The main purpose of this study was to present an overview of design practices and theories in different domains that would enrich the perspective of architectural design. To achieve this purpose, the study presented the initial purpose of architectural design which is providing an adequate shelter for different human activities. Positive and negative aspects of shelter were briefly discussed to trace the evolution of the concept of shelter. Change, as an essential aspect of design was presented in the context of problem formulation and problem resolution.

A presentation of design practices followed. It started by presenting design practices that are generally based on hierarchy. Two examples in architectural design illustrated two different styles of the design process in architecture were presented and discussed. They were followed by another two examples of computer-aided design systems in architecture; one is more concerned with the problem of knowledge representation while the other is an attempt to automate an existing design activity. Practices in engineering and organization design were then presented. Those practices were chosen because they do not follow the traditional functional hierarchical approach to design, but rather follow a system approach to the design process. Following the logic of the study the theoretical principles of the systems approach were presented with a hint to the importance of cybernetics as the control mechanism of large systems.