Abstract
Design is a social phenomenon and researchers suggest that social interaction, negotiations and communication between designers are essential to initiate creativity. Within the design studio environment, a number of factors affect the healthy social interaction and design negotiations, such as the teaching style of tutors and the culture that governs a design studio’s environment. This may in turn affect the utilization of the outcome of negotiations in the design project. Design studio students from the third to fifth years at the College of Architecture, University of Dammam (UD), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), were surveyed to find out how far the design studio’s culture and communication would impact the production of innovative design projects. The results show that frequent communication and the establishment’s shared grounds are essential to develop knowledge and positively influence the design outcome. On the other hand, the research found that negative qualities on a personal level and on that of a design studio environment would hinder a student’s creativity. However, to develop students’ design/innovative abilities, the researcher recommends that certain measures should be considered. These would include transforming the design studio into an interactive and friendly learning environment, adjusting the teaching methodology, and developing interactive communication abilities of students and tutors.
Highlights
Education in architecture studios involves a number of varied activities
To improve the design studio environment and help students to produce creative projects, this study recommends that corrective measures should be undertaken on the following fronts: 7.1
Tutors should clearly define the creativity criteria for a given project and how it should be applied. They should set a clear roadmap on how to apply it during the design project, and discuss it with students to reach a common understanding of the application of the creativity dimensions in the design project
Summary
Education in architecture studios involves a number of varied activities. Before the project begins, the tutor(s) may establish the goals, expectations, general procedure, and assessment criteria he/she will employ for the project. Tutors meet students, either individually or in groups, for design-related discussions and clarifications. This research is driven by growing complaints from the design studios’ tutors and the discussions of the board of the Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, UD about the low design abilities of students. Tutors from all academic levels repeatedly claim that students produce design projects but very few of them can produce innovative projects [1,2]. Previous research points out possible causes that influence the educational outcome. It indicates that in many instances, the teacher serves as the “fount of knowledge” and the students are the empty open containers, anxiously waiting for knowledge to be poured in. Interactive and creative skills play an essential role in initiating/fostering creativity [4,5], the absence or the shortage of these skills would diminish creativity
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