Hernan Casakin

Visual Analogy as a Cognitive Strategy in the Design Process. Expert Versus Novice Performance

This study investigated the use of visual analogy in architectural design. Its purpose was to provide some understanding of the way experts and novices apply visual analogical thinking to generate satisfactory solutions during the design process. Although there are several anecdotal examples in the design literature that have reported the use of analogy, few studies have empirically explored the relationship between analogy and expertise in design problem solving. In order to provide empirical evidence, a series of controlled experiments were conducted to examine how this cognitive strategy contributed to the enhancement of design problem solving in each group of subjects. Students and architects were asked to solve a set of non-routine design problems stimulated by exposure to between-domain and within-domain visual displays, and were given explicit instructions to use analogy. Results showed that both novices and experts were able to reason by visual analogy and use deep analogs. It was found that experts identified and retrieved analogs from between-domain displays. Novices, however, identified a large number of between-domain displays, but retrieved analogs from between-domain and within-domain displays in the same measure. Novices, in contrast to experts, did not add constraints to the design problem, but produced a large number of solutions. These findings have important implications on design education. It is proposed that training novice students in the use of visual analogy can play a significant role to develop design skills in the architectural design studio. What are the differences between expert and novice performance in the domain of design? How can we help designers solve non-routine design problems while using familiar knowledge structures? The production of an unlimited number of unexpected solutions that are significantly different from earlier designs is a characteristic of non-routine design. Design problems are described as major examples of non-routine problems (Gero and Maher 1993). In design, visual analogy is a powerful problem solving strategy that can help explain new and non-routine problems in terms of familiar ones. Although there is some evidence that problem solvers have difficulty in making spontaneous use of this strategy, references concerning the use of analogy are mostly anecdotal. Moreover, differences in expertise as regards the use of visual analogy in design have rarely been reported. The main goal of this study is to provide empirical evidence regarding differences and similarities in the performance of expert and novice designers whose reasoning process involves visual analogy. Qualitative and quantitative results in the use of visual analogy during the design process are presented following a brief literature review.

Schematic Maps as Wayfinding Aids

Schematic maps are effective tools for representing information about the physical environment; they depict specific information in an abstract way. This study concentrates on spatial aspects of the physical environment such as branching points and connecting roads, which play a paramount role in the schematization of wayfinding maps. Representative classes of branchingpoints are identified and organized in a taxonomy. The use of prototypical branching points and connecting road types is empirically evaluated in the schematization of maps. The role played by the different functions according to which the map is classified is assessed, and main strategies applied during the schematization process are identified. Implications for navigational tasks are presented.

Assessing the use of metaphors in the design process

Metaphors enable the understanding of a concept in terms of another concept which is generally not associated with it. In problem-solving tasks, reasoning by metaphors has a significant influence in the development of innovative ideas. In the design domain metaphors help to structure thinking, and represent situations from a new viewpoint. Despite the frequent use of metaphors in design practice, no empirical work has studied in depth the role played by metaphors during the whole design process. In this research the aid and complexity of the use of metaphors are explored in the different phases of the design process. These phases deal with the definition of design concepts and framing of design situations, the generation of goals and constraints, and the mapping and application of structural relationships to the design problem.

Correspondences and Divergences between Teachers and Students in the Evaluation of Design Creativity in the Design Studio

The assessment of design creativity is a fundamental issue in the educational curriculum in schools of architecture. Assessment in the form of criticism is carried out in the design studio, where students acquire skills and knowledge, forge judgments about their design outcomes, and get feedback from their instructors. This study focuses on the assessment of creativity in design problem solving. The major objective of this research was to test to what extent architects and design students share the same conceptions of creativity, and how similar they are. Contrasting differences were found between the two groups. While architects focused on innovation aspects, students paid more attention to operational aspects, such as dealing with design requirements. It is maintained that handling these differences by means of intervention programs in the design studio may promote the acquisition of design processes and procedures by the students, and also that, it will contribute to bridging the gap between the way teachers and students perceive and evaluate design creativity.

Motivation for Creativity in Design Students

The purpose was to study motivation for creativity in design students in the framework of the cognitive orientation theory which defines motivation as a function of beliefs of four types (about goals, norms, oneself and reality) concerning themes identified as relevant for creativity. It was hypothesized that scores of the four belief types would enable predicting creativity. The participants were 52 design students who were administered an actual design task and questionnaires: The Survey about Attitudes, Questionnaire about Designing and the Cognitive Orientation of Creativity (COQ-CR). The independent variables were the scores of the belief types based on the COQ-CR. The dependent variables were the evaluation of the creativity of the designs by four expert architects, and various variables based on self-evaluation of the students in the questionnaires referring to the design and designing process: fluency, flexibility, elaboration, fulfilling requirements, considering the context, having a central idea, meaningfulness of the task, involvement of feelings in designing, and handling constraints. Regression analyses showed that the majority of variables referring to creativity were predicted significantly by the predictors. The findings support the validity of the COQ-CR for assessing motivation for creativity and of the cognitive motivational approach to creativity.

Self-Perceived Creativity

In view of unclear previous findings about the validity of self-assessed creativity, the hypothesis guiding the present study was that validity would be proven if self-assessed creativity was examined with respect to a specific domain, specific product, specific aspects of creativity, and in terms of specific criteria. The participants were 52 architecture students. The experimental task was to design a small museum in a described context. After completing the task, the students self-assessed their creativity in designing with seven open-ended questions, the Self-Assessment of Creative Design questionnaire, and a list of seven items tapping affective metacognitive aspects of the designing process. Thus, 21 creativity indicators were formed. Four expert architects, working independently, assessed the designs on nine creativity indicators: fluency, flexibility, elaboration, functionality, innovation, fulfilling specified design requirements, considering context, mastery of skills concerning the esthetics of...

Visual analogy, visual displays, and the nature of design problems: the effect of expertise

Analogy is a powerful heuristic for problem solving. In design, where designers are constantly exposed to visual stimuli, visual analogies are considered to be particularly helpful. To date, however, few researchers have given enough attention to visual analogy and visual displays in design contexts. This study deals with the use of these tools by investigating the effect that expertise has on them, in ill-defined and well-defined problem solving. Novice and experienced designers solved both types of design problem with exposure to visual displays and with the requirement to use visual analogy. Results showed that when visual displays and instructions to use analogy were available no expertise differences existed in well-defined problem solving. However, with the availability of only visual displays, architects tend to perform better than students. Without guidance to use analogy, students found difficulty in spontaneous recall of visual displays as candidate analogues in well-defined problems. In ill-defined problem solving, architects performed better than novice students in the use of both analogy and visual displays. However, no differences were found between the experienced designers and the advanced students in any experimental condition in this problem context.

Place Attachment as a Function of Meaning Assignment

By interacting with their environments individuals create bonds and links. In the course of this interaction, anonymous spaces are converted into places endowed with meaning, which serve as objects of attachment. Attachment is defined as a construct representing mainly the emotional bond to a location, but which includes also cognitions and meaning, and is related to personality tendencies of the individual. In this study, information processing tendencies of dif- ferent aspects of place attachment were investigated. Information processing tendencies were defined in terms of the Meaning Theory that deals with identifying cognitive processes involved in the performance of diverse acts and were as- sessed by means of the Meaning Test. A focus was set on four aspects of place attachment dealing with: preferences for open or closed spaces, grasping place atmospheres, considering the matching of places to actions, and caring about orien- tation in space. These attitudes were assessed by a Likert-type questionnaire. The participants were 36 architecture stu- dents. Associations between place attachment and information processing tendencies were analyzed by t-tests. Results showed significant and meaningful relations between aspects of place attachment and processing tendencies. Implications for environmental design are proposed.

Effect of Settlement Size and Religiosity on Sense of Place in Communal Settlements

The effect of religiosity and settlement size on sense of place was studied among residents of Jewish communal settlements in Judea and Samaria. Sense of place was defined as a multidimensional concept of cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions. Sense of place was found to be significantly higher for religious than for secular residents. Sense of place was found to be higher for religious residents in small settlements, whereas for secular residents it was higher in large settlements. The study suggests reasons for these findings.

The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding, and Design of Built Environments

Description: In an era of globalization, where the progressive deterioration of local values is a dominating characteristic, identity is seen as a fundamental need that encompasses all aspects of human life. One of these identities relates to place and the physical environment. Place identity is concerned with a set of ideas about place and identity from the perspective of a wide range of disciplines. Mainly, it refers to the meaning and importance of places for their inhabitants and users. Readers of this e-book will gain an insight on the role of identity as a basis for the perception, experience, and appreciation of the form of built structures. This e-book explains knowledge in relation to place identity, focusing on peoples identity, and those factors that play a significant role in this process. Most of all, it enables to gain further insight about place identity with regard to global and local contexts, and across multifaceted and multicultural societies. The theme is approached from a number of disciplines that include environmental psychology, philosophy, urban sociology, geography, urban planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture.