L. Bruce Archer
Encyclopedia
Leonard Bruce Archer CBE
(22 November 1922 - 16 May 2005), British mechanical engineer and later Professor of Design Research
at the Royal College of Art
who championed research in design, and helped to establish design as an academic discipline.
and his mother a dress maker and a trained amateur artist. During his schooldays, at Henry Thornton Grammar School, he wanted to be a painter, but he was academically bright and not allowed to continue with art beyond fifteen. His school certificates were in entirely scientific subjects. The Second World War
intervened before he could go to art school or university and he joined his father’s regiment. He saw service in Italy but left after three years (1941–44) on medical grounds. The war was still on and, after giving him an aptitude test, the Ministry of Labour
said to him as he recorded wryly:
Which he decided to do.
. He promoted the use of systems-level analysis, evidence-based design, and evaluation through field testing within industrial design
, and led a multi-disciplinary team which employed these methods in practice, including most notably their application to the design of what became the standard British hospital bed. He went on to become head of a postgraduate research and teaching department where he identified that scholarly inquiry in design was just as vital as it was in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, and argued that design warranted its own body of scholarship and knowledge no less than conventional academic disciplines. He proposed that modelling be recognised as the fundamental competence of design, just as numeracy
underpins mathematics and literacy
the humanities and he believed that – like both literacy and numeracy – it should be widely taught.
Archer trained a generation of design researchers, showing them how the procedures of scholarly research based on well-founded evidence and systematic analysis were as applicable in design as in the more traditional academic subjects. For design practice he argued there was a need for method and rigour, and for decisions to be recorded and explained so they could, if necessary, be defended. Today, practitioners are familiar with these issues through the requirements of quality assurance
, while in academia the Research Assessment Exercise
has pushed even the art and design community into taking research seriously. Thirty or forty years ago, however, Archer’s ideas were radical and pioneering, and the very existence of his research department - in an art college - controversial. It was his own force of character and his persuasive ability to argue his case with absolute clarity and conviction that ensured the department’s survival, and provided him with the opportunity to demonstrate that design is not just a craft skill but a knowledge-based discipline in its own right.
) where he trained as a mechanical engineering designer, eventually gaining his Higher National Certificate in mechanical engineering. He became a member of the Institution of Engineering Designers
in 1950, and in 1951 was awarded its national prize for the best thesis on design. He joined the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
in the same year.
took place and inspired Bruce, leading him to later state:
In 1953 he left full-time employment in industry to set up his own consultancy – the Scientists’ and Technologists’ Engineering Partnership – and started teaching evening classes at the Central School of Art and Design (now Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
) becoming a full time lecturer there in 1957. He began writing articles for Design magazine, promoting what he called ‘a rational approach to design’. At a party given by a colleague from the Central School, he was approached by Tomás Maldonado
, Director of the Ulm School of Design
, and offered a job acting as a bridge between two rival factions at the school – ‘scientists’ and ‘artists’. Archer moved there in 1960 as a guest professor to find two opposing belief systems. The ergonomists and psychologists believed in analysis and experiment as the basis for design, whereas the stylists were mostly concerned with form, and had evolved design rules about proportion, colour and texture which they thought of as a logical system for creating the cool, minimalist look for which Ulm became famous. Archer tried to convey each side’s belief systems across the divide, but each group thought he had aligned himself with the other. Maldonado had left Ulm even before Archer arrived, and he found himself isolated. Later he said that learning how the two cultures thought was a highly formative experience.
was appointed head of industrial design at the Royal College of Art
and asked him to lead a research project called Studies in the function and design of non-surgical hospital equipment, being funded by the Nuffield Foundation
. Archer returned in the summer of 1962 and, with a small multi-disciplinary team, identified four urgent design problems: a receptacle for soiled dressings, a means of reducing incorrect dispensing of medicines to ward patients, the need for a standard design for hospital beds, and a way to prevent smoke control doors being routinely propped open. They presented their report at the end of the first year to the Nuffield Foundation
. Unfortunately:
Archer and Misha Black were both stunned. Undaunted, Archer took a job at the Eldorado ice cream factory in Southwark, loading ice cream into refrigerated vans every night and working at the College unpaid during the day. Eventually commercial funding was found for the soiled dressings receptacle, and in 1963 he gave up his evening job when support was obtained from the King Edward’s Hospital Fund for London to study the medicine-dispensing problem. A radical solution was devised - a medicine trolley on wheels which could be securely padlocked to a wall when not in use. The hospital bed problem was also re-examined. The King Edward’s Hospital Fund became the King's Fund
and was seeking a major exercise to promote its new nationwide role. It took on the standardisation of the hospital bed. Archer was appointed to a Working Party, and in due course won a contract for a standard specification and a prototype design. After widespread consultation, evidence gathering through direct observations, and extensive field trials using mock-ups and test devices, the specification was adopted by the Kings Fund and became a British Standard; a successful prototype was also developed by Kenneth Agnew at the College for a commercial bed manufacturer. The hospital bed project has been documented by an historian. The fire door problem was solved by the use of electro-magnetic door-holders wired to the fire alarm, which released the doors when the alarm was triggered. So solutions to all four of the original projects were delivered. In the process, Archer had demonstrated that work study, systems analysis, and ergonomics
, were proper tools for use by designers, and that systematic methods were not inimical to creativity in design, but essential contributors to it.
In that same year the Rector of the College, Sir Robin Darwin, called him into his office and as Archer said later:
Soon his Department of Design Research had a complement of more than thirty researchers. As they marched daily into the College’s Senior Common Room they represented quite a large body of people, and were not entirely welcomed by staff from other Departments. Archer himself reluctantly became what he described as a traveling salesman to ensure a steady flow of research contracts.
After two or three years, there was a change of direction following a College decision to turn the Department of Design Research into a post-graduate teaching department like every other. Funding was won from the Science Research Council to study design processes, and postgraduates were recruited to undertake masters and doctoral studies. Design graduates arrived to learn how to conduct research, while others from disciplines like psychology and mathematics learned to apply their skills to the discipline of design. Archer’s own lectures ranged widely across the philosophy of science, ethics, aesthetics, economics, innovation, measurement and value theory, and were delivered with directness and enthusiasm. The Department itself was organized in a highly systematic way, with procedural memoranda setting out agendas for every type of meeting including highly structured progress reviews for students. Every event was meticulously recorded in his daily log.
From his belief that design was just as important an academic topic as the arts, the humanities and the sciences, Bruce was instrumental in the move to see it taught as part of the school curriculum. He campaigned to influence the Department for Education and Science, and ran short courses at the College for school teachers. He launched a Department for Design Education at the College, giving teachers the opportunity to undertake masters level research into design. He was made a CBE in 1976.
was appointed as Rector of the Royal College of Art, and he peremptorily closed the Department of Design Research. It had operated successfully for exactly 25 years. Archer himself was appointed Director of Research with college-wide responsibilities. Though approaching retirement age, his knowledge of the workings of the College and his academic credibility placed him in great demand, and Stevens thought nothing of contacting him at any time of day or night for advice.
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
(22 November 1922 - 16 May 2005), British mechanical engineer and later Professor of Design Research
Design research
Design research investigates the process of designing in all its many fields. It is thus related to Design methods in general or for particular disciplines. A primary interpretation of design research is that it is concerned with undertaking research into the design process. Secondary...
at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
who championed research in design, and helped to establish design as an academic discipline.
Early life
Leonard Bruce Archer (known primarily as Bruce Archer or L. Bruce Archer) was born in 1922. His father was a Regimental Sergeant Major in the Scots GuardsScots Guards
The Scots Guards is a regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, whose origins lie in the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland...
and his mother a dress maker and a trained amateur artist. During his schooldays, at Henry Thornton Grammar School, he wanted to be a painter, but he was academically bright and not allowed to continue with art beyond fifteen. His school certificates were in entirely scientific subjects. The Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
intervened before he could go to art school or university and he joined his father’s regiment. He saw service in Italy but left after three years (1941–44) on medical grounds. The war was still on and, after giving him an aptitude test, the Ministry of Labour
Ministry of Labour
The Ministry of Labour was a British civil service department established by the New Ministries and Secretaries Act 1916. It was renamed the Employment Department in 1988, and finally abolished in 1995...
said to him as he recorded wryly:
Which he decided to do.
Career overview
Bruce Archer was a chartered mechanical engineer who spent most of his working life in schools of art and design, including more than 25 years at the Royal College of ArtRoyal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
. He promoted the use of systems-level analysis, evidence-based design, and evaluation through field testing within industrial design
Industrial design
Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
, and led a multi-disciplinary team which employed these methods in practice, including most notably their application to the design of what became the standard British hospital bed. He went on to become head of a postgraduate research and teaching department where he identified that scholarly inquiry in design was just as vital as it was in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, and argued that design warranted its own body of scholarship and knowledge no less than conventional academic disciplines. He proposed that modelling be recognised as the fundamental competence of design, just as numeracy
Numeracy
Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts. A numerically literate person can manage and respond to the mathematical demands of life...
underpins mathematics and literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
the humanities and he believed that – like both literacy and numeracy – it should be widely taught.
Archer trained a generation of design researchers, showing them how the procedures of scholarly research based on well-founded evidence and systematic analysis were as applicable in design as in the more traditional academic subjects. For design practice he argued there was a need for method and rigour, and for decisions to be recorded and explained so they could, if necessary, be defended. Today, practitioners are familiar with these issues through the requirements of quality assurance
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process...
, while in academia the Research Assessment Exercise
Research Assessment Exercise
The Research Assessment Exercise is an exercise undertaken approximately every 5 years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British higher education institutions...
has pushed even the art and design community into taking research seriously. Thirty or forty years ago, however, Archer’s ideas were radical and pioneering, and the very existence of his research department - in an art college - controversial. It was his own force of character and his persuasive ability to argue his case with absolute clarity and conviction that ensured the department’s survival, and provided him with the opportunity to demonstrate that design is not just a craft skill but a knowledge-based discipline in its own right.
Early career
Bruce Archer worked as an engineering designer in manufacturing, designing jigs and tools and later process plant. He attended evening classes for years at Northampton College, London (now City UniversityCity University, London
City University London , is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute and became a university in 1966, when it adopted its present name....
) where he trained as a mechanical engineering designer, eventually gaining his Higher National Certificate in mechanical engineering. He became a member of the Institution of Engineering Designers
Institution of Engineering Designers
The Institution of Engineering Designers is a British professional engineering institution founded in 1945. The IED is the UK’s only professional body representing those working in the fields of Engineering and Technological Product Design...
in 1950, and in 1951 was awarded its national prize for the best thesis on design. He joined the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is the British engineering society based in central London, representing mechanical engineering. It is licensed by the Engineering Council UK to assess candidates for inclusion on ECUK's Register of professional Engineers...
in the same year.
Consultant
In 1951 the Festival of BritainFestival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
took place and inspired Bruce, leading him to later state:
In 1953 he left full-time employment in industry to set up his own consultancy – the Scientists’ and Technologists’ Engineering Partnership – and started teaching evening classes at the Central School of Art and Design (now Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. The school has an outstanding international reputation, and is considered one of the world's leading art and design institutions...
) becoming a full time lecturer there in 1957. He began writing articles for Design magazine, promoting what he called ‘a rational approach to design’. At a party given by a colleague from the Central School, he was approached by Tomás Maldonado
Tomás Maldonado
Tomás Maldonado . Argentine painter, designer and thinker, is considered one of the main theorists of the legendary ”Ulm Model”, a design philosophy developed during his tenure at the Ulm School of Design in Germany.-Biography:Born in the Argentine city of Buenos Aires, his artistic formation...
, Director of the Ulm School of Design
Ulm School of Design
The Ulm School of Design was a college of design based in Ulm, Germany.Founded in 1953 by Inge Aicher-Scholl, Otl Aicher and Max Bill, the latter being first Rector of the school and a former student at the Bauhaus. The HfG quickly gained international recognition and is now viewed as being second...
, and offered a job acting as a bridge between two rival factions at the school – ‘scientists’ and ‘artists’. Archer moved there in 1960 as a guest professor to find two opposing belief systems. The ergonomists and psychologists believed in analysis and experiment as the basis for design, whereas the stylists were mostly concerned with form, and had evolved design rules about proportion, colour and texture which they thought of as a logical system for creating the cool, minimalist look for which Ulm became famous. Archer tried to convey each side’s belief systems across the divide, but each group thought he had aligned himself with the other. Maldonado had left Ulm even before Archer arrived, and he found himself isolated. Later he said that learning how the two cultures thought was a highly formative experience.
Designing hospital equipment
In 1961 Misha BlackMisha Black
Sir Misha Black was an Azerbaijan-born British architect and designer. In 1933 he founded with associates in London the organisation which became the Artists’ International Association. From 1959 to 1975 he was a professor of industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London, England...
was appointed head of industrial design at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
and asked him to lead a research project called Studies in the function and design of non-surgical hospital equipment, being funded by the Nuffield Foundation
Nuffield Foundation
The Nuffield Foundation is a British charitable trust, established in 1943 by William Morris , the founder of the Morris Motor Company. Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage...
. Archer returned in the summer of 1962 and, with a small multi-disciplinary team, identified four urgent design problems: a receptacle for soiled dressings, a means of reducing incorrect dispensing of medicines to ward patients, the need for a standard design for hospital beds, and a way to prevent smoke control doors being routinely propped open. They presented their report at the end of the first year to the Nuffield Foundation
Nuffield Foundation
The Nuffield Foundation is a British charitable trust, established in 1943 by William Morris , the founder of the Morris Motor Company. Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage...
. Unfortunately:
Archer and Misha Black were both stunned. Undaunted, Archer took a job at the Eldorado ice cream factory in Southwark, loading ice cream into refrigerated vans every night and working at the College unpaid during the day. Eventually commercial funding was found for the soiled dressings receptacle, and in 1963 he gave up his evening job when support was obtained from the King Edward’s Hospital Fund for London to study the medicine-dispensing problem. A radical solution was devised - a medicine trolley on wheels which could be securely padlocked to a wall when not in use. The hospital bed problem was also re-examined. The King Edward’s Hospital Fund became the King's Fund
King's Fund
The King's Fund is a charitable foundation in England. Founded as the Prince of Wales Hospital Fund for London in 1897, the fund changed its name in 1902 to King Edward's Hospital Fund after the accession to the throne of King Edward VII...
and was seeking a major exercise to promote its new nationwide role. It took on the standardisation of the hospital bed. Archer was appointed to a Working Party, and in due course won a contract for a standard specification and a prototype design. After widespread consultation, evidence gathering through direct observations, and extensive field trials using mock-ups and test devices, the specification was adopted by the Kings Fund and became a British Standard; a successful prototype was also developed by Kenneth Agnew at the College for a commercial bed manufacturer. The hospital bed project has been documented by an historian. The fire door problem was solved by the use of electro-magnetic door-holders wired to the fire alarm, which released the doors when the alarm was triggered. So solutions to all four of the original projects were delivered. In the process, Archer had demonstrated that work study, systems analysis, and ergonomics
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics as follows:...
, were proper tools for use by designers, and that systematic methods were not inimical to creativity in design, but essential contributors to it.
Professor
Generalizing from his experiences in these and other design projects undertaken by what became the Industrial Design (Engineering) Research Unit, Archer presented his ideas at design conferences and prepared the paper for which he is perhaps most widely known, 'Systematic method for designers' which was published by the Council for Industrial Design in 1965 after a series in Design magazine. A thesis on ‘The structure of the design process’ was published by the US National Bureau of Standards in 1969. Both papers were translated into several languages, and he continued to receive requests for reprints for a decade or more afterwards. He was awarded the Kaufmann International Design Research Award in 1964. In 1967 he helped to found the cross-disciplinary Design Research Society, and was awarded a doctorate by the Royal College in 1968. Many of his ideas were brought together in ‘Technological innovation: a methodology’, a paper published by the Science Policy Foundation in 1971.In that same year the Rector of the College, Sir Robin Darwin, called him into his office and as Archer said later:
Soon his Department of Design Research had a complement of more than thirty researchers. As they marched daily into the College’s Senior Common Room they represented quite a large body of people, and were not entirely welcomed by staff from other Departments. Archer himself reluctantly became what he described as a traveling salesman to ensure a steady flow of research contracts.
After two or three years, there was a change of direction following a College decision to turn the Department of Design Research into a post-graduate teaching department like every other. Funding was won from the Science Research Council to study design processes, and postgraduates were recruited to undertake masters and doctoral studies. Design graduates arrived to learn how to conduct research, while others from disciplines like psychology and mathematics learned to apply their skills to the discipline of design. Archer’s own lectures ranged widely across the philosophy of science, ethics, aesthetics, economics, innovation, measurement and value theory, and were delivered with directness and enthusiasm. The Department itself was organized in a highly systematic way, with procedural memoranda setting out agendas for every type of meeting including highly structured progress reviews for students. Every event was meticulously recorded in his daily log.
From his belief that design was just as important an academic topic as the arts, the humanities and the sciences, Bruce was instrumental in the move to see it taught as part of the school curriculum. He campaigned to influence the Department for Education and Science, and ran short courses at the College for school teachers. He launched a Department for Design Education at the College, giving teachers the opportunity to undertake masters level research into design. He was made a CBE in 1976.
Director of Research
In 1984, Jocelyn StevensJocelyn Stevens
Sir Jocelyn Stevens, CVO is the former publisher of Queen Magazine; a financier of the first British pirate radio station Radio Caroline; newspaper editor for major London dailies and former chairman of English Heritage.-Career:...
was appointed as Rector of the Royal College of Art, and he peremptorily closed the Department of Design Research. It had operated successfully for exactly 25 years. Archer himself was appointed Director of Research with college-wide responsibilities. Though approaching retirement age, his knowledge of the workings of the College and his academic credibility placed him in great demand, and Stevens thought nothing of contacting him at any time of day or night for advice.