Design as Event: The Ontological Cut — Why Process, Representation, and Computation Misread Design

This paper establishes Design as Event as a discipline-level theoretical position. It argues thatdesign cannot be adequately understood as an activity unfolding within time, but must begrasped as an event through which time itself becomes intelligible for form. Against dominantparadigms that treat design as process, method, representational sequence, or computationalprocedure, the paper introduces an ontological demarcation: the primary unit of design is theevental configuration that institutes a legible present. Within this horizon, form is not an objectprogressively refined by steps, but a contingent stabilization of limits achieved throughmorphogenetic regulation. The virtual operates as a real, structured reserve of potentialsinternal to the event, actively shaping form without being exhausted by actualization. Methodsand tools remain usable, but only as secondary instruments operating within an alreadyconstituted horizon of relevance and coherence. The paper functions as a demarcation text: itclarifies what Design as Event is and is not, and provides institutional criteria for evaluatingrigor beyond workflow success, visual representation, or computational optimization.