UCL Discovery

Abstract

Architectural design is necessarily a situated learning process that continues to be a subject of interest in architectural education. Whether designers should give preference to a functional design product or whether the focus should be centered on creative output are issues that need to be questioned. Given the vague description of creativity it is even harder to determine whether design functionality and design creativity should be treated as separate entities. The implications of any preferences made on the methods of assessment are crucial. While teaching is necessarily aligned to design as an experiential learning process, it requires careful understanding of how knowledge can inform rather than constrain creativity. In evaluating the creativity or even the functionality of a design there are challenges present in accounting for a comprehensive and yet practical framework for assessment. In teaching practices, the challenge is to ensure that the process is exposed for reasons of assessment and structuring without limiting creative explorations. It is seen that through exposing design to internal and external criticism, assessing progress becomes less of a challenge. In this course of development, creativity is not value-neutral but is a product of a social process that is practiced through experiential learning.