Michael Lissack either as flaws to be corrected or as happy accidents that suggest new op- portunities. In architecture, as with societal problem solving, something is being made under conditions of uncertainty and complexity, so that it is not initially clear what the problem is or what it would mean to solve it. The architect's conversation with materials takes the form of seeing/changing/ seeing. As the process goes on, the architect sees what he has made, listens (more or less) to back talk from the materials, and thereby constructs new opportunities or problems. Rationality in design involves continual reflec- tion -- on materials, seeing, changing, seeing, unintended effects, emergent intentions, and the form and character of the evolving object. As the architect iteratively shapes the object being worked on, the prob- lems he sees will reflect an appreciation of the possibilities and difficulties in- herent in the materials. The problems set forth should be ones that can even- tually be solved. Problem solving must take into account all of the constraints and possibilities inherent in the situation, including conflicts, complexities, and uncertainties. The formulation of a design task or problem is inade- quate if it rests on a model that excludes important features of the situation. Typically, an object's design involves many different values and variables, which tend to be interdependent-some of them mutually incompatible. Their meanings vary with shifts in local or global context. Initially, the architect may not have names for them. Hence, the architect's changes cannot produce only intended effects. The architect's continuing inquiry must then incorpo- rate the observed effects of the changes as the reformulation of both problem and solutions in order to take fuller account of the observed complexity of the situation and its gradually discovered field of values and interests. New problems are set, and policy inventions are made to solve those problems; situated controversies arise, and means are sometimes nego- tiated and/or invented to resolve those controversies. On the quality of that discourse-its communicative reliability, for example, its openness to inquiry-depend, in considerable measure, the adequacy of problem setting, the effectiveness of policy inventions, and the likelihood that controversy will eventuate not in stalemate or pendulum swings but in some form of pragmatic resolution.
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