Design as pluriversality: the translational territory where practice is plural

Translating and integrating knowledge from other disciplines is, to a considerable extent, one of the crucial phases which has contributed to the building process of so-called design research, a concept that continues to remain open to many definitions. Many forms of design research imply the translation of diverse fields of knowledge for the purposes of design implications. The general issue of giving form and validity to an inter-disciplinary or cross-disciplinary design competence, to be applicable in operational terms, is not new: however it has been only partially taken on board and to an even lesser extent resolved. The many decades of expansion of communication systems and technological innovation have generated a radical reconfiguration and widening of the baggage of design skills. An order of considerations of the greatest relevance, and one which can be referred to as refoundational, still revolves around the translation of those skills which tend to pluri-qualify the nature of the design profession.