An Analysis of Student and Expert Perspectives on Creativity Assessment in Architectural Design Computing

The aim of this study is to investigate potential differences in how students and experts assess creativity in the context of computational design. With this aim, a teaching experiment was conducted in a master level course, namely Digital Architectural Design and Modelling (DADM). A hybrid methodology on the basis of qualitative and quantitative research techniques was employed. Data were obtained from an open-ended question and a structured online questionnaire. The questionnaire results were evaluated utilizing Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. To evaluate responses of the open-ended question, a three-fold conceptual framework comprising contextualization, actualization, and representation (CAR) was developed based on literature review of the assessment of creativity in architecture, architecture education, and computational design. The results of the comparison between the way students and experts assess creativity provided significant differences. In some criteria, involving quantitative analysis results showing similarity between students and experts in the context of creativity assessment, the developed CAR lenses have potential to reveal structural differences in the way the respondents approach creativity.