International Journal of

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  In this paper, authors tackle three very important questions that need to be answered if a theory of design is to be constructed. The first is what designers do, Which we attempt to illustrate with the help of case studies and theories of design practice. The second question is what guides designers. Here, authors try to present some of the proposed normative positions about design, to show the similarities and differences between positions and a framework of how they can be categorized. The main (third) question is how the design thinking process can be represented drawing upon on a review of recent studies of design practice and designer's creativity.

  One approach to design thinking is to extract the features of the designers' strategic knowledge, for which comparative studies between expert designers and novices are useful. Also, controlled experimental studies may be adopted in order to understand the nature of the idea generation process.

Finally, the methods of research and representation of design thinking in order to gain a deeper understanding of the designers' creativity are proposed.

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Abstract: Creativity and innovation are major drivers for developments of societies and nations. In this way, research activities have an extremely significant role whose promotion is strongly dependent on the creativity and innovation. There are several factors such as the built environment, which affect the creativity and innovation. This paper extracts a set of design rules for researchers' offices in an "architecture and urban design research center", which lead to the growth of researchers' creativity and innovation. The type of plan, namely open or closed plans, and spatial aspects of researchers’ offices are investigated from the perspective of factors influencing the creativity and innovation. The spatial aspects, chosen based on the available literature, are privacy, beauty, spatial diversity/flexibility, and proximity/visibility. Additionally, four factors affecting the creativity and innovation consist of tranquility/physical comfort, motivation, creative thinking, and communication. The survey methodology, with a 26-question four-choice questionnaire, was adopted here for the sake of numerical studies. The sample group covered 91 faculty members and Ph.D. students associated with Architecture and Urban Design Departments of several universities in Tehran. The collected data has been analyzed through a statistical method, named repeated measure analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA), and the most affected creativity and innovation factors by spatial aspects are specified.

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Abstract Creating suitable classrooms that can meet the educational needs of mentally-retarded students is vitally important. The present study explores the effect of three physical characteristics of classroom environment on the creativity of educable mentally-retarded children: window view, window size, and classroom size. The participants, one hundred 9-to-11-year-old girl students, took the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP). The results indicate that natural window view, larger window size (which provides a broader vision), and larger class size positively affected the creativity of the students. The findings of the study can be taken into account in designing psychology-oriented classroom environments that can improve the creativity of students.

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In the developing world, skills in innovation and creative design have emerged as key attributes for graduating designers. Creativity is essential if we want to generate new solutions to the considerable and complex problems in architecture. Metaphor is frequently expressed as a key tool for enhancing creative design, yet little empirical research has been performed on how novice designers can use it within their design. The goal of this study is to empirically research the use of metaphor in the design studio, with a focus on its effects on design creativity and quality. A three-stage method is presented, which allows novice designers to use meanings and metaphors in the early stages of design and idea generation. This method was tested in an architectural studio with two groups as experiment and control groups. The results were evaluated using a qualitative research methodology and a questionnaire was prepared in which the students were requested to assess the use of this method in their design process. Also expert designers evaluated the design outcomes in both control and experiment groups. The results highlight that metaphor is a helpful tool for young designers to stimulate design creativity and has a noticeable effect on design quality factors such as novelty, value, flexibility, usefulness and detail. These research findings have different implication for novice architects and help them enhance creativity and quality in their design endeavors.

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As recent researches show, creativity is very important in art, technology, science, education, management and etc. Also, preschool ages are a golden time for developing motor creativity. So, it‘s necessary to enhance creativity of preschoolers. Many scholars have studied cognitional-emotional aspects of creativity. Some, have focused on the creativity process and creativity techniques. But, the relation between creativity and physical environment have been rarely studied. The goal of this research, is exploring design patterns which may help architects to design suitable spaces to enhance kids’ creativity. The question is “which architectural variables affect kids' creativity positively”. Survey research method is used to gathering questionnaires of kindergarten mentors, architects, psychologist and preschoolers. Factor analysis showed the effective variables (factors) that were known and labeled. Creativity variables were “imagination”, “curiosity” and “cooperative play”. The variables of physical environment were “flexibility” and “variety”. To find the relation between three creativity variables and two architecture variables, the path analysis method was used. The correlation of creativity variables and architectural ones was significantly positive. Then, 72 architects and psychologists were tested with an open end test. Design patterns were extracted from architects and psychologists suggestions. The results were discussed in a session with 20 children to explore kids taste about them. The outcome was design patterns such as: a) Design of modular wide open plan with several corners; b) Design puzzled Shadow maker partitions; c) Using light modular furniture such as light cubes that kids could move and rearrange them to make new furniture/walls; d) Using incomplete paintings, on the wall or on the ground; e) Design vast planting areas that kids could plant in groups.

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The aim of evaluating and studying the creative city indicators of the city of Qazvin is to determine the creativity trend of this city during the past years and to recognize the dominant field of creativity for this city. Therefore, this study has tried to analyze the creative city indicators about the city of Qazvin by using “descriptive-analysis” method as well as applying secondary data, TOPSIS model, AHP model and SPSS software. First, 13 indicators have been collected to determine the creativity trend from2009 to 2015, then the current trend of creativity in recent years has been obtained using quantitative models. Regardless of the year 2009 and the years before that, the best rank belongs to 2013 with 0.3228 scores. Generally, the creativity trend has decreased with a gentle slope in recent years. In the following sections, within introducing the dominant field of creativity among the five investigated fields, this conclusion has been made that the city of Qazvin has potentials to move toward a creative city.

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In the architectural design, designers are focused on the early stages of the design process or conceptual design. The ultimate goal of this stage is to find a solution for an existing problem, investigate design space, or explore an idea. This stage conventionally begins with sketches and diagrams to explore ideas and solutions; the ambiguity and vagueness of conventional freehand sketching can be a source of creativity.
Nowadays, with the advances in digital technology, there are attempts to integrate digital tools into the conceptual design in order to construct a digital design medium in the architectural education. Recent developments in CAAD software shows a shift in focus toward conceptual design interface; but these tools have not developed and still fail to offer an appropriate design environment for sketching; So application of digital tools in the early stages of design, has created problems and challenges especially regarding creativity. The problem is that why digital sketching could not yet replace the conventional freehand sketching. Therefore, this research focuses on the early stages of the design process and aims to investigate the current situation of digital sketching and its related discussions and challenges in architectural design education, also, study the current sketching tools in the architectural schools and tendency of instructors and their students to use digital sketching in real world. This research has a qualitative approach and a survey has conducted via an online questionnaire. Findings show that, there are attempts to study and propose interfaces and programs to enhance digital systems or new ways of working with them in order to support creativity and sketching. Also, findings indicate that the professors yet doubt over digital tools, but there is a tendency to use these tools among educators and their students if these tools can meet educational demands.

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Designers rely much heavily on experience. Previously, it was assumed that particular developmental experiences are correlated with creativity which develops over time and with experience. The aim of this study is to explore whether design expertise definitely improves the creativity of design idea in architectural design. To test the hypothesis, some architectural designers at different levels of expertise, from novice students to expert architects, participated in a design task. The novelty and quality of design ideas were evaluated as the signs of creativity. The results indicated that there are significant relations between design expertise with the quality, but not with the novelty of design ideas. The expert designers preferred to find ideas that have practical solutions to the design problem, but novices looked for original ideas. We concluded that design experience influences the creative ideation, but have different effects on various aspects of design creativity.

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The importance of using visual social media as the digital learning and inspiration resources in architecture is blatantly obvious. On the contrary, there are still gaps in the position of those platforms in the elements of creativity and performance within design studios. The major research question is how does the architecture students' use of architectural content on Instagram relate to their creativity and design studio performance? The paper aims to determine the relations of defined Instagram usage parameters with creativity indicators and students' grades in studios. After crafting the theoretical framework, the correlational research method was used to define the correlations between variables by Spearman’s correlation coefficient. All 72 students of the Design Studio III course during 2018-2020 at Tabriz Islamic Art University reported their Instagram usage parameters and design grades. Their creativity was measured by Abedi’s version of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, and the data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results revealed significant and positive correlations between the students’ performance and the overall score of creativity, fluency, and originality; but, no correlation was found in elaboration and flexibility. Also, there is a significant and positive correlation between Instagram use and flexibility of creativity. However, no significant correlations were reported between Instagram use and their studio performance. Hence, despite enhancing the flexibility, students cannot consider Instagram as a tool to achieve success in studios. Furthermore, the assessment system of the studios in Iran doesn’t cover all aspects of creativity, and it’s crucial to construct a new architecture-oriented creativity test.

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The study is an exploratory research based on a systematic review conducted qualitatively. It examines recent studies on the growing trends towards design participation in innovation management processes, specifically focusing on one of the main streams of research: design-driven innovation and the innovation of meaning. This research aims to define and introduce the infrastructure of this field. Therefore, the elements of analytical innovation and interpretive innovation are extracted from sources and compared across several parameters. Analytical innovation is characterized by structured and logical approaches, while interpretive innovation involves subjectivity and context. After defining hermeneutics as the science of interpretation, hermeneutic concepts are analyzed and extracted in relation to interpretive innovation in a design workshop. Concepts such as the hermeneutics of discourse, horizon of expectation, fusion of horizons, hermeneutic dialogue, metaphor, and narrative are discussed. To determine the complex relationship between hermeneutic concepts and visual representation design concepts, a bibliographic network of studies in this field was conducted. This included topics like interpretation, communication, phenomenology, design thinking, and human-centered design practice. Looking ahead, hermeneutics is poised to influence cultural inclusiveness, sustainability, ethical considerations, and interdisciplinary collaboration in design. It will also play a fundamental role in shaping digital experiences and fostering responsible innovation. Embracing these possibilities leads to a more holistic and ethically informed approach to design-driven innovation in our evolving world.

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This study conducts a thorough literature review to explore the relationship between the physical learning environment and creativity. Addressing a gap in understanding how specific attributes impact creative processes, the research aims to inform the development of innovative learning environments. Using a four-step methodology, the study involves selecting relevant articles, creating a classification framework, analyzing environmental factors' effects on learning, and interpreting findings to elucidate the correlation between physical attributes and creativity. Bibliometric analysis reveals growing scholarly interest in creative spaces. Findings emphasize the substantial impact of elements like furniture flexibility, resource accessibility, and lighting conditions on creative thinking. Key themes highlight critical factors like lighting, furniture arrangement, and diverse roles of environmental elements, contributing to enhanced cognitive performance. The study underscores the potential of optimized learning spaces to nurture creativity, promote problem-solving skills, and stimulate innovation. By enriching knowledge on the influence of physical environments on creativity, this research provides valuable insights for educators, designers, and policymakers aiming to create inspiring and effective learning environments.