A recurring theme in recent design theory has been a desire to relate design method to scientific method: to create the ‘science of design’ or a ‘design science’. There is an inherent paradox in such a desire since design and science are clearly very dissimilar kinds of activities. Further, the concept of ‘scientific method’ now seems to be in epistemological chaos. For these reasons, attempts to model design method on scientific method seem misplaced. It is proposed that it would be more fruitful to regard design as a technology, rather than as a science. The paper seeks to establish the basis for such a view, drawing especially on the idea that both design and technology involve the application of types of knowledge other than the purely ‘scientific’ kind.
