The Core of Design Thinking and its Architectural Application

The term design thinking is used to refer to the study of the practices of working designers (Melles et al., 2006), the methods and processes for investigating challenges, acquiring information, analyzing knowledge, and positioning solutions in the design and planning fields (Meinel & Leifer, 2011) by combining “empathy, creativity, and rationality”. Architectural theory has evolved over time, to reflect the development of new materials, new construction, new structures, new philosophies, new socio-cultural contexts, new scientific findings, and, of course, new technology. As Dorst (2011) emphasises ‘Design Thinking’ has been part of “the collective consciousness of design researchers since Rowe used it as the title of his 1987 book and different models have emerged since then. Nowadays, “Design Thinking” is identified as an exciting new paradigm for adopting designerly practices dealing with complex problems to build up a “conceptual framework”. Architectural logic provides us with a various of approaches toward the reasoning in design exploring potential value of the design process. In this paper the author will move from the architectural process definitions to a broad descriptions of design thinking and its application in the architectural design process. Since the process of design and its logical principles look quite complex, an integral attitude has been introduced in order to elaborate multi-step process avoiding the natural paradox of the sense of a complex statement of Design Process and Design Thinking. It is on this particular aspect of the creative design that we position our work: how to design a software tool support, and even improve, creativity in the early stages of the design? We will restrict ourselves to this in a specific area, that architectural design that we describe in the next section.Dorst, K. (2011). The core of ‘design thinking’ and its application. Design Studies, 32(6), 521‐532.Meinel, C., & Leifer, L. (2011). Design Thinking Research. Design thinking understand ‐ improve ‐ apply (pp. 1‐12). Berlin: Springer.Melles, G., Howard, Z., & Thompson‐Whiteside, S. (2012). Teaching Design Thinking: Expanding Horizons in Design Education. Procedia ‐ Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 162‐166.