Creative Thinking in the Architecture Design Studio: Bibliometric Analysis and Literature Review

Abstract

It is increasingly important for researchers and educators to find effective ways to stimulate students’ creativity. In design education, the specificity of design, defined as open-ended problems and ill-defined problems, provides a special opportunity to improve creativity. Nevertheless, design education itself encounters other issues concerning creativity, such as not specifying in detail what creative design pedagogy should be. Thus, a comprehensive review of existing studies is needed to guide research in this field better. We used bibliometric analysis to provide information on literature statistics of the 658 articles published in design research–related journals between 1982 and 2022. An in-depth review of the 36 selected articles revealed the existing research on the design studio to investigate creativity from three perspectives: (1) creativity criteria and evaluation, (2) idea generation and development, and (3) pedagogy in the design studio. This study provides a roadmap for global educators and researchers focusing on pedagogy that enhances students’ creativity in the design studio.