Improvisation Impact on Creativity Strands in Architecture Education

Abstract

Design studio is the core of the architectural education, where students understand how creative solutions are generated, developed and implemented. Design deals with many dynamic factors which demand creativity to cope with this ongoing change. In this sense, divergent and convergent thinking are equally significant to define creativity. However, divergence is associated with ideation. Many studies tackled the concept of improvisation as a crucial power to enhance divergence. Improvisation is to do something without any preparation. Recent studies show that an exposure to improvisation games as a kind of play may create a joyful climate. This in turn helps to release our minds from the preconstructed thinking pattern. Thus, this research aims at investigating the effect of improvisation on students’ mindsets and creative climate and consequently on the creative problem solving (CPS) while engaging in an architectural design task. The research depends on an educational experiment that was developed on two similar brainstorming sessions with one exception where the second session started with improvisation activities. The experiment evaluation counted on scores of the divergence components, fluency, flexibility and originality-appropriateness, in addition to questionnaire and observation. The study ended by explaining the pros of improvisation in terms of students’ mindsets, creative press and consequently on the ideation experience.