Abstract

Within the environmental design domain, design thinking has more often been explored based on studies of professionals in practice, rather than students in training. This research examined design thinking and the roles of drawings and verbalization in the context of second-year Architecture students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The case-study was conducted through a three-week studio project supervised by the authors. It reviewed related literature, highlighting salient theoretical perspectives. Qualitative primary data were obtained through unstructured interviews with 64 students: 32 working individually and 32 organized into four groups, and an analysis of students’ conceptual drawings and sketches. The findings confirm the intricate links between the acts of drawing and verbalization and design thinking, the inadequacy of adopting design thinking concepts relating to experienced Architects to beginning students, and the intervening effect of the team on design thinking. It also identified ‘association with past experiences’ and ‘individual’s emotions’ as important variables in design thinking among the students. The study concludes that design thinking though a cognitive process is also determined by experiential, emotional, and team-work factors. The study is useful in exploring how architectural educators may better nurture the creative potentials of students of architecture.