Open Design Education: Addressing Accountability in the Age of Computing

Abstract

Attitudes complement knowledge and skills but are often overlooked as assessable competencies in higher education. In architectural design curriculum, attitudes are especially relevant in order to ensure the training of responsible designers. As humanistic and environmental approaches are increasingly at the forefront, the studio cultures of the schools seek to cultivate collaborative and participatory skills on individual creativity. The parallel acclaim of computational methods expounds the reasoning processes of design and new opportunities arise for open and liable cultures of design. However, the task of connecting these methods to a broader competency in design is still not fulfilled. This paper provides an interdisciplinary context for accountability as an attitude in design education and a conceptual framework for implementing and assessing it through computational methods. It argues that computation in early-design education, in the form of shape rules and devices of visual computing, is supportive in instilling reflective attitudes by promoting knowledge sharing with accountability among learners.

Keywords

• collaborative design
• computational design
• ethics
• first-year design education; reflective practice.