Abstraction as a Tool of Creative Thinking in Architectural Education: Basic Design Studio Outcomes

Abstract

The basic design courses, which are usually in the first year of architectural education, also provide an environment where the student can think freely and design independently of some of the limitations. For this reason, basic design studios usually have content built upon the way architecture students try different thinking patterns and see different perspectives through interfaces established with different disciplines. This study presents the results of a basic design course in which abstraction is constructed as a creative thinking tool. Based on the fact that the design process is actually a new knowledge production, it uses students' design journeys and creative products as data. The design problem that forms the framework of the article is the abstraction of an art object and its transformation into an architectural space. This process consists of three stages: conversion of a selected classical painting into a two-dimensional graphic design by abstracting it, turning two-dimensional graphic into a three-dimensional space with various design actions and its graphic expression. Focusing on the design experience of ten students, the study discusses a design experiment in which abstraction is structured as a creative thinking tool for the production of space.