This far-ranging study under the title Design as Knowledge Culture was written as a Ph.D. thesis between the years 2006 and 2011. It traces the history of design methodology and research in an analytical perspective, starting from the time of the Design Methods Movement in the 1960s. It thus makes a fundamental contribution to the investigation of historical factors which are still influential in current debates on theory of design and design research today – especially with reference to the currently much discussed approaches towards a “design research based on practice”.