A Study on Space Design Considering Creative Design Thinking and Design Processes

(Background and Purpose) This study aimed to improve the creative education of those majoring in spatial design, and examined the relationship of the creative thinking-based design methods with the spatial design process, and furthermore, explored the spatial design process that took the creative design thinking methods into consideration, and sought the implementation measures. (Methodology) For the scope of this study, theoretical examination of creative thinking and design methodology(process) was conducted, and the spatial design process that took the creative design thinking into consideration was proposed. (Results) The students majoring in spatial design were induced to use the proposed model, and their performance ability was evaluated by using the scaling method. For temporal scope, the spatial design process was carried out for 2 months from May to June, 2021 in parallel with students' project. The subjects of this study were 46 students partaking in the spatial design education which was performed for 2 days by each group comprised of 23 students after completion of project. After the process was implemented for the subjects, the ability of the subjects for the process by area was evaluated based on their performance ability. Then, the subjects examined difficult processes and explored alternative measures. (Conclusions) The results of this study were as follows: First, the question of 'what should be recognized as problem in the process of problem recognition and resolution' takes on an importance for the creativity in the design, which can be considered the design thinking ability. Second, the spatial design processes, which took the design thinking and design methodology into consideration, could have a positive influence on the performance ability of students when those processes were carried out in 5 stages: the first stage involving the empathy with the space; the second stage for defining the problem of space; the third stage for resolving the problem of space; the fourth stage for spatial representation, and the fifth stage for design decision and conveyance. Third, the ability to define the space, i.e., the ability to recognize the problem of space, in the spatial design process, was found to present the greatest difficulty to students and required an improvement in the creative ability. As a solution to that, the basic course of spatial design curriculum should be designed in such a way that the concept of 'design thinking' can be approached by students, and particularly, the 'problem recognition' ability should be developed through the process of 'divergence and convergence', a method for design thinking. Such results will be linked to the 'recognition of the problem of space' in the spatial design planning stage, and ultimately, will lead to the improvement of spatial design process ability.