Teaching Spatial Thinking in Design Computation Contexts

Abstract

A new generation of design computation systems affords opportunities for new design practices. This calls for potentially new teaching requirements in design education, in particular the development of the requisite spatial thinking skills. In this chapter, the authors review the pertinent literature, followed by two case examples that illustrate how spatial thinking was taught in two undergraduate design courses. The authors’ experiences suggest that early exposure to spatial thinking concepts, coupled with practice using computational design tools in the context of a project, can significantly help students to improve the skills necessary to design in a digital environment. Through the use of team projects, the authors discovered the potential variances in design representations when students switched between digital and physical modeling. They propose further research to explore the spatial processes required in computational design systems and the implications for design education.