Implementing UVEs

This chapter introduces unconventional virtual environments (UVEs) in the context of this research. The characteristics, types and parameters of UVEs are defined. Moreover, the role of experience and its efficacy on idea expansion and divergent thinking are also discussed in this Chapter. The brain possesses existing knowledge of architectural space, styles and physical world. By exposure to UVE, previously unknown data feed can be added to this existing knowledgebase. The brain tries to digest this new feed by connecting them to the previous/existing knowledge of space. It is hypothesized that the challenge of the brain to digest new feeds, indirectly stimulate creativity. To prove this hypothesis, more research experiments were designed. These, are discussed in the following chapters. After examining the hypothesis, a possible implementation of UVEs within architectural pedagogy is also discussed. It is also suggested to provide workshops for developing UVEs and let students navigate and interact with them during their education in order to expand their inventory of experiences. The more they can expand their experiences, the more combination of ideas is made possible, which, will indirectly influence their creativity. Respective research findings have been published in the third journal article: “Implementing unconventional virtual environments for enhancing creativity in Architecture pedagogy”, IGI Global Publisher, Volume 3, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 41-52

Enhancing [Spatial] Creativity – Enhancing creativity of architects by applying unconventional virtual environments (UVEs)

Potentials of virtual environment for enhancing creativity of architects have shaped this research. There is no singular definition of creativity. In fact, there are more than 100 different definitions for creativity according to different contexts and disciplines. Nevertheless, it is possible to confine the boundaries of definitions and address creativity within a confined framework. The first practical step was thus to perform an in-depth literature survey to define a boundary condition for the widespread topic of “creativity” and identify vital research questions pertaining to creativity. In this regard, personality and behavior of creative people; mood, state, temper, intelligence vs. creativity, motivation and so forth were ignored. Instead, cognitive aspects of creativity such as thinking patterns, conceptual blending, idea expansion and tolerance of ambiguity have been focused upon.The second step was to test whether starting a design procedure with a 2 or a 3-dimensional mode of thinking has any correlation with creativity. An experiment pertaining to this test was designed in which participants were asked to perform the same design task once with 2D tools and environments (e.g. traditional pen and paper) and the next time by applying 3D tools and environments (e.g. 3D software). A jury of experts in the field of design subjectively compared the results and arrived at a conclusion that participates generated more creative ideas by implementing 3D environments/tools. The third step, involved the introduction of unconventional virtual environments (UVEs), which subsequently lead to the creation of a hypothesis. This hypothesis tries to connect navigation in UVEs with the enhancement of creativity.  Characteristics of UVEs and theoretical arguments around the hypothesis were also discussed. The fourth step, involved a discussion on two effective parameters of creativity: 1- Tolerance of ambiguity2- Conceptual blendingAttempts to verify these parameters, lead to the formulation of two separate experiments. The conclusions of these experiments were as follows:1-  Tolerance of ambiguity has a direct relationship with creativity. Architects deal with multiple parameters during a typical design process. The ability to meaningfully process the relationships between such a multitude of parameters has also trained architects to possess a higher level of tolerance of ambiguity aiding them in postponing making hasty judgements.2-  By combining different ideas, one can formulate newer and much novel ideas. Ideas tend to become creative when more remote ideas are combined and synthesized. In order to prevent repetitive and self-similar ideas, the unconscious mind needs to be fed with more ideas, which the mind has not been exposed to. These new ideas/experiences can be generated by exposing one’s self to UVEs, since UVEs can expose one to situations and experiences which the brain cannot experience in the physical world.The fifth step, aims at understanding how the brain perceives different environments. Three different environments were chosen for an experimental study pertaining to the same: 1- Abstract environment 2- Semi-designed environment and 3- Fully designed environment. Participants were asked to provide a feedback by answering a questionnaire after navigating each of these environments. Simultaneously, their brain activity patterns were recorded via a professional neuropsychology apparatus. After analyzing the brain activities, in conjunction with the questionnaire, it became clear that perception of an abstract environment is completely different from the perception of a Semi-designed or Fully designed environment.  This experiment consolidated the hypothesis that UVEs as abstract designed environments activate parts of the brain that are correlate with creativity.The sixth step, involved putting the hypothesis to a final test. A conclusive experiment was thus designed. The experiment won the Visionair fund of FP7 and was conducted in Italy. A UVE was designed using the software 3D max and was converted to 3D stereoscopic mode using a specific software: GIOVE; developed in ITIA-CNR, Italy. Using a 3D goggle and 6 axis mouse, a group of 20 participants were asked to navigate the UVE. They were asked to provide a written feedback pertaining to their feelings, expectations, strategy of navigation and in general, their experience. Their responses were collected and analyzed.The final step, involved answering the formulated research questions and discussing the final results

Enhancing [Spatial] Creativity: Enhancing creativity of architects by applying unconventional virtual environments

Potentials of a virtual environment for enhancing the creativity of architects have shaped this research. There is no singular definition of creativity. In fact, there are more than 100 different definitions of creativity according to different contexts and disciplines. Nevertheless, it is possible to confine the boundaries of definitions and address creativity within a confined framework.  The first practical step was thus to perform an in-depth literature survey to define a boundary condition for the widespread topic of “creativity†and identify vital research questions pertaining to creativity. In this regard, personality and behaviour of creative people; mood, state, temper, intelligence vs. creativity, motivation and so forth were ignored. Instead, cognitive aspects of creativity such as thinking patterns, conceptual blending, idea expansion and tolerance of ambiguity have been focused upon. The second step was to test whether starting a design procedure with a 2 or a 3-dimensional mode of thinking has any correlation with creativity. An experiment pertaining to this test was designed in which participants were asked to perform the same design task once with 2D tools and environments (e.g. traditional pen and paper) and the next time by applying 3D tools and environments (e.g. 3D software). A jury of experts in the field of design subjectively compared the results and arrived at a conclusion that participates generated more creative ideas by implementing 3D environments/tools.  The third step involved the introduction of unconventional virtual environments (UVEs), which subsequently lead to the creation of a hypothesis. This hypothesis tries to connect navigation in UVEs with the enhancement of creativity.  Characteristics of UVEs and theoretical arguments around the hypothesis were also discussed.  The fourth step involved a discussion on two effective parameters of creativity: Tolerance of ambiguity Conceptual blending Attempts to verify these parameters, lead to the formulation of two separate experiments. The conclusions of these experiments were as follows: Tolerance of ambiguity has a direct relationship with creativity. Architects deal with multiple parameters during a typical design process. The ability to meaningfully process the relationships between such a multitude of parameters has also trained architects to possess a higher level of tolerance of ambiguity aiding them in postponing making hasty judgements. By combining different ideas, one can formulate newer and much novel ideas. Ideas tend to become creative when more remote ideas are combined and synthesised. In order to prevent repetitive and self-similar ideas, the unconscious mind needs to be fed with more ideas, which the mind has not been exposed to. These new ideas/experiences can be generated by exposing one’s self to UVEs since UVEs can expose one to situations and experiences which the brain cannot experience in the physical world. The fifth step aims at understanding how the brain perceives different environments. Three different environments were chosen for an experimental study pertaining to the same: 1- Abstract environment 2- Semi-designed environment and 3- Fully designed environment. Participants were asked to provide a feedback by answering a questionnaire after navigating each of these environments. Simultaneously, their brain activity patterns were recorded via a professional neuropsychology apparatus. After analysing the brain activities, in conjunction with the questionnaire, it became clear that perception of an abstract environment is completely different from the perception of a Semi-designed or Fully designed environment.  This experiment consolidated the hypothesis that UVEs as abstract designed environments activate parts of the brain that are correlated with creativity. The sixth step involved putting the hypothesis to a final test. A conclusive experiment was thus designed. The experiment won the Visionair fund of FP7 and was conducted in Italy. A UVE was designed using the software 3D max and was converted to the 3D stereoscopic mode using a specific software: GIOVE; developed in ITIA-CNR, Italy. Using a 3D goggle and 6 axis mouse, a group of 20 participants were asked to navigate the UVE. They were asked to provide a written feedback pertaining to their feelings, expectations, the strategy of navigation and in general, their experience. Their responses were collected and analysed. The final step involved answering the formulated research questions and discussing the final results

Introduction

Creative potential of human spearheads their civilization. In fact, progress in every sphere of our lives crucially depends on our creativity. Emphasizing the role of creativity in design even more than other disciplines pushes one to explore understanding of creativity as a key role player in Architecture. Furthermore, by identifying the basic principles of our ingenuity/creativity, researchers might be able to enhance these abilities in the future. But how can we define creativity? Though creativity is the hallmark of human cognition, and therefore a topic of enormous scientific importance, yet not a single definition of creativity exists that is universally accepted by creativity researchers, and the scenario hasn’t changed much in the last fifty years. Nevertheless, any creative output (be it an idea, product, or performance) should have, at least, three characteristics: novelty (it is original), usefulness (it is functional and adaptive), and surprising (it is non-obvious, therefore eliciting an aesthetical or affective response). Many architects confess that, very gradually and unconsciously they tend to inherit and hold on to conventional design approaches, because slowly confinements in construction and conventional stereotypes impose on them, dominate them and prevent them to think innovatively. Now, it is seemingly logical that if you get a chance to see and explore some innovative notions in virtual environments, devoid of any physical limitation, then it will lead to conceptual expansion, since diverse pictures/ inspirations shall be added to pre-conceived design ideas. This will help designers to expand their conceptual boundaries and thus eventually help them to enhance their creativity. Being in varied or miscellaneous environments can help train individuals to encode information in multiple ways, building a myriad of associations between diverse concepts

Literature Review

A pivotal target of this thesis is ‘how to enhance creativity’. This chapter reviews effective parameters correlated with creativity in architectural design. The Chapter starts with the definition of creativity and investigates where creative ideas come from. Further on, it also elaborates upon types of creativity and touches upon the relationship between tolerance of ambiguity and creativity. To narrow down the widespread topic of creativity and focus on creativity in architecture, the research ignores aspects of creativity which focus on personality and behavior of creative people, their mood, their state and their temper, intelligence vs. creativity, motivation and so forth. Instead, the research focuses on cognitive aspects such as thinking patterns, conceptual blending, idea expansion and tolerance of ambiguity. These aspects are elaborated in the first journal article: “Creativity in architecture -A review on effective parameters correlated with creativity in architectural design” in the Journal of civil engineering and architecture, ISSN 1934-7359, USA, Nov. 2014, Volume 8, No. 11 (Serial No. 84), pp. 1371-1379

Creativity in Architecture-A Review on Effective Parameters Correlated with Creativity in Architectural Design

Human civilization can be ameliorated by human creativity. Innovation and progress of human civilization result from a change in our thinking patterns, thus, potentially transforming the present into a creative future. Accentuating the role of creativity in design even more than other disciplines pushes one to underpin the understanding of creativity as a key role player in architecture. Furthermore, by identifying the basic principles of our ingenuity/creativity, researchers might be able to enhance this ability in the future. A key point in “creativity” is the role of previously gained experiences, which cause expanding the inventory of experiences. According to accepted definition in different disciplines, creativity is no more than new combinations of previous ideas. The paper explores different effectual parameters correlated with creativity in architectural design including notion of conceptual blending, improbabilist and impossibilist creativity, tolerance of ambiguity and its correlation with creativity and creativity aided tools and interfaces. At the end, we suggest necessary experiments to obtain empirical results for some speculations that are discussed in the paper. Also, practical approaches will be suggested to apply the results in pedagogy of architecture

Proto-fuse project

This chapter, via two experiments, focuses on proving the hypothesis with empirical evidences. Two separate experiments were conducted under the title: The Proto-fuse project. In each of these experiments the following two concepts and their correlation with creativity have been addressed: 1- Conceptual blending 2- Tolerance of ambiguity The experiments firstly aim to identify the relationship between conceptual blending and navigating UVEs and secondly aim to identify the importance of tolerances of ambiguity in the discipline of architecture and engineering. The empirical evidences are published in the fourth journal article: “The Proto-Fuse project: methods to boost creativity for architects”, International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, Taylor & Francis publisher, pp. 1-16

Facilitating immersion, engagement and flow in multi-user virtual environments

Virtual worlds are providing myriad opportunities for the development of innovative curricula for tertiary educators. They provide a virtual meeting space for those students and lecturers who are geographically remote from one another, rendering distance irrelevant and facilitating the formation of community. This paper will look at those factors - physical, social, virtual and those related to pedagogy - which facilitate immersion in virtual worlds; that suspension of disbelief which generates the feeling of presence or 'being there', crucial to promoting student engagement and ultimately, flow

Fused filament fabrication in CAD education: A closed-loop approach

Integrating low-cost fused filament fabrication 3D printing as a foundation for learning 3D modelling is explored. This method blends traditional computer aided design (CAD) instruction with additive manufacturing possibilities. Experimental results demonstrate increased comprehension speed and reduced learning time. This hands-on approach empowers students by enabling direct engagement with the modelling process. Analogous to reverse engineering, the strategy instructs engineering students from final product to model creation, closing the gap between theory and practice. Incorporating 3D printing bridges this divide, enhancing understanding, creativity and problem-solving. The study underscores technology's influence on learning strategies, aligning with the surge of 3D printing in education. Results link advanced design technology usage to improved student performance, with 3D-printed materials yielding 45% higher grades and 30% faster task completion. This study advocates curricular advancement for design-focused careers through enhanced technology integration and favourable 3D printing model reception