcing' by Armand Hatchuel, Benoit Weil and Pascal Le Masson, aims at revealing an ontology of design by studying the similarities and differences between two of the most abstract formal theories of design, C K theory in engineering design and Forcing in Set theory in mathematics