Model-Based Systems Engineering lacks a formal model that treats design evolution, with its inherent branching, rework, and context-sensitivity, as a first-class citizen. Current approaches reduce rich design trajectories to repository artifacts, losing the semantics of design decisions.

This paper calls for a scientific model for design evolution and introduces the Design Multiverse that frames design dynamics as a context-sensitive, nondeterministic transition system, while orthogonally separating observational link theories (e.g., conformance, refinement) for consistency reasoning. We demonstrate the model’s explanatory power through co-evolution. Furthermore, we outline a research agenda grounded by Design Multiverse Experiments (DMX), which enable empirical validation and pave the way for scalable, history-aware modeling environments.