The creative and transdisciplinary design process: In a Problem Based Learning environment

In higher education, transdisciplinary master programs have been developed to afford students to combine knowledge and methodologies from different fields and thereby develop an understanding of how to create new innovative solutions. An international and transdisciplinary science and engineering master programme in Lighting Design (LiD) at Aalborg University (AAU) in Copenhagen, bases its teaching on problem-based learning (PBL) and a process model “The Lighting Design Experiment” (LDE), which integrates innovation processes and design research methodologies [1] [2]. Knowledge and methods from the fields of architecture, media technology and lighting engineering are to be synthesized and applied into a problem-based semester project. To investigate to which degree students do consider creativity and innovation as integrated parts of their semester projects, a survey was carried out with 20 students from seven semester project groups, looking for aspects within two creativity components; domain relevant skills and creativity relevant processes [3] [4]. The survey indicates that the transdisciplinary approach seems to create the desired synthesis of knowledge and skills, from each academic field into the semester project despite the different knowledge areas and methodologies represented in the courses of the semester. Whereas the investigation of the creative processes points out three areas of attention for improvement; the framing of the project, the group dynamics, and tools for idea generation. The outcome has provided a better understanding of the inherent potential and barriers for creativity in the transdisciplinary design process, and how to possibly improve these in this PBL project-based design approach