Designing outside the box: reflections on didactic experience focusing on student creativity

Abstract

Studies show that in Architecture and Urbanism Courses stimulating creative activity linked to different moments of the design process can help students express their thoughts, acquire essential experiences and knowledge to build the repertoire and to elaborate responses consistent with the demands of the future. However, few courses directly work with this type of content. In view of this, this article aims to relate key ideas and social attributes of a didactic experience that took place in an elective course focused on student creativity, and whose methodology included several experiments of consulting students. The class was continually encouraged to leave their comfort zone and interact (as a whole and with each other), in an exchange relationship, in which students carried out the proposed activities in the classroom, often going beyond their physical limits. During the semester, photographic records and field diaries were used. The results point to: (i) key ideas related to potential attributes of the creative ambience; (ii) pedagogical tactics that helped make some students feel more creative at the end of the semester. Among the contributions of the text is the list of activities and strategies that can be applied to enhance creativity.